Hey guys,
New guy here, name is Chris. My grandfather gave me a 1978 VIP Bass boat before he passed away and I have been working on restoring it.
My initial plans were to just replace the carpet and the seats. However, I soon realized that the gelcoat was not in good enough shape to look nice again, so I decided I would paint it. While sanding the down the boat I realized that most of the rivets holding the deck to the hull had either broke or worked their way out. So I took off the rub rail and drilled out all of the rivets holding the two pieces together. Then I noticed that the transom was in pretty bad shape and their were quite a few soft spots in the floor where the deck met the floor. As you can see the project has snowballed from a simple "fixer upper" to a full blown tear down and rebuild.
At this point I am questioning whether its worth continuing with the restoration or if I should scrap it and start looking for a boat that is structurally sound to start fixing up. Since my grandfather gave me the boat before he passed away, I had hoped to restore it and keep it as a way to keep in him in memory. However, I never fished out of this boat with my grandpa, and I am not sure if he even used it, so it does not have a whole lot of sentimental value.
The trailer also needs a lot of work, and I am sure the engine does as well. He said it ran when he gave it to me, but he also told me it only needed seats and carpet.
Here's a link to a thread when I originally started the project. As you can tell from some of my comments I really had no idea what I was getting in to.
http://www.ifish.net/board/showthread.php?t=240497
Thanks for any advice in advance!
Chris Pelham
New guy here, name is Chris. My grandfather gave me a 1978 VIP Bass boat before he passed away and I have been working on restoring it.
My initial plans were to just replace the carpet and the seats. However, I soon realized that the gelcoat was not in good enough shape to look nice again, so I decided I would paint it. While sanding the down the boat I realized that most of the rivets holding the deck to the hull had either broke or worked their way out. So I took off the rub rail and drilled out all of the rivets holding the two pieces together. Then I noticed that the transom was in pretty bad shape and their were quite a few soft spots in the floor where the deck met the floor. As you can see the project has snowballed from a simple "fixer upper" to a full blown tear down and rebuild.
At this point I am questioning whether its worth continuing with the restoration or if I should scrap it and start looking for a boat that is structurally sound to start fixing up. Since my grandfather gave me the boat before he passed away, I had hoped to restore it and keep it as a way to keep in him in memory. However, I never fished out of this boat with my grandpa, and I am not sure if he even used it, so it does not have a whole lot of sentimental value.
The trailer also needs a lot of work, and I am sure the engine does as well. He said it ran when he gave it to me, but he also told me it only needed seats and carpet.
Here's a link to a thread when I originally started the project. As you can tell from some of my comments I really had no idea what I was getting in to.
http://www.ifish.net/board/showthread.php?t=240497
Thanks for any advice in advance!
Chris Pelham
I already purchased, new seats, carpet, paint and guages so I have quite a bit of money into the asthetics of it already. Now I am trying to justify putting more money into a boat, when I have already spent more than its worth, but like some of you said I know I will have a solid platform I can trust if I do go forward.
