1983 Galaxie rebuild

Hello everyone. I just bought this boat a couple weeks ago. I've never owned a boat before, so i was pretty much naive as how to spot the warning signs of a poorly maintained boat and i picked a lemon. I know enough about cars to where working on the engine wont be too difficult, but as far as patching holes/cracks in fiberglass is another issue. Anyways, I noticed there was a lot of corners cut with the engine/accessories, so i assumed the rest of the boat was in equal condition. I tore out the interior so i can have a look at the fiberglass underneath. There is a crack on the bottom of the hull (exterior), but i cant tell what caused it from the interior. Ive taken a lot of pictures so far and uploaded them to photobucket.

My intentions are to rebuild this boat "right". I plan on doing most of the work myself despite the fact i have no experience with boats, but i pick things up rather quickly. Ive learned a great deal about boats from this website and others. I have a few questions that i cant seem to find the answer to and any informaiton would be greatly appreciated. The flooring seems very thin in a few places. Some of the interior seat mounting screws were actully sticking out of the bottom of the hull and those screws were very small.

1) Does this boat of stringers underneath the fiberglass flooring or is this a pure fiberglass hull?
2) Should i begin sanding the interior flooring down to "clean it up" for a fresh layer of fiberglass? or should i cut away at some of the flooring to see if this boat possibly has some rotting wood (if any) underneath the fiberglass floor thats just not visible?

This is the link to my photobucket acct with all the photos ive taken so far:
Pictures by shocker0707 - Photobucket

<a href="http://s99.photobucket.com/albums/l307/shocker0707/?action=view&current=IMG_3552.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l307/shocker0707/IMG_3552.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

Re: 1983 Galaxie rebuild

Sorry for the broken links above. I tried to go back to edit the code correctly, but the site must be having an issue. it wont let me save my edits.

Re: 1983 Galaxie rebuild

Ayuh,.... Welcome Aboard,... Ya gotta pull enough of the deck to fix This,...


By then, you'll know whether all the deck needs to be pulled, to repair any rot found...

Re: 1983 Galaxie rebuild

Welcome to Iboats. Nice boat, or it will be, is that a 2.5 or3 liter engine?

Re: 1983 Galaxie rebuild

Looks like you bought a fixer (not a lemon).

It might not float too long with that hole in the bottom of the hull.

I did go through your photobucket album a bit. looks like you have both engine and hull rebuild.

Re: 1983 Galaxie rebuild

Its the 2.5L. The guy i bought it from was less than honest ( shocking isnt it). Told me he recently did a valve job and rebuilt the out drive. The exhaust manifold and riser had no gaskets at all. The manifold was rotted and was pouring water directly into the cylinder.

Im debating on sending the head and block to be machined and checked for cracks. From what i can tell with some shade tree style leak tests they are ok, but being a 30 year old engine and not knowing the history of how it was maintained it's hard to say. Im also considering upgrading to a 3.0L after reading many posts about the pros and cons of rebuilding vs. new engine.

Any suggestions on where i should start cutting at the floor? From what i can see it looks like someone has done some fiberglass work inside the boat before. You should be able to see that in the picturs on the photo bucket link.

Re: 1983 Galaxie rebuild

brohymn77 said:

Its the 2.5L. The guy i bought it from was less than honest ( shocking isnt it). Told me he recently did a valve job and rebuilt the out drive. The exhaust manifold and riser had no gaskets at all. The manifold was rotted and was pouring water directly into the cylinder.

Im debating on sending the head and block to be machined and checked for cracks. From what i can tell with some shade tree style leak tests they are ok, but being a 30 year old engine and not knowing the history of how it was maintained it's hard to say. Im also considering upgrading to a 3.0L after reading many posts about the pros and cons of rebuilding vs. new engine.

Any suggestions on where i should start cutting at the floor? From what i can see it looks like someone has done some fiberglass work inside the boat before. You should be able to see that in the picturs on the photo bucket link.

Click to expand...

Ayuh,.... Think Another motor, not so much new or build it yerself...

Cheap Rotten boats are a dime a dozen this time of year,...

A complete, Runnin' 3.0l Alpha 1 is reasonably common, 'n cheaper than buyin' Just a motor, or rebuild...

I'd start cuttin' the deck, Right 'bout over that hole,... careful of the stringers, 'n bulkheads...

Re: 1983 Galaxie rebuild

Thats kind of what i was thinking Bond-O. I'll head to the store to get some tools to start grinding into the fiberglass. im hoping the engine mounts are ok and not rotted as well. The engine has been leaking for a quite some time do to all the preasure/blow back from all the water and oil in the motor. and believe me...the oil pan was way over full. I cleaned up a lot of the oil residue on the entire engine before taking the photos because you couldn't read any of the numbers on it. Theres a couple soft spots in and around the engine area and a large crack in the fiberglass or epoxy near the front/left side (interior). Is there typically foam under the fiberglass along with the stringers or is the foam thing just for certain styles of boats?

I've been watching a lot of informative videos on Youtube which has been pretty helpfull, but those videos are done on other makes/models of boats. I can't seem to find anything on this particular boat model. I'm not quite sure what model i have to be honest, i just know it is a Galaxie boat built in Westminster,CA. according to the tags riveted on the boat and it has a 2.5L GM engine. The boat is approx. 17ft long as well.

This is one of the video series ive been learning a lot from:
1995 Sea Ray 220 BR Rotten Deck and Stringer Restoration - YouTube

I just dont know if everything he is doing with his rebuild holds true to my model of boat because hes doing the same thing to his Searay as i plan on doing to my Galaxie.

Re: 1983 Galaxie rebuild

Yes, friscoboater is one of our more accomplished members in the restoration area. he has a few threads here in this forum about restoring his 1995 boat.

Althoughthere is variations to each manufacturer's design and layout, the guts of the boats are highly similar. Glass over wood.

Re: 1983 Galaxie rebuild

So i cut a hole above that stress crack. The plywood floor is soaked with water and completely rotted. Ill have to pull the engine block out to get under the engine mounts. From what i can see now it's i will be doing a complete reflooring like Friscoboater had to with his. I took more pics and I'll get them up on photo bucket soon.

I may or may not start making a video series as well for others to follow.

Re: 1983 Galaxie rebuild

Looks like you have your work cut out for you...with the right attitude, can be alot of fun...but that's just me

Welcome to the Dry Dock...

Re: 1983 Galaxie rebuild

Yes i do and ok with that. I'm a DIY 100%, i truely believe if someone else can fis it, then so can i! Here are some of the pics of the rotted wood flooring.

http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l307/shocker0707/IMG_3571.jpg
http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l307/shocker0707/IMG_3565.jpg

Re: 1983 Galaxie rebuild

Question while im thinking about it (for those that may know):

This boat has two seperate gas tanks in the bow portion that are side by side. The are sitting on what appears to be a possible modified/added elevated deck (i can kick them with my feet while sitting in the drivers chair.

Heres a pic:
http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l307/shocker0707/IMG_3541.jpg

The guy i bought them from said he only had one hooked up and was using the other to fill with water so it would "distribute weight better in the boat". I drained that water for now because im sure ill end up removing them soon in this rebuild project. After ripping the carpet out i noticed the floor coloring (fiberglass that is) appeared to be very different in coor under the drivers seat and and it stretched a lil bit back towards the mid section.
Pic of that here:
http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l307/shocker0707/IMG_3551.jpg

The question i have is was this the original fuel tank storage areas under the deck? if so, why would they take them out and not mount them under the deck again? Is this a saftey issue i need to be concerned with when putting this back together? Is this a pretty common thing for people to do with fuel tanks on boats?

Re: 1983 Galaxie rebuild

Ok, ive managed to remove the two gas tanks from the bow. What a PAIN. Once i got them out of there i could tell this was not the original mounting location for them. Someone down the lines of ownership had cut out a support stringer from the top portion of the bow to make room. They also build a flat deck for the tanks to sit on. Ill have to decide whether or not to keep them mounted in the front put them under the floor once i start the re-stringer process. If anyone has some experience with this fill free to chime in. thanks.

i'll get the new pics of the gas tanks/mounting area up on photo bucket soon.

Re: 1983 Galaxie rebuild

Well I got a majority of the floor out now. Everything was rotted underneath. There was only 1 stringer in the center of the hull, which so bad that i will not be able to use it as a guide for a new one. We found a bone under the floor as well, no telling how long its been there. We think its a chicken bone, but everything looks/tastes like chicken! There was two different typoes of foam under the deck. One was much older and soaking with water. The other seemed pretty new and had no water in it, but the foaming job that was done to this boat was horrible to say the least. The transom is also rotted, so ill have to assume the engine mounts are rotted as well. Wont know for sure until i can get the engine out of this thing. The wood they used for the deck was plywood, corkboard and partical wood.

http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l307/shocker0707/IMG_3592.jpg
http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l307/shocker0707/IMG_3587.jpg
http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l307/shocker0707/IMG_3594.jpg

Re: 1983 Galaxie rebuild

This ^^^ all coincides with the dual fuel tanks in the bow, 1 full of water

Poor resto work by the previous owner... Happens, a lot :facepalm:

Some portion of this area in front of the motor likely held a below deck permanent fuel tank:


And when the owner discovered the problem w/ the tank, it was removed & the under bow tanks were substituted. Permanent tanks are not inexpensive....