1973 Sea Sprite project

Hello everyone here at iboats. I purchased this 1973 Sea Sprite from a friend of a friend just recently and I am hoping to get this boat ready to go for next summer. I know its going to take a lot of work but im ready to put in the time over the winter to get it in the water. I am joining the "in over my head boat restoration club" I think. I am new to boats all together and really have only been on a boat probably a couple dozen times in my life. I have been reading pretty much anything I can find on this forum about restoring/fixing boats. I have learned quite a bit of the boat repair lingo I believe which I tell you is pretty hard to understand at first. Anyways I will be looking for ANY tips or guidance you guys can provide me. No tip, suggestion or advice should go unsaid because like I said I am new to boats and REALLY new to repair/restoration. Without further adieu here are the pictures.
These are the pictures taken of the boat before doing anything to it.

Re: 1973 Sea Sprite project

Pics aren't working. Click the "Go Advanced" button when posting if you want to post pics (due to a forum glitch iboats doesn't seem real interested in fixing). Welcome to dry dock!

Re: 1973 Sea Sprite project

Oh that's strange it seems to work for me when I view it normally. I am on my phone right now and I can't seem to find the go advanced button at the moment. I will mess with it when I get home later tonight. Thanks for the welcome anyways though lol

Re: 1973 Sea Sprite project

What do you Want to do to her?? Boats of this vintage typically have Sole/Deck/Floor (what ever you want to call it) issues, as well as Stringers(the supports under the Sole/Deck/Floor) and Transom(What the motor hangs on) issues. You will need to check all of these to ensure she is a solid and sound craft to put on the water. First thing, IMHO, is to verify the motor will run and is serviceable. A boat without a running motor is just a floating island! Let us know what your plans are and we can and will guide you from there.

Re: 1973 Sea Sprite project

Welcome again to the Dry Dock,

Heed Woody advice on checking out the engine first (can tie up some serious cash there somtimes).

Also I'd like to add that you picked a good one for your first restore. The fully open design makes it an easy one to work on. You can actually remove the deck if need be without removing the top cap (If it's needed that is) Now if the transom is shot then the cap should be removed but even then it's an easy one to remove.

All in all I think you have a worthwhile project there...good luck and lets us know where we can help. There is nothing you'll run into that can't be answered here on iboats.

CW

Re: 1973 Sea Sprite project

Well I know the transom and deck are rotted. The plan was to do both of these. I opened up the deck a little and it "appears" as if the stringers
are very well fiberglassed in. I still plan on core sampling the the stringers to verifiy that they are not rotted. The engine does indeed start and run. I won't say it couldn't use a tune-up and carburetor cleaning. I have a friend who will be helping me out with all the engine stuff.
This is currently what I have done. I have built my engine stand and transferred the engine over to the stand to get into the garage to start working on it. Cleaning it and replacing the fuel lines and such. I have also removed the steering column and shifter/throttle controls from the cap. I am expecting to remove the cap from the boat and need advice on supporting the boat while the cap is off to retain the shape of the hull. I have read that this can be a problem if the hull wants to flex away while the cap is off. I am going to take some closer pictures of inside of the boat tomorrow to get some more questions ready for you guys. Btw if the pictures don't work this time I'm not sure entirely what I am doing wrong. I am posting under the 'advanced' post page and I click the image button near the top and select my files from my hard drive and they appear on my post like its working for me.
The first pic is what it looked liked when I started.
The second is the engine on the stand I made from the plans here.
The third is a picture of where the upper deck was built in from some rotted wood that I remove already.
Gotta go right now can post more later

Re: 1973 Sea Sprite project

I am very sorry for the giant wall of text earlier. I was in a hurry and it has been a while since I have done any real forum posting. I forgot what it looks like when you don't use paragraphs. I will try to make future posts a bit easier to read and comprehend.

Re: 1973 Sea Sprite project

Well the boat resto is on hold for now till I get the engine sorted out. Friend of mine came over and we broke down the engine for rebuild and discovered some scoring on one cylinder. Got next to no compression on that cylinder and low compression on the other. So, I will be holding off any work on the boat until I know what I gotta do to get this engine working.

w

w

I'v got a 40 hp. 62' Evinrude, very similar to your Johonson. I spent $300 on replacing All the seals and Ingnition parts and Fuel System kits etc. I did this after checking compression and discovering both cylinders were above 120#. If your power head needs work it is probably not worth the time and $$$'s You can find good running motors of this vintage on Cragslist all the time in the 4-6 hundred dollar range. You might want to consider that option. Not saying you can't rebuild her, if you have icethe desire and skills it would be a nice winter project and the guys in the motor forum could walk you through every step. But if you are not so inclined you can find em for not much money.

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Well the friend thats helping me with the engine repair seems pretty confident that we can get her up and running pretty easily. He is a certified Briggs mechanic and owned his own lawn equipment repair shop for quite a while. He has done rebuilds on similar engines needless to say.

At first I was thinking as you said WOG that it wouldn't be worth fixing once we discovered the low compression/scoring on the cylinder. My friend seems pretty confident that a good hone, new pistons and rings will take care of it. Worst case scenario is we oversize it.

I am currently working on disassembling it down to where we can pull everything out and get some measurements on the cylinders.
Once I have decided that this engine will move my boat in the future I will get back to working on the boat itself. I can't tell you the nights of sleep I have lost over this thing. I am dying to work on the boat but I feel its more prudent to assure the method of propulsion for it before going any further.

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Well the sole of the boat is cut out all the way to about 3 inches or so from where the hull turns up. I have a question about removing the fiberglass from the inside walls of the sides of the hull of the boat. It appears to me as this is a plastic shell boat thats just fiberglass reinforced. Please correct me if I am wrong. The fiberglass thats on the inside walls seems to be near impossible to remove. I am thinking at this point to leave that part of the boat alone and just putting in the new deck and glassing it to the existing sides. Is this the best/easiest way to do this?
I can post some more closeup pictures of what im talking about if needed to answer the question.