Tips and tricks for laser 380 rebuild

[dariusz12]

Been slowly gutting an old 380 ray for restoration, had some bumps in the road as I have moved on. Originally the idea was stringers and transom, but turns out the strakes that run along the stringers are also rotted through. Hoping on here to get some info possibly from anyone who has had experience with a rebuild on these hulls. Had some input on a different platform but the group vanished into thin air and all the posts disappeared with it. Looking to see what people have done to separate the side walls from top deck from the lower. Was also trying to get info if the strakes are that important and if i can just balsa or something along those lines. Any insight would be appreciated.

[largecar91]

I had a 19' Laser that I had to redo years ago. Stringers and transom were solid. It had been stuffed when it was fairly new and put in a barn. Blew a big hole in the deck and one at the rear corner of the deck. I replaced all the floor and repaired the deck. They are one of the best boats I have ever owned. Fast and handles great. I had a couple different engines on it. With a 225 Pro Max it was a 90 MPH boat.

[OnPad]

Haven't messed with a 380, but I removed the cap on my ltv. I drilled all the rivets, removed screws, and cut glue at the top of transom in order to remove the top cap. My boat had solid enough stringers and strakes, which looked to be made of solid wood not ply. You need to keep the hull straight when you remove the cap, most guys rebuilding streams build a cradle. If you don't, and just use a trailer, I recommend installing stringers, strakes and floor with the top cap installed, or likely you will have a hard time getting the cap back on. It would be alot of work to remove the strakes, the glass surrounding em gives strength, but it's your call, pretty hard to leave rot in. My boat had no core, and considerably more glass than a stream. If your 380 wasn't orginally cored, your going to add weight if you install one..

[dariusz12]

Makes sense. I guess I can do the stringers and strakes in the boat and worry about the transom after. Did you cut at the edge to cut the glue off? My worry is the rear is super thick and don't wanna be glassing a million layers at the end. There was no coring just the strakes which were basically like 1x2s honestly was hoping not to do them but when the stringers came out I realized just how rotted they were. The wood was solid wood as well.

[OnPad]

cr6.

If we're talking about cutting at the transom. Access was tough inside the boat, but I think I remember trying a cutoff wheel inside the boat, and ended up cutting between the cap and hull from the outside, also with a cutoff wheel on a grinder. Might of been a chisel and hammer that eventually won the battle. My cap was only glued, no glass, and only about 18" in the middle of the transom. I didn't damage any gel, and it only took a layer or two of glass between the cap and transom to finish.

Another thing I did was,.. made bigger knee braces, and a smaller strong back, this allowed knees to be one piece, and not stacked on top of the strong back. I slotted the backside of the knees for the strong back, installed strong back dry and glued/dowel pinned the knees to the pre laminated transom. So I had the strong back (loose), knee braces and transom (glued and pinned) all attached to one another before I dropped it in the boat , then glassed everything in. If that makes any sense to ya? I didn't like the factory two piece knee braces, and thought it made for a lighter stronger layup doing it this way.

[dariusz12]

You wouldn't happen to have any pictures? I have seen a few different knee methods and the original one on the laser with the cross beam seems pretty solid. I'm not a big fan how they put huge cubes of foam and the corners as it was poorly glassed and the foam was soaking. Such a horrible area for foam.

[OnPad]

I didn't photo the build. Knocked it out pretty quick, as you can see by my glass work!:eek: I'm calling the piece between the upper and lower mounting bolts the strong back, it shares half the notch of the knee for even more meat in knee. Dang I confuse myself sometimes,.. sorry.
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Here's some links.
https://youtu.be/8R_vfq8Nlkg?si=gywH9-8H22eStl0r
https://www.screamandfly.com/showthread.php?317215-Laser-380-comp-rebuild
https://youtu.be/4VUOSDc_5eU?si=WVAr8fpE15tqB519

[89LASER]

I documented my 380/388 in pictures, just never loaded it to this site.

[dariusz12]

I documented my 380/388 in pictures, just never loaded it to this site.

You got any pictures you can dm me? Whats everyones take on refoaming with closed cell foam the boat has alot of foam and really have been on the edge of that as well.

[OnPad]

My ltv was defoamed. I'm sure it was stronger with it, but very hard to keep dry in the sponsons. It would suck to sink! If you can keep it dry, I'm all for it.

The first video I posted a link for, is similar to the way I did mine.

[89LASER]

PM me your cell number and I'll send them to you. As for the boxes of foam, I took them out because there was no structural bennefit to them and I removed all the foam under the floor. I rebuilt the boat using Coosa board.