1973 Correct Craft Ski Nautique Restoration

Sweet Boat!!!!

I just noticed that your profile says you are in Bremen, Indiana. What lake would you boat on? I boat on Lake of the woods. We have a orange 1972 Mustang. Would be cool to see you your boat out on that lake.

pcjeeper wrote: Good old Lake of the Weeds! Grew up there, this boat has been on the lake of the woods since 84 to about 2010...just a couple doors down for where I grew up at the north end. I used to have the big red stingray 220sx i/o... Sold it a few years ago when I moved to town...pm me sometime...I'm sure I've seen you around the lake! I hope to put the boat in the water this weekend see you around!

We camp at ruperts. Would you happen to know the raglins? My uncle is re-building their old 1969 ski nautique. We won't be there for the next 2 weeks. But hope to see you. I'll be cruising around, don't be afraid to pull me over. I might be suprused though to see a 14 year old driving a correct craft mustang around the lake    .

Wowza!!! I need to check the site more often. Just saw this for the first time!

GREAT color combo! (I might be a little biased tho...    I thought my SBC powered 73 was a rare power option! Would be great if they could find the original invoice to verify the power, they found mine....


Here is a pic of my dash when I installed the depth sounder.... excuse the temporary Sun tach...my original Teleflex had been sent away for a rebuild. You can see part of my speedo's.




Like a few guys have already said, dont waste money on a wrap...buff out the hull and patch the damage for now until you can afford to have the repair done right. Get her running and go have fun!!
btw, I had 4 or 5 spots of gelcoat repair done.. Previous owner had installed a tower... first thing I took off and had repaired. Gel repair is not cheap...but worth the investment in the long run.

Nice work so far!

Just finished the repair to the front...before original damage photo is earlier in the thread this is after the crack had been ground and patched, and filler applied, then after some paint...



while that was in progress, got the gauges, wheel and mirror cleaned up and put back together...



Waiting on the carter carb rebuild kit to come in, then will be running it through the paces, test the cooling system/water pump, and then hopefully in the water this weekend.

Chevy350 wrote: 62 wood, that red steering wheel is amazing looking. If I recall, that's original right? If looks just like the steering wheels used on old cc's. I can't get over that red.

That has been a matter of discussion before. The original owner still lives in the same house on the river and swears the red metal flake wheel was on the boat when he bought it new in 73. The boat was factory owned when he saw it at a tournament in Ohio. He made a deal on it there and traded his mid 60's Mustang in on it.

I have an extra black wheel from another SN, but have no intention of swapping them.


another point of interest.... she still has original carpet and upholstery... there are no signs of it ever having a back seat.

Is the play in the wheel to shaft / or does the shaft itself have the play?
I havent had this wheel off, but I think the hubs are tapered. Is it fully seated?

Those sparkly "the 500" steering wheels have been around forever but I still don't think it's an original wheel, Steve! They probably reused the hub and center cap though, those are teleflex like the original would have been.

Pull the snap ring, remove the center cap and you'll see 3 bolts that tighten the spokes to the hub. The big nut in the center will tighten the hub to the shaft.

DrCC wrote: And if you remove the wheel there are 5 screws in the back of the hub.

Potentially, yes- good point... But based on the wheels I've seen, the ones that have the swappable hub are less common than the ones that don't.

Dont let the water sit inside it. Do a compression test to see if it's a head gasket if not. then pull off the starboard manifold first and look for signs of water tracking and rust. I had a manifold go bad last year and was able to see where the water went. No need to pull the engine just yet

Just one cylinder with water in it? Any sign of water in the other cylinders on that bank? Every time I've had water in the cylinders it was due to cracked exhaust manifolds. But it was always more than one cylinder at a time.

Like they said, be 100% sure you got the water out and then start with a compression test. It that comes back good I'd look at the exhaust. If not, tear down and pray for a head gasket problem.

With it being the last cylinder certainly there is hope that it is only the manifold.   As discussed manifold off and look inside for signs of water or cracks, compression test the engine either way. Don't get too excited about the actual value,report back all 8 of them here for commments. Ebasic power has replacements available Ebasic power for Barr manifolds they dont say chrysler but they get the job done.   I might have an extra one around but they are insane to ship.   Definitely dont take the engine out or apart until after you check the manifold and compression test.

Pulled the exhaust manifold today and didn't really find any cracks, going to do a compression test Saturday next...

The back 3 cylinders on the starboard side are rusty and pitted but the front one is not, hard to tell really...

Any updates?