1980 Ski Nautique Total Restoration

What do you think!     All original just cleaned and buffed out. Restored trailer, and due to a hail storm I am having new interior installed this winter.

Correct on the pushrods but they might be reusable anyway, they won't be skimming the heads and block that much, but it will be best to check . See if you can get Tom Monroe' s book on rebuilding your small block Ford

Made a quick trip to my friend's machine shop this evening. He told me to disassemble it and bring it in.

I got a pretty good amount of it disassembled tonight; pretty much everything except the valves. I think it looks pretty good inside overall. I broke one compression ring when I got a little careless. The bearings, crank, cam, lifters, and pistons look amazingly good. I am going to rustle up a valve spring compressor tomorrow evening so I can disassemble the heads, remove some journal plugs and hopefully get the components to the machine shop on Wednesday, if everything goes well. My friend is going to advise me on which rebuild kit to purchase.

TRBenj,
I have already been in touch with Christines and will probably go with them. Ouch! The local shop that redid this boat about 20 years ago did a good job on it without cutting too many corners, but she went through a nasty divorce and closed shop a long time ago.

I am pretty sure my foam is all reusable except maybe the coaming pad foam, but not because of deterioration. The original coaming pad backer boards never fit perfectly so I remade them without considering the originals as a template.

Christines charges an additional $250 for diamond pleating, or $100 for stripes. That being the case, this boat would cost over $1,700 for the complete interior including the coaming pads.

The water warms enough around here to begin skiing early in May on good days. My goal is to have this boat ready by then, therefore I need to get the skins ordered soon, I agree.

Cold and rainy day here in the mountains; had a hard time getting started today and ran out of steam early. I did get the marine plywood cut and edge routed to replace the wood in the observers and drivers seats. Got one coat of CPES on both sides and all edges. I was thinking about Starboard instead of the marine ply until I checked the price. I think Starboard is better, but I already had enough plywood here in my way along with the CPES, resin and biaxial. Trying to get all the upholstery prep work done so that I can be ready to order the skins.



If you look closely you can see the 351w mounted on the engine stand waiting patiently for some attention.

TRBenj wrote: The wheels aren't my taste....

TRBenj, I agree, maybe after I recover from the overall restoration I can find some affordable wheels that show a little better.

The wheels aren't my taste but the PVC looks good. Tim, flex PVC (white) was what correct craft put over the guides in the late 80's... I know our '88 had it. You can still put the nautique guide pads over them, but they're more of a style choice than functional.

great work! are you based in GA? if so, ya need to come to a reunion

Thanks, All.
Richard, They will not rotate because of the 90* bend on the lower section. They will spin maybe 15 or 20 degrees with some difficulty, and then return to their original position. If your trailer is a newer one without the 90* bends they may spin. Just measure your guides before you order. Mine were around 1 5/8 - 1 11/16 or so.

I tried to get it local and checked with the large plumbing contractor suppliers, but no one had it around here. I looked around on the web and found out pretty quickly that there are 2 major suppliers of flexible PVC that sell over the internet. One of the suppliers sells some odd sizes, e.g., 1 3/4 and 1 7/8. I really wanted the 1 7/8 size but it would have been almost double in cost, plus a lot of shipping on top of that. Then I checked Amazon and was surprised they had the 2", and that is was available for Prime Shipping. I made a decision to order the 2" and if they were too loose I was going to make some bushings, but there were not needed.

This stuff is pretty soft, even in the cold weather we are seeing today. I would do it again in a minute, and I am pretty picky. As far as cutting it - I used one of those cheap PVC pinch cutters that goes up to 2" and it went through it like butter. A sharp pocket knife or hacksaw would easily work as well.

Here is my final trailer picture showing my inexpensive NT rims.

The PVC on the guide ons looks great.

Awesome. Keep up the good work. I have been to Watauga a few times, beautiful lake! I hope I can see this work personally one day.

A quick google of "spare tire mount" and this popped up.... $20. It is an option.

Clark

spare tire mount link

I have the trailer pretty much finished except for the protection on the guide poles (still haven't settled on the right covering just yet), and square u-bolts to hold the axle to the leaf springs. When I cleaned the rust off the originals I realized they were really beyond repair. I cleaned them up with a brass wire brush on a bench grinder and ran a die down them a few times, but they are shot. They are a size that is uncommon, just like everything else on one of these trailers. I finally found them at Croft Trailer Supply in Kansas City; they should be here early next week, hopefully.




Installed the bunk carpet and cut some new decals from the .EPS files downloaded from the CCF Website.



I spliced the coaming pads and trimmed them to the correct size, chamfered the back edge with a router, marked the mounting holes, and installed stainless T-Nuts before applying a couple coats of CPES. I think they are ready for the upholstery shop now.



The only other thing I got done was replacing the Airguide speedometer line from the rear of the boat to the instrument panel/dash. There wasn't anything nice about that job. I can only assume the tube was installed under the gunnel while at the factory before the top deck was installed on the hull. There was at least 12-15 zip-ties securing that thing. Had to use a stubby screwdriver to get the screws out and reinstalled. Glad that is over. I still need to run the electrical wires for the Electro Marine Speedo, but thinking about using miniature zip-ties to secure it to the Airguide tubing, not sure just yet/

Will do, HW. Good idea.

TRBenj, I will keep the remnant of them. I belive they are a Truck-Lite product, as are the tail lights. Both were/are high quality products. As an example-the tail lights are gasketed and all fasteners are stainless including all the internal guts. One of the marker lights is actually almost perfect, although weathered. The other has about 1/2 of the housing cracked and missing although the actual lens and light is okay. For any unfamiliar with the originals- the lens must be twisted to remove it. I will keep them in hopes of finding some parts sometime in the future or passing them off to someone else.

Relative to the axle bolts I used on the bow stop. They are part #175668 from Etrailer. The part is a Redline product, the u-bolt 9/16" in diameter and 7 3/4" long and has an inner width of 2-1/2" and came with nuts. I also ordered part #115208GALV matching shackle-straps to go along with them. The u-bolts and included nuts were $8.00 each and the straps were $1.85 or so. So you are looking at $40 to upgrade them. I am pretty gentle when loading, but I have witnessed some folks slamming their Correct Crafts into the stop with a lot of force, never did understand that. I have also read recently of some folks braking hard to bring the boat up against the stop after loading. If their u-bolts are in as bad of a shape as mine were they may be in for a rude awakening some day.

It is simply a #3. Seems like only few of then have the keel bunk like you do. I suggest rounding off the top, inside edge (purple line here) of the main bunks. Any pressure points during loading and unloading will wear through the carpet here very quickly. They usually wear through about 2/3 of the way up but you might as well do the entire length. Your carpet will last much longer.

Thanks, All, for the suggestions and advice.

I have been slowly working on the trailer while waiting on engine parts.

I have replaced all of the lights except the taillights with LEDs and run the new wiring harness in PEX. I hope to make all the electrical connections this evening if the rain lets up. I could not find any original style side marker lights so I went with some armored ones. The clearance lights were easily obtainable, though. The original u-bolts that held on the front nose-stop were in pretty rough shape so I replaced them with new axle u-bolts that were a little beefier


The coupler was bent up pretty badly so I replaced it with a heavier-duty version. I considered a Bulldog cast coupler, but opted out for this one instead. Attached with grade 8 bolts and new safety chain.


I Brainardized the mounting of the bunks by countersinking the stainless hex head bolts.


And took Joel's good advice on using PEX for wiring conduit. For the dropouts to the marker light and clearance lights I simply ground an oval in the PEX.


My bunk carpet arrived yesterday, so if the rain quits this evening I should be able to install the carpeting. I bought some stainless staples to do it with.


I bought a over 80 light to hang on the brackets Pete identified for me. The light was pretty flimsy so mounted it on a piece of heavy duty aluminum angle and secured everything with stainless bolts.


I replaced all of the bearings, races, seals, etc. in the factory hubs. In case it helps someone in the future, here are the part numbers:
Grease Seal: 171255TC
Outer Race: L44610
Outer Bearing: L44649
Inner Race: L68111
Inner Bearing: L68149
I also bought new fake buddy bearings and bras from Northern Tool and installed them as well.


Finally, I have been waiting on these spring and shackle bushings. I finally got them yesterday from Northeast Marine in Oxford MA. They were not easy to find, but really inexpensive at $1.05 each.


Question for the day. Can anyone tell me by looking at these pictures what model trailer this is? It doesn't really matter to me, but I would like to know. I have been looking for a lowboy with fiberglass tub, but it seams those are as rare as hens teeth?