1971 MFG Carefree Restoration

[dlgannett]

I'm a new member to iboats so I can't add any pictures or post in the completed projects thread for whatever reason. I picked up an abused 1971 MFG Carefree about a year ago with the intention of restoring. The boat was in poor shape with a rotted transom, blistered gel-coat and the platform where the seats would have been mounted had been removed. I spent almost every weekend for the past year restoring it and will put it in the water this weekend to see how she does (I got the boat July 2014 and just finished it a week ago). I'll post a full thread of documented photos as soon as iboats will let me so keep an eye out for it..

 

[Mark72233]

dlgannett, welcome to iboats. Definitely post some pics. Try this link for instructions on attaching pics from your free Photobucket account.

http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=533219

 

[Mark72233]

dl, that may have been the wrong link. Let me search around for the right one. :facepalm:

 

[Mark72233]

dl, try this one. I stole it from one of oops! old thread.

The easiest way to do this , is to upload your pictures to a free service like photo bucket. http://photobucket.com/

You can re size the pictures all at one time to be forum friendly by clicking on photobuckets re size option. The size best for the forum is 640x480.

After you re size, you will be shown a page of your pictures,,,,,when you hover over the picture, it will give you a list of tags.
Copy the img tag, and just paste it into your reply.

You can post up to 6 images pre reply. If you need to use several reply's to post the proper pictures......feel free.

The pictures will look this size.

 

[jigngrub]

Post your pics and resto story in this forum, completed resto projects can only be moved from this forum to the completed forum by a moderator. The completed forum is a closed forum.

 

[sphelps]

Looking forward to seeing your restoration ! Welcome aboard ! :welcome:

 

[dlgannett]

Thanks' for the welcome and info on getting the photo's attached; I'll give it a try and see what happens.

 

[dlgannett]

Here goes; going to try to insert a photo from photobucket.

 

[dlgannett]

Well, that worked out so I guess I'll get the rest posted the same way, above is one of the boat after it was initially cleaned out.

 

[dlgannett]

Here are a few more of the boat after I got all the junk out of it and washed off years of mold and grime.

 

[dlgannett]

The transom was completely shot and the gel-coat was blistered so I knew I had my work cut out for me. I started by cutting out the gunwale and grinding out what was left of the transom. The boat came with a good motor with a 20 inch shaft but the boat only had a 15 inch transom so naturally since I was replacing the transom anyway I added 5 inches in height to it. I also added an extra 1/4 inch of glass to the inner and outer transom.

 

[dlgannett]

Like I mentioned, the gel-coat was blistered and there were also spiderweb cracks in the bow where it looked like the boat was beached hard. I ground out the blisters and filled with a resin / silica mixture and glassed over the cracked area in the bow and smoothed out with more resin / silica. The Carefree hull has a plywood core that extends from the transom up to the floatation compartment in the bow. After drilling a number of cores I determined the plywood core was rotted at the stern so I drilled holes until I hit solid wood and started injecting epoxy resin into the hull. Followed this with two layers of glass mat and cloth and then smoothed with resin / silica (also termed peanut butter).

 

[dlgannett]

Now it was time for paint; I applied three coats of Interlux Blu-glow white to the hull.

 

[dlgannett]

Next up was flipping it back over, getting it on foam blocks and starting the work on the top cap and interior. Started with sanding out the molded in textured area on the bow, filled in all the various holes from four decades worth of accessories and glassed the gunwale back in.

 

[dlgannett]

From the start of this project I planned on it being somewhat of a rest-mod; an improvement on the original. Painted the topside with Petit burgundy and applied a faux mahogany wrap to the bow.

 

[dlgannett]

When I got the boat a previous owner removed the platform that the seating would usually mount to so I had to build something to hold the seats. I went with a bench with storage underneath by gluing synthetic blocks to the inside of the hull with resin/silica and mechanically attached the wood for the bench followed by a fillet inside and out. I also did not like the look of the large bubble windscreen so I chopped it six inches for a little sleeker style. On the Carefree the floor is basically the topside of the hull which is not flat so I also glued in synthetic stringers to install a level carpeted floor.

 

[dlgannett]

Now I had to get it back on the trailer and start re-fitting everything. While the boat was apart I refinished all the components that I planned on reusing like the helm, controls etc. I also took the liberty to add a few things the Carefree did not have originally like a bilge pump, solid mahogany dash board, new fused switch panel, battery mount under the bench and just for shits and grins I added 3/16 inch marine aluminum plating to the inside and outside of the transom just in case I get the urge to put something bigger than 40hp on it.

 

[sphelps]

Nice job ! I like the chopped down windshield ...Would have never have thought it was a plywood hull ..
Thanks for sharing !

 

[Tnstratofam]

Very nice! I really like the upgrades you made. She turned out very stylish. The faux mahogany on the bow is a very nice touch. Love to see some pics of her in the water. Great job on your resto.

 

[dlgannett]

Tried to get her on the water yesterday. Did well at W.O.T. but wouldn't hold an idle and had to try to clean the carb while in the middle of the bay. I'm figuring fuel system issues from the motor sitting for a year while I worked on the boat so today I'll be pulling the carb, hoses and pump and cleaning everything completely and try again next weekend. I'll post vid when I get her running right; worst case scenario I'll have to re-power.