1972 Thunderbird Cathedral Restoration Log

[Trihulled]

Hey everyone!

A few years ago my buddy was given a boat by his uncle who lives over in Kiln, MS. This thing had been through Hurricane Katrina so we knew we'd have some work cut out for us restoring it.

Here's how we found it:





When we went to pull it out, most of the trailer came with the truck, but the axle did not. Turns out we had rusted-through leaf springs and U-bolts on the trailer that didn't make it through the storm.

After a trip to the trailer shop we came back and tried to replace the springs. One side when on like a champ, the other had a custom welded plate on it that prevented us from bolting up the new bolts. So, we did what any resourceful boat-receipents/unknowing-junk-haulers would do: we used a rachet strap to secure the axle to the trailer frame.

The conversation at the trailer shop (about 3 miles from where we go the boat) wen something like this:

Us: "Do you think we can make it back to FL like this?"
Shop owner: "Florida?? I don't know how you made it HERE!"

And so we bought a refurbished trailer from him on the cheap and they swapped the boat for us:




Drove it back to FL, very proud of having made it that far:



That's just the beginning of this crazy adventure, and I'll post more when I get a chance, but we've been restoring it and many more pictures will come later today or tomorrow.

 

[PatinIdaho]

Nice. Goona be a good looking boat what your done im sure.

 

[gm280]

I will be watching for sure... :thumb:

 

[Bayou Dave]

I will be watching for sure... :thumb:

Count me in too!

 

[Mark72233]

I'll be tagging along. I have a 1972 Thunderbird Formula I have been restoring for the past year. I will enjoy seeing you bring this Thunderbird back.

 

[kcassells]

I'm in too. Welcome aboard the best rehab boat site university! Looks like a lot of fun coming your way.

 

[998cc]

Looks like a project! On my local Craigslist in 2013, I found a 1972 Gulfstream with a GM 165 Inline 6 in it. It too was a project, but it is a pleasure boat today. Love that 165 motor! It was a successful project thanks largely to the folks here on the Iboats Mercruiser forum.

998cc

 

[Trihulled]

Yeah we have the same GM inline-6 and it is a champ so far.

 

[Trihulled]

Okay... So it has been a while since I last posted. I have not had a chance to work on this project in the past year due to travel for work, but have recently picked the project back up and will continue to get this forum up to date to where we are at.

So.... going back. I initially didn't really want to dive to deeply into the project. I previously never owned a boat and knew from friends how much trouble they could be. My initial goal was just to get the thing running and out on the water. I have a lot of experience with old engines and this was a GM straight 6, so how hard could this be? At the time I didn't really understand all the other components that go into a boat that make it work properly other than the motor needs to run and go it forward and reverse.

So I essentially stripped out all the wiring that I didn't understand nor want to bother chasing down it's use. First things I did:

1: Cleaned and rebuilt the Rochester 2 Jet carb
2: Changed the oil
3: Replaced the starter(old one fried up on the first couple of cranks)
4: Re-wired the engine so I understood what was going on and where things were going.
5: Replaced the spark plugs and ignition wires
6: Clean distributor contact spring.

And before we got it all back together we wanted to see if it would fire. Here's the video and by far one of the dumbest things I have ever done and will never do again.

 

[Trihulled]

No Title

After about another month we got it all back together and finally took it out on the water. This was around the fall of 2013. And the only picture I have from the day. Essentially, we took it out on the lake drove it around a couple of times with the motor cutting in and out. Our operation was extremely primitive due to the low effort at the time. It took 1 guy to steer and put it in and out of gear. Another to start the engine with a screw driver by shorting the starter, and a third to operate the throttle directly on the carb.

After about an hour on the water there were no leaks. I was very surprised by this since I've hard nightmare stories about I/O's leaking and this boat also spent 10 years out in the open on the Bayou of Mississippi.

So we came home and I didn't really do anything to it for another year.

 

[Trihulled]

A year later, with this thing just sitting in my driveway and a lot going on with work I decided to just get rid of the thing. A buddy of mine who had a habit of taking on too many projects was interested. But first he wanted to fire the thing up and get it out on the water.

So I cleaned up the electrical contacts and the carb. Actually spent some time properly adjusting it and linked to the control unit.

We hit the water. Since the carb was running a lot better this time and the boat had a lot more power we were actually able to get on plane. That's when we noticed that water was gushing in. We headed back to the down, and by the time we got back our feet on the deck was touching water.

We pulled he out and onto the trailer and then noticed that water was coming out from where the gimbal housing mounts to the transom.

I took her home and needless to say my buddy was no longer interested in this project.

The next day I decided to remove the engine rip out the transom. Come to find out that it was completely rotted though with soft wood throughout the back. Along with that the stringers were rotted to the hull.

At that point I was going to throw the boat away. I was going to come back tomorrow to load it up and toss it. It was that afternoon that my father who had been observing this project at a distance started watching some videos online about guys that have done this before. He then proceeded to that afternoon rip up the rest of the floor to see how far up the stringer damage went. And that night he called me and talked me into doing this project.

So at that point this became a serious project. The next day I came out and rip out the remaining bad chunks of stringers, transom and started sanding the floor. I'll post pictures of this shortly...

 

[Trihulled]

Pictures of everything after it was ripped out below.