1986 glasstream hydrabass 17' restoration

[Mikeyf007]

i bought this boat for cheap, redoing the deck adding deck to it customized. the wood in the front deck was rotten very badily and the floor has a few softspots but stringers are great transome rock solid any tips are welcome i will be posting pictures as well. any tips are welcome. plus i have a dt 140 Suzuki anyone have an idea how fast this boat will run with this motor? i am also going to repaint/ glass coat/ flake the cap any info on these techniques would be helpful

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: 1986 glasstream hydrabass 17' restoration

What have you done to ensure the Stringers and Transom are Rock Solid?

 

[Mikeyf007]

Re: 1986 glasstream hydrabass 17' restoration

spot checked in the floor and rear section of the boat they are completely fiber glassed they have no way to be in holding water with the drains plus i jumped on them like a gorilla and i weight 220 lol solid

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: 1986 glasstream hydrabass 17' restoration

Well, that's one way but really not reliable. The only sure way is to core sample them with a drill. The shavings will tell the tale. Not to many 26 year old bass boats have come on to the forum with 100% solid stringers and Transoms, especially with bad decks. Not saying it can't happen, just very rare. Not trying to rain on your parade, just want to make sure the boat is safe and most importantly that you don't go to all the work and expense of replacing the deck to find out later that you have to rip it all out to fix the stringers and transom. Just suggesting when you get the deck out that you do everything possible to ensure that all is well below the deck and in the transom. You should also make sure that the boat is rated for that hp and weight of a motor. I found this info on your boat. http://boatspecs.iboats.com/Glasstream__1700_Hydra_Bass__1986/bp/66b36344. Might be helpfule.

Just trying to make you aware of all the issues. Hopefully you understand where I'm coming from. Just speaking from experiences I've had.

 

[Mikeyf007]

Re: 1986 glasstream hydrabass 17' restoration

i appreciate that i also had a guy that has fooled with these things before he looked at it for me as well we went over it all, we stood on the motor with out a transom saver on it there was no flex got a good look at the stringers and man they are solid the problem with the design of this boat which i am fixing is the front deck sits above the live-well, above the live-well is where the seat bracket is placed. there is not any thing to seal this off so with water in the live-well it would splash up into the wood which is where the heart of the rot was. also it was cheap wood used not sealed the wood was just sandwiched between the 2 pieces of fiber glass which were epoxied together. so when the water got in the middle it rotted it and started puling apart from the fiber glass. this made the whole area stay moist because there is no air to come into it. my new design will eliminate this.plus truing the front live well into dry storage. the under the floor is the stringers which are in cased in fiber glass but the water that reaches the bottom hull does not sit there it goes out of the drain as well. these boats mimicked the rangers after the patent was up they way they were able to sell them cheaper was to use less of a grade of wood in the deck and floor. i can appreciate your concerns and i also appreciate you bringing it up but i have talked to several people who have more knowledge about this than i and had them look at it before i have done any work at all honestly when the boat is complete i will have less than 1500 tied in to the boat completely. and 150 is max on this boat, a friend had the same boat with a 150 xr6 it did about 70

 

[Nivek11]

I’m restoring the same thing but I’m having problems up loading the pics ?? Says file is to big but it’s only about 7 pics any help ??