New guy, 82 Centurion complete re-build.

8122pbrainard wrote: LaurelLakeSkier wrote: 8122pbrainard wrote: Kenny, Welcome to CCfan. We've helped plenty of non CC owners. At least it's not a MC! Ouch! I suppose you thought that would slip by...... I never though it would slip by you!!

You know we love ya anyway Mark!



john

btw, your comment on who needs Europeon history, you will someday, I said the same thing one time about Spanish class and got dropped into a all out spanish speaking airport and didnt have a clue, well except for the international language....thats an easy one to speak

My 85 Centurion just left for a new home, I should have been brave enough to post when I redid it, instead I waited until I got my Excel to join.   Cool boats, keep that interior working with the multi-colored gel coat, that's somthing CC's don't have.

On your seats, what I did with mine was not glass them to the floor. Instead I put stainless latch on the front and back of the drivers base that had a small hook mounted to the floor and leaver mounted to the seat base front and back. The reason for this was so I could remove the seat from the boat to work under the dash. I never had a problem with it coming loose and 1in foam pad was enough to cover the small hooks when I needed under the dash.   Something to think about since the dash isn't removable when you need access to the back of it.

just a couple of potential issues with the rear facing seat.
The position of the seat (especially if you glass the tower to the floor) may interfere with engine maintenance, no?) Seems like it may make it more difficult to access the RWP for impeller replacement.

Also, the weight of the seat and battery will need to be offset to level out the wake. When you add the battery and seat weight to the driver, you'll have a lopsided wake (which will be great if you)'re wakesurfing the starboard side )

I really like the layout you have in mind. The rear facing seat is a great idea if you can overcome the potential problems.

I need to find some pics of it on the water last summer so you can get a better idea of the boat. Garage pics for now, Oh well.

^What seat did you use for the driver. I know I want something plastic based. The thing i dont like about most of the ski boat drivers seats are the super high sides. I like the support of the sides on my hips, but most seem to go way up to your elbows which gets in the way, makes it hard to get in and out, and takes away airflow which is hot in the summer. I might make one seeing as the upholstery/foam will be custom anyway...

Thanks for the kind words! I definitely appreciate original, but this will all be custom designed to the best of my ability. Glad to see someone else with a retro ski boat!

I was sitting in a history class tonight (Im an engineering major, why do I need European history?) and got bored. I threw together some upholstery designs and a seat design. All are rough sketches, but Im very attached to the upholstery for the most part. The exterior of the boat is brown with orange and yellow accents. I like the exterior a lot, but brown on the interior just isnt for me. With this color scheme I can eliminate the brown inside and use a charcoal carpet. All the upholstery will be a cream white as the gel coat on the boat is a natural white and not bright white. The seats will have orange piping as well as some orange stitching. Part will be simulated diamond tufted as well. A friend has a sewing machine ($$$$) that can do embroidery with multiple colors, shadows, and the whole sha-bang. Hello Centurion logos on the front and rear seat as well as one on the carpet


General Idea, I think it will look better when the seats and boat rails are cream white. The brown is original teak accents. drivers seat is yet to be determined but will be similar upholstery. The color on the seats is orange. When I scanned it, the orange seat piping/stitching and brown teak became hard to differentiate.




Back seat



Im also thinking of adding a rear facing seat behind the drivers seat. It would be nice to have the extra room when slaloming from the pylon. It would be a plywood tower fully glassed into the floor and covered in matching vinyl. Inside would house the battery with a vinyl snap cover. The seat back cushion and seat base cushion would both be fully removable. Even with the seat there, there is still tons of storage room on that side of the boat.



And



Just my rough thoughts, still a long way to go on the stringers and floor before I even begin on that haha.

Suggestions are more than welcome!

So the pics are up, the first few are really poor quality, not sure why.

The plan is still to use microlam lvl beams for the main stringers, and some sort of 1x or fir ply for the secondaries. Im not too worried about the secondary's strength as there were not any originally. You can see there is literally no support outside of the main stringers...not cool and not a good design IMO. Ill be doing a secondary stringer system with bulkheads every 18" or so, similar to a CC setup (this site may have influenced that )

I still plan to do a new layer of glass on the entire inside of the hull as the original is thinner than I like. Right now there is only a 2'x 3' chunk of floor out, the rest should come out this weekend depending on whether I finish welding up the tube fenders for my jeep and get them sanded and painted.

There will be no foam going back in this boat. It will live on a boat lift for 5 months of the year so interior drainage is a huge must. I cant just pull the rear plugs and let it drain on the incline of the boat ramp. Everything needs to drain to the middle of the bilge where the center interior drain plug can be pulled while on the lift.

To accomplish drainage, I need drains through the main an secondary stringers. To do this Im thinking of cutting half of a 2" hole in the base of the stringers and gluing a half piece of PVC in the notch. Then glass over everything. Will the epoxy resin react with the PVC? And what would be a good adhesive to use to attach the pvc? I was thinking just thickened epoxy resin or maybe 5200?

I know some of you like to keep your stuff original, and I respect that. The older centurions were not made to near the standards of older correct crafts. Im going to be altering the construction of this boat a lot along the way, all for the better hopefully. The exterior of the boat is in 99% condition other than the teak. The interior will be totally re designed with a classic look with a touch of modern wake boat flair. Nothing hideous though not to worry. Im working on some sketches of the upholstery that have been whirring through my head, maybe Ill scan those and put them on here in a day or two.

Thanks guys, Ill keep you posted.

You might want to consider a 1X board instead of plywood for the secondaries. Good luck on your project. Please post pix!

It is defnintely cheaper, not only on the cloth material, but the amount of resin it will hold.
I like how you waited til the third paragraph to cop to it not being a CC. I think anyone willing to put this kind of work into their boat can play. You just get to take a little ribbing occasionally. Welcome, and best of luck. And pics !!

Kenny,
Welcome to CCfan. Don't worry about the brand of your boat plus, it's still a boat and I'd say everyone here would be glad to help. We've helped plenty of non CC owners. At least it's not a MC!

Your amount of layup to me sounds good but you may want to consider 1 more layer around the engine. You are planning on using epoxy resin correct?