just bought a 1978 ski nautique

smac76 wrote: What interior options were available in 76? And what year was the maroon pleated interior an option? I'm pretty sure that the vinyl in the boat now is factory as I have ordered a matching rear seat from Christines Marine. Maybe a special order? I'll defer to you that the carpet isn't original as it's in way too good a condition to be 40 years old, but it was certainly done well enough to look like it was original.

Pleats (which may have been optional- seen plenty of boats with plain vinyl) would have been straight heat stamped, not the diamond "oven mitt" pattern. The latter was found on the '80-83 boats only. Your observer seat back cushion also looks very square (like the 80+ standard interior) so it's possible someone just swapped slightly newer seats in. (Seat back style through 79 had a little more taper- cushion was narrower at the top.) Carpet would have been the grass style and color matched to the graphics/vinyl color (red/black). Gray non-matching carpet wasn't common until ~1989.

Pm me if you are interested in putting an original steering wheel back on.

smac76 wrote: What interior options were available in 76? .

Scott,
Per the 76 brochure in the reference section, the colors available were red green blue and gold.

What interior options were available in 76? And what year was the maroon pleated interior an option? I'm pretty sure that the vinyl in the boat now is factory as I have ordered a matching rear seat from Christines Marine. Maybe a special order? I'll defer to you that the carpet isn't original as it's in way too good a condition to be 40 years old, but it was certainly done well enough to look like it was original.

^^what he said

Soft spots in the floor is usually a "tip of the iceberg" thing. Time to educate yourself.

8122pbrainard wrote: mrjester12 wrote: Stringers look in great shape. Not sure if they are original or someone replaced them and refiner glassed them. I'm gonna replace the floor with marine plywood, Zane, Do you have any pictures you can post of the stringers? We could probably tell if they are original or not. What did you do to check their condition?

Zane,
Have you had an opportunity to look at any of the stringer threads?

If the floor is solid and has no soft spots why not just replace carpet. You're getting close to ski season. I'd get it running and use it for a year then go after it in the Fall. You'll get to know what it needs while having fun. The platform can even wait. Polish it up and get down to basics like others have said. Prop shaft seal, impeller replacement, engine tune and fresh fluids then start playing.

Well did some cleaning up and tearing out today. And good news. Stringers look in great shape. Not sure if they are original or someone replaced them and refiner glassed them. I'm gonna replace the floor with marine plywood, and new carpet. Working on the engine this weekend, I'm going to try to get it running and see what needs to be worked on

OK, Modify it, I will say that my boat drew a lot of attention back then. I used to ski with the owner of West Coast Correct Craft, he would have a fit about my lack of graphics.
The boat was stolen and recovered a year later. The guys that stole it put the paint on it and did a really nice job, but I really liked it and we had no extra money back then to fix it so it stayed. They also ground out the numbers off the back of the hull and we found years later that the trailer returned was not the trailer it was stolen on. Looked the same but the one returned did not match our registration numbers.

My 78 had a fiberglass platform, not wood.
Show here the day we had our custom cover made in 1983, it was stored outside for the next 7 years and that cover was still perfect. when I sold it.

You could restore it to be Unique, we called my 78 the Unique Nautique.
I sold this boat in 1990 with 1,500 hours on it.

Nice boat, but someone has changed it. Carpet, interior and platform wouldn't have come on a '76.

Love that ladder!!!

does it actually run when it back fires through the edit: carb.
are you sure the timing or leads are correct, sounds stupid i know.

Nice looking boat. Yes, I am pretty sure that your ladder is original. If you remove it, I would reglass the inside of the stern where the bolts went through the hull. Then use a gel coat putty to fill the holes. It will impossible to get a perfect gel match but it will not leak. The CCFAN Store offers new platforms out of an easier to maintain wood than teak that looks great. However, original brackets and platforms show up often on this site from boats being parted out. You will need parts from a 79-81 to fit correctly. I am just trying to answer your first question. I would also keep the ladder, but I am scared of Pete. I too would run the boat and the guys her on this site can work you through the back fire issues. I would rebuild or have the carb rebuilt by a professional and then start from their with the timing. Many old boats like this have the wrong rotation starter on them (Left Hand) and the boat never runs and then they get rid of the boat. Also, you will need a marine grade carb, and starter. Not automotive or you can go BOOM.

I hope this helps,

Donald

Good luck with your project.

Cool, nice and original. I like ladders too.

There is nothing he could have done to really require racing fuel to run correctly. That comment either means the rebuild was done with parts that don't actually work (could he have installed a standard cam in a reverse engine ??? Pistons/rods so far off that he increased compression ???) or there is some other fuel/ignition problem that he wasn't capable of diagnosing.

I would:

remove spark plugs, and spray/squirt some fogging or light oil in each cylinder
using a wrench see if the engine spins over smoothly by hand
if so, hook up a battery and just bump the starter, see if in fact the engine spins reverse

From there, your problem is that you don't know if the internal parts were the right ones. You could skip all of above and just tear it down for a rebuild but I'm always in favor of seeing if an engine can run first. Others may disagree.