91 Celebrity Bowrider Stringers/Flooring Replacement

[wildcatfan1491]

Hey everyone. I new to forum. I have read a lot here but not posted so please forgive me.

I am working on a boat I inherited and I was trying to figure out if would be worth my time to replace the floor and stringers. I already pulled a majority of the floor out. The stringers are pretty rotted along with the bulkhead. The fiberglass body is great shape still.

Is it worth my time to do this? I just do not want to invest into something that the ROI is not great. Also are there any good guides out there to replacing the stringers and the floor? I want to do it so I can keep the boat for long time and not have to do it again while I own it. I can post pictures tomorrow when the sun comes back up.


Thoughts?

 

[DeepBlue2010]

Re: 91 Celebrity Bowrider Stringers/Flooring Replacement

Welcome to iboats.

Regarding your questions of the ROI, it totally depends on how you define the ROI and lots of other factors.

Do you like the boat?
Are you married?
Will the wife support the project?
What boat, make model, year?
What is the status of the engine?

You can read a very relevent discussion here.. http://forums.iboats.com/boat-restoration-building-hull-repair/boat-worth-fixing-635977.html

As of the knowledge and know how, there are plenty. You will have no shortage of knowledge or help in this site.

Search of the SeaRay thread by FriscoBoater. You will learn a lot from his journey.

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: 91 Celebrity Bowrider Stringers/Flooring Replacement

Boats are not like cars. A 23 year old boat fully restored is still a 23 year old boat and will not be worth a lot of money. The right 23 year old car could be worth a LOT of money. Most of the guys here on the forum restore these old boats to save the costs of buying a new one. Very seldom do we see a project as a Money Making Deal. It does happen but that's the exception. Depending on what's all needed on your boat, restoration costs can run from $1k to $5K. Pics will help us to help you. Based on your general description, replacing the Deck, Stringers and transom on a boat like yours, plus doing some interior work etc I'd say a good Guess-Ti-Mate Ball Park Figure would be $2.5K and about 200 man hours of work. That's based on what most of the projects on this forum have done with similar projects. There's no real way to give anything but a real rough guesstimate. After investing that money and time you will have a boat that will be as good if not better than it was from the factory and will last for decades to come. It may not have the styling of a new one but it will be as seaworthy as one.

 

[wildcatfan1491]

Re: 91 Celebrity Bowrider Stringers/Flooring Replacement

I guess what I am saying as ROI is not necessarily selling it. It more of will I get my money worth aka will it last a long time that I won't have to do this again.

Woodonglass hit the nail on the head for me. If it is done right, the boat will last for years on out.

Just specs behind the boat,

It is a 91 Celebrity bowrider,
4.3 Mercrusier Alpha One Gen 2 (good condition)
I don't have a wife right now haha ( I am just in college looking for a good project so I figured I would take this on)
I like the boat. It is a slick looking boat, it just needs some loving.

Like I said, I will get some pictures up to tomorrow.

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: 91 Celebrity Bowrider Stringers/Flooring Replacement

Do you have a good place to work on it? It IS a LOT of Dirty, Nasty, Itchy, Yucky work during the demo portion. Once it's all ripped and ground out it's actually kind fun work. But the demo work is brutal and nasty. You need to be prepared and have a good work environment to do it in.

 

[wildcatfan1491]

Re: 91 Celebrity Bowrider Stringers/Flooring Replacement

I am working on it in a garage. I just started tearing up the floor today and it keep getting scarier and scarier every time I took more out.

 

[jbcurt00]

Re: 91 Celebrity Bowrider Stringers/Flooring Replacement

UK wildcat? Working on it in Lexington?

It will get worse, possibly much worse before you even get 75% of the demo done.

 

[wildcatfan1491]

Re: 91 Celebrity Bowrider Stringers/Flooring Replacement

Nah Kansas State. I am working in the great state of Kansas haha.

Do you recommend on draining and taking out the gas tank before you replace the stringers?

 

[jbcurt00]

Re: 91 Celebrity Bowrider Stringers/Flooring Replacement

Yes drain the gas. You'll be doing quite a bit of grinding and will be pulling the tank anyway.

Add Kansas to your profile, when where to buy glassing supplies comes up, it'll be easier then trying to remember where in the world you are.

 

[wildcatfan1491]

Re: 91 Celebrity Bowrider Stringers/Flooring Replacement

What is there to grind? I figure it would be a lot of sanding.

 

[jbcurt00]

Re: 91 Celebrity Bowrider Stringers/Flooring Replacement

Grinding fiberglass, not metal. But most grinder's do spark & occasionally you'll find a buried fastener w/ the grinder.

You'll be grinding off any fiberglass lips left behind from the deck, stringer & bulkhead removal. Then scuffing the adjoining areas to get to good glass to allow your new work to adhere to the old better.

 

[DeepBlue2010]

Re: 91 Celebrity Bowrider Stringers/Flooring Replacement

New fresh laminate of fiberglass will not bond to the old laminate – the body of the boat – without grinding the old laminate to a fresh layer of fiberglass. Sanding is not what you need. You need to grind with a 24 or 40 grit flap disk on an angle grinder. Don’t overdo it, all you need is to remove the very first top, shiny layer of the old fiber glass and that is it. Grinding with this coarse grit will not only remove this old, shiny layer but also raise some fibers from the old laminate so the new fiberglass has something to bit into. This will greatly improve the bonding between the new and old fiberglass and reduce the chances of delamination.


Try to go through FriscoBoater thread before you start.

 

[wildcatfan1491]

Re: 91 Celebrity Bowrider Stringers/Flooring Replacement

Ahh alright that makes sense. Well I am going to keep pulling more out tomorrow and take pics. I will upload them tomorrow.

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: 91 Celebrity Bowrider Stringers/Flooring Replacement

You can also use a R/O sander with 36 grit discs it's just gunna take a lot longer. Make sure and use a Respirator and Goggles at the very least. Full Face Respirator is Highly Recommended. Your lungs will take a beating from the fiberglass dust and there will be a LOT of it. Also there will be a lot of fungus and other nasty dust particles flying around that you DON'T want to inhale. PROTECT yourself as best you can. This should help you understand some of the things you'll need...

Clcik the pic to Download and view the PDF file

View attachment MaterialsList.pdf

 

[wildcatfan1491]

Re: 91 Celebrity Bowrider Stringers/Flooring Replacement

Hey everyone. Sorry it took me so long. I had to get the first week of this semester taken care of before I dug to much further into it.

I got about 95% of the driver side floor up. I need to sand out where the old floor was previously fiberglassed in. I am still debating if I should replace some or all of the stringers. Is there an easy way to break where the floor was fiberglassed in? My only thought was to take a dremel tool and go along the edges where the floor was connected to the hull.

One other thing, I did find some water trapped up where the ski storage is. I haven't figured out how to get it out but I will look into as soon as I get the gas tank out.

Here are some pictures. ( I cannot get the the upload tool to work for me so this is 2nd best.)

Celebrity Boat

 

[jbcurt00]

Re: 91 Celebrity Bowrider Stringers/Flooring Replacement

I suspect there is a lot of work ahead:

The carpet along that tapered angle portion of the hull (where it runs into the console foot well) and most of the side panel will need come off.

Since it's an I/O you can pull the motor & outdrive & replace the transom wood w/out removing the cap (everything above the rubrail) but I don't think you can get the bow seating & consoles out to reach the stringers & deck that extend up under them unless you do pull the cap.

 

[wildcatfan1491]

Re: 91 Celebrity Bowrider Stringers/Flooring Replacement

What are your thoughts on a partial stringer repair?

I just looked at the transom and it probably best looking at off all of the boat.

 

[Grub54891]

Re: 91 Celebrity Bowrider Stringers/Flooring Replacement

Partial repair is just what you said. Partial. Sooner than later the rest will need it too. I'm doing all of it now.when I finish the stringers and flooring,its getting the cap off to finish up the forward stringers.Then comes carpet,seats,upolstry.Is the boat worth it? To me yes!

 

[wildcatfan1491]

Re: 91 Celebrity Bowrider Stringers/Flooring Replacement

Hey everyone. Sorry it has taken me so long to get back to my thread. I have busy taking mid terms and dealing with all the snow. Got to love college life.

Yesterday I got quite a bit done. I finished pulling the floor up yesterday. I have had left was in the passenger side in the foot area below the dash. I ended up using a multi-tool with a half moon saw on it to help cut the fiberglass that was bonded to the boat from the floor. I was rather impressed how well it worked. I then pulled all the floatation foam and what I got to say is wow, that stuff holds a lot of water. The further I got back to the rear end of the boat, the more soaked it was. I am almost guaranteeing that boat will already faster when I put new foam in. It took me a little while to figure out what was the best way to get the foam up and out. I ended up using my flat crowbar and it work pretty flawless. It took me about 2-3 hours to get it out but it was well worth it. Just a heads up for anyone that is just starting to pull up the foam, make sure you have somewhere to throw it away. I ended up taking 5 trash cans full to my college campus and dumping it. Once I got the foam out, I realized how bad the stringers were. The are now barely holding up. So I am kind of glad I am replacing them.

I think I am going to take some measurements tonight and start pulling the stringers this week. I know know I need a flap sander for the grinder. I know this probably isn't the easiest way to to get the stringers out so I think I am going to to use my multi tool to help and take the flap sander to help clean up.

I am also thinking about using cardboard and drawing templates for my stringers from the old stringers.

Your thoughts? I will post pictures later today.

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: 91 Celebrity Bowrider Stringers/Flooring Replacement

If you can salvage the old stringers to use for patterns, this is ideal! If no then cardboard is the nextbest thing IMHO! Instead of the Flapper discs I recommend using a backup Pad and the resin coated 24 grit sanding discs. Use an old tennis should to periodically clean the gunk of the discs to make em last longer...