American Skier Pics

Meant to call you today but somehow the day got away from me.

Ain't started on the Commanders yet. Won't be puttin' them on just yet, need some elbows and the polishing. Reid and I are talkin' GT-40 heads. He has a good line on some.

john

backfoot, yeah marine dist. onlyway to go. Thought about a regular auto as the motor turns that way but, no sense paying all that money and having crap out on you.

Thanks for the props. Actually, I did end up getting the MSD coil. I started without it, but my existing coil only lasted about a week. Scared the piss out of me after all that work. I was worried about the 6AL lasting with the wet environment and the vibes like you say, not to mention the heat. Not even a hint of a problem so far (knock on wood). I did make sure that I used the marine distributor though.

87BFN,

I do have a MSD dist. The ignition box is a 6AL. I know, not the marine version, but I was running out of funds. Still works flawlessly. The bottom circumference of my motor box has a 1" x 1" wood strip that the upholstery is stapled to. I took a small piece of 1/2" marine plywood that I had left over from my floor replacement and treated it with epoxy so it doesn't rot and just screwed it to that furring strip. Then I attached the ignition box to that and dressed everything off. You should be able to see that from the engine pic on the first page of this thread. If you want a better pic, I can get that for you too. Just let me know. I wired it up with waterproof quick disconnects (from MSD) so I can remove the engine cover if I need to and the ignition box stays with it without having to remove it. It's kinda slick.

John, glad to hear that you're staying busy anyway. There's only so many coats of wax you can put on your boat before it doesn't add to the finish.

You can get Flitz at any auto parts store, Lowe's, Home Depot etc. Probably even Wal Mart. Just wanted to verify that those manifolds are somewhat smooth already. Like an AL skin water jacket over the top of a cast unit. That's what mine were like. Not a solid cast AL piece. A solid cast piece would probably be pretty rough to start with and you might have to start with something else to get them smoother before using the Flitz. Hope that desciption makes sense.

also jbear, check out the way Randy polishes his knob. It would probably work on manifolds and heads as well.

John/ReidP;

I worked for an interconnect in WI for 24 yr's. I installed PBX's as a lead tech for 14, then became the install dept. Supr. for 5 years. Missed getting my hands dirty but liked management so I became a project manager (hence the PM John) for the last 5 years there. Job got eliminated due to downsizing. Relocated to FL (so I could ski year round) and currently working for a place in Tampa rebuilding used PBX's through Siemens. I actually tried getting into the wireless side because I did PM a couple of microwave installs and also got into the in-house wireless scenario's that integrated with PBX's. I thought it would be really cool to PM cell tower installs, but evidently, nobody else did. I worked systems as small as 6 phones to extremely complex 5000+ station location systems that were distributed to several sites across country.

Telecom guys rule!!!!

John, as far as the polishing of the manifolds goes. I just used Flitz with combinations of terry cloth towels, wool buffing wheels (the kind that you put in a drill) and newspaper to get it to the point that it's at now. Also used a dremel tool to get the hard to reach spots. The manifolds were somewhat polished already from the factory but they did turn out very nice. If you have the same type Commander manifolds that are in the pic that TRBenj sent with the Malibu floor rebuild, they should polish up very nicely. Just might take some time. Cost is minimal, but I did use a number of tubes of Flitz. Seeing as you're retired, what else do you have to do? By the way, you don't have to be embara$$ed about anything with that boat. The pic's that I've seen are awesome and it's an honor to be able to able to see something like that, not to mention the guys that will even make it more impressive!!!!

Eddie, I also just noticed that you're a Telecom PM. I'm a telecom GC on the wireless side. Are you wireline or wireless and if so for whom and where?

Eddie; Took another look at this thread. Boy I like the look of your motor. I have a set of Commanders laying in the garage that need to be buffed so I can replace the PCM's on my motor. What did you use on them? I am gonna be pretty embarresed when you look under my cover!

john

backfoot100 wrote: I've been in and behind a good number of 'Bu's both young and old. I like 'em. The posted photo is small and kinda hard to see but it looks similar in lines to a Euro F3. How about some more specifics about a the boat (year, model, etc.) and how you ended up getting that to the UK? There has to be a story behind that. Try posting a pic with photobucket to get a better look at it.

Riley wrote: If the CC of that era are better in quality, it's the behind the scenes stuff.

Thats exactly where you can see the difference. For example, Malibu used to inject the foam after the floor was in place. The floors were made entirely of wood, rather than fibergla$$ over foam on the CC's. Here is an '86 Skier thats being restored:

Riley,

We probably have as many of those 80s model Malibus in my area as anywhere (they are made about 90 miles from my house). In my experience the boats are nimble, and a little faster than the CCs of the same era. I think they do tend to be pretty bouncy in rough water, and they don't have a very high freeboard.

It's not that common to find the 80s models in good shape. At the time, the boats were sold as price point boats as Malibu entered the comp boat marketplace. They are notorious for rotting floors and stringers, and also for the "Malibu Lean." I don't find too many people who put a lot of time or money into them, because on the open market here, they only sell for 4-7K. Malibu also chose some wild color schemes, which I don't think have held up over time with collectors as have the more cla$$ic schemes of the CCs.

Bu has come a long way in terms of quality and, of course, their prices have risen accordingly. On the other hand, my neighbor had an 85 which he put over 2800 hours on. Can't ask for much more than that.

Looks like you've found a good boat, really well taken care of. Enjoy it. BKH

I've been in and behind a good number of 'Bu's both young and old. I like 'em. The posted photo is small and kinda hard to see but it looks similar in lines to a Euro F3. How about some more specifics about a the boat (year, model, etc.) and how you ended up getting that to the UK? There has to be a story behind that. Try posting a pic with photobucket to get a better look at it.

No one likes cla$$ic Malibus?

Nautique2001 the barefoot model has a barefoot plate on the transom from the factory(which was WAY ahead of it's time). I think that there may have been more engine options too and the third speedo which this doesn't have. Other than that, I don't think there was any differences. It's a basic Advance hull. This is the only barefoot model that I've ever seen and I've only seen the same engine in one other American Skier.