88 Capri Restoration (Splashed 08/2022)

[88 Capri (2022 SOTY)]

I had another thread but the boat is going to be a total restoration. Please keep in mind I picked her up for free.

My purpose of this thread is not only to catalog my journey but also to info people about flaws in the construction of these boats to look out for, I am by no means trying to discourage people from these boats because I truly love mine.

 

[88 Capri (2022 SOTY)]

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[88 Capri (2022 SOTY)]

This is how she looked when I picked her up. The interior wasn't bad but she didn't run.

 

[88 Capri (2022 SOTY)]

I found the problem of the typical "no spark" issue which was the contacts were grounding on the base of the distributor but besides that I installed a new carburetor, fuel pump and internal resistance coil along with a complete tune-up. The strangest thing was I had to install a new oil pan because the old one was dented allowing the crankshaft to hit it.

 

[88 Capri (2022 SOTY)]

There noticable soft spots in the floor plus cracking in the stern's gelcoat which I am sure some on this forum know where this is heading lol.

 

[88 Capri (2022 SOTY)]

I ended up removing the transom and all decking to expose the stringers in which I found some unbelievably ridiculous design flaws and or laziness in which posters on my other thread indicated Bayliner was noted for.

 

[88 Capri (2022 SOTY)]

I'm going post the pictures and any questions please ask. I'm only going this far this year because it's getting to late to fiberglass in upstate NY anymore this year.

 

[88 Capri (2022 SOTY)]

I'll have to retake my pictures in a lower resolution because the files are to large for me to upload sorry.

 

[Scott Danforth]

email the giant sized photos on your phone to yourself and reduce to 25%

or use paint or other similar photo editing software to reduce the size to 25%

take your 2-5 meg photo down to 400kb.

(its in the photo upload tutorial in the rules and guidelines forum)

 

[Mad Props]

if you took the pictures on your phone, you can download a picture resizing app.. I usually resize to 800x600 and haven't had a problem.

 

[88 Capri (2022 SOTY)]

Cool thank you

 

[88 Capri (2022 SOTY)]

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[88 Capri (2022 SOTY)]

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[88 Capri (2022 SOTY)]

Transom....

The transom was totally gone due to the gimble housing seal being bad and the garboard drain hole was never sealed so you had exposed wood sucking in all that bilge water. The transom wood wasn't one piece either, the bottom 3" was just a piece of pine which rotted quicker than the plywood above it allowing the cracks to form in the gelcoat.

 

[88 Capri (2022 SOTY)]

Pictures of the transom....

 

[88 Capri (2022 SOTY)]

Decking.....

The prior owner did his best to patch in new decking but he screwed it into rotted wood without coating it so it didn't help unfortunately. Everything was soaked because the foam was saturated which obviously caused the unprotected deck to rot from the factory. When I cut out the seat bases there was no floor left under the foam and unfortunately I didn't take pictures of this but I want to show you a great tool for removal of anything on a boat...

The wood/metal or the carbide tipped blade worked great for me.

 

[88 Capri (2022 SOTY)]

Stringers....

Now the stringers I wont be removing till next spring because we get a lot of snow here in upstate NY and I want some rigidity but I want to show you some of the things I came across after removal of the decking.

 

[88 Capri (2022 SOTY)]

Something I noticed while reading discussions on redoing boats on the trailer is how my bunks were sagging so I definitely will come up with some kind of cradle next year but I just wanted to bring this up.

 

[88 Capri (2022 SOTY)]

Motor....

When I picked the boat up she didn't crank and had no spark which is why I picked her up so cheap .

After tinkering for a couple weeks she came to life!
This is the Ford 2.3 OMC motor.

The cranking issue had to do with a problem in the fuse block so then I moved onto the no spark issue which I inter found out the prior owner had the insulators for the contact wire from the distributor backwards which allowed the wires to ground out on the distributor.
I did a complete tune up, carburetor , fuel pump(from summit) and filters plus installed an internal resistive coil which allowed me to remove the resistance wire that was used but had to run a new wire from the start side of the ignition switch to the positive side of the coil.
The strangest thing I had to do was get a new oil pan (from napa)because the old one had dents which allowed a rod to hit it.

 

[88 Capri (2022 SOTY)]

This being my first build please post suggestions and ideas from your builds because outside of reading from the forum it's a learn as I go process