Crestliner rebuild acquisition

Hello everyone. I am new to the forum, and I look forward to learning from everyone. I recently acquired a 1956 15' Crestliner Voyager X aluminum v hull, with a 1957 35hp Evinrude "BigTwin" 2 cylinder motor, and a '50s model trailer. They have been sitting in a field for about 15-17 years.
I have to replace / fabricate all wooden parts. Currently has planking flooring (rotted of course). Considering using marine grade plywood or lumber. Any thoughts as to which I should use? I will tackle the motor later. Thanks!

Hello. I have a 55 18 foot voyager and redid my transom with standard ply. Lasted 5 years, bad choice. Now redoing it with 3/4 marine ply. There is a site called retro crestliner with catalogs and a forum with lots of help for your boat.
Try there?

Thanks for the heads up about the plywood. I can get marine plywood locally. I was thinking of using treated lumber 1 x for the floor ribs and marine 1 x 3 marine lumber for the actual flooring, and seat base. Any thoughts on using marine sealer on the marine lumber, or just a quality spar finish?
Thanks!

The is a generally accepted concern that the compounds used in pressure treated lumber is not good with aluminum -- causes corrosion.

Another frequently shared tip is that the glue used in exterior grade ply is the same as that used in marine grade ply. The big difference between the two is the marine grade will not have voids. To save $$ a lot of folks use exterior ply and seal it.

Not sure what marine lumber is. Do you mean marine ply?

There are places (not many and not cheap) that you can buy marine grade dimensional limber. Thanks for the info on plywood. Is there a particular sealer you would recommend? I was still planning to use a quality spar finish on the end product. I was using the plywood to rebuild the transom, and dimensional lumber for the interior flooring and dash. Appreciate the input.

cehobbs said:

There are places (not many and not cheap) that you can buy marine grade dimensional limber.

Click to expand...

Are you referring to the "super pressure treated" lumber meant for dock and bridge building around marine environments? That would likely have the same issue of pressure treated chemicals not reacting well with the aluminum.
If not, then you may be referring to the high grade lumber for wood boat building. In my opinion that would be overkill in an aluminum boat, but I'd assume it's beautiful straight wood to work with if that's what you want to do.

If you're sealing followed by spar varnish, I would suggest the "Old timer's formula" https://forum.tinboats.net/viewtopic.php?t=41932
The "forever" option for sealing would be marine epoxy resin. You can coat either of these options with spar varnish over the top and it looks pretty.

Thanks for the info on treated lumber, good to know. I will check out the web sight for the sealant. I appreciate all of the insight.