First MFG - 1965 Edinboro

reelfishin

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Mar 19, 2007
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3,043
I picked up my 7th boat the other day, my first MFG, its a 1965 Edinboro going by the brochure pics and specs at Fiberglassics.com.
It's in pretty decent shape the way it sits other than a rusty trailer with rotted tires. The hull is untouched other than a handful of snaps screwed into the outer gunwales for the various canvas tops it has. Its been sitting outdoors for years, but it seems amazingly sound so far. The floor and transom seem rock solid so far, I'll know more after I finish cleaning it up a bit and getting all the leaf stains and tree sap off it. It was covered but not well. The seats and floor look good and I can stand on the lower unit with no signs of transom flex. There was some water in the lower floor but not much and there was quite a bit sitting up front on the upper deck. the bow was down so it didn't drain out but it looks like it only recently got stored bow down.
It was actually part of an estate sale, I got it along with several other boats and motors for a song. The motor on it is a Hydro Electric shift three cylinder with melted wiring from some sort of short.
It's got a 12 gallon steel tank mounted in the rear with the filler being inside the boat on a bracket. (That will have to change), it's got a fiberglass hardtop that wasn't mounted on it, its got a glass windshield even though the brochure lists plexiglass, it's automotive safety glass and looks just like the one in the brochure.
The seats are white, reclining with metal legs, there's a storage compartment under the bow deck, I haven't ventured in there yet, and there's a full canvas enclosure, partial soft top, and rear soft top enclosure which was in the boat. I haven't messed with those yet.
The blue upper gel coat looks good other than all the snaps that were added. The white lower hull is dull but unharmed in anyway. It is bottom coated down low but with what looks like older copper ablative. It rubs off pretty easy revealing un-sanded gel coat beneath it.

My biggest surprise was the fact that the floor and transom are so solid after having been most likely stored outdoors or at least outdoors for it's more recent past. It was last run or registered in 1972.

I've looked at several MFG boats from this era over the years but have never found one up till now that wasn't totally butchered or so torn up it wasn't worth the trouble to bring back. This thing will look good and be a viable boat the way it looks with a good detailing, fresh trailer and motor swap.
I did get a couple of what look to be new old stock 3 cylinder motors with the boat but they are all also Hydro electric shift Evinrudes.
I've contemplated using one to keep it more period correct but I think I like the reliability of a newer motor.
The same goes for the old style cable/rope pulley steering. A Teleflex system is most likely in it's near future.

They advertised all glass construction and glass stringers on these. Were the floors glass over wood or all glass too? I am assuming the transom contains wood, I can't picture them doing that in all glass in 1965?

Even the hardware is clean and un-pitted. Which is rare in these parts with all the saltwater.

After seeing all the water, I first looked up the advertised weight for both the boat and motor, then took it to the local truck stop and weighed it. I was surprised at how light, it all was. The boat, motor and trailer were under 1,400 lbs, they list the boat at 720lbs, a three cylinder OMC weighs in at about 220 lbs, and the trailer I am guessing is around 440 lbs. Plus the fuel tank and battery. It's all pretty much right on the money weight wise, I was expecting to see it a few hundred or more pounds over that with some wet foam but I have my doubts now. I knew it was light when I was able to walk it around on two rotted tires at the sale by myself. I was able to walk it out to my truck and trailer by hand with little effort even with two badly rotted and flat tires. I flat bedded it home not wanting to deal with a tire change there. The trailer is actually fixable, some tires and some paint and lots of elbow grease and it could be ok, but I have a full roller trailer here that will work a lot better.

As far as motor options, I have several late 60's three cylinders that came with the deal, but I also have a few to choose from in my garage. It's rated for up to 100hp and I have a good Evinrude 90 hp that doesn't have a home, but I really like how gentle the bigger twins or even a later triple are on an old wood transom. The idea of the 90 HP with Power tilt and trim though is nice but I don't know how this will ride with all that weight in the rear. With power tilt and trim the 90 hp is up around 300 lbs or so. While the triple cylinder is only just over 200 lbs. (A 50 hp twin is only about 180 lbs.)
I do have a super clean older Merc 40 which is even lighter at about 150 lbs but I don't think that will have enough to push an Edinboro which measures 16.5' and nearly 80" beam width.
 

Mark42

Fleet Admiral
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Oct 8, 2003
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Re: First MFG - 1965 Edinboro

Wow! Nice find. Take a flashlight and look in the lower drain hole in the transom and see if you can see the stringers. If you see a W shape, it has the solid fiberglass stringers and floor.

Those seats are probably the original. Very rare. Most MFG's have had them replaced. If they are the original, think about having them recovered rather then replaced.

Good luck with it. They are very tough, and worth restoring.
 

reelfishin

Captain
Joined
Mar 19, 2007
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3,043
Re: First MFG - 1965 Edinboro

I can't see much through the drain hole, but I can see pretty well down through the seat anchor holes. The lower 'stringers' look sort of like the bellows on an accordion. The under side of the deck has a cross ribbed pattern that resembles a plastic milk crate. I see no foam in the lower hull other than a some white, polystyrene or packing type foam blocks up in the bow between the stringers and the forward floor.

I ventured into the storage compartment up front, found four really old cloth style life vests, two aluminum anchors, rope, and a tackle box full of rusty hooks. My biggest surprise is that the wooden panel and door which are homemade, are hiding an upholstered panel just ahead of it. For some reason someone added a panel nearly right on top of the old one. I removed the homemade panel to reveal a mint vinyl covered original panel.

After looking over various brochure pics, I don't think the seats are original, mine are white where as all those in the brochure are color keyed to the boat.

It appears to have had back to back seats from the factory, as it has four 3/4" anchor holes which appear original and not drilled since the texture pattern stops all around them, as if to mark the location. (If there weren't holes there, the floor would have 8 smooth circles where the holes are about 1 1/4" in diameter).

The worst part about the boat is that there's over 80 snaps all about the hull, the convertable top, the rear enclosure and camper top all have their own snaps, plus there are perimeter snaps for an all over cover the spans from the bow to stern. The windshield upper frame has a snap every 3/4", a set for the original top, then the enclosure top with the windshield riser uses it's own set of snaps as well as it's own snaps. Then there's the side curtain snaps. All the covers are in good shape other than the mooring cover, which was folded up for years under the seat and has hardened into a crunchy chunk of plastic. The other tops are all canvas.

I'd have rather had no snaps to deal with, I will most likely never use anything other than maybe the forward enclosure, the rest will just get stored away. The same for the hardtop, its too low for my to use at well over 6' tall.

My favorite style seat is aluminum pedestals, but I'm not sure the floor will support them since they span such a small area. I'd be concerned that they would eventually fatigue the floor in that area. I will most likely store the seats that are in it and install a modern set of back to back seats for now. I'll decide on what it needs to have after some use.
 

cpj2009

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Joined
Mar 22, 2009
Messages
12
Re: First MFG - 1965 Edinboro

hi reelfishin, this is wayne nice 65 to bad the factory bow lights are not there i like the bow on those 65's. that boat is in great shape. i have 63 edinboro custom i'm going to replace transom soon.i was reading you post and you said you have a hardtop for you boat is it a fiberglass mfg i never saw one i though they were made for the custom with rounded windshield. show a pic if you can thanks great boat:cool:
 

reelfishin

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Mar 19, 2007
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Re: First MFG - 1965 Edinboro

I actually ended up selling the Edinboro, as well as the Niagara a few weeks ago, I had come across two other projects and simply had to make a choice.
I hated to let them go but I had a buyer and needed the room.
I never tried fitting the hardtop, I was curious as to how it attached to the windshield, I never gave it much thought whether or not it was correct with the glass windshield. The boat did come with a lexan windshield but it wasn't for that boat. I actually sold off all four MFG boats which I had, the two larger boats went to another buyer in a trade for two motors and another aluminum boat.
Good luck with your boat there, they are fantastic boats which are built to last. If I were to have kept mine, they would have most likely gotten all composite or Sea Cast transoms.
 

cpj2009

Cadet
Joined
Mar 22, 2009
Messages
12
Re: First MFG - 1965 Edinboro

that's to bad. for me that is i have been looking for hardtop i have post on fibergassics.i wanted to use seacast but to much money also iner fiberglass skin was in bad shape i'm going with 3 1/2 ply. seacast is the way to go never rot agian. if u ever see another hardtop 4 sale drop me a line good luck with your boats:cool:
 

Mark_VTfisherman

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Nov 29, 2008
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Re: First MFG - 1965 Edinboro

....My favorite style seat is aluminum pedestals, but I'm not sure the floor will support them since they span such a small area. I'd be concerned that they would eventually fatigue the floor in that area...

reelfishin: good luck with the new boat but sad you had to let the MFGs go. The more I know about them the more I like them.

FYI: the MFG floor will support a standard modern seat base quite well. I actually used 16" steel pedestals in mine, and had temporarily :rolleyes: attached them when I was setting it up in 1994/1995 with #8 stainless sheet metal screws (I had them). Just wanted to judge positioning and clearance, and wound up starting to use the boat and I never did remove the #8s and install the seats "correctly." Now, after all these years, they are both still perfectly solid and fine. My 2 cents.
 

reelfishin

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Mar 19, 2007
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Re: First MFG - 1965 Edinboro

I think a lot has to do with your weight and the size of the flange on the seat post. At 300 lbs, even a solid floor gives a bit when walking on it. I used a set of those 12" steel pedestals in one of my aluminum boats a few years back, the drivers post broke off, it pulled away from the mounting plate and fell back. I saw it before it broke, but if I hadn't, I'd no doubt have broke it off an fallen over on it. I put in a set of wider based seat posts in that boat now. I've also had a few cast aluminum seat bases collapse in rough seas. I was in a buddies speed boat a few years back, which was brand new, day one, and the passengers seat collapsed, the adjustable base shattered, sending me flat on the floor. They replaced the seat pedestal, but said that their seats were only good up to 170 lbs. So much for ever owning a Yamaha jet boat. At 6'4" tall and 301 lbs, there's not much in seating made to fit me.
I've learned to over engineer everything.
 

Mark42

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Oct 8, 2003
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Re: First MFG - 1965 Edinboro

Woh! You sold both the Edinboro and the Niagara? What is such an important project that those two boats had to be sacrificed???? :D

Wonder if we will see those boats show up here again with their new owners?


So lets see some pics of the new project.
 

reelfishin

Captain
Joined
Mar 19, 2007
Messages
3,043
Re: First MFG - 1965 Edinboro

Woh! You sold both the Edinboro and the Niagara? What is such an important project that those two boats had to be sacrificed???? :D

Wonder if we will see those boats show up here again with their new owners?


So lets see some pics of the new project.

I had a guy bugging me nearly daily for the Edinboro, he wanted the hull in the worst way, and a few months ago, I came across a super clean, nearly completely restored mid 70's 16' Aluminum Starcraft Super Sport in which the last owner spent a fortune getting the transom replaced, floor replaced, (done by a reputable shop with a warranty for what ever that's worth), new old stock Merc 500 50 HP, new old stock seats, cushions, windshield, dash, more nautolex than I will use to do my next 5 boats, on a trailer, for less than I'd have spent to by the materials to fix the transom in the Edinboro.
I kept the two motors that came with the Edinboro, plus the original motor, kept the controls, seats, and steering kit and let it go, a week later he came back asking about the smaller MFG, the Niagara which I had just mounted a fresh 40 hp on, he didn't want the motor, nor did I care to let go of it, but his offer for the Niagara made up my mind, and the fact that I took a solid running Mercury 50 HP and a trihull in trade. In the end, I sold both boats, and one older trailer for more than enough to cover my costs, plus the trade in. I also came across two other Starcraft boats, one 16' and one 14' just prior to selling the Niagara. I am again up to 8 boats, and about 12 trailers. I didn't intend to sell either boat but being that they were the ones that needed the most work, and I had a determined buyer, they were the ones that went. I still like the Niagara style, I think I prefer to find an older model, pre 1966, I like the smooth dash better. I drove by the guy's place that bought my two, and he's got about 8 of them in all now, and he now wants the over sized Seaway I still have. I'm not sure if I want to sell that one, it's an older boat, with all brass hardware and trim, no aluminum, including the MFG embossed step plates on the gunwales. I like how much room it's got and the transom is already done in Seacast. The one part I'm not sure about is the plank floor, which is directly on the horizontal ribs. Items can be dropped and lost between the planks. I suppose a rubber mat or carpet would fix that though. ( I was thinking about using that for crabbing, I can just picture crab bits and bait getting down in between the floor planks).
The title on that boat says 1959, it looks like a giant Niagara, but measures over 23'. I have a guy that offered me a pretty clean 1960, 19' Seaway in trade for it, the 19' boat has a running outboard, also has a planked deck, and the transom was also done in Seacast. The 19' boat also has a new windshield.

I was trying to stay away from larger boats, I like the idea of being able to just hook up the boat and go, so my interest is limited in either boat for that reason, but I do like all the room and the look of that boat. It would also give me a boat that was more rough seas capable than my 16' or even the 17' Edinboro. I do still have my 18' Starcraft though, but that's a cabin boat.
 

Reelbigfish

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Jun 20, 2014
Messages
4
I just got my first MFG Edinboro Custom... pretty cool boats! I posted pics in a thread that had recent activity (learn something new everyday) but posting here as well.
 
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