New Boat - Time for a Restoration Project

[Ross_Ronin]

Hello everyone, I'm absolutely new here in more ways than one. Last week I bought a boat for stupid cheap off of Facebook. It's a Bayliner Capri, but I can't really tell you more than that as I'm having trouble identifying it and finding information. The previous owners had been letting it sit under a tree, with no cover, for about 20+ years. It had belonged to his mother in law who had passed, and his brother in law had gotten the boat. Then, he passed away, and the guy I bought this from inherited the boat but didn't want it or anything else having to do with it.

The hull looks solid - no holes, dents, or cracks from what I can tell. But the entire interior is rotted out and just falls apart in your hands. The problem is - I know next to nothing about boats. My only experience with boats was with my father-in-law who was a charter fisherman on the west coast of Florida in a small town called Homosassa. That experience involved only riding in it and going fishing - which I also had not previously done until I married his daughter. Since he passed away, we've moved to a small town in Nebraska, about 5min away from Lake McConaughy, and I've gone fishing off the beach but it just hasn't been the same and I want to be on that water. I need to be on that water. So when I saw this add for a super cheap boat, I took him up on it.

So, I know this is a Bayliner Capri, it has an outboard motor that says 85 Force, and I have a lot of work to do. I've been trying to find out what specific model of Capri there is, but the numbers that I'm finding don't make sense and are difficult to interpret. 0's look like O's, 1's look like I's. I believe this was starting to be built in 1984, and may have been finished sometime in 1985, but I'm not certain. HIN decoders I find online aren't any kind of helpful either, so I'm turning to you all for help as my own research is hitting brick walls.

Here's what I think I need to do, and I'd love some input:
Identify the specific model
Try like hell to find some spec sheets and videos on how to restore this boat
Pull all the rotted crap out of it and bring it down to just the shell
Start the rebuilding process

I've added some pictures so you all can see what I'm working with, and I'd appreciate any help in identifying what exactly this boat is, and if anybody has any experience or knows of any blogs/vlogs on restoring this boat.

 

[tpenfield]

Yes, it is a 1984 Bayliner Capri.

You probably won't find any spec sheets or anything like that. Boat documentation (manuals, etc.) are pretty limited . . . mostly the engines are what is documented.

You will be digging down to the keel on that boat. Plenty of restoration threads to view and get an ideal of what you are in for. Expect to spend about $4k for hull, interior, maybe more if the engine does not run, which it might not.

 

[gm280]

I have no idea what type Bayliner Capri it is, but I will tell you up front, any "cheap" or even "free" boat is the worst type boat to get your hands on. Why, you may ask? Because everything, and I do mean everything has to be totally rebuilt. From the transom to the stringers, floor(s) and console(s), it all has to be rebuilt back to something you can rely on and be safe fishing with it.

With that stated, this iboat site/place has tons of very experienced boater that has been in your exact same place and have rebuilt their boats back to better then new.

I will also tell you up front, you are in for a lot of dirty, smelly, itchy, stinky, sweaty work to get it back into a decent reliable boat again. But it all is doable and many before you have done so...

So if you are on board, let the build begin...

The very, very first thing you need to do now is take tons of pictures of everything from every angle and top, bottom, bow and transom. Then follow that up with measuring everything as well. Start at the transom and measure from the center line to the sides of the hull on each side and plot that info on either a sheet of paper or a computer program to have all that infor captured for future needs. I usually go a bout a foot for each measurements and that seems to work good for me. But any reasonable increment will work..

Why that is so important is because if you remove the top cap, and I am thinking you will, you have to make sure the sides of the boat don't splay out of shape so the top cap will fit back on again. Usually guys make a cradle to hold the boat sides in place during the demolition and rebuild...

Let us kn ow what your plans are and ask questions. You will get answers... JMHO

 

[Ross_Ronin]

I took some more pictures of what I'm working with. You should be able to better see the level of rot that is inside this thing since I started the cleaning process. I'm planning on taking a shovel and just start, literally, digging out all the rot and dirt so I can have a clean area to start the restoration. I will admit that I'm more than a little annoyed with the state that this boat is in. If someone had entrusted me to hold their boat on my property, I certainly would have done more than just park it under a tree. Even wrapping a simple Walmart tarp around it would have been better. I was taught that if you borrow something (like tools) or if someone trusts you with their property, you take care of it and return it to them in as good, or preferably better, condition than you received it.

Even if I sink in $4k into restoring this boat, it will still be cheaper than a new one - and this was within our budget, particularly during these times. As for the hard work, I'm not shy at all about hard work or getting my hands dirty. The day we brought it home I stopped at a car wash to blast the exterior a little and clean it up better while I also started to remove dirt and leaves. I mean, I had sprouts of living plants starting to grow in this thing - and that is the exact opposite of okay lol.

I realize that everything will have to be rebuilt - I'm kind of looking forward to that, actually, so that I know everything about this boat, and so I can make some custom modifications for what I'm needing/wanting to make it 100% mine and unique to this family. I have 4 kids and 13 grandkids that are also over here almost daily and are excited to start rebuilding. While I'm working from home, I have at least one grandkid over here crawling into the boat - some are pretending to drive it (they're really young) and some are doing a little cleaning or trying to research what model of boat this is and what they can find to help restore it. One has started babysitting again saying that she wants to help buy things that are needed for it. If there's one thing that can be said about this family, we stick together and help each other.

So that said, this four-day weekend should be packed with trying to get this down to the shell. When you say "remove the top cap", what are you referring to? Google is only showing me fittings/fixtures for boats, and I imagine that's not what you mean.

 

[kcon]

Sweet boat! Off the bat know that you won't be on the water on that boat until at least 2021, even for that to work out you'll have to put more time than you want to into this thing - my project was very similar and it took me 3 years start to finish, here I am in year 4 still doing some odds and ends to mine (link to my project in my signature)

That being said I do hope you do it, and post lots of pictures here of the process!

So when he says top cap, he means this: small consumer boats are made in two part molds - split horizontally. here is what my "top cap" looks like removed, as yours will pretty much look the same.

You have to remove the rub rail, screws, and glue holding the two sides together.

I suggest you invest in lots of N95 masks (if you can even get them right now), gloves, tyvek suits, an angle grinder with flap disk sanding disks, a reciprocating saw, and a rotary sander. The flap disk grinder disks will make easy work of grinding out the old fiberglass encapsulating the rotted material. Be aware now - Fiberglass grinding SUCKS and will make you itchy for days.

 

[Tassie 1]

Not sure there's really any reason or point in getting cranky about the condition of the boat, given the condition of the vehicles in the background,

It's a free boat...( the worst type )
you could have said nope...and probably will wish you did down the track a bit LOL
Not sure what year that motor is but if it's an early Force most bits of late Chrysler 85's will fit,

You have a LOT of work ahead of you,
Hope it works out,

 

[Ross_Ronin]

Well, this finally came in the mail today. Took a lot longer than I expected and I'm guessing this grinder and I will become the best of friends with this boat. This is actually my first power tool outside of my Makita drills. There hasn't been much progress on the boat so far. I spent about 4 hours vacuuming all the dirt, rotted wood, and ripping out whatever I could with my hands, etc. I now have a stack of interior right next to the boat. I've been trying to keep things as whole as possible so I can get accurate measurements of what was in there previously. I do have a couple of questions, though.
1) What is the purpose of the foam that's installed in it? Is it necessary to have it in there, or can I better use the space that the foam is all in for storage?
2) The motor is an 85hp Force. I'm guessing this is a 2 stroke engine which means I'll have to premix the oil with the gas. When I took the top off of it, there was a foam liner on the inside of the hood that exploded in dust and debris. I plan on vacuuming it all out. My thought is to do an oil change, carb clean, fuel flush, spark plug replace, and likely replace the hoses before I even consider starting this thing back up to see if it will even run. The foam that was on the inside of the hood - is that necessary? What's it called so I can get a replacement? Is there anything else that I will likely have to do to the engine before starting it since it's been sitting for around 20 years?

Thank you ALL for the incredible responses. It has been such a tremendous help and watching/looking up other people's rebuild projects continues to inspire me to not give up on this project even though the sheer scope of it is actually being realized.

One last thing - I noticed that there are a couple of parts where the coating on the exterior seemed dinged up and just show the original fiberglass. There doesn't appear to be any other damage, just some knicks in the coating. Is this gel coating? Would it be smart to strip all that down to the fiberglass as well since I plan on repainting it?

 

[sphelps]

Ross , welcome aboard !
There’s nothing here that you can’t do to Fix your boat .. You will need some other tools like a skil saw and such if you don’t have any .
Those paper N95 mask are ok for just general clean up but they will NOT be good enough for the grinding involved in you restoration . You will need a minimum half faced respirator with safety glasses to grind fiberglass . This dust don’t play and is extremely bad for your lungs . Don’t let the kids hang around while it’s in the air .. Taking the cap off will make the inside of the hull accessible for the transom , stringers and deck installation .
You will need a motor stand also to store the out board ..
..