16' Nescher ski boat complete restore- SPLASHED!!

[archbuilder]

I bought this boat about a year ago and have been working on it ever since. I'm going to try to post my progress over the next few weeks to get you guys up to speed. I found it on Craig's list, the ad said, "Free boat with trailer". I thought it had nice lines even with the mounds of leaves and small tree growing in it. I ventured up to Stillwater, about 50 miles away to see it. The owner said it was towable, he must have meant to the next block! The inner right wheel bearing was missing or mostly missing the race was still there. So we haggled, and the next day I winched both the boat and trailer onto my flatbed. Here are some pictures I took while cleaning it up and stripping what little there was off of the hull.

If you look closely you can see the original red and silver metallic gel coat under the black and white spray paint.

I'll post some of the major problems I found next.

 

[archbuilder]

16' Nescher ski boat complete restore

16' Nescher ski boat complete restore

Here are a few of the problems that I found while cleaning it up.

Here are some issues inside the bow

The transom has some major issues

Here is a shot of the inside of the transom

And the trailer could use, a torch??grinder, sand blaster?..welder?oh and a new axle, other than that its fine!

Next time I will get up some pictures of the "demo" and some of my first steps putting it back together.

 

[Friscoboater]

Re: 16' Nescher ski boat complete restore

Re: 16' Nescher ski boat complete restore

Looks like you are off to a great start. What kind of power are you going to use?

 

[toocanshan]

Re: 16' Nescher ski boat complete restore

Re: 16' Nescher ski boat complete restore

I'm looking at a restore a lot the same. you should do me a favor and send or post some pics close up on those bunks on that trailer so i can duplicate. that boat has nice lines, def. has some potential. mine is a 78 glastron cvx16. i hope it is an steady rolling rebuild!! TOOCAN

 

[archbuilder]

Re: 16' Nescher ski boat complete restore

Re: 16' Nescher ski boat complete restore

Funny you should ask, there is a 115 horse mercury tower of power in the back of my truck right now! This is only a mock up motor (has a cracked water jacket), but a local mechanic has a really clean one that I should be picking up in a week or so. He loaned me this one so that I can mount it up and figure out the weight distribution on the trailer. I'll be posting some more pics on the trailer, should be working on it most of the weekend. I can also put up some details on the bunks.

 

[archbuilder]

Re: 16' Nescher ski boat complete restore

Re: 16' Nescher ski boat complete restore

One other issue I have is find some back ground on the boat. Here is the tag that was on it (had to remove during transom repair)

I have done some reseach on it, apprently Sleekcraft used this tag for a while. They were in a lawsuit over there name (they won by the way) with AMF, during that time they put "boats by Nescher" on the tags. (Bruce Nescher the comapny founder). So I guess it's really a sleekcraft, but I haven't been able to find another like it. I have seen a couple of their jet boats that were close. One if found in an old for sale ad who's upper lines were almost excatly like mine, just the aft was differnt. The bottom was more angular than mine. Anyone have any ideas? Its almost like they took one of the jet boat designs, shrank it, and hung an outboard on it. Its hard to make out, but the number 130 is stamped next to Baldwing Park. I also found an older refrence to Nescher having a boat company before Sleekcraft, so maybe it was one of those boats? I haven't been able to find out much at all on what was made during those years.

 

[archbuilder]

Re: 16' Nescher ski boat complete restore

Re: 16' Nescher ski boat complete restore

Here's some pics from the next step last winter. I took advantage of a warm day to take the boat off of the trailer and pressure wash it.

Fortunatley, the paint on the bottom was pretty thin and sanded well. I was afraid it would load up the sandpaper, but I went pretty well. If you look on the side you can see the orginal silver stripe......looks like I have a lot of work to do on the bottom!

http://i647.photobucket.com/albums/uu191/archbuilder/nescher pictures/bottomsanded.jpg?t=1258881347

 

[thrillhouse700]

Re: 16' Nescher ski boat complete restore

Re: 16' Nescher ski boat complete restore

Sweet boat, gunna be a ton of work. As for the tongue look at it this way, if it breaks off the safety chain is attached to the 2ft piece

 

[archbuilder]

Re: 16' Nescher ski boat complete restore

Re: 16' Nescher ski boat complete restore

I love an optimist! I have actually "solved" that problem.....I will try to work on getting the pictures caught up to where I am in the restore. I only have about 9 months worth to post! LOL! Working on the trailer today.....back too it!

 

[archbuilder]

Re: 16' Nescher ski boat complete restore

Re: 16' Nescher ski boat complete restore

Here are some shots from my next step....I flippeed the boat and put it on saw horses. I have a rolling stool that is just the right height for working inside the hull. Here are some transom parts the shop vac wouldn't handle....

And I love scraping........

More transom parts.....

Ahh finally the transom is cleaning up......

Now a few zillion more hours of grinding and I will be done!

 

[archbuilder]

Re: 16' Nescher ski boat complete restore

Re: 16' Nescher ski boat complete restore

So the entire time I am scraping I am pondering the best way to do things / put them back together?.what do you build the transom / keel beam out of???? Plywood? Redwood? Pressure treated? Marine plywood???? Glue it together with epoxy??? Polyester resin????

 

[83vert]

Re: 16' Nescher ski boat complete restore

Re: 16' Nescher ski boat complete restore

Very cool looking boat and I think some of us payed money for our boats in that condition, so you are ahead in the game. Keep us posted on the progress and you will find plenty of builds on here that you can follow step by step. good luck

 

[archbuilder]

Re: 16' Nescher ski boat complete restore

Re: 16' Nescher ski boat complete restore

Ok, so now we start to get to the fun part! The four sides of the cockpit are reinforced with a piece of 3/4 plywood. In a few places it has some mold, but for the most part its fine. After some thought, I decided, in for a penny, in for a pound! I figured if I was going thru the motions I should go ahead and take it out too. Here are a couple of shots of I coming out. There was also a member that went from the center of the "dash" to the bow. I had a pic of it in an earlier post. It was held in place by some "fiberglass tabs", the front one had pulled loose. You can see it in this pic.

Here are some more pieces of the gunnel supports

 

[archbuilder]

Re: 16' Nescher ski boat complete restore

Re: 16' Nescher ski boat complete restore

Here is a picture of the starboard side gunnel almost ready for a new piece of plywood.

Once I finished the clean up, I started working on cutting out templates and fabricating new gunnel reinforcing. Here is the starboard template, you can see the new bow piece in the background.

Here is a picture of the port piece clamped in place.

More later!

 

[SKIBUM1M]

Re: 16' Nescher ski boat complete restore

Re: 16' Nescher ski boat complete restore

For the transom and stringers you can use exterior grade plywood sealed completely with fiberglass or what i did is used seacast so I will never have to do it again. Take a look at my resto in progress http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?p=2365667&posted=1#post2365667

 

[BobsGlasstream]

Re: 16' Nescher ski boat complete restore

Re: 16' Nescher ski boat complete restore

archbuilder,
I love the look of that little boat. It looks fast just sitting there. Sweet.
The trailer on the other hand is a bit frighting.
What are your plains for it.
Bob

 

[archbuilder]

Re: 16' Nescher ski boat complete restore

Re: 16' Nescher ski boat complete restore

Skibum / Bob, These pictures were actually taken back in March, since then I have address both of your topics.....but I'm going to hold out on what I have done with them till I get the pics caught up! I'll be working on posting more pics (and working on the boat) over the holiday. Thanks for the comments! It has been a really fun project (other than all the itching!).

 

[archbuilder]

Re: 16' Nescher ski boat complete restore

Re: 16' Nescher ski boat complete restore

Here is a shot at the bow. If you remember, there was a brace that went from the dash to the bow. Also there was a piece of 1/4 plywood that was laminated to the bow deck. Both pieces had rot and were damage, causing the bow skin to "warp". I removed both of them and was somewhat surprised at how flexible the bow skin was. After some thought it was pretty clear that without splitting the hull, it would be impossible to replace the plywood . Since I could do everything else without splitting the hull, I was reluctant to do so. Being an architect, I decided there had to be some other solution.

I carefully jacked up the bow skin to conform to the template I made from the old brace. Once it was in place, I glued these to the bow skin.

They are cardboard shipping tubes that I cut in half. The lady at Office Max looked at me a little strangely when I bought all they had! The ideas is that they will be a "form" for the glass to create stiffening ribs.

Here is the completed assembly. I hadn't laid glass in a few years....so its a bit "fuzzy", however still structurally sound. I was amazed at how stiff it was once I turnd the boat over. I walked on it (210 #s) with no problems at all.

Next time I will post the transom pictures, that was a pretty fun project too!

 

[BobsGlasstream]

Re: 16' Nescher ski boat complete restore

Re: 16' Nescher ski boat complete restore

archbuilder,
I will be looking forward to the updated pic's.
Bob

 

[archbuilder]

Re: 16' Nescher ski boat complete restore

Re: 16' Nescher ski boat complete restore

While I was working on the bow reinforcing and the gunnel braces, I also had some hull damage to work on. Some of it was from impacts and a bit in the transom area was just glass rot.