Rehabbing a 1963 17' Glastron Crestflite and maybe a family.

[Waterwhippin]

1963 Glastron

Bought this 1963 Glastron. I want to make sure she's structural sound then work on some minor cosmetics. Where to begin???

 

[roffey]

sharp looking boat. Is that a walk through windshield or is it broken? Need more pictures of the interior and transom I suspect.

 

[Waterwhippin]

Ty. It is two small windshields.

 

[Waterwhippin]

Taking on a bit of water

Pulled the drain plug off back of my 1963 glastron after being out an hour or two and about a gallon of water came out. How worried should I be?.

 

[R055]

You should find the leak, unless you were swimming the whole time in and out of the boat.

 

[Waterwhippin]

No. We sat for a bit is all. I think the plug hole itself might have a leak. Idk how I can check for leqks tho

 

[Scott Danforth]

Put the boat in the water with a dry bilge, then look for the water to start trickling in. You may need a flashlight, or a cell phone camera

 

[roffey]

ok nobody seems to be jumping in here so I will start. You need to change the impeller in the lower unit and gear oil. Move the lower unit of the motor up and down by hand and see if there are any cracks or flex in the transom. Check the floors and look for soft spots. Keep in mind boats rot from the bottom up.

 

[CV16]

Or put the plug in at home and add water. Then look for where it comes out.

 

[R055]

Or put the plug in at home and add water. Then look for where it comes out.

Not a great idea of the trailer is already loaded near full capacity.

 

[Waterwhippin]

So here's my project. After doing a bit of craiglisting I purchased this boat for $400 with a 65hp evinrude I'm guessing from the 70's. Came with trailer, new battery, gas can, lights, anchor, depth finder, ect ect.
My brother after a severe car accident lost his arm from the elbow down, and has struggled with addiction and having a direction in life. I'm hoping he will help me with this project and together we can rebuild our boat and family relarionships. Deep huh lol.
First things first I'd like to make shes safe to take the kids out on, then make her pretty. I don't want to sink a bunch of money into the project and figure some elbow grease will go a long way?
Looks likectgeres an issue with some deterioration on the transome. Seems fairly solid though. We took her out for a coupke hours and aside from her sucking gas like crazy she ran great.
Need to clean the windshield and saw that a headlight repair kit might work on the plexiglass. Any better method?
Would a simple car wax work as well as a more expensive compound to bring back a bit of the color in the gelcoat?
What do you think of the silicone job on the ring the winch is attached too? Good enough?
Sorry for the long text, and help will be appreciated.

 

[dpoff]

Could be rain water getting in between trips? I put my drain plug in after I back down the ramp and when I retrieve after a trip the bilge is dry. After having water in the bilge after a trip as you did, I found that rainwater gets into some areas of the boat through cup holders, rod holders etc. and those areas can hold some water. So if you leave home with the plug in you might want wait and try what I did to rule out external leaks. Hope it`s that easy for ya.

 

[Tnstratofam]

Based on these images from this thread ( http://forums.iboats.com/forum/boat...963-17-glastron-crestflite-and-maybe-a-family ) you started this morning. I'd say you should do some serious investigating before you put her back in the water.

The caulk around your bow eye is not a good sealer.

If the following pictures are of your transom area then you have some serious problems there, and the boat is probably not safe to have out on the water until the transom is replaced.

 

[Tnstratofam]

Silicone is not a good sealer for a boat. Especially anywhere near the waterline. You should use 3m 4200 or 3m 5200 for a water tight seal that will not deteriorate from the suns UV.

The bow eye if loose needs to be repaired. You can take on water here while underway.

Your transom needs replacing. The cracks in the fiberglass indicate it is rotten and water will get in the boat from this area as well.

 

[Waterwhippin]

Perfect. Silicone will be easy. Transom will be fun to learn how to do it. I like the boat so May be I'll paint her too

 

[s.hadley81]

i agree if those pics are your transom your gonna have some work to do, have a look in the Resto threads pertaining to transom replacement to get an idea. Also there should not be silicone smeared all over the bow eye my guess is it was loose and some one just used silicone to seal it. If it is loose that eye could actually pull through the fiberglass so I would get that silicone off of there and check it, if it is loose tighten it and as suggested 3m 4200 to seal it up. Best of luck to ya!

 

[Waterwhippin]

This is a better pic of the transom. The really rotted was of the area on the side that holds the battery. The floor was replaced some years ago it would appear and I'm going to pull up done if the deck to see what's ubderneath. Going to do a core sample tomor of the bottom of the transom and see how bad it is. If it's a nightmare hopefully this forum can help me repair it. I don't have a ton of money to sink into it but I have all the time in the world and I enjoy working on this stuff.

 

[Waterwhippin]

Well it's bad news, I need to replace the transom in the near future. There was one bad spot where the ply was starting to rot. I'd say the rest was wet and will rot as well but sssounded and felt solid still. Going to maybe reinforce with a stainless plate until I figure out a game plan to attack this thing. While not ideal it should be ok to take out as long as I monitor it and keep the throttle down.
My worries are what I do with the molded pieces attached to the transom, what kind and how much fiberglass fabric to get. I'm going to pop off the deck and see what underneath looks like. Maybe I'll catch a break and it won't be a disaster. Here's the pic of the rotten spot and the molded top piece im worried about

 

[Waterwhippin]

Would it be possible to cut out the inside of the transom leaving the outer shell and deck cover, I guess its called, in place. Then insert the new plywood or synthetic core then glass it in? That would be much less scary than cutting the whole thing out and I wouldn't have to paint

 

[Waterwhippin]

So I guess I can cut out the rotten ply leaving the outer shell in tact, then glass around it. Just need to research more. I'm going to get started today and will post pics later. Hoping can get a bit of help on this one, I'm gonna need it.