68 Chris Craft

Ran out of caulk... chrome is off to the plater to be stripped but i need to figure out what to do with the aluminum windshield frame yet.

I picked up an older one last month on ebay just in case I dont like the look after the varnish goes on.

Sure, I dont care. I think I only paid $25 for it, onnc im done with it, it will probably lay in my specialty tool box for ever after.

Looks great!

This year's Unofficial Green lake Reunion would be a great place to show her off!

Beautiful work. Chris Crafts always look like their wood fits together so well.

Look'n great!

I'm not sure where that is Eric, I am not really much of a show person. I did it for a while with cars and got tired of everyone that came buy telling me what they think i did wrong. Im more the resto-mod guy... I did want to ask you about the trans in this thing sometime though eric, motor is all rebuilt and the trans has 950 hours on it, should i go through it while it is out or are they prety bullit proof? change the oil and seals and go? never had to crack one open in 25 years of running the same 2 inboards.

Thanks for all the kind words, and yes it will go in the water, everything i build is made to drive, it will certainly be babied for a few years till it gets a little farther down the road.

Meeting with the chrome plater this morning and spending my time sanding and polishing aluminum parts. That pearled dash is going to be hard to polish but we we will see how it goes. Windshield frame was a bear to get apart without damaging the frame or the glass. I bought another boat lift I need to drag in the shop and d sides and doors on so i can keep it out of the sun. I build one like that for the mustang years ago and it worked great.

More varnish today, hopefully get all those coats done in the next week.

I don't think i have a picture of the lift anymore, we built it back in the 80s and sold it with the Michigan house during the 10 years we spent off the water. I just picked up another aluminum shore station I have siting outside my shop door right now and will start making the modifications to it in a month or so. If it comes out well i am going to build extra parts to convert the other lift as well.

I saw an ad on craigslist in Jackson Mi for a canvas company that makes a full sided canvas but i don't like that it does not have a tight look and a lower rail and doors that open. I will post some pictures when i get to modifying the shore stations.

stang i hear you on the critiqes, its up to you on the trans, it has been sitting for a while. is it a Paragon or a borg,
im more of the update it type myself, i hate lifting the lid to fiddle with ***************...more of a turn key guy

It is a velvet drive, has not been run in about 15 years. I probably should freshen it up while i have it out and in the shop. I rebuilt a couple v drives for Dads wellcraft but i have never opened up velvet to see how they work.

We used to sell sailboats 20+ years ago and had one with a bad trans problem, probably a cooler. It burnt up 3 times on the trip from FLA to texas, got to where i could pull it under sail with a rig made from a pallet and a handful of kmart tools. got it to the marina late the first night and walked to town for tools so i could have it laying on the dock when the guys got in the next morning. from there on we would take it out under sail slide into a marina and throw it up on the dock as we were tying off. Had a lot of interesting trips moving boats around the great lakes and around the eastern 1/2 of the country at 16.

This has been sitting around done since the project started. I rebuilt the motor right off the bat then got bogged down in the wood work. it was nice to drag it out and start the break in today before i drop it in the boat. Its a video clip of it running, dont know where the little arrow went but if you click on it it does take you to the video.



Once i get it dialed in here it gets dropped in and we start the race to the finish line, 20th anniversary is coming up the end of july and i need it done by then. Finally finished the all the coats of varnish and block sanding, now its time to assemble this thing... finally

Yes it is the wife's, and she was very excited to hear the engine roar to life today. She was there when I shot that video for her and her dad. Boat looks pretty good too. I need to paint the stripes yet and start hanging hardware and interior. Sure sounds nice, even on the video.

Sean,
I can't remember if I've mentioned the method I use or not. The sharper the seam edges are the better it works. Just before the last coat of varnis, I just slop the paint into the seams. Then a wet sand across the top removes the excess paint. The final coat of varnish will hardly add any yellow tint to the white seams.

On any true seam, you will always get some movement due to the moisture content change in the wood. The false seams should be fine. I can walk up to any boat that has any time on the deck job and tell which seams are false and which ones are true!

Wow, nice

That does indeed look like a paragon not borg

Starting to look like a boat again, found my wiring diagrams so i should finish that up tomorrow. Hope the plater come through this week, still missing pieces to finish out the trim.