Restoration/Rebuild of 1974 Gulfstream

[Taylor_T]

Hello Everyone,

I have made some posts with some specific questions about my boat in the past, but decided it's time to make a dedicated thread to post my progress and get feedback as I go. This will be a long post to start since this is the progress over the last few weeks, so bear with me.

First off, a little about myself and my boat.

I'm 19 years old and last September I bought my first boat. It's a 1974 Gulfstream, 19.5 ft I/O, powered by a 305 chevy and OMC Stringer outdrive. It came with a tower, which was great because the thing I love most about boating is wakeboarding. My friends and I had tons of fun on it at the end of last year, and had loads of fun wakeboarding behind this old boat and just being out on the lake. Me and another kid even landed our first back-rolls behind it. I didn't really get many pictures of the boat last year, but here's a few pictures of what it looked like before I did anything (sorry I don't have any before pics of the exterior):

I by no means thought my boat was in great condition, but I thought it was pretty solid for the year! Like any other first time boat owner, I was clueless and am still learning. I had the mind set of "Well, she runs and she floats, so she's a pretty good boat!". And, like many oblivious boat owners, I didn't realize that a boat is meant to be on the water and not full of water. Anyways...

Discovery...

Well, it came time to get the boat out this year and I was feeling a little ambitious and wanted to re-do the interior with a new seating layout. Through looking into doing something along those lines, I ran into some restoration threads and started learning about the wood rotting in these old boats. I started to look at my boat a little closer, and noticed my engine mounts were cracked from front to back. Also, the fiberglass on the stringers in the bilge area had cracks in it.That was the beginning...

Carpet Removal and Further Inspection

Really, the floor felt solid. But, I decided to dig a little deeper to see what I would find. I started by ripping up the carpet, since I wanted to replace it anyways. There was a bare piece of plywood over the gas tank, so I ripped that up and started inspecting. What I found didn't surprise me.

Up until about a week ago it has been really hard for me to decide exactly what to do with the boat. It has been a lot of back and forth between complete restoration, and just doing the deck and engine mounts since the boat is old anyways (just to get a little more life out of her). Also, I have been in a constant battle of whether to repower to mercruiser and get away from OMC... but more on that later.



Wow! We're almost caught up. I know this is a long read, but we're almost to the end of the post. With the gas tank out, I cut out the rest of the deck (except for under the bow) and removed most of the foam. So now the stringers are mostly exposed. That was yesterday and today.

It feels good to actually get back to demolition. It feels like I'm actually making progress now. It's getting closer to where I need to think about ordering fiberglass and resin and the other goodies, and that's exciting! Granted, I still have more demolition to do and then I have to grind out the hull... but I bought a new 4 1/2" angle grinder the other day that I'm excited to try out (silver lining).

Well, that's where I'm at! I'll post any updates here, and I hope you guys will be able to help me through these next parts because, uh... I want to do it right! I have a few questions but I will post those tomorrow. I'm excited to re-build this boat and build it the way I want it!

I will add more pictures shortly.

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MOD EDIT - Taylor will be adding the continued demo in a following post.

 

[Bayou Dave]

You have taken on a big project and seem to have the ambition to see it to the end. When you are done you will have a better than new boat that will last you for many, many years. With determination and a lot of $ you probably will get her back on the water this year. The interior looks to be in very good condition. Is the exterior in as good of condition? As you said, repowering now would be ideal, but getting the boat sea worthy is priority.Keep posting pics as you go. You will get lots of help here.

 

[Taylor_T]

You have taken on a big project and seem to have the ambition to see it to the end. When you are done you will have a better than new boat that will last you for many, many years. With determination and a lot of $ you probably will get her back on the water this year. The interior looks to be in very good condition. Is the exterior in as good of condition? As you said, repowering now would be ideal, but getting the boat sea worthy is priority.Keep posting pics as you go. You will get lots of help here.

Thanks for the encouraging words. I'm hoping to get back on the water this year. The interior was in fair condition I would say, it's kind of hard to see from the pictures. The exterior is in pretty good shape, but will need some touching up and some small repairs. We'll see what I end up doing when I get there, but I'm hoping to make any repairs needed to make it an all around fantastic looking boat.

 

[Taylor_T]

I just went to add the rest of the pictures to the original post but for some reason I can't edit my original post. There isn't an option to do so at the bottom. Is there a time limit on how much time can pass before you can't edit your posts? Can anyone help me with this? I posted this thread last night with the intention of finishing the post with pictures this morning... should I just make a new thread?

 

[sphelps]

Just keep posting and adding pics on this thread ..Just a thought ... If you are gunna replace the transom and want to repower at some point ... Now is the time to repower .. The key hole will be different on the transom ...
Good luck ! Looking forward to more pics !

 

[GA_Boater]

I just went to add the rest of the pictures to the original post but for some reason I can't edit my original post. There isn't an option to do so at the bottom. Is there a time limit on how much time can pass before you can't edit your posts? Can anyone help me with this? I posted this thread last night with the intention of finishing the post with pictures this morning... should I just make a new thread?

Welcome aboard.

I just got your PM about adding the additional pics. The Edit tool is active for 1 hour after sending a post. My PM rely has a solution, Taylor.

Good luck on your rebuild.

 

[Taylor_T]

I will add more pictures shortly.

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MOD EDIT - Taylor will be adding the continued demo in a following post.

Alright, here is the continuation of the first post (with pictures):

...

​Also, I have been in a constant battle of whether to repower to mercruiser and get away from OMC... but more on that later.

Cutting Out Most of the Deck

The next thing I did was start cutting up sections of the deck. Before long, I decided just to cut up the whole deck. So, I cut most of the deck out and started getting ready to pull the engine. I have found that the best way to cut the deck is to use a circular saw set at the deck height, and a multi tool for where the circular saw can't cut and when I get close to the hull.

Outdrive and Engine Removal

Using my trusty manual (and lots of internet searching) as a guide, I removed the outdrive and started removing wires and hoses from the engine (making sure to label and take pics/videos). Because of how the OMC stringer is designed, I opted to leave the intermediate housing intact which ended up working out great.

I was lucky enough to have a family friend who was kind enough to let me borrow his engine hoist. So, once everything was prepped, my dad and I got it lifted out of the boat in about an hour. We jacked that engine hoist as tall as it would go, but it still wasn't quite tall enough so we let the air out of the tires on the trailer and... presto! It cleared.

Once out of the boat, I made a stand for it out of 2x4's and 4x4's, and I bought a $12.00 mover's dolly from harbor freight and took the caster wheels of of it so I could wheel the engine around the garage.

To Re-Power or Not to Re-Power... Getting Side-Tracked

While all of this was going on, I was also looking into repowering the boat to mercruiser and getting away from OMC. I have learned so much about outdrives and am now aware of the fact that OMC is out of business and parts are getting more expensive and harder to find for the OMC stringer. This was a huge undertaking for me and was pretty overwhelming. I wanted to repower, but it was going to add a ton of sweat, tears and a good chunk of money to an already big project.

I found a boat close to me that had what seemed to be what I needed to repower. It was an older boat, had been sitting for a while, and it didn't run. It had an 188 hp motor in it, which was very close to my 190hp. So I thought, I'll buy this boat super cheap, take the parts I need, and get rid of the rest. Well, keep in mind that I'm still learning about boats and motors are no exception. Turns out, you can't use the parts from a ford motor on a chevy motor. And, the "donor boat" that I bought was a ford 302 (mercruiser 888) while the motor I have is a chevy 305. Oops. So, I decided to gut the boat and move on. I removed the outdrive, motor and everything else imaginable.

I might try to get it running as a side project, but there may not be too much hope as I couldn't get it to turn over by hand and there is water in the oil. We'll see, though. I haven't done much with it since I got it out of that boat.

Finally... I Made A Decision About What I am Going to Do

Through out the last month I have been going back and forth with what to do. Should I keep the stringers and just do the deck and motor mounts to get a few more years out of the boat? Re-do all of the stringers, foam, deck and transom? Just replace some of the worst stringers, motor mounts, leave the transom? Re-power to mercruiser or keep what I have? Buy a different hull with an open bow, and repower? The possibilities seemed ENDLESS and my head started to spin trying to decide.

Ultimately, I decide to completely restore the hull I have. New stringers, foam, transom, deck, interior, and some external repair. However, I am going to KEEP the omc stringer. I know, I know. Call me crazy, and maybe I'll regret it later. But right now, I want to get back on the water. And while it would be awesome to repower, and probably save me money in the long run, I don't have the budget right now. My thought is, that if I make this hull something worth keeping, then I can repower later on. I know, now would be a good time and be easier. But... as of now it sounds like a good project for another year

Hull-Support (Back To My Boat )

Once I got that other boat gutted, I got my actual project boat back in the garage and started working on it again. I started to get ready to remove the gas tank when I started to think about how the hull is going to be supported while I re-build my boat. I am not planning on de-cappitating the boat... but as it sat, it was sitting on the middle rollers of the trailer, with two short bunks on either side. Not much support.

Instead of removing the boat from the trailer and making a cradle, I decided to add bunks to the trailer and support the boat on the trailer. I used 4 scissor jacks (2 stern, 2 up by the bow), and one bottle jack (on the keel kind of by the bow stop) and used them to lift the boat off of the trailer, and then I built up to the boat with my new bunks.

I didn't want to wait for actual bunk brackets to arrive, so I made temporary brackets out of angle iron. I was worried about it not being strong, or that it would move, but it is actually quite sturdy and should last during the rebuild.

I used the old carpet I ripped out of the boat for the bunk carpet, and just made the bunks out of 2x4s for now.

I then supported the hull in other locations with the scissor jacks after the new bunks were in place to offer extra support.

Removing the Gas Tank

After the hull was sitting happy, I got the gas tank out. It was foamed in so I had to get any foam out that I could around it. Then I tried using the engine hoist to lift it out, but it was lifting up the whole boat!So I tried to dig out more foam, and then started to lift with the engine hoist again. As I lifted, I would climb into the boat and pry up on the gas tank with a pry bar (the gas tank had a little lip on either end). Slowly, but surely, the gas tank broke free and I got it out no problem.

Foam Removal

Wow! We're almost caught up. I know this is a long read, but we're almost to the end of the post. With the gas tank out, I cut out the rest of the deck (except for under the bow) and removed most of the foam. So now the stringers are mostly exposed. That was yesterday and today.