1993 Ski Centurion Restoration

[Timr71]

Hi all,

Wow, I just looked at my profile and saw that I joined this site in the summer of 2012. I probably should've started this thread back then and just stated that I/we were at the beginning of restoring this boat. But, I lurked all over this thread and read everything I could about stringer and floor repair. However, before we get to the boat, I'll give you a brief summary of the backstory.

Boat backstory: my cousin is a very accomplished skier, and back in the 90s after shopping for a tournament ski boat, he decided to go not with a Nautique or a Mastercraft, but with a Ski Centurion (out of Merced, California). At that time, there wasn't a Centurion dealer within 300 miles of his house in Northeast Tennessee. So, he worked a deal and purchased the boat directly from the factory. After owning his boat, he sold it to upgrade to a Supra. He liked the Supra for everything but slalom skiing. My cousin is in the Navy and he sold the Supra and deployed to the middle east. Upon his return he decided to go back to the Ski Centurion. The problem was he couldn't locate his original boat. After shopping around, he purchased a 1993 Ski Centurion Falcon with an open bow with intentions to restore it and use it as his daily boat. A few months later, his original boat showed up on eBay (in Arkansas) and he promptly purchased it. The 1993 open bow falcon sat in his driveway pretty much untouched for a couple of years.

At this point, I began to plan the seed, that if he wanted to get rid of the open bow boat, I was interested. We "talked" about it for nearly 3 years before my involvement. I guess he planned to eventually restore the boat and sell it.

The boat was purchased up east out of a barn in Delaware. It hadn't been registered in a half dozen years. It had been used in saltwater, and it had run aground.

My uncle and cousin took delivery of the boat in New Jersey. As a result, we nick named it "The New Jersey."

My uncle joked that it was good thing that it was dark when they picked up this boat...had they seen it in the daylight, they might not have drug it home to Tennessee.

My cousin did a lot of the clean up and first phase work before I got involved. Yes, it is sitting on a sailboat trailer. And yes, that is a second engine in the back of the pickup. The owner had taken that engine as a partial payment for some work he had done. I guess he had planned to replace the original engine too.

 

[Timr71]

Here's some more pics of it in it's original arrival state:

None of this seating structure in the front was salvageable. All of just fell apart when it was taken out of the boat.

 

[Timr71]

Getting the boat cleaned out:

The original engine...out of the boat...we didn't use this.

I think something was living in here:

Saltwater usage sure leaves a mess:

 

[Timr71]

At this point, the boat was stripped and ready to go to the fiberglass guy. I was never there during this phase so I can't comment on what the status was of that floor. Also, I don't really know why my cousin farmed out the stringers and floor when he had all of the material and know how to do the job. As you may know, Mastercraft, and Skier's Choice (Supra), and Malibu all have factories in Northeast Tennessee. As a result, there are numerous former factory employees who have their own small shops. The stringer and floor work was done by a really nice guy, whom I've met twice. He has since closed up his fiberglass shop. I suspect that my cousin threw business at him because he needed work.

Ready to go to shop for new stringers and floor, plus wetsanding a buff job.

 

[Timr71]

This is what the boat looked like when I first got involved with the project. It had recently returned from Don's shop with new stringers and floor. At this point, we were ready to begin the engine transplant. This was in the summer of 2015.

Looking considerably better on the exterior too. Also, my uncle found a boatmate tandem axle trailer for a Centurion.

 

[Timr71]

Engine Transplant: the plan was to take the engine out of my cousin's Falcon and drop it into mine. He had aquired a 350 MCX test engine from Mastercraft and wanted to install that into his boat. This should be easy right? Well other than putting a GM into a boat that originally came with a Ford. The only real issue was plumbing the raw water pickup...they're on opposite sides.

The donor boat:

Fortunately, my cousin put an engine hoist in his garage/workshop when he built this house.

 

[Timr71]

In August of 2015, with the engine and running gear all installed we backed it down to the water to see if it would run...for the first time in over a decade.

Splash!

My cousin had done the steering hook ups under the dash and had the rack installed upside down. So when I first drove it, it turned in the oposite direction of the steering wheel. A quick and easy fix and we were working good.

After this, we bolted in the torn up interior and I towed the boat back to my house in Alabama. We went to the lake a couple of times to close out the season.

Here's what the boat looked like then:

 

[Bayou Dave]

Yep. That vinyl was a tad tattered and torn.

 

[Timr71]

Yep. That vinyl was a tad tattered and torn.

The good news is that when I did the next phase of the restore, I got rid of all of that.

We had to build new structure to replace everything that was removed. In doing so, we borrowed a design idea from many Supra boats. That is a raised area going through the walk through. This allowed me to create a new ski locker and expanded seating with pop up seat backs that fold flat.

Designing on the fly...we had to make a height adjustment of this much:

I took the old pieces apart so some of it could be reused.

some days it's hard to work at the lake when this is right outside your back door

Our work area:

A lot of rot in the bottom of this:

Starting to take shape:

I bought a new captains chair. And purchased the same vinyl to all of the interior would match.

 

[Woodonglass]

Did you seal the plywood with anthing??

 

[Timr71]

Did you seal the plywood with anthing??

Yes, all of the new wood structure was coated with fiberglass resin to seal it. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of that because it was done while I wasn't here. That's what happens when your boat restore project is a family/team effort.

 

[Woodonglass]

Hopefully you mean Epoxy resin. If you only used the Bondo type resin (Polyester Resin) and didn't use CSM with it then it's pretty much worthless. With out the CSM it will harden and eventually crack when the boat flexes...(and it will).

 

[Timr71]

Hopefully you mean Epoxy resin. If you only used the Bondo type resin (Polyester Resin) and didn't use CSM with it then it's pretty much worthless. With out the CSM it will harden and eventually crack when the boat flexes...(and it will).

Yes, my typo. Again, this is not my area of expertise. The application was done by a boat building professional (friend of a friend). I had to ask. Definitely no Bondo. (At the time this work was done, last summer, we were under a bit of a deadline to get the boat in the water for an event. So, we called in a favor. Someone who could do the work better and quicker.)

 

[ezmobee]

Really nice work so far on a real neat boat.

 

[Woodonglass]

Alrighty then. She's gunna be a BEAUT!!!

 

[Timr71]

In mid July last summer, we started to get items back from the upholstery shop:

Then we put in carpet:

Then, installed the interior and some original boat graphics:

At this point (mid-August) last summer, I took it back to Alabama and used it for the remainder of the season. Everything worked fine until we broke the prop shaft on the first Saturday in October. So, I had more work to do this past winter.

 

[Bayou Dave]

NICE!!!!!

 

[chevymaher]

Outstanding

 

[Timr71]

The goals for this past winter were:

1. Locate, purchase and install a new prop shaft
2. Rebuild the dashboard, replace gauges, make everything work, install GPS/depthfinder
3. purchase and install bimini top
4. finish up interior trim

We built the walk through area, borrowing from supra. There are two cushions that lay flat, but pop-up to create seat backs. In the cockpit area, this provide another smallish seat where a kid could sit.

 

[Timr71]

For the dashboard, I purchased some black HPDE in the same width as the stock dash plates. I/we used the old plates as templates for the new plates even though I changed out the switch panel.

Then, I used 3M carbon fiber sheets to wall paper the dash plates.

Finished and installed: