1980 Wellcraft Sunhatch Restoration

[ksturdy]

Hey everyone, I am new to the forums and have been a boater for 15-20 years. I have owned 6 different boats. Recently I picked up this 1980 Wellcraft with intentions to recondition it from top to bottom. I only paid $400 and the trailer is worth that. It has a Mercruiser 165 straight 6 in it. Lot of work to do, but am up to the challenge. Here is some before pics. I already started gutting the boat and will post some more pics as the progress moves along.

 

[drewpster]

Re: 1980 Wellcraft Sunhatch Restoration

Welcome aboard! Looks like a good project. Keep us posted. Oh and by-the-way.....sorry for the total insanity you are soon to fall deeply in to.

 

[ezmobee]

Re: 1980 Wellcraft Sunhatch Restoration

Welcome! Those are nice hulls. Definitely worth the effort to restore. The 165 is a great powerplant also.

 

[ksturdy]

Re: 1980 Wellcraft Sunhatch Restoration

Update. So I have started gutting the boat. So far I have removed the engine and lower unit for a partial rebuild/inspection. As far as I can tell the exhaust manifold may be cracked or a bad head gasket. There some milky oil and when it last there appeared to be some steam coming from the oil cap. From what I can tell, the block appears to be in good condition.

I have also started stripping the interior and exterior of the boat. The interior is all gone with the exception of the cuddy. That is next and then remove the floorboards and inspect/replace the beams.

The paint is a pain in the ***** to remove. There is some extra coats of yellow over the original puke yellow under the gelcoat. I tried interstrip by interlux but had zero luck in my opinion. It did not seem to penetrate the clear coat the previous owner put on top of the yellow paint job.

Attached are some pics of the progress. Any comments are welcomed! Thanks

 

[Bondo]

Re: 1980 Wellcraft Sunhatch Restoration

Ayuh,... Welcome Aboard,... Why ya Strippin' the paint,..?? Is it Failing,..??

If not,... Just sand it Smooth, 'n primer, 'n paint it whatever color ya want...

I use 2-pt urethanes..

The look, 'n lay-out of that boat looks Alot like the 85 Nova in my driveway.....
The gunnels are abit different...
'n a flip-hatch, rather than a slider...

Nice boat...

 

[ksturdy]

Update 12-28-10

Update 12-28-10

Happy holidays everyone. Seems as if I am making some progress lately. Been working on it a lot over the weekends and when I can at night. So far the stbd side is stripped to the original color sanded and patched and ready for new color. I finally got the cuddy gutted and down to the boards and started removing the flooring. There is a lot of rot on the flooring but so far the stringers appear to be in good condition. I have removed some of the foam around the joints between the stringers and the engine compartment and it appears to be in sound condition. I am going to check a few more spots just to make sure. I bought my first batch of epoxy yesterday from my local marine store. I purchase a gallon west systems 105 resin and the fast curing hardner with all the pumps and fiber additive. $165 bucks later, outch. With that said, I wanted to try and do it right, and I will need it anyway. I was wondering if anyone has had a new layout for this type of boat and could share some pictures. I want to keep it fairly open on the interior. I plan on setting it up for walleye/salmon fishing as well as for skiing and wakeboarding. I have even thought about building a tower for wakeboarding and incorporating rocket launchers and a bimini top all into the tower. Here are some updated pictures.

Thanks in advance!

 

[ksturdy]

Re: Update 1-23-10

Re: Update 1-23-10

Just finished the first coat of black on one side of the boat. The previous yellow coat actually ended up coming off pretty easy with a razor blade scraper. I used west systems epoxy fill all of the nicks, dents and gouges. I used interlux precoat in 2 layers for primer sanding with 120 between coats. Then sanded with 220 before applying the first coat of interlux brightside. So far, I have to say i'm pretty impressed with the finish on the first coat of black. I have one or two more coats and wet sanding, but I am amazed at the results thus far. This stuff goes on like syrup, but if you follow the directions it is fairly easy.

Anyway, have a couple of questions for you all. Wondering if anyone has any ideas on striping or some custom graphics and can share some pictures? Second, I would like to make a new mold for the dashboard and gauges to give it a more updated look. I can get pretty creative with fiberglass and thought it would make a drastic difference to fabricate a new dash with gauges and incorporate an inset fishfinder/gps combo. Wondering if anyone has pics of something similar or comments.

Thanks for looking. 10 more weeks to open water!!!

 

[jiggler73]

Re: 1980 Wellcraft Sunhatch Restoration

any progress with the project? i recently acquired a 79 sunhatch (identical to yours) in the process on floor/stringer replace ment and gonna paint topside black with a white boot stripe...how did you get the wellcraft sticker off the sides?

 

[ksturdy]

Re: 1980 Wellcraft Sunhatch Restoration

Yes, actually the boat was coming along great until i got sidetracked with a few other boat projects and a pregnant wife with twins!! Here is a few pics for you. For the decals, use a 3M 07501 Decal Eraser Wheel. I CAUTION YOU THOUGH, use as directed. I use a 3000RPM VS drill. If you do that, it comes off awesome and quick. I take off whole pinstriping with it!

 

[jiggler73]

Re: 1980 Wellcraft Sunhatch Restoration

thats lookin sharp! i got half of mine prepped for paint this weekend i wound up soaking the wellcraft logo in acetone via soaked rag after hitting it with a heat gun...came off like butter and no damage to my gelcoat...thanks for sharing your tips and such ill be taking down the bootstripe next weekend and installing my new deck... p.s not trying to hijack your thread but do you have issue with your out drive engaging in to foward gear?

 

[ksturdy]

Re: 1980 Wellcraft Sunhatch Restoration

i have replaced all my drive cables... and well, engine for that matter. drive cables can be tricky. if anyone before you made any modifications and didn't know what they were doing they could be all screwed up. At that point its better to just replace them. If i had to take a wild guess, your lower shift cable is out of adjustment. The adjustments are easy if that is the problem. Search around on the site otherwise let me know your specs and ill see if i can post the instructions on adjustments. Thanks for the info on acetone. I'll have to try that after the heat gun. I've used heat guns a lot but the wheel i suggested is fairly new and seems to work great so far. Feel free to post some pics when you have some time!!!

 

[jiggler73]

Re: 1980 Wellcraft Sunhatch Restoration

thanks for the help man! i have a 79 sunhatch like yours but with mercruiser 305 (898) but i believe it to be the same drive just with the different gear ratios...this weekend i will start a thread of the resto with pics...but yea ive heard great things about that wheel but noone sells the damn thing around me

 

[jiggler73]

Re: 1980 Wellcraft Sunhatch Restoration

here are some pics of mine in the demo /prep stage

 

[Honeybadger31]

any updates here? I just bought a 1980 Sunhatch and am about to touch it up a bit. Planning to replace the Welcraft stickers and am considering removing the tape "lines" all together.

 

[Honeybadger31]

any updates here? I just bought a 1980 Sunhatch and am about to touch it up a bit. Planning to replace the Welcraft stickers and am considering removing the tape "lines" all together.