Damage boat project

Hard to say without knowing if the rest of the boat is OK. It must have taken on water up to flotation buoyancy with those big holes.

If engine/tranny & upholstery is savageable -$1500.

There is a reason the seller doesn't want to get it fixed.

Wow that's quite a bit of damage. Wonder what kind of hours it will take to fix. Is that more work than replacing stringers? Would like to see this boat repaired by someone here just so I could see how it's done and what it takes.

Ouch, that's a bad day on the lake. That must have made a huge crunch on impact. I'm sure an experienced boat restoration business could fix that up like new.

Did you see the 95 being parted out on the other thread? Maybe make one good boat and sell the extra parts. Might be a cheap date.

Whew that's a beautiful boat! I'm hoping you keep us all informed of your progress with photos and progress reports. You must be excited about the project.

Trailer alone is probably worth $800.

it would be nice to get the fuel and drivetrain out of that boat and get it upside down for repairs

What did it actually wind up costing you in $$/hours to do a similar repair?

tryathlete wrote: What did it actually wind up costing you in $$/hours to do a similar repair?

It was a long time ago,In glass materials it was probably under $ 500, it took about 20 hours, most of the time was prep and making a jig to re -aline everything, I took some pics, will find them and post

I'm going to tear it down this morning and get a better idea what's going On.   I'm rolling the dice on if the engine runs or not. I didn't start it before buying, he did tell me if I wanted to hear it run to bring a battery and gas. He was telling me I need a 51 drive shaft, does that sound right? He also suggested to only buy that new. Does that sound right?

If u could find those pics that would be really cool. I've only gone glass a few times so I'm no expert by any means. Got it cleaned up last night, I ways have to clean the project before starting it.

She shines and looks like a diamond from the waterline up! I agree on the flipping advice as well. Good project to watch for us.

agree with the last few posts...pull the engine and drive and flip it over....so much easier to do a good quality glass repair on the "top" side then underneath. :)

quick questions, The boat is org a efi engine, the guy gave me a box with the org efi setup. He was telling me that they had a bunch of issues with the efi back in the day, so the factory would swap out and carb them. Theres a holly carb on it now, I would like to put it back to efi, Does anyone know why they would have removed it?

The carb is much easier to troubleshoot, It's a tradeoff, gas economy vs. diagnostic time.

Many on this site use US Composite materials.. If you call them, they will help you decide what to buy.

I would put on extra layup layers into your patch, so there is no doubt as to the strength.

You may want to make some sort of alignment jig to make sure the strut & rudder mounting surface lay up square.

Another option could be to strip the engine & interior, then take it to a fiberglass shop for the glass work. They have slings to roll it upside down.   Might be worth the money. Ask for epoxy resin.

The glass materials number is about right, when I say 20 hours,it was about that number but over a two week period. I had access to all the right tools/equipment/advice and materials,and have done a lot of glass work on other boats.

Unfortunately I did not document the repair very well,the damage was virtually identical to Mike's boat.

The repair started with grinding out the rudder port area but I ended up grinding all the way to the shaft log chasing down the fractures and cracks and up the sides of the stringers and up the transom past the exhaust outlet.

I did not turn the boat over.

It started with a new rudder port,shaft,strut and coupler, the area the strut bolted to was severely compromised but had not shifted,so I left that area as it was (temporarily) and used it to align the rudder port area using the new shaft and temp bolting the strut to the damaged area.

I cut out the rudder port area and feathered it back to the stringers,this is the only pic I have prior to actually cutting out the area around the rudder port,if you look closely at the area where the strut mounts you can see the fractures and delamitation in that area but it had not shifted,so I left it temporarily to set up the rudder port area.
I then cut out the area around the rudder port and feathered it back,mounting the new rudder port onto steel plates that where tek screwed into the hull from underneath

Originally the rudder port was not flush with the hull (underneath)I opted to flush mount it by recessing into the hull,this is what it looked like from underneath with the formwork fixed to the hull.
Leaving the rudder port in place I thin layered matt directly to the rudder port,you can see the actual area I ended up cutting by the sunlight showing through the thin area, I then drilled the holes for the four mounting bolts and refilled them with resin/talc mixture to mark there location (not shown)



Underneath after the formwork was removed


I then repeated the process around the strut area (no pics) Once that area was set up (thin) I then ground back and feathered the entire area up to the shaft log,up the sides of the stringers and up past the exhaust outlet.Underneath I feathered back the same area. (no pics)

I cut up and numbered multiple pieces of heavy mat, and kevlar offcuts and gradually thinner matt material (no pics)and prepped the area with acetone and heat to ensure it was moister free.and using two people we layered up the entire repair in in one hit starting from up the transom,and backed out and finished at the shaft log, as it cured we worked back over the strut,rudder port areas with multiple layers and built it up to over 3/4 of an inch thick,no wood was used.

Underneath we layered up (thin) and faired back as the strength of the repair was taken care of inside.I then wet sanded the entire repair smooth These are the only pics I have of the result, I hope this helps.