1975 Ski Nautique Restoration Questions

- Is it true I can run the boat out of the water by screwing my garden hose directly to the raw water pickup? Also just to confirm the raw water pickup is the grated intake located by the port stringer? 

- Do I need to have water circulating through the motor in order to preform a compression check? ( worried about the impeller, although it will be changed soon) 

- Im on the fence about replacing the stringers. Most motor mount lag bolts do not torque down, they just spin in place. I have removed and inspected all the holes and found mostly mush around the threads. I have removed a previously botched repair and am able to see the condition of the stingers rear of the motor, looks to be wet but solid douglas fir. I know they tend to rot from the bottom up so I drilled down and found dry wood. Several other cores taken from the stringers also showed mostly dry wood. Would you consider a partial stringer replacement, just around the motor mounts and any other problem areas? Or is the full replacement the way to go? My concerns are mostly cost related ( I am 24 years old). Secondary stringers and floors will be replaced for sure. 

- I have heard that the new floors actually need about 1/4 inch clearance around the sides of the hull before being glassed in? I am using 3/4 exterior ply. 

- What kind of paint should I use to restore the decals on the hull? 

- Is relocating the battery to the rear seat area advisable? Not sure if the heat from the exhaust tubes are a factor. This boat will be getting a new interior with new wood, rear seating will be fabricated. 

Thank you for your insight. Hope to bring this boat back, previous owners did some questionable stuff to her. Any tips are appreciated. 

Few more for you: 

- Should I brace the hull prior to removing the floor and secondary stringers? I will keep the primary stringers in place for now just wondering if I can begin deconstructing the floor while the boat is on the trailer.    

- Do you know what a factory 1975 ski pylon mount is supposed to look like? Mine just sits in the small brass hole on the bottom of the bilge area. I have seen other pics of boats with an aluminum clamp around the pylon. Not sure if I'm missing parts.

A partial stringer job can be done and be fine, but 3 things, 

1.the money for the partial stringers and the money for any finish work will be lost when you decide to do a full stringer job/if you decide.

2. you may quickly see other issues around the engine stringers, mostly the battery compartment and exhaust slots adjacent to the engine.  Those issues could easily turn a partial into a full blown job.

3. I would research the resin choice and make some test panels/pieces/parts to see what resin you like best and why, things like working time, tool life and preparation will help you wih that.

I just did a full stringer and floor on my 79 and have some key things i would do differently a second time that would save money and weight tho theres not much weight to lose on this hull.

Beatiful boat, post more pictures and let us know before you do any major dis assembly or cutting specially cutting, your stringers and floor look just like mine did and i think you can do a partial that would convert the floor around the dogbox into a floor dogbox combo like mine is now.

Anyone know how to rotate pics when you upload? 

Does anyone have any reccomendations about where to buy engine parts? 

Better yet, since you're young and quickly figured out how to post pictures here on CCF, post a picture or 2 of the prop and that'll be a good indicator of rotation since the boat ran with that prop on it. 

By the way, I see a large economy size engine box for clearance around the Mercruiser manifolds

WOT/Ken/Pete heres a few shots of the prop, hopefully clears things up: 

Floors coming up soon!

I just saved this picture from above. Opened it with paint and there are resize and rotate options on the left side of the tool bar. Rotate it the direction you want and save it. 

I also have tried using windows picture viewer but had bad results. It seemed to rotate on my PC but when upladed it was not the same rotation. 

I'll have to give that a try Thanks Marty 

Still a lot of work though, take a picture, put it on the computer, post it here and figure out that it rotated, then do what you mentioned.

First cut in the floor.........ah s#$t doesn't look factory... 

 

Hmm looks like some kind of glue lam beam? 

One side cleaned up, damn that foam is not fun to take out! Completely soaking wet and smells GREAT 

Interesting stringer construction technique, floatation foam core to save weight! Previous guy who did this boat was clearly a master boatbuilder......

Ah yes it seems my port secondary is just a collection of random off cuts covered in spray foam. 

excellent job on the stringer bud.. :) 

She's getting there, not too bad progress for one night. Now here comes the part where I need some expertise. Im thinking there was a large patch done to this hull at some point. These last few pics will illustrate what I'm talking about. One side of the boat is covered below the water line in a white antifouling paint. Looks like it is possibly to hide a repair. When I pulled the floor over this area I noticed the glass was much rougher and felt a bit brittle. Definitely a different colour also. Seems solid, although when I heavily scraped the area with my crow bar I did notice a few flakes chip off the surface. 

Also look at the pic of the chine under the 'repair" you can see a filler has been added. My question to the epoxy experts on here is should I be concerned? How to prevent any future delamination? Also I plan to reinforce the area, how should I do this? 

pics of the seam between the factory glass and the unknown glass^ 

shot of what I think is a patch^ 

Chine from outside, under the repair. any way to clean this up better and make it stronger? 

Also any tips for how to cut the front floor out without going through the hull? 

original Water Bonnet decal intact :) 

Thoughts on white oak for a stringer material? Thanks again guys this site is amazing! Stay tuned for more updates soon...... Cheers

It's not a patch, it's extra glass thrown in there around the engine, you can see it on both sides in the 5th from last picture.

I would use marine ply for your stringers, you'll never find a straight piece of 1x6 or 2x8 let alone 4 o them 12 feet long. Plus 2x4 etc material is still a tree and does what it is designed to do ( efficiently move water from the source to the other end) but that doesn't mean it couldn't last if encapsulated real good.

That's a patch at the chine. Looks like that hull ended up on some rocks during it's previous life.

Something tells me that you and WOT may agree more than you think on the craftsmanship below the floor.

Here's a quote from your stringer thread (minus the long gone pictures)

gun-driver wrote: More horse power for your motor�$1,500 Supplies for new stringers��.$1,000 Having your wife approve buying more tools to do the job�.PRICELESS!!!! So it begins, I took the motor out for the new heads, camshafts, high rise manifold ect. (Thanks Eric, He was tired of working those crappy Chevy�s so I gave him a nice Ford to work on) While the motor was out I kept thinking about the stringers. Now my floor was solid no soft spots, the main stringers sounded solid (tapping with hammer) but the secondary�s had some fiberglass cracking off. The wood was solid when poked with a screwdriver, but I thought to myself I can�t be the only one with a 24 year old boat that is dry and solid. So out came the carpet in one piece (that one surprised me) then off came the floor for some exploratory surgery. Sure enough the foam was soaked on the bottom inch or so and dry on top. The more foam I pulled out the more water I found. Now this boat hasn�t been in the water since Sept last year, it did get some snow melt in it when the cover got 12� of snow on it then rain caused it to sag in and the water got in. So as with others the foam was soaked. Then I started removing the fiberglass from the secondary stringers. I was pleasantly surprised that only where the glass had separated was the wood only slightly wet the rest looked like new. I love Correct Crafts that�s why I own two, but I have to say that they could have done a better job then they did. I found a block of wood lying on the hull and the foam poured right over top of it, of course it was totally saturated. The second thing I found was when they lagged the platform braces on they missed the area supported with the extra plywood. I assume that�s where they where supposed to go. The third was the original fiberglass wrap on the secondary�s under the floor was paper thin. (One coat of light weight glass) So this is step one of the process. I will keep you guy�s updated as I go. I hope it will be a short story not a novel !! The start The easy way to remove foam The lags between the extra ply(above the stringer) The thin fiberglass This is the inboard side ofthe stringer. It doesn't even touch the hull and the gap was full of wet foam. Here's the block of wood they foamed over. That's it for now more to follow.