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Candyman Album
Or play the Aguilera Candyman video  “Aguilera Candyman video”

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8-6-09: I purchased the plans for the Glen-L Monte Carlo 6 years ago and have been collecting hardware and parts while waiting for retirement to bring me to the point of starting the build. White Oak for the frames was purchased and sawdust started hitting the floor on 07/08/09. We live on the shores of Flathead Lake, largest natural body of fresh water west of the Mississippi river. This will be a dream boat for summer cruising. I built the model about 8 years ago and it inspired me to start collecting parts for the real thing. I have everything from a new Chevy 350 marine crate engine to the banjo steering wheel and bear claw engine vents. Amazing what you can find on Ebay!
9-3-09 The building form was constructed, leveled and fastened to my shop floor with expansion bolts. The frames and motor stringers have been encapsulated and fastened together using aluminum motor clips. Currently I am looking for keel, chine, sheer and batten material. I found a source for BS1088 6mm mahogany plywood at $37 a sheet and ordered it. I will most likely take a break for most of the winter while my wife and I are involved in a project of another nature.
11-18-10: The year 2010 has seen enough time spent on the Monte Carlo to get it turned right side up in early November. I didn’t get back to the build until March when I finally was able to lay up the keel, sheer and chine. I spent most of the summer fastening laminations of 6mm BS1088 mahogany plywood. The final veneer is 4mm African mahogany from Certainlywood.com. They were able to supply 10 foot lengths of absolutely clear material that ranged from 9 to 11 inches in width at a bargain price that made me feel like I was stealing it. The final 4mm veneer was stapled down using a pneumatic gun with raptor plastic staples and you really have to know what you are looking for to see them in the final finish. I applied 6 coats of Poxyshield with a layer of 4 ounce cloth after the first coat. UV protection was applied using System 3 two-part gloss polyurethane. Final sanding was started with a random orbital sander at 220 grit followed by 320, 400, 600, and 1500 and then buffed with 3M Perfection rubbing compound followed by 3M Machine Polish. The hull was jacked up and suspended from 4 points off the reinforced truss system of my shop’s 10-foot ceiling. Rotation of the Hull was calculated to clear the floor by 6 inches. A last minute glitch occurred when the line being used to control the rotation failed to hold and the keel side weight swung the boat over 90 degrees in less time than it takes say !@#$@@!##.    The ropes stretched and the hull cleared the floor by only an inch. Luckily no one was hurt.

That portion of the flip can be seen on YouTube by clicking here or searching for   “How Not to Flip a Boat”.

The boat was lowered onto a new trailer built by my friend Tim at TRM in Missoula. The wheels and axles were removed from the trailer and the frame now sits on casters several inches off the floor so that work on the top deck is easier to reach. I am now working on mounts for the engine. Most work will again be put on hold until warmer weather returns to Montana since 11/23 is forecast to be 9°F below zero. The engine mounts will be cut from some very old and historic Cutter sleigh runners. Since I never plan on building a sleigh and they were new and unused, I figured the Oak runners would serve my boat well. The first few months of 2011 were spent preparing the engine. As an unfired crate engine it needed to be marinized, wired and plumbed. The engine mounts were constructed from oak and angle iron. The engine had never been fired, but had been well kept during its nearly 30 year wait to be tested. It started up as quickly as any car sitting in your garage. the test showed no oil, fuel or water leaks. It was then dropped into the boat for a test fit prior to beginning the deck framing.

Deck framing then proceeded using old growth vertical grain larch with the exception of using a piece of Purple Heart for the dash.

Once the deck frame was complete  and faired it was covered with the marine plywood sub-decking.

Of course I couldn’t resist laying a few of the pieces of hardware on the deck just to get the feel of what was to come. I am trying to make the boat look like the 1940 Chris Craft barrelback so it will have the Turtle horn and Banjo steering wheel along with some original castings that I am having re-chromed.

The solid mahogany gunwales were steamed in a PVC tube and set into a rabbet along the shear. Then the final mahogany veneer was laid down using the 4mm solid African mahogany from Certainlywood.com This material is supplied in 10 foot lengths and runs 9 to 12 inched wide. It is flawless, not even a worm hole anywhere in the wood. It was ripped into 2.25 inch strips and glued down using epoxy while being held in place with weights from and old universal gym.

The cover-boards were a real challenge to fabricate in the style of the 1940 boat since they start out narrow and then become wider at midships before getting narrow again at the stern. And to make it even harder there are 2 boards on each side all of which have to follow the sweeping lines of the shear.

The grooves between the mahogany boards is being filled with a mix of epoxy resin, micro-balloon glass filler and white pigment. It is poured into the grooves using  disposable piping bags that a local bakery uses to frost cakes.

The filled grooves are then sanded flush. Next step is to finish shaping the gunwales and sand the deck fair in preparation of staining the wood. The lines are taped off so as not to take the stain. Cover-boards will be Lockwoods water-based Ebony color while the rest of it is a red mahogany stain. Lockwoods products are very easy to mix and use.

Candyman Hatch Finished 04/24/2012

The boat was pulled down Main Street of Polson, Montana just prior to launching it for the very first time on Flathead Lake. as seen on YouTube by clicking here or searching for “Candyman Parade ”.

Candyman pulled its first skier on July 14th of 2012 on Flathead Lake. as seen on YouTube by clicking here or searching for “Candyman Prepares to pull a skier”.

Candyman pulled its first skier on July 14th of 2012 on Flathead Lake. as seen on YouTube by clicking here or searching for “Candyman with Ryan Holm”.