70's runabout facelift

[robwelleosu]

I recently acquired this '73 Sea King from the side of road. I had originally wanted the motor for another boat I was trying to rebuild. After I found out my wife was pregnant I decided it was probably best to just do a facelift to this one and trash the full floor/stringer/transom restoration of the other. Figured being back out on the water in a month rather than a year was the better way to go! Plus it's Trophy Striper Season in the Bay!

Here's some pics to get started.

 

[robwelleosu]

Re: 70's runabout facelift

The basic's of this quick project, well hopefully quick project, would be to:

clean it up
put a plywood floor over the existing floor and seal the seams (just saves money and time, Baby trumps boat, at least the first one anyways)
Build a center console paint white
Build a platform with access to the existing storage bins for the bow
Build a bench for the stern
Paint Hull navy blue
Paint topside white
red water line (maybe)
Grey marine carpet inside
Stainless rod holders
Trot line pole for crabbing
duel 12 gallon tanks with a selector switch
Oh, and tire for the trailer. Looks pretty ghetto sitting on a jack right now.

 

[robwelleosu]

Re: 70's runabout facelift

Here's some pics of the console and bench mockups i made yesterday.

 

[robwelleosu]

Re: 70's runabout facelift

here's some pics of the abandoned project: it was a '76 Galaxy tri-hull runabout.

The nice 3rd one was just a facelift. She was all wet to the bones. You'll see in the following pics. I was going to just replace the transom and it just kept getting worse.

 

[robwelleosu]

Re: 70's runabout facelift

and now big red is probably headed to the grave...

 

[robwelleosu]

Re: 70's runabout facelift

Finally had some time to work on the console and bow deck. What do you guys think? Stumped on what add to, if anything, to front of the console below the helm. Was thinking maybe the CD player and the speakers. Storage would be the easy thing but that's kind of boring. Anybody have pics of some stuff they've done? I had to add an extra box on the right of the console to cover the control cables and wiring so i think i'm going to do the same on the other side and add slots for tackle boxes.

 

[Fisherball]

Re: 70's runabout facelift

Just curious, I'm thinking when I have to restring my boat (hopefully not for a long time!) of cutting out the structures that hold the dash & glove box like you did but I wonder if it weakens the hulls strength. What would stop the sides of the hull from flapping in the waves? I assume those give lateral support to the gunwales. Did you do anything to compensate for what you removed? Am I just paranoid about hull strength?

 

[robwelleosu]

Re: 70's runabout facelift

It depends on how the two consoles are molded. The red boat in this post relied on the consoles to provide the bulkhead support to the sides, so if i were to continue that project i would have to construct a front deck with a with bulkhead to keep the sides stiff.

Now the brown boat was different. The consoles provided no structural support and just sort of hung off the sides. The seat boxes on this boat provide the bulkhead support to keep the sides stiff so i was free to cut the consoles off.

 

[robwelleosu]

Re: 70's runabout facelift

there is a heck of a lot of construction i would have to do on the red boat to replace lateral support. I took the whole top off and was going to build new gunwales, foredeck, transom, floor. Heck of a lot work like i said. the brown boat was really the way to go. with this one i didn't need to take the top off was able to just open it up to turn it into what i wanted.