TOPIC: A little help for a Span sea king

First off this forum is great! I aquired this Sea king/Span America 14 ft boat early this winter to fix up for the summer. I'm a young guy and (cough) didn't quite grow up until 20 years after my boat was made. My question is about the unique bow light this boat once had and how I can aquire another? Mine is missing, but most of the rest of the boat is still there. If I were to find another light, can they be taken apart to have the chrome replated?
Thanks to anyone on this board that can help.

E-bay or the Glassifieds section of this website are good bets on locating an appropriate bow light. Usually these bow lights are made to easily disassemble for changing out the light bulbs.

Hardware manufacturers such as Wilcox-Crittenden, Attwood, Perko, Jervis, and Vollrath often sold sets of hardware that included the bow light, stern light, rope cleats, bow handle, bow eye, and other parts as a matched set. Determining just what manufacturer your hardware set might be from will help you to locate the exact replacement. We might be able to help with a few more detailed photos.

Ebay is always a good place for bow lights. Re-chroming is very expensive so it's always best to shop around instead of chroming in my opinion.

One thing to remember is that not all boat manufactures used a certain line of hardware. Many manufactures did not include cleats, lights, etc so that the dealer could sell and install the hardware he offered in order to increase his profit range. It's not set in stone that you should go back with the exact style your boat came with originally. The main thing is to find a style that YOU like and will enjoy having on your boat. 99.9% of the people that admire your glassic will never know if it has the original hardware or not. I'd love to see some more pics of the boat.

Well after shopping around a bit, we did find a place in town that would replate for a little over a hundred bucks. I have about $22 right now into it... which is why the wife has let me keep it so far. The steering was badly pitted, as well as most of the other little trim pieces. Not a bad trade for an older Korean made fender guitar. It did have a hole in the front that pushed the bow eye back into the fiberglass. After an afternoon of grinding, I have most of it ground back and have already a decent looking patch going. A few more layers and it should be good. I think since I just simply can't afford a real resto job, that I'm hoping to find a NOS Perko or Attwood light that's common to the era at least.

Another pic of the rear. Right now the deck is off and I'm sanding away so I can get it prepped for paint. The ply is delaminating in the transom, so after I get the deck painted I have to replace the wood in the seats and in the transom. I happen to pick up a 1960 evinrude 40hp lark II and a whole ton of parts for $10. The guy put a snap ring in the wrong place when he installed a new clutch dog. He also couldn't get the shift rods to realign, so he gave up. I went through it, and put it back together and everything lined right back up for me. He even put a brand new impeller and housing in it. It was running last season, so I'm hopeful. Then I ran into a guy selling an early 60's Chrysler 50hp. Turns out he just needed a router table minus the router. I had one he could have and now I have that motor as well... controls and all. It's all free, but a few mud dobbers have made some nests. Luckily, not in the carb.

You seem to be a good scrounger which is a useful talent to have if interested in old boats. Or maybe the interest in old boats comes from that talent?

Anyhow, I am quite sure the steering wheel is an Attwood Seaflite. Very classy steering wheel and very much a 1950's design. Too often these were replaced when the steering was upgraded from pulley and cable to rack and pinion or other modern type.

From the one rope chock clearly visible in the first image, I would guess you at least some Attwood hardware. Classicfins is right about cost- if you have this little into your boat already, it might be good to keep scrounging for good used hardware either locally, here in the Glassifieds, or on the 'bay. Replating makes for a very nice but comparatively expensive finishing touch to a boat and is often best complemented by a professional-quality paint job.

I'd love to see a close up and detailed photo of the logo on the dashboard. Is there any indication on the boat that it's a SeaKing?

I am researching the history of Span America Boat Co. and Span Boats, Inc. for an eventual article along with related boat firms.

Andreas

thompsonboat wrote:

I'd love to see a close up and detailed photo of the logo on the dashboard. Is there any indication on the boat that it's a SeaKing?

I am researching the history of Span America Boat Co. and Span Boats, Inc. for an eventual article along with related boat firms.

Andreas

Sea King built one with the same body style as the Span American. It was probably more like Span Amercian built them for Sea King. I've seen 3 of them with the sea king badge. 2 of the ones I saw had a rounder nose than the model he has, and looked to be more like 16 or 17 footers. But one had the sharp nose just like his. There was a beautiful teal and white Span America posted here a couple of years back.

Here's one of the larger Sea Kings with the round nose that I found at Captain Hook's. I can't find the photos of the teal teal Span American, but it was a perfect match to this Sea King. It would be interesting to know if there was a connection between the two companies.

Well, I think scrounging comes from college. Why drink bud light when you could be rebuilding a 351 windsor for a 1964 Comet and drinking PBR. Maybe while I got some down time (work) I'll see what it will take to replace all the trim. The cleats are in really good shape. The windshield brackets are all really pitted though. The steering itself will hopefully have a happy ending. It broke into about 5 pieces when I finally got it off the steering shaft. I poked around at work and found a really strong epoxy. So I glued it and sanded the excess and kinda threw it around and beat on it a bit and seems to be really strong. As far as it being a Sea King, it has the tags on the back that are similiar to the 1961 ad in the library. I'll take a pic of the Span America tag that's on the dash. I'm assuming that Ward had boats built by Span. [img] [img]http://www.fiberglassics.com/media/kunena/attachments/legacy/images/boat5.png

I think you have a nice boat. There are many old bowlights out there and most would look great. I would go with what you think looks best. Tell your wife that this is a safe non-addicting hobby. There is no danger that you will get sucked into Classic boating. She'll forgive for lying to her one day.

Thanks for the close up photos.

Montgomery Ward's Sea King did NOT make boats. They bought boats from existing boat builders and they were badged with the Sea King brand name. Same goes for the Sea King outboard motos and trailers. It was just like Sears and their Elgin brand of boats, motors and trailers. Sears did not make these products. Western Auto had a Wizard brand of outboard mtoors and boats but they did not make 'em. Gambles Skogmo sold their own brand of outboard motors but did not make 'em.

Sea King had wooden strip-built boats made for them by Chetek Boat Corp. for a number of years. Cruisers, Inc. sold about 1,000 lapstrake boats to Sea King/Monkey Wards one year.

I am surprised that Wards/Sea King would allow Span America to put their own logo on the boat.

Span America Boat Co. combined with Fort Dodge Boat Co. to make boats for Monkey Wards. The two boat firms were within spitting distance (literally) of one another in Fort Dodge, Iowa. One firm made the hull and the other made the deck. They must have had 'em assembled and finished off by one of the firms.

Same old story, but this deal with Monkey Wards was a major contributor to Span America ending up in bankruptcy in 1961/62. They ignorned their regular dealers and concentrated on the large Monkey Wards contract. Their dealers jumped ship and took up other brands. Once the deal with Wards was over, Span America did not have any customer base. Deals with the big retailers put many boat builders out of business.

Andreas

Still any real guess on the year I have? The state really doesn't seem to care that it doesn't have a title. They jut aid to head over to HP and fill out some paperwork and they will reissue a new title. I'd like to have an acurate year, make, and model though. Thanks!

thompsonboat wrote:

Same old story, but this deal with Monkey Wards was a major contributor to Span America ending up in bankruptcy in 1961/62. They ignorned their regular dealers and concentrated on the large Monkey Wards contract. Their dealers jumped ship and took up other brands. Once the deal with Wards was over, Span America did not have any customer base. Deals with the big retailers put many boat builders out of business.

Andreas

The same thing happened with Redfish (or was it Whitehouse? Damn I hate getting old). Anyway, sames as with Span, they were so worried about the catalog deals that the dealerships ended up having to drop them. I wonder how many other companies made the same mistake back then.

If I was to make a guess I'd say late 50's.

The hardware is all Attwood hardward for the early span americas and the boats made by Span Boats Inc used them too. I remember talking to you about this boat earlier off my span boats website. I can tell you the same as Andreas that SeaKing never made this boat so its really a 1959 14' Span America, Pirate. I agree that Monkey Wards rebadged the boats like they did with many other products thay had in there catologs. At one Time Bart and Chet (Guys that started Span Boats Inc) accually sold them out of catologs to people. Also they were sold out of the abercrombie and fitch catalog too. I currently have 23 Spans here of all ages from 58 to 68. I will say that you have the only one that I have ever seen that has the Monkey Wards logo. SO thats kinda cool. Oh before I forget it your boat was made in Fort Dodge Iowa thus explaining the Dash tag. I have several sporting that tag. I have most of the Brochures for Span America and Span Boats and I hope to have them posted here very soon. I have been working with Andreas to some degree with the history of these companies too. Soon that may be on here too. I am more interested in the Span Boats Inc part because one of my best friends is the son of the original owner. Plus the Lapstike designed hulls are just plain cool of that era. Well as I have told ya before you have a rare boat and I hope you have lots of fun with your project.
Cowboy

Sorry Guys in my hurry to get back to plowing snow I forgot to add this link to the Span Boats page for you all to check out what I have done thus far. Enjoy the blogs I wrote regarding these boat and I do have some of my favorite youtube vids from around the globe on there too. I plan on airing a restoring your span blog this month and we have talked about doing video segments too. We will be doing that on the Museum website for sure. So enjoy the site here is the link.

www.myspace.com/spanboats

Thanks for all the help... I like these boats better than old cars and bikes mostly because of the history behind some of the companies. I hope you get the brochures up so I can get a preview of the interior. I'm going to get some finish sanding hopefully tomorrow and have the deck ready for paint this weekend. Then it will be up to the weather (currently 29F) to see if I can get my drafty garage to warm up enough. Can this little boat really handle a 50 hp 2 stroke? Like I said in earlier posts, I have a 1960 Rude 40hp lark II or a Chrysler 50 also from the 60's. Before I start to sink precious time and cash into tune-up parts for a chrysler, I want to be sure it will be safe for the boat. The boat needs a transom, and I plan on 3/4" ply sanwiched and painted in resin.

Well what you have looks exactly the same as the boat I’m restoring. My boat is a 1960 Sea king runabout. As others have said Span America made the hull, Atwood the hardware, Gale produced the motors for Sea king at that time. My boat is & was a total mess! All of the hardware is damaged or missing, no motor, broken trailer ect. Much of this has been replace/found or in the process of repair. I have found everything I have needed on Ebay. The only part that is expensive to replace is the steering wheel asy. It took me a long time to find one under $200.00. Every time one pops up it goes for top dollar!!!! A member here by the name of Bob had the same boat, fully restored & all original. Very nice piece!!! I have used pictures of his boat as a reference & inspiration for mine. I had emailed him & he gave me some info on the boat ect. Here are some pictures of Bob’s old boat.. See my post's for my boat pic's.

What a beautiful boat. Simply sexy. My thousand dollar question is how are the front seats built? I know that they are attached to the seat backs that are fiberglass (and flimsy) but I'm every bit of 225 and I'm afraid that I'll lean back and snap off the fiberglass.

Well here is a picture of what was in place on my boat. I’m planning on doing a slightly different approach but similar. Then making a removable seat back & bottoms. I’m 235+ some days, hahaah! So I know what you mean.

Ok… the picture isn’t posting for what ever reason. Basically there is a piece of ½” plywood that runs from the top of the seat back & attaches to the seat bottom.

FIrst Related to HP for these little babies they were rated at 60 HP. SO go ahead and put the Chrysler on it. If you need any parts for that I have a buddy that has parts to know end. I am a member of the Chrysler Crew too so I can get almost anything you may need for them. Regarding the Red boat well what can I say that sure is Purdy. I have pics of a all original 59 vip and the interior looks very different than that one but as I have seen on spans they are different boat to boat. The later years had deluxe interior packages that are really nice but cost a small fortune to restore. I have a vendor for the fabric and best do some saving up for that one if your all about original. BUT you can save HUndreds of bucks but using off the shelf colors and they look just fine.

Just some Span America Trivia for ya all. In 58 they didn't have the glove box option and in 59 they had the flat one with the big V on it and in 60 it changed to the picture below so when you try to figure out what year you have you can by the glove box design. As for the Sea King name on the Spans that only was one year from what I have found in the last few days and that was 59. They did make more boats for Monkey Wards but with the Span America name in 60. Andreas is very right with his comment that this contract with Span America was to kill the boat company. The had 3 plants around the US and just plain grew to fast. They couldn't produe what they sold do to to small of factories. Another interesting thing is the Hull shape, Designed by the Musick Brothers in 58 never really changed. Adding the Lapstrike design to the side was in 61 but the bottom stayed the same all the way to 68. The design just plan worked, they handle well. They are fast and corner very well. I really hope that Andreas gets time to finish what he worked so hard on last summer regarding this company because its a amazing story.
Cowboy

Erik wrote:

What a beautiful boat. Simply sexy. My thousand dollar question is how are the front seats built? I know that they are attached to the seat backs that are fiberglass (and flimsy) but I'm every bit of 225 and I'm afraid that I'll lean back and snap off the fiberglass.

Once you bolt the seat back to the fiberglass part they won't be near as flimsy. I'm 300 lbs and have a couple of boats with that style seat and have no worries. If you want to, bolt some wood into place as the seats would be, flip the entire boat over and set up on some saw horses. Then glass in some extra layers of fiberglass to strenghten them up. Just make sure they are bolted up as the will be in use so that everything fits back together right once it all dries.

Well DOUG no more cheezeburgars for you big boy ha ha ha. Erik if you need pictures of a original span seat email me at my yahoo address and I will get you some. The plywood is plenty strong to handle you big fellas
Cowboy

MMMM, cheese burgers Hahaha!!!!

Well, a quick update... Found this bow light locally a boat place that turns out to have a whole used section of parts... If you are local in Kansas City; KC Boatworks has quite a nice selection. Anyway, picked up the light for $40. Not exactly a steal, but it's what I was looking for and just lucky that I ran across it. My only prob is that the top part is missing. If anyone has, or has seen one, let me know. Got the top deck final sanded today and hopefully will get paint going within the week. Thanks for all the interior pic too!

Nice light.

Here are some more pics after this afternoon's bout with some paint. It's the first coat... The paint is about $35 a Gallon. Sherwin Williams offers a Industrial and Marine Alkyd enamel paint. I used the roll/roll method with a foam roller. So far it's been worth the money. Boats have been painted with this type of paint for many years it turns out. Hopefully 2 more coats and the topside will be finished with all the hard work. If feel like it was a success for two reasons: 1) I didn't flip the paint tray over or step in it and 2) it looks pretty decent on the darker side of the garage.

Erik wrote:

Well, a quick update... Found this bow light locally a boat place that turns out to have a whole used section of parts... If you are local in Kansas City; KC Boatworks has quite a nice selection. Anyway, picked up the light for $40. Not exactly a steal, but it's what I was looking for and just lucky that I ran across it. My only prob is that the top part is missing. If anyone has, or has seen one, let me know. Got the top deck final sanded today and hopefully will get paint going within the week. Thanks for all the interior pic too!

I've got a flag pole that fits that light that I was going to list in the glassifieds once I dug it out and took some pictures. I used to have one of the plain covers, but I will have to look to see if I still have it.

Cool stuff! I’m guessing your existing gel coat is in much better condition then mine is in. I’m going to need to sand my deck to bare glass & rewrap it in 6oz cloth. The gel coat on my boat is totally beat! I would get that flag pole classicfins is talking about. It is going to be hard to find that cover on its own. The light you got is the one that belongs on the boat. They normally sell for $35-75 on eBay depending on the condition & who is looking for that light at the time. So it would defiantly be better than starting over.


Hey classicfins, any chance you could grab those sea king emblems you posted in the pic's? If so how much including shipping to 19977? Thanks!

Sorry Steve, but that boat was bulldozed with about 100 others a few years back. I wanted to get save boat but just didn't get the time to make the journey.

Well, I started off cutting the mud and everything off the top of it and it didn't look too bad. I had alot parts where the cloth was actually kinda showing through. I treated the whole project like a car really. The lighting in my garage sucks. I've even added another light and it's now just ok. We had a little catastrophe today though. I have a 2.5" crack where one of the holes wasn't drilled straight 50 years ago for the trim. The crack came from moving the deck a little for our baby's new crib. It's not the end of the world, so I'll have it patched up in a night or two. The paint is really working better than even thought for the money. Wetsanded for a bit this evening and almost ready for another coat... I really need a wiring schematic for a 1965 Chrysler 50 hp. I have a ton of wires and most look to be cut. I'm going to take a break from sanding and painting this week and dig into the motor that I want to use a bit. Oh yeah, if anybody comes up with the cover for my light, please let me know.

Well, I started off cutting the mud and everything off the top of it and it didn't look too bad. I had alot parts where the cloth was actually kinda showing through. I treated the whole project like a car really. The lighting in my garage sucks. I've even added another light and it's now just ok. We had a little catastrophe today though. I have a 2.5" crack where one of the holes wasn't drilled straight 50 years ago for the trim. The crack came from moving the deck a little for our baby's new crib. It's not the end of the world, so I'll have it patched up in a night or two. The paint is really working better than even thought for the money. Wetsanded for a bit this evening and almost ready for another coat... I really need a wiring schematic for a 1965 Chrysler 50 hp. I have a ton of wires and most look to be cut. I'm going to take a break from sanding and painting this week and dig into the motor that I want to use a bit. Oh yeah, if anybody comes up with the cover for my light, please let me know.

I also used the foam roller method of applying my top and botom coats. Worked fantastic. Actually had people ask where I had the new gel coat put on, haha. Makes you feel good when you get comments like that.

What kind of paint did you use? I'm using a Sherwin Williams Industrial Alkyd enamel which can be mixed to any color they make and is very close to brand name marine paints. My problem seems to be the orange peel. I wonder if I'm not applying enough paint with the roller... The boat will stay on the trailer and I really don't want to pay for a bottom paint if the boat is being used on freshwater only...

What kind of paint did you use? I'm using a Sherwin Williams Industrial Alkyd enamel which can be mixed to any color they make and is very close to brand name marine paints. My problem seems to be the orange peel. I wonder if I'm not applying enough paint with the roller... The boat will stay on the trailer and I really don't want to pay for a bottom paint if the boat is being used on freshwater only...

This may sound crazy, but on the blue top coat I actually used a high gloss tractor enamal. It dries hard as anything i have ever used. It also kept its gloss over two summers now. Its also waxable. This stuff is indestructable. I have bumped many docks with no visible scratches or chips. The primer I used throughout the entire boat was a marine white primer, worked great. I think I avoided the orange peel look because the tractor enamal was so thick. I went out on a limb when trying it, but could not be happier with the result....AND it was CHEAP (maybe $60 for the entire job, with primer!)

That's a similiar coating that I'm using... Mine was $35 for a gallon. I think it must be between the cold and may application. I like it because it's cheap and can be wet sanded and buffed to shine. Even if I get one season out of it, I have so much of it that I can afford to just dewax it and break the surface and recoat. What did you use on your bottom? I'm going to be on a trailer and only used in fresh water.

The bottom was a marine white primer and then just used a white tractor enamal ontop of that.

How's that bottom paint holding up? I've read alot of people always talking about how bottom paint MUST be used in marine applications. I live in the midwest and the closest saltwater is in my living room. I just do not see the benefits to using an epoxy type paint for a boat that will sit on a trailer and be in the water up to 36-48 hours at a time... I just figured that all the light poles and fire hydrants that have the same type of paint I'm using are withstanding the weather just fine.

How's that bottom paint holding up? I've read alot of people always talking about how bottom paint MUST be used in marine applications. I live in the midwest and the closest saltwater is in my living room. I just do not see the benefits to using an epoxy type paint for a boat that will sit on a trailer and be in the water up to 36-48 hours at a time... I just figured that all the light poles and fire hydrants that have the same type of paint I'm using are withstanding the weather just fine.