1966 Aerocraft aluminum boat

[66aerocraft]

Good Morning all,

In the late sixties, my father bought a 66 Aerocraft aluminum fishing boat from a neighbor, along with an 18hp Evinrude outboard and trailer. The boat left the family in the early 90s. Well, after 14 years, I have the boat, outboard and trailer back and am trying to clean it up a bit before I surprise my father and brothers (along with my five year old son) by taking them out fishing in my "new" boat.

I would like to do the follwing things:

- repaint the bottom the same light color blue
- replace the missing cleats
- replace the wood on the transom
- replace the missing rivets
- plug the drill holes on the seats and hull with marine weld (JB Weld)
- clean the hull to as close to original as possible
- remove the spray painted initials on the metal part of the transom
- (do I need to replace the flotation under the seats?)
- find a drain plug the fits

- replace the bungs on the trailer
- replace the lights with something closer to the original look
- strip and paint it the original color
- re weld the right fender back on

I haven't been boating in a long time. I had a sailboat for a while as a kid, but, after all this time I would consider myself a novice / beginner. I would very much like to surprise my father sometime this fishing season. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.


Thanks so much,
Mac

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: 1966 Aerocraft aluminum boat

Mac, welcome to iboats. post a picture of the boat so i have a better idea of what you have. clik the blue 'post reply' type what you want, then scoll down and clik manage attachments. this will let you load pictures from your computer, or a hosting site, like photobucket.

ive done a lot of these projects, and yours is fairly simple.

below is a small boat i did 2 years ago. 1960's LoneStar, 1955 15 hp evinrude. i just put the boat on saw horses, and worked the outside, and redid the trailer, then put boat on trailer and did the inside. i replace the transom. then customized it the way i wanted it.

 

[jimyoung]

Re: 1966 Aerocraft aluminum boat

Great looking boat!!! I too am starting a redo on my Grandpa's old boat...more pics? and this is the first boat i have seen with stick steering, other than mine!

 

[66aerocraft]

Re: 1966 Aerocraft aluminum boat

Taking pictures is a great idea. I'll take some this monday, weather permitting, and post them when I get back to work Tuesday night. I'm pretty excited about this. My next project is to take the boating test to get the required boating certificate for DC.

Thanks for your help.

mac

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: 1966 Aerocraft aluminum boat

that was my 3rd boat with the stick. when i got it, it was covered in vines. there are still some of the hair roots, left under the gunnel for old times sake.

 

[reelfishin]

Re: 1966 Aerocraft aluminum boat

I've seen a few Aerocraft fiberglass boats, but haven't run across an aluminum one yet. Got any pics?

I like that stick steering too, I had that set up on one of my old boats, it saves a lot of space and works great. I wish I could find a complete set up to convert my DuraCraft to that set up and get rid of the old cables and stick. It would free up the side box for rod storage.

Your Lonestar also lacks all the side braces that most newer boats do. My DuraCraft is similar but with an over the edge aluminum rub rail and two 8' long side boxes and three braces on each side that mount in conjunction with the boxes. Mine has no seats just a flat floor which sits on the aluminum stringers and a few wood supports. The lapstrake design also adds lots of strength.
Mine is more of a trihull design but the outer hulls don't drop below the point of being just flat extentions. My hull is smooth with no seams, only a row of rivets down each side and down both sides of the keel.

 

[66aerocraft]

Re: 1966 Aerocraft aluminum boat

imported_reelfishin,

I won't have any pictures until probably Monday afternoon. I'll take some of the trailer as well.

The boat is a 1966 "T-15", 14' loa, on a steel trailer. I am planning on welding the right fender back on this Tuesday or Wednesday morning. Some of the bolts on the trailer are so chewed up I'm considering cutting them off and replacing them as well. (maybe at the end of the season) I will be very happy is the end result is half as nice as tashasdaddy's boat.

When I take the pictures, is there anything in particular that any one wants to see.

Is there any one who could tell me how many cleats were on the boat originally?

Thanks
Mac

 

[66aerocraft]

Re: 1966 Aerocraft aluminum boat

I had some free time this afternoon so I snapped some photos. I will weld the fender on the trailer first so I can get tags on the trailer. The holes in the boat, the support straps that came loose and the wood are probably next. The initials on the back and the cleaning are last. I was able to clean the "S" off the right side of the transom, but you can still see where the "S" used to be....

...apparantly my photos are too big...I"ll try to make them smaller...

 

[jimmybouy]

I know this is a old post but I am going to reply anyway. Your boat looks like a 1972-1973 Chrysler Boat. I Have a 1972 and it looks just like that one. Here are some photos.

 

[jbcurt00]

Closed

Jimmy: Aero wont ever get your message, helpful or not, because its been 5yrs since he logged in to iboats. Hence the 90day rule.

FYI: the pix ARE of a LoneStar, posted by TashasDaddy, not Aero, who started this topic. In the mid 60s LS was bought by Chrysler, who continued to make the same boats for a short time.

Please dont reply to topics that have been inactive for 90days or more.

But please start a topic about your Aero/Chrysler and post pix there