1975 Century Arabian - Total Restore

[marksa1458]

I have been searching for a V-Drive restoration for several years, I have chased countless boats through craigslist and had little luck. Over the last couple of years, I have built a boat from Glen-L plans - a cool 11' runabout with a jetski engine and restored two 60's era fiberglass runabouts.

This week, I was lucky enough to get my hands on a 1975 Century Arabian V-Drive with a Chrysler 440 V8. The boat itself is in woeful condition, there is rot everywhere, a hole in the port side and some decent gelcoat damage on the starboard side. As typical, instead of fixing things correctly some previous owner placed bandaid over bandaid further deteriorating the boat. At some point the boat flooded/partially sunk and the condition of the motor is a mystery, but it looks pretty rough...

The good - the seller I purchased from had intended to do the restore himself but lost interest. He purchased a very modern tandem axel trailer that is in "new" condition. He stated that the trailer has never been put in the water to launch a boat. The other good is that just about all of the classic hardware is in great shape. The chrome on the spot light, bow light, bow ring and the ski tow has little deterioration. The front windshield is perfect!!!





We started the tear down today and removed all the interior and pulled up the awful brown carpet. Not sure how we will actually pull the engine to start tackling the stringers.

Anyway let the Restoration begin!!!!! :joyous:

 

[glenn property of pam]

Re: 1975 Century Arabian - Total Restore

good luck and remember that you can never have to many pictures at the beginning of a tear down as they can save a bunch of time tying to work out how it should go back together.

 

[marksa1458]

Re: 1975 Century Arabian - Total Restore

Deconstruction begins... made some good progress, interior is out and the gas tank is out. There is rot everywhere.



I really like how they "built" things back in the day. The rudder is controlled by a 1" rod that is connected to the steering wheel by a mechanical lever:




More pics to follow:

 

[marksa1458]

Re: 1975 Century Arabian - Total Restore

The boat was partially submerged for a while. There is no water in any of the oils, but the starter and pulleys are covered in rust... The motor is a total mystery at this point.

 

[saginawbayboater]

Re: 1975 Century Arabian - Total Restore

Very Cool Rig!! I love the steering box. It looks like a Saginaw gear? I'll be aboard for this one.:eagerness:

 

[glenn property of pam]

Re: 1975 Century Arabian - Total Restore

rot is good it makes all the screws that wont undo easier to pull out :lol:.

 

[ezmobee]

Re: 1975 Century Arabian - Total Restore

Good lord that's an ugly boat Looks like a tank though and probably rides like a Cadillac. I'm sure it'll be awesome all fixed up. Good luck with it.

 

[4Winns2]

Re: 1975 Century Arabian - Total Restore

The marina just south of us on the lake I grew up on was a Century dealer at one time. When I was kid I would go down there and look over all the new Centurys he had in stock. We're talking 60s' and 70's era. I think I still have some old Century brochures somewhere. The Arabian was the class model in the line. Great looking boat! I'll be following along on your restore.

 

[marksa1458]

Re: 1975 Century Arabian - Total Restore

Thanks for the words of encouragement!!! Yes, everything pretty much falls apart. Deconstruction is somewhat easy. hopefully, I can get the engine pulled this week, so the stringer repair can begin.

 

[marksa1458]

Re: 1975 Century Arabian - Total Restore

Update - We got the motor pulled this weekend!!! Was pretty easy, but having 800 pounds 8 feet in the air was a bit nerve racking.





Good news is that the motor is not seized. Started to clean out the junk that has collected on the bottom





Found the drain plug too..

 

[1NewBoatGuy]

Re: 1975 Century Arabian - Total Restore

Wow, how nice to have an engine hoist it is... Now I'm watching this... Looks like this is about to get good.
An inboard boat is a much trickier restore than most dare here (at least from what I've seen). Good fiberglass work is a necessity here. Looks like there has been quite a bit of work done in the past.
Good luck

 

[marksa1458]

Re: 1975 Century Arabian - Total Restore

Demolition continues with good progress.... Rudder is out, water pickup is out, steering rod is out and port side deck is out. No surprise the foam is soaked and the wood is mush. While I'm not surprised at the amount of water damage, the transom is completely rotten from top to bottom, would think the top of the transom would be in decent condition but it isn't..

Found two separate colonies of bugs, fortunately they are all dead and it looks like they removed some of the foam for me!!









So far it looks like the wood is mahogany and it was bedded to the hull into the flotation foam which is a surprise. Was it common to do this in the mid 70's - I had planned to bed the stringers into some thickened epoxy, would it be better to use some flotation foam instead?

 

[Pmccraney]

Re: 1975 Century Arabian - Total Restore

In my 70s chris craft, the stringers had longitudinal arches between a few contact points on the hull and when they poured the foam it ran underneath the stringers. You can bed with pl glue or pb (thickened resin).

 

[jones01m]

Re: 1975 Century Arabian - Total Restore

Marksa, mine is a 76. I have been away from the project for some time but getting back into it. I am looking forward to watching your thread. Sanding to the hull is by far the worst part. The hull construction is looking very familiar.

 

[marksa1458]

Re: 1975 Century Arabian - Total Restore

Deconstruction continues --- Was thinking the foam was going to be painful to remove but it comes right out in giant junks.

Need some advice here. It looks like there are two main stringers on each side, easy enough - but the bottom of the hull is covered in foam and it was shaped. Once shaped they applied a roving over it and on top of the roving they mounted the mahogany for the engine/drivetrain mounting surface. see pics:



in the above pic, i left a small section - how did they get this shape. There is no wood structure underneath and the wood sat on top of the foam????

Some other pics:





I really need some advice on how to reproduce what the factory did - will epoxy/cloth adhere to the foam properly or should I reproduce the original shape out of wood and then fill with foam. It is interesting to note that the foam while wet, is not as wet as I would expect. Also, the water ended up taking most of the adhesion away, allowing for things to pull apart fairly easily.

When I originally brought the boat home there was a pretty noticeable dip in the port stern that looks like it has straightened itself out.

Before:



after:

 

[jones01m]

Re: 1975 Century Arabian - Total Restore

Marksa, our boats look like about the same construction. Around my engine mount (mine is an I/O) I had a solid beam (4x6) running several feet stern to bow - completely rotted. You can see on approximately page 3 of my thread what interpretation I had of the original construction for my rebuild. If you cut just a bit closer to the gunwale you will be able to pop that last little bit of ply out. The gunwales are full of foam also, and I would leave this in place. I took mine out only because the previous owner had so much carpet adhesive on it that could not be removed. If you need more specifics on other aspects, I might be able to elaborate further. Hope this helps.

 

[chconger]

Re: 1975 Century Arabian - Total Restore

For these;

....I know that epoxy will adhere to foam fine.


There is another century on this site that is active now. You both have these things.

 

[marksa1458]

Re: 1975 Century Arabian - Total Restore

More Deconstruction Photos - was able to get the last port stringer out. It was in surprisingly good shape with just some moisture on the bottom. It wasn't glued to the hull, but held in place by the roving. My thought was that while I was here, it was little effort to replace it:



Also removed the port side Transom - Looks like they used a thin sheet of Mahogany/Luan ply with a sectioned plywood face glued. The plywood was severely rotted:



I'm concerned with hull flex from side to side. There is no structural support built in and I am assuming that the engine/drivetrain/v-drive ties the whole structure together:



Anyone know if this is actually the case?

 

[jones01m]

Re: 1975 Century Arabian - Total Restore

marksa,

The previous owner of my 76 was a hacker so I made some assumptions on this and put in a bulkhead. Other than that, I feel confident that the sole, transom, engine, stringers, etc., are all working together to adequately address the concern you have on flex. I have photo documented everything on my rebuild thread if you are interested. It is just my interpretation of the original design intent after reading hundreds of threads.

 

[marksa1458]

Re: 1975 Century Arabian - Total Restore

Jones,

I read through your thread some time ago, I need to go reread it again. Your craft is coming together very nicely...