1980 Thundercraft Titan 150 Restoration with Pics

[Bravo315]

Hello all,
Brand new to this site and looking forward to sharing my progress and getting some help along the way. I finished up a 12 foot skiff that I built from plans I bought from another boat building site. Came great. Now I'm in the mood to do another. But the cost of just the Epoxy resin alone will be more than finding a boat, motor, and trailer online. So I went after a tri-hull classic, a 1980 Thundercraft Titan 150. Came with a running 1980 50hp Suzuki Spirit and a Southern draw trailer in great shape for $1,200 Knowing a bunch about tri hulls I dove into the soft deck and ripped it out. Repairing the deck of this model boat is fairly easy do to the tri hull design. Not much to replace. 1 stringer. And it's basically used as a support for the deck. The boat is 31 years old and I would never think that the stringer would be in good shape. Along with soaking wet foam.....I dove in. The stringer was rotted in the middle section only. I drilled some holes to check the transom and to my surprise I got dry, light colored shavings coming off the drill bit. Good news
I'm in the process of repairing the stringer and planning on a new deck. I sripped the boat of its bow seats and I'm installing a carpeted fishing deck with a pedastall seat. Here are some pics of the work done so far. I will keep up with pics posting all my progress. Always love Any input

Thanks John

 

[LAcustoms]

Re: 1980 Thundercraft Titan 150 Resto.

Re: 1980 Thundercraft Titan 150 Resto.

Looking forward to updates. I'm looking for a project boat similar to this right now.

 

[RBagdon]

Re: 1980 Thundercraft Titan 150 Resto.

Re: 1980 Thundercraft Titan 150 Resto.

Does anyone have any info on this 1970 Suzuki Spirit 50hp ?

John,
Welcome to iboats
The Yamaha & Suzuki Outboards section of the forums might be a better place to ask that question.

 

[Bravo315]

Re: 1980 Thundercraft Titan 150 Resto.

Re: 1980 Thundercraft Titan 150 Resto.

Thanks for the reply. After doing many hours of reading the forums and looking at all the pics everything you need to know about your boat is right here. Some more pics of the final demo
portion of this build. Taking out the floatation boxes at the transom. Smells like a wet dog. frees up a lot of room also. Going to fiberglass a new deck in tom. Now things will go quick. Lots of cosmetic work. Boat hull is solid and my luck it has a great transom. Dont let a little rotted deck slow you down if you have a great hull. These tri-hull bowriders make great project boats for fishing and pulling tubes.
Tear out the old and rebuild from the bottom up.

 

[Bravo315]

Re: 1980 Thundercraft Titan 150 Resto.

Re: 1980 Thundercraft Titan 150 Resto.

How do you add pics so they follow the writing? No thumbnails

Check me out.... Figured out the picture thingy. Easy sailing now! (bud up bump)

 

[SBTOM]

Re: 1980 Thundercraft Titan 150 Resto.

Re: 1980 Thundercraft Titan 150 Resto.

You've got to set up an online photo account. I use photobucket.com, its free. Then you upload your pictures to Photobucket and copy the "direct link" address. Then you click on the insert picture icon at the top of your "quick reply" box on the forum and paste the address.

There are some good explanations in the "non boating technical tips" forum, right up at the top:

http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=193245

 

[Bravo315]

Re: 1980 Thundercraft Titan 150 Resto.

Re: 1980 Thundercraft Titan 150 Resto.

SBTOM

Thank you so much for the help with the pics. As you can tell I figured it all out.

 

[ezmobee]

Re: 1980 Thundercraft Titan 150 Resto.

Re: 1980 Thundercraft Titan 150 Resto.

Send a PM to this guy http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=427652 as I believe he was able to find out a lot of information about his Spirit outboard.

 

[ethand_2010]

Re: 1980 Thundercraft Titan 150 Resto.

Re: 1980 Thundercraft Titan 150 Resto.

Awesome project. Last year I picked up a 1977 Thundercraft that looks exactly like this. It had a 50 hp Johnson that didn't run. But the floors and all interior had just been replaced. I got it all for $200 and got it running last night with free parts. So in all with taxes, registration, and the price of boat I have a little over $300 in it.

 

[Bravo315]

Re: 1980 Thundercraft Titan 150 Resto.

Re: 1980 Thundercraft Titan 150 Resto.

A $300 boat up and running! Real jealous here.... You can't find a motor for that price by itself.

Today I worked on getting the floor patch glassed down. After repairing the center stringer and adding 2 other thinner stringers just to be able to pull the edges tight till the glass takes over.....it's starting to smell better and feeling a ton stronger. I will epoxy all the plywood then cover what you see here with a thin layer 1/4 inch luan. It will be glassed in and painted with truck bed liner before adding the final carpet. I did this before and I think this makes the floor better then the day it was made in 1980. best kept secret is the use of truck bed liner underneath it all. Instant waterproofing.

first pic is a 12 foot skiff I built from plans. It's built with 4 sheets of plywood.My sister stitched me the bimini top and I used some electrical skills to bend up some pipe.
Here is some pics of my daily update

 

[Bravo315]

Re: 1980 Thundercraft Titan 150 Resto.

Re: 1980 Thundercraft Titan 150 Resto.

Hello Eveyone

Today I was able to get the sub floor glued down. I'm going to have to go to work tomorrow so it will give it time to dry for 24 hrs. The deck is solid. some truck bedliner coating and carpet and that problem is solved. Here is some update pics along with the photo of the outside of the boat. So far all my pics were of the same floor............. Thanks for checking me out.

John

 

[ethand_2010]

Re: 1980 Thundercraft Titan 150 Resto.

Re: 1980 Thundercraft Titan 150 Resto.

Looking good. And mine looks EXACTLY like that one, only mine is Blue and White and has a Johnson hanging off the rear! I think I might borow from your idea of the fishing deck up front.

 

[Bravo315]

Re: 1980 Thundercraft Titan 150 Resto.

Re: 1980 Thundercraft Titan 150 Resto.

Ethand 2010

Thanks for checking it out. My wife wants to leave the bow seats for the kids. So I'm going to mount a fishing chair to a carpeted 3/4 inch piece of plywood that is cut to the same shape as the bow. Then I can remove the seats and drop in the cut out with the chair for fishing. Best of both worlds. Now I have to due some upholstery work on the bow seats and back rests. Another dilemma is that when I bought the boat the lady gave me a set of brand new blue back to back seats. I also have 80 feet of blue indoor outdoor carpet from another project leftover. So I think what I want to do is paint my maroon stripe blue like yours to match everything. Now that the floor is in I can start working on the rest of things that are missing. Send me some pics of your boat. I would like to see it.
keep me posted of your progress.
John

 

[Bravo315]

Re: 1980 Thundercraft Titan 150 Resto.

Re: 1980 Thundercraft Titan 150 Resto.

The Weather here in Georgia this weekend was perfect 3/13/11 I was able to tear into the bow area and re upholster the seats. The boat came with the original seats but no back rests. It was real ugly with holes everywhere. I needed to make completly new seats due to rotten wood. As you can see in one of the pics it took every saw I had today to get it done. Here is the weekend work update of pics. Even had a little help from my first mate.

 

[Bravo315]

Re: 1980 Thundercraft Titan 150 Resto.

Re: 1980 Thundercraft Titan 150 Resto.

 

[Bravo315]

Re: 1980 Thundercraft Titan 150 Resto.

Re: 1980 Thundercraft Titan 150 Resto.

I have plans for some oak trim pieces that will go where the snaps are just below the seats. Also between the seats at the bow will get some oak for a step. thats the next project. Thanks for checking me out.

 

[ethand_2010]

Re: 1980 Thundercraft Titan 150 Resto.

Re: 1980 Thundercraft Titan 150 Resto.

The seats are looking good! I'm gonna have to redo my bow seats. Whoever made them used OSB with cheap vinyl on one side. it is starting to rot. I only have one picture that I took right after we got it home. Ill take more tomorrow hopefully and post them. Had to order a new impeller and a gasket today for the lower unit. After that I should be able to go!

 

[Bravo315]

Re: 1980 Thundercraft Titan 150 Resto.

Re: 1980 Thundercraft Titan 150 Resto.

Hey its my long lost sister boat seperated at birth. Is it a 1980 also?

 

[ethand_2010]

Re: 1980 Thundercraft Titan 150 Resto.

Re: 1980 Thundercraft Titan 150 Resto.

Haha. It's a 1977. But same model and everything

 

[soldier side]

Re: 1980 Thundercraft Titan 150 Resto.

Re: 1980 Thundercraft Titan 150 Resto.

I just started a resto on same boat (1977 model), would you suggest leveling the deck with plywood, or just leaving the factory fiberglass deck w/carpet?