1976 Crestliner Crusader 15.5

j2ball

Recruit
Joined
Sep 22, 2009
Messages
4
Hello all. I am a first time poster and boat owner. I just bought a 1976 Crestliner Crusader 15.5 foot with no motor. I got the boat and the trailer for 150 bucks and wanted something to work on. So far I have ripped out the carpet, the deck, drained about 20 gallons of water out of it, ripped out around 150 pounds of rotted wood and foam and took off all the hardware and gauges. I am going to post some pictures in a bit. I used the old stringers and installed new ones, covered in resin and attached a new "sub floor" I was wondering if I should foam the whole bottom of the boat. It floats well and with the freshly matted fiberglass and resin coats has no leaks. It came with back to back lounge seats but the wood is so rotted that I am having trouble matching the old to make new. Does anyone have good layout plans? Thanks so much and I look forward to being a part of the iboat family!
 

Azonic

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
Aug 18, 2009
Messages
279
Re: 1976 Crestliner Crusader 15.5

Welcome to IBoats...

Please do post pictures...

We love em!

Rotten anything is bad, gross, and lots of work..

Congrats on a good buy. Be prepared to buy more now..

PLease make sure when you post pics, to add ones of your stringer project.
I am not sure it is a good idea to add stringers and glass to or over old ones.
If you pulled out that much rotten wood and foam, the stringers could be gone too.

Have you done a good check on the transom yet?

Drill some very very small holes in the transom (not all the way through)
if the wood that comes out is nice dry yellowish saw dust... GOOD
If the wood is wet and dark.... Consider the work just begining
If it is more like dirt and smells like 30 year old fish guts.... BAD BAD...

Let us know, keep us posted...

oh and did I say, post pictures?
 

j2ball

Recruit
Joined
Sep 22, 2009
Messages
4
Re: 1976 Crestliner Crusader 15.5

I was having trouble uploading pictures so I am going to try this link....

http://s768.photobucket.com/albums/xx325/j2ball/Project Blue/

if you click on the pictures I have a little outline of what I think is going on...

it should have access to all my photos. They start from the way that I bought the boat, until today how it looks. I have yet to check the transom with the drill test. It seems to be ok but who knows. I will definitely check it out this weekend.

I have my work cut out thats for sure, but I think after reading posts on here I have a good start. Thanks and ANY feedback would be very useful to a young restorer like me.
 
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