1959 Crosby Capri Restoration

[disorderindminor]

My best friend and I are fixing up this boat. He was looking for a project and boy did we find one. We are going to try to get her as close to original as possible.

[greenbush future]

You have found a nice one to work on for sure. Anything glass that is late 50's or early 60's has era style that just turns heads. Did it come with original power or will you find other means of speed? My 61 is being restored very slow, but the result could be nice. Have fun and take your time, it will be well worth the effort IMO. Nice find!!

[Woodonglass]

Yeah, Nice score!!!! My first boat was a 57' Crosby that was a glass hull with a wood top. Had a 35 horse evinrude. Loved that boat. Keep postin pics, and let us know if we can help in any way.

[disorderindminor]

You have found a nice one to work on for sure. Anything glass that is late 50's or early 60's has era style that just turns heads. Did it come with original power or will you find other means of speed? My 61 is being restored very slow, but the result could be nice. Have fun and take your time, it will be well worth the effort IMO. Nice find!!

Im pretty sure the evinrude power plant on it is not original. The controls say Johnson and it has two Johnson fuel cans inside it. Luckily for me im about 30 mins from 6 or 7 different marinas with a huge boating community and a couple different salvage yards that specialize in boats of all vintages. I'm sure i'll find a Johnson to put back their as soon as I figuer out if its a short tail or long tail on that outboard.

This project is going to be a trip becasue I've never done anything like this before, I have very little experience with fiberglass repair and refinishing and working with sheet molded compounds from my degree in auto body repair and refinishing but i've never worked with gel coat before and im going to have a ton of questions...


The gel coat is cracked, thinking im going to have to sand it all down to the first layer of fiberglass. If i do that im thinking i'll loose the slats on the bow and have to reshape them. Not a huge deal but more work. Thoughts? opinions?

[Woodonglass]

Yep, looks like there's a lot of grinding in your future. Gelcoating is not to bad. Lots of experts here to guide you. Requires lots of sanding. You can always Paint her!!!! That's what I did on my 61' Lonestar.

[disorderindminor]

Im afraid if grind the area highlighted in yellow down past the cracks, i'll completely loose that feature and have to build it back up from scratch. Guess i wont know till i start grinding

Its going to be awhile before pictures of progress are up, we got to build a stand to put the boat on before we start ripping into her and putting away all the small parts for repair and refinishing.

[Woodonglass]

Yeah, you don't want to grind down past those. A dremel tool with a small v groove bit is going to be your best friend. That motor is of the correct vintage and Johnson controls were commonly used on Evinrude motors. Is the Gelcoat on the hull checked and cracked like that? If so, it can be a major issue to get it back to useable condition.

[Ned L]

Neat find! very classic and practical for use today.
I agree, don't try to grind down past the crazing, you will never get it back looking original. I would give it a careful sanding (probably by hand with a sanding block) to remove all the loose and oxidized surface material, then skim coat with filler to fill all the crazing, sand again, and then think about primer. Yep,that engine could well be original, if it has life left in it you won't find a better match for the boat. Johnson & Evinrude are the same, just a different color & label.

[disorderindminor]

The gelcoat on the hull isn't cracked or checked at all miraculously enough. its in really good condition except towards the transom (probably going to end up building a new transom anyways...) Only the top of the boat (and i mean the entire top of the boat) has that crazing. Using the dremel tool to V out the bigger cracks and fill it seems sensible enough, filling all the crazing with filler leaves me worried about the crazing showing through the finish becasue id never be able to get into every single lil crack for proper adhesion of the filler. Its been my experience with fillers that they don't stick good unless you got a decent scratch (50-80grit depending) to adhere too and everything properly wax and grease remover-ed. When you got the surface checkered like that it doesn't seem like their would be any other effective way to do it other than to grind it all off thus creating far more work.

Do you think the checkering will bleed through the filler in time as the filler shrinks back and gets baked or are we good to go? I'm more than down to put an appropriate amount of filler on the top if you guys really think the crazing/checkering wont show through the final finish


and good call on the evanrude using johnsons controls, I never would have imagined

[andgott]

Nice find there. Crosbys are nice boats- The Capri is one of the prettier models, too!

You may have come across this already-


That's also a nice motor- '57 Evinrude Lark. I've got a couple of them.

DO NOT grind that deck down. All the detail is in the Gelcoat, if you grind it, it will be gone forever. It doesn't look bad enough to need total removal, just some good sanding, filling, and more sanding. You already mentioned using a dremel to widen some of the gaps a bit, that works quite well. In the end, no matter what, you'll probably have a few cracks that come through to the final finish... They may not show up right away, but down the line they probably will. But, face it, this is a 50+ year old boat- How good do you think YOU will look at 50?

You're going to have to check out the stringers, floor an transom, too. I'd say there is a good chance that a boat in that condition has rotten stringers. Crosby boats also have balsa core decks- Check that out, too. It should be OK unless some of those cracks are through to the wood. Here's a cutaway drawing of your boat- It might help-



There's a LOT of wood hidden

-Andrew

[jbcurt00]

Good looking Crosby. A Crosby that got away is how I came to the '60 FireFlite....

[disorderindminor]

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