1955 CC Hurricane Restoration

Alan;

That is very cool. Are those the carbs on top - I can't wait to see that thing all cleaned up like I know you will. I think its almost as exciting for everyone on here, to see a piece of history being restored, will at least for me anyway.

What a find, Alan! Tim sure knows how to sift through Craig's List. Is it a Chrysler Marine? What kind of tranny is on it? You are going to have one cool boat.

This will be another great adventure as it unfolds. Keith may have to write a book someday about all the history that was preserved thru his site!

Bruce,
The trans is Chryslers very own!! It wasn't until I'd say the mid 60's when they started to bolt up the Velvet drives to their marine engines. The trans is their "manual" version meaning it was connected to the through the floor shift lever via the 1/2" pipe in the bilge. Chrysler did have a version of a "automatic". It involved a hydraulic pump and slave cylinders attached to the outside of the manual for actuating the shifting arm. They were used mostly on larger boats were the routing of the 1/2" pipe through the bilge wasn't practical. Interestingly, Chris Craft had one too. It was called the "Chris-o-matic" but because the hydraulics were only "on demand" there was always a delay (caused by the time it took to build pressure) in shifting. They became better known as the "crash-o-matic"

Alan,
That is tooooo cooool!
the only thing I see is you need valve covers without the sparkplug wire covers, something like these.

you cant miss its a hemi with those!

BTW, when we having the "tippin-party"?

.

What a trip! When you gonna post the 81 with SweatPea in the rig thread?

Hey Bob I see you found the thread, thanks for the info on the light lens. Good talking to you the other day.

Awesome find. I would love to have the space and ambition to tackle a project like that someday.

That will be the day.....

Way cool.

Waldo

Very nice pic's Alan thanks for sharing.

Dave

Can you say "Frearson"?       

..now thats definately "Shadetree" ....Nice job Alan!

62 wood wrote: Can you say "Frearson"?

Yes for the replank he'll be saying it many times over!! Now for the disassembly it's "slotted"!!

Alan,
I like the sided frame idea. Looks like it really worked great. Better than the roll over with radiused ply. Now you even have the hull all squared off sitting on the floor.

For Mahogany, try Owl Hardwood Lumber if you haven't already found them. They have locations in Des Plaines, Oak Lawn and Lombard but the main mill is Des Plaines. They have full mill services so they can resaw and book match. However, I'm sure the Hurricane didn't come out of the factory that way!!!! Actually, there are some boats I've seen were it's been done to the point were it looks like a piece of plywood -almost fake looking!!!

Owl

Getting up to speed with removing the bottom, I hope to have it stripped down to ribs by the end of the day saturday.



The decision to replace the inner bottom was confirmed, Lots of soft spots. I can just pull it off without tools. It'sa ctually easier to just rip everythng out and replace with new than to try to salage any of it.


Here's what 33 years of sitting in a barn does to wood. These planks have a 3/8 gap between them from drying out and shrinking. They were also sealed with Pete's favorite sealant "Clear Silicone Caulk" which was pretty much useless.

A slick rig for the flip....I'll be anxious to watch your progress on this unique old boat.