Cracked hull, bottom of boat

[kcassells]

Listen.... You can learn real fast how to do glass and repair. Lots of good guys here to walk you thru it. I knew nothing when I started and probably know less now. Its a messy yob but very doable.
Ya have to first hate the boat then fall in Love with it.

 

[sphelps]

I’m afraid if that boat was in my yard I would have to do the the restoration just because of the cool factor !
‘There is nothing on that boat structurally that you can’t fix yourself if you don’t mind putting forth the effort ..
Just a matter of time , money, the right attitude , and a willingness to get dirty,itchy,and scratchy ..
Good luck with whatever you decide !

 

[Scott Danforth]

Listen.... You can learn real fast how to do glass and repair. Lots of good guys here to walk you thru it. I knew nothing when I started and probably know less now. Its a messy yob but very doable.
Ya have to first hate the boat then fall in Love with it.

I came to this site first as a lurker in '06 to restore my Avanti.... I now have an account at the local fiberglass shop.

fiberglass work is easy if you remember a few things:

first, buy the best PPE
second, buy a good shop vac that takes the bags
third, when you think you have did enough grinding........ you have much more grinding to do
4th, always radius your corners
5th, you will make mistakes
and lastly...... it is worth it.

 

[JASinIL2006]

Yeah, rebuilding your boat is immensely rewarding, and as others have said, not hard to learn. Many of us here have gone through it, and there is lots of experience among members of this board to help you out, if you decide to fix it.

 

[kcassells]

I dink he ran off...………………......

 

[JASinIL2006]

I dink he ran off...………………......

While that would be the rational response, it's only been a day since he last posted...

 

[alldodge]

Don't know why he would comes back other then to increase post count. Everything has been said, only thing left to do is decide to start a rebuild thread or junk it. Everything else is Pete and Repeat.

 

[cruiser83]

Yup not much to say on this thread. Pulled the motor found that they used wrong coupler for motor. They cut out the square reliefs in flywheel cover to clear "y" pipe and that was letting the coupler arms clip the y pipe. It had the big triangle coupler with 95 motor. that I looked up the engine numbers and turned out to be a zz4 or L31 motor which is cool. Not sure what's happening with the boat at this time.

 

[Scott Danforth]

many boat motors use the same blocks as the ZZ4 crate motor. they all come out of the Tonowanda engine plant

 

[kcassells]

Always something to contend with.

 

[cruiser83]

Nice so it's a good chance that it was a marine based motor

 

[cruiser83]

So I got my boat back finally, turns out stringers were rotten. One actually separated from the hull. The previous owner had just slapped a new floor over a rotten floor. Motor had a cracked head in the motor and rough truck cam. Swapped a mercruiser cam, remanufactured heads. Had stringers and floor done with it sealed along with cracks repaired.

 

[tpenfield]

Did you repair the hull structure yourself or send it out? Got any pictures of the hull repairs to share?

2 year process. I hope all goes well from here.

 

[cruiser83]

Did you repair the hull structure yourself or send it out? Got any pictures of the hull repairs to share?

2 year process. I hope all goes well from here.

I sent it out. It was a small shop. He said it would be about a year to finish to begin with. He's just a 1 man show but he hires help. And his fiberglass helper left on him before he started on it and he did it during the slow season.

 

[cruiser83]

I sent it out. It was a small shop. He said it would be about a year to finish to begin with. He's just a 1 man show. But his fiberglass guy quit on him before he stated on it and he did it during the slow season.

I stopped in regularly through out the process as he showed me how they did it. Didn't think to take pics. Each piece of floor is wrapped in fiberglass. It looked very well done. He only worked on it 1 day a week

 

[sopwithcamel74]

That sounds like a pretty happy ending to me

Ya know we're all fiends here - even though you didn't take any pics of the resto in progress, would sure love to see some now the work's all done!

 

[88 Capri (2022 SOTY)]

I sent it out. It was a small shop. He said it would be about a year to finish to begin with. He's just a 1 man show, but he hires help. And his fiberglass helper left on him before he started on it, and he did it during the slow season.

After going through the fiberglass stage, I would have loved to have someone else do the dirty work, but where I'm at now, I'm glad I had the experience. Now, if my situation was like you explained earlier, my feelings may be different.
I hope you and your family get many years of enjoyment!

 

[cruiser83]

I thought I did take some pics but I gotta do some digging. I might of deleted them to clear up some storage on my phone. I'll definitely be updating my progress with pics and questions. I did take this all apart 2 years ago. Now I gotta figure out how it goes back together. This is my first boat and first time taking one apart...2 years ago lol