New and First Project

[GSUlimbhanger63]

I just bought a 1985 Bayliner Capri Cuddy Cabin that a little work to be done. To give some insight into myself, I love being out on the water and enjoy boating with my buddies but never owned a boat myself. I found this boat online and figured that it would be a nice project boat that I can work on and finally call my own. I am asking for advice from the far more experienced as to the best ways that I can complete my boat and in the most reliable manor as well. I am in no rush right now to complete the boat as I am a college student and hope to work on it at a stead pace and hopefully have it ready for the water by next spring.


To get things started the floor is rotted out of the boat and needs replacing before I can do anything else. Thing is, I dont want to start hacking away and mess up the hull integrity and anything else that doesnt need messing up. This is the first task on my restoration project. Any help and advice as to how to go about this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

-Chris

 

[allpoints360]

Re: New and First Project

Welcome GSU!

Everybody starts somewhere. That being said, replacing a deck is what I would call a fairly major undertaking... expect the unexpected. Deck replacement turns into stringer replacement turns into transom replacement, and on. Rot never sleeps.

Others here have done it and very well, and their "journals" are documented on this site. Use the SEARCH. You can literally spend hours pouring through their threads. But it's worth it. Then you'll have specific questions as you go.

Send photos - everyone likes them. Then the "skilled artisans" around here will jump in and guide you.

Never quit and good luck!

 

[erikgreen]

Re: New and First Project

I don't want to get you down, but you are starting the same path many of us here have gone down. That's not to say you're doing the wrong thing, I just want to prepare you for what you'll find.

Boats rot from the bottom up, so if the deck is soft, odds are pretty good everything under it will be too. This means after you pull up the deck you'll find rotted wood stringers, wet foam, and a wet and rotted transom.

You can still repair the boat if you find all that. Just keep in mind that you'll likely find this stuff and need to decide what to do.... don't sell yourself on the idea that the boat just needs a new deck and is ready to go, as so many of us have. Be ready to find more problems.

The first thing to do is to make sure you have a good, working drive system, meaning the engine and controls. If that's not the case, then you might want to consider another boat. If the engine is bad, and the structure is bad, all you have is a hull, and you can get a boat with bad structure but a good engine for not much more than you pay for a totally junked one.

So explore and look for rot, be prepared for what you find, and post here for advice when you find things. We've all done "the full monty" on a boat sometime, and we know how to fix wet wood.

Erik

 

[notsunkyet]

Re: New and First Project

hey there... congrats on your boat/project.... I did the same thing! I told my wife that there was this boat for a good price and next thing i knew (even with my objection against we have a boat in our driveway!!! )

im no stanger to dragging things home that most will laugh at and or scowl but who cares i love tinkering!!!! i build streetrods and just about whatever i can mess with! so enters this Bayliner... i saw the surface rot and actually wanted to walk away but the Admiral (read wife) can be "determined" and since i wear the pants in the family i started demo shortly after i put my foot down!
i started assessing rot and thought oh cool its just the seat area and i tore it out and the more i tore into it the deaper it went!!!! so now i have redone the stringers and just got finished installing and glassing the floors and hull.. Ok so now comes rebuilding the front seats and the taking the cap off to redo the transom....

I know i know... i usually live by the rule "KISS" KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID but i figure for under a grand (including purchase and everything new) ill have a great boat that will certainly last another 20 years or so...

So dont get put out by the project!! stick with it and enter in with a plan.... there are LAOT of other nuts on here who are just like us... Drag it home agrivate the neighbors fix it and enjoy types... Everyone on here is willing to help out any waythey can ... believe me the guys have saved me more headache and aggrivation than ill ever admit!!!

so go for it!

 

[GSUlimbhanger63]

Re: New and First Project

Thanks yall for the advice and tips so far. I am really excited about undertaking this project and look forward to enjoying every part of it. I took pictures from the beginning once I had it hauled back to the house and Ill try to post them on here soon so maybe someone can see them and know in more detail what I need to do. I have made a list of things that I feel I need to accomplish in the order that I think they would need to be done and again I'll try to post that with the pictures once I get them loaded on the computer so if I've missed something or need to do one step in a different order someone can let me know. Again, thanks to those who encouraged and offered tips already, it is greatly appreciated and I look forward to learning from everyone on here who's willing to share their knowledge with a newbie!

-Chris

 

[notsunkyet]

Re: New and First Project

hey there GSU good luck on your resto!!! Contact us composits and get prices on resin.... there is alot of back and forth on poly vs expoxy ... i used poly.. but they have everything you will need....if ya need any thing i can answer pm me and ill help ya all i can

 

[GSUlimbhanger63]

Re: New and First Project

Ok..

So finally got some time tonight to start working on my project. Only was able to get about an hour and a half worth of work done but its a start. More to come tomorrow. Finally got some pictures to start seeing my progress.

The first pictures are the before. The outside of the boat used to look like the stern, all dirty and such cause the guy left it out under a tree for a few years but once I got it towed home I was excited and just washed the outside real quick to make it look presentable from the outside for a while.

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[GSUlimbhanger63]

Re: New and First Project

More pics...

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The trash bag I put all the leaves and pinestraw must have weighed around 25 pounds by the time I had to stop.

 

[GSUlimbhanger63]

Re: New and First Project

More pics...

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Yes the floor is totally rotten and I will of course have to redo the entire thing I knew that coming in. I just wanted a project boat I could restore and call my own. Now for some advice/help on some things I found today. First, the previous owner left fuel in the fuel tank. It is totally unuseable and I planned on replacing it anyway. Question is what should I do with the tank and the fuel? Anyone know where I should take it for proper disposal? Or should I just have a bonfire? Ha ha just kidding.

Finally, the last picture is a picture of the battery left in the boat. The red cable is not connected but the black one still is. When trying to take it out for more room, I found the wing nut is broken keeping the black cable on the battery. Its too rusted to move and I plan on redoing the entire electrical system anyway so my question is what is the best way for removing this quickly from the boat? Should I cut through the cable or follow the attached wire wherever and pull it out that way? Asked a friend of mine who works on his truck a lot and he said that if the red cable was disconnected I should be fine but as you can see, I chickened out cause I didn't want to hurt myself or more importantly the boat.... So its still in there taking up valuable room need to remove the deck and everything else. Any advice, tips, help, etc is greatly appreciated.

I plan tomorrow to remove the bases for the seats, clean out the cuddy up front, remove any more debris, and hopefully begin on taking out the deck and getting to the stringers (which I can already tell are rotten as well).

Thanks everyone!

-Chris

 

[notsunkyet]

Re: New and First Project

HEHEHE yup your like the rest of us drag it home and you see the potential, and you know its there, and ya dig right in and start removing 20+ years of stuff and think ... man did i bite off more than i want to chew? but before ya know it all of the itchy from grindingis gone , the cuts fade and the "will the rot never end" wears off and then new stuff starts goes in and then its done!!!!!! keep at it nice bayliner ya got!

 

[ezmobee]

Re: New and First Project

You certainly have your work cut out for you but I always thought those little Bayliner cuddies were neat. I would think you'd be able to pry that connector off the battery.

 

[blouderback]

Re: New and First Project

Good Luck! I look forward to following your progress through the winter. The outside looks pretty good, so a little work on the interior and you should have yourself a nice little toy. Do you know if the engine runs or not?

 

[GSUlimbhanger63]

Re: New and First Project

Thanks fella's for the compliments. The outside does seem to be in very good shape so I'm pretty sure there should be no patching or filling, just need to re-gelcoat it and make it shine.

Blouderback-
The engine currently mounted to the boat does not run. Its an 85 hp Force which I have come to see seemed to be very troublesom engines. The fella I bought it from also said that it was modified somehow to run 120 hp but I really was not concerned about that particular engine. He also added a 1995 Yamaha 130 hp engine in the deal that he said he had heard run but at the time he thought the reed valves were what was messing up the engine. The Yamaha motor is not locked up, still turns, but wont start up. I ran up to the local marine store in town and talked to some guys up there about bringing in the Yamaha in and having it inspected to see if they can figure out what was wrong with it. They said they could but that it needed to be mounted on the boat before they could do anything. Problem there is I have no engine/motor hoist, the Yamaha is in the bed of my truck still from when I picked it up from the seller on Sunday, and I cant figure out a way to swap the motors out, let alone detach the Force one currently on so I can work more freely on the deck and floor of the boat. I will figure something out though, somehow. If these motors dont work out I have put the word out through a friend that somehow deals with boats to be on the lookout for a motor that I could put on here for relatively less than buying a completly new one.

Again, thanks yall for the compliments and advice. I plan to put in some more work hours this afternoon after class and Ill have more pictures to come.

-Chris

 

[allpoints360]

Re: New and First Project

Man! What happened to those seats? Looks like the tops have been chewed off?

You should be able to use some pliers to get the thumb screw to turn on the negative cable. Use WD40 and let it sit for a while if necessary. Also, use the battery for your core exchange when you get another.

Old gas disposal can be a problem we've all dealt with at some time. How old is it? I know you said it's unusable. How much? If it's a small amount, and it's not too old, maybe you can use it in your lawnmover, or something else. If it's bad and it's alot, contact your local county about the laws. It's a pain, but always better to do it right.

On your motor, you can use your trailer to "jack" the motor off the transom. The motor will have to be trimmed down all the way. Disconnet everything (cables, steering, loosen transom bolts) Lower the trailer tongue all the way, place a block or two under the motor skeg, then jack up the tongue of the trailer. The motor should lift up. BUT, YOU MUST HAVE A PLAN on where it's going (like into your truck)

Best to have a few guys around to help. Put the other motor on in reverse.

 

[SBTOM]

Re: New and First Project

Looks like a fun project! You are gonna get to know that boat really well! In any case, if there is no red wire, you should be able to clip the black one and just pull the battery out... make sure to keep the battery though, because if you don't have an old battery to trade in when you go to buy the new one, they will probably charge a 10$core fee

 

[notsunkyet]

Re: New and First Project

as far as the force goes there is a memeber here named john ampora... he is like engine god!!! look him up and he can help with al of you force questions.... aslo check out the main forum page and there is a place just for the force engines

 

[ezmobee]

Re: New and First Project

Yeah that's one of the Force's that's still pretty much 100% Chrysler and they weren't bad motors. Later on after Mercury acquired them they started being a hodge-podge of stuff from the parts bin.

 

[GSUlimbhanger63]

Re: New and First Project

More work done, more issues to figure out. Here's some pictures of the work I was able to get done today. Pulled out most all the carpet and took off the side upholstery on each side of the boat.

As you can see in one of the pictures the controls on the side of the boat are still attached along with the cables leading to the stern of the boat. I took the four screws off of the control front but there is no way that I can pull it out on either side. So now the right side upholstery piece remains in the boat because of this problem. Any advice on how to remove it? Im trying to save the sides to use as templates when the time comes to put everything back in so I dont want to tear it up too much.

Also, I have a 3" steel scraper to help get the sticky adhesive off the hull before I begin to sand it down for re-decking and new stringers, but I have a question as to to the appropriate way to get the stringers and wood off of the hull of the boat without damaging its integrity. What is the best way to cut through the fiberglass holding the stringers and wood together?

Pics before and after today:

 

[GSUlimbhanger63]

Re: New and First Project

More pics:

 

[ezmobee]

Re: New and First Project

Definitely makin' progress. Hopefully you've checked out 109jb's awesome upholstery tutorial. You could probably replicate those side pieces quite well http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=347724