vintage aristocraft newbie

[hotrodnailhead]

Hello everyone. I'm a new vintage boat owner with some questions...

I just picked up a '64 Aristo Craft that needs some work before I take it out on the lakes of Arizona.

I'm going to install a new impeller for the water pump, and I need to do some fiberglass repair to the hull. I'm planning to replace all the wiring, do a lot of cleaning and buffing of the gell coat.

Does anyone here have any experience with the transom? I think mine is okay, (no cracks, and seems stiff) but how can I tell if it has wood that needs replacement? It hasn't been in the water since '05 as far as I can tell.

Thanks in advance!

 

[lucky7]

Re: vintage aristocraft newbie

those are cool old boats, we need about a dozen pics of every angle to truley appreaciate it though. what motor?

 

[lprizman]

Re: vintage aristocraft newbie

what he said,,c'mon now

 

[captharv]

Re: vintage aristocraft newbie

I had a '68 back some years ago. It had the 140 HP engine, walk-thru winshield, and the hardtop. Was a good boat.

You can tap teh transom with a rubber mallet and listen to the ping. Di this near the bottom and near the top. If it sounds groosly different near the boatton, it has had water intrusion.
I mounted a radio under the dash, and a paper chart recorder on the port side. I used it for fishing, skiing, and daycruising.

They are easy to trailer

 

[ziggy]

Re: vintage aristocraft newbie

welcome man.
cool, another aristocraft owner, congrats.. ya found the right place for sure for some extra info on boating...

don't know that i'm the one to help ya out for your transom question. but since i'm kinda partial to my aristocraft. i'll say hi. along with the tapping the transom. if there's anything screwed into your transom. ya could remove the fastener and probe the hole with an awl or the likes. or see if the screw is rusty. or i found soggy boards in my stringers in my last boat with a drill bit. think i went small. find a place and drill away. don't go through of course. if the bit comes out with wet sawdust, yer hosed. i understand a hole like this could be fixed with 5200 or the likes. others will have better advise than i do i'm sure. might check out the restorations part of the fourm too. ya don't got to much wood in that boat i don't think. she's pretty much glass, but i do understand them to have some wood in the transom. let us know what ya come up with and what method of testing ya end up doing...

ya did check out the www.aristocraftboats.com web site didn't ya? once there, check out the fiberglass brochures. way cool...

there's also an aristocraft forum here on iboats, http://forums.iboats.com/forumdisplay.php?s=&daysprune=-1&f=224. getting to be quite a few posts there too. some are about your funliner too. check outy joes funliner. it's the tread right at the top now. he's got him a sweet funliner. once in a while scott from aristocraft boats (atlanta boat works) will come on there too. ya can call him too his numbers on the www.

enjoy your new boat man.

guess i'm with others. more pics please....
is she black? in the photo she looks black. i've not seen any black ones yet.. what o/b did ya get? or is she an i/o?

 

[hotrodnailhead]

Re: vintage aristocraft newbie

Thanks for the warm welcome.

I was waiting to get it cleaned up a little before I posted too many more pictures!

Yes, it is black on black with a black top and red trim. That's what really sold me on it. Well, that, and it was pretty cheap. I understand that the black hull was a special order. It has the 110 merc. My tow vehicle is a black '57 ford f100, so the two go together nicely.

I will get some time to work on it this weekend I hope. I have a lot of other projects going right now, but my goal is to get it in the water this spring.

 

[hotrodnailhead]

Re: vintage aristocraft newbie

Here's a picture of the damage I need to fix... I had to pull off a VERY amature patch to see this. It is right under the driver seat, so I'm going to go in through the deck to fix it. I'm going to look to see if there is any foam issues while I'm there.

 

[ziggy]

Re: vintage aristocraft newbie

check out the aristocraft website. it has some real neat blow up pics of your hull construction. under the driver seat i don't think you'll find foam in your boat. only place i think there's foam on a funliner is up under the gunnels. not under the inner liner (sole, deck)

go to the diy or adults only sticky at the top of the i/o forum and then to #9. there you'll find service manual #1, which is what you'll need. download it. it'll be the best tool in your box when it comes to maint. and repair...

man. cool. ya got an i/o version... not to many of them around i don't reckon. when your doing parts for your 110 and what i think is your model 1A sterndrive. be careful when ordering parts. looks like a few may be nla.. best i understand, that baby is one of the very early versions of i/o period. like just after they were invented... least ya got the mercriser version instead of a sharkomatic. that i bet would be real hard to get parts for.

the black/red combo does look way cool. you'll have to let us know what ya find out about if she's a oem color and was special order. like i said. i've not seen a black one before... fun to have something different though. i guess my lime green was a short production run in '75 and '78. so while mines not special order, it is odd... so that works for me..

enjoy your boat man. she is a sweety...

 

[hotrodnailhead]

Re: vintage aristocraft newbie

I finally got a chance to work on the boat a little this morning. I striped all the 70s vintage fishing equipment out of it, and hada good laugh at the wiring harness someone made.

Then i dropped it off at salt river marine to get the hole in the hull fixed. I could have done it myself, but i want it to look good, and i had never done fiberglass that turned out good.

I havn't even tried to start it yet. Getting it running is the easy part for me.

Sorry no pics yet, i'll get some when it gets back from the shop. Getting a little tired of the 'bat boat' comments already!

 

[ziggy]

Re: vintage aristocraft newbie

Getting a little tired of the 'bat boat' comments already!

i wouldn't worry about it... likely from folks that are just jealous of your classic hardtop i/o funliner that also have no clue about one boat vs. another anyways.......

great that your getting her fixed over the winter. she'll be all ready for the water come spring..

 

[hotrodnailhead]

Re: vintage aristocraft newbie

Here's a picture from today's trip to the yard.

The guys at Salt River Marine are super. I highly recomend them.

 

[Ohioriver]

Re: vintage aristocraft newbie

Cool boat, gota love the look of the old aristocraft hardtops. See what they might charge you to buff out the gelcoat while they have it, the older the gelcoat the better you need to be at cleaning it up without damaging it.

 

[sean whiteman]

Re: vintage aristocraft newbie

Hi,


I?m also a new funline owner, the boat was for sale form a guy in Georgia. I?m having the boat shipped to Dublin Ireland. Don?t know much about the boats but the shape is very cool.
I have make contact with bill at Astro Craft and I?m waiting for him to get back to me with any information he has on the boat.
If any one can help me with information on the boat it would be great.

 

[hotrodnailhead]

Re: vintage aristocraft newbie

I saw that boat for sale on ebay too... looks like a neat boat!

Here's mine with my tow vehicle... '57 ford f100 (camaro clipped, PS, PDB, 327). I think they look good together!

 

[ziggy]

Re: vintage aristocraft newbie

cool, two great looking i/o funliners all in one thread... sweet...
hrnh, yer all black rig does look mighty nice. perfect tow vehicle...

 

[joe1267]

Re: vintage aristocraft newbie

Super cool looking boat. Digging your tow vehicle as well. Hope you have good luck with her...Joe