1994 Bayliner Capri 1950 Restoration

[petermarcus]

(Sigh, limited to 6 images per post, so this will be broken into a few parts....)


I've been a long time lurker on the iboats forum, popping in lately to ask a question, but really learning a lot by reading all those who have gone before me. I figured I'd jump in whole hog and make a post about my (ahem) project.

Mandatory backstory: So, I had this friend who had this boat, a '94 Bayliner Capri 1950 I/O. It was a nice little family boat, and her father gave it to her. It was a lake boat when her father had it, and her husband and her only took it out a few times on the Florida West Coast. And I have a nice little family, so when she was looking to get rid of the boat, I took it off her hands.

Of course, since the time I had been on it, it was sitting in the lawn, under a tree for a couple years. There was a sapling growing out of the bilge and the deck was covered with leaves and seeds. Oh, and did I mention the last the boat went out, they left the plug out of the transom? They backed the boat into the water, got it off the trailer and started to park the car before someone noticed the water was halfway up the engine.

So, when I got it, sapling and all, the balancer was rusted to the timing cover, the water pump and starter were slag, etc, etc. I basically bought the trailer and got the boat for free. But, I knew what I was getting into. I stare at a computer for 8-10 hours a day, and I'm always looking for something to do with my hands.

In terms of experience, I used to have a 21' Larson that I redecked and just got it where I was comfortable with it when Hurricane Jeanne snapped my bilge pump cables and swamped it. I had a kid on the way at the time, so that boat was gone, but at least now I have some free time for another project.

I joke that renovating a '94 Bayliner Capri is kinda like renovating a '90s Ford Taurus. They weren't exactly the most unique boat on the water at the time. But, I did putt it up and down the intracoastal when it was working, and, like I said, I need some hands-on time with something more physical than cyberspace, so here we go.

I wish I had a pic of the sapling, and the tire when I pulled the trailer out of the lawn and left half the tread buried in the sand. Here she is when I got her home:

Here's a pic of the engine, a couple years after the dunk:

Before I tackled taking the engine out, I had heard that it made sense to take a bunch of pictures of the removal process. Man, that's the best tip I've ever heard. Life happened from time to time, yadda yadda yadda, and it took over a year between taking out the engine, and finishing the engine overhaul. Shop manuals have nice diagrams and descriptions, and you might think you'd remember where parts go, but I took over 150 pictures of the engine teardown and that saved my engine overhaul more times than you could count.

Even silly stuff like this:

It simply shows the tan and black wires that I just disconnected, which is why I took the picture, but it also later showed me which direction the carb faced, that the water line into the manifold is off the top port of the thermostat housing (not the lower), and that the gas flood line wrapped between the thermostat and the head before going down to the fuel pump.

 

[petermarcus]

Re: 1994 Bayliner Capri 1950 Restoration

Everything unbolted, engine lift attached to engine and out it comes:

After taking the engine out of the boat, there was a lot of external rust:

Inside the flywheel container was the skeleton of a frog or toad. Guess it was a little moist in there at one point.

 

[petermarcus]

Re: 1994 Bayliner Capri 1950 Restoration

I figured the engine (a 3.0L Mercruiser 4 banger) probably had maybe 400 hours on it, tops, in 15 years. But, given the beating, and the fact that I could already see rust chunks falling out of the manifold and elbow (no one drained the engine after the last run in saltwater), that a full overhaul was probably wise. I tore that engine down to the block.

Here was what was left of the water pump

Here's the flywheel:

The shop manual helpfully suggests testing the flywheel for slight scratches:

Manifold elbow looks like surface rust and a bit of corrosion, but poking at it with a screwdriver, huge chunks just fell off:

Harmonic balancer, timing guide, and timing cover:

 

[petermarcus]

Re: 1994 Bayliner Capri 1950 Restoration

Cylinders weren't nearly as bad as I feared. Some surface carbon on the pistons, nothing bad. With the manifold and elbow rust, I was sure the cylinders would be gone, but just a couple surface pits of rust. When I took it to the machine shop to hone out, it smoothed out perfectly, no need to rebore.

So, when I got into the actual internals of the engine, I was really, seriously, heel-clicking happy that it was pristine. Like, almost sterile. With the amount of rusted parts on the outside, I was sure I needed a new engine, but after opening it up, I felt I could actually maybe pull this thing off!

Good example: Timing cover outside:

Timing cover inside:

Clean!

Here's the crank and oil pump and the piston ends:

So, I was happy. I commenced with the overhaul and tested each part. The head and block went to the machine shop, but I checked the crank and cam, which were fine. Got new rings and bearings and lifters, because why not. The rods were straight on the roll-on-a-sheet-of-glass-test, so I reused those. New harmonic balancer, water pump, starter. Machine shop blasted the rust off the flywheel and laughed when I mentioned that the shop manual recommended checking for minor scratches. New thermostat and housing. New water pump. Kept the old belt pulley, but the logo for the 3rd party water pump was raised, actually cast into the iron, and rubbed against the pully, so I had to get my grinder out and actually grind off the stupid logo. I didn't take too many pics of the overhaul, since it was putting things on, instead of taking things off. In retrospect, I kinda wish I had.

The manifold was shot, so I got a new one of those, but it had changed part numbers three times since '94 and was slightly wider. How slight? Well, I put in the middle three studs, slid on the gasket, dropped on the manifold, then tightened the fore-side bolt and *crack*, popped out the top couple threads.

I ended up getting studs instead of bolts for the outside two bolts. There were still plenty of threads for the fore-side one, so I epoxied the stud into the bolt-hole, then did a little JB Weld around it to give a little more gasket-surface. But, the wonderful iboats forums mentioned that the water pressure in manifolds is nothing. Like, less than 20 or so psi. I was worrying about head gasket and cylinder pressures, but I'm now pretty comfortable about the block surface against the manifold, especially with the gasket sealer I used. (I'll still probably be watching that corner of the manifold at WOT anyway).

 

[petermarcus]

Re: 1994 Bayliner Capri 1950 Restoration

At this point, the overhaul is done. I went from complete teardown here:

You can see the block at the top by the garage door, the head in front of it, and the crank. The carb to the left of the crank, and the camshaft and gear to the left of that. Empty red engine stand in front of that, then pistons with assorted parts to the right, and the rusty exhaust elbow to the left. Hoses and tubes and wires to the left of that. The oilpan and flywheel housing are at the next level, then a jumbled mass of outdrive, engine mounts, and valve cover, with the alternator to the right surrounded by the belt (which surprisingly tested out fine with my ohm-meter), and rusty hunks of starter motor and manifold.

After overhaul, is this shiny 3.0 ready for action:

I actually couldn't find an alternator mount, so that rusty arm gives a good contrast of the new parts vs. the old. I'll fix it eventually (it's easy to change in the boat, as opposed to, say, piston rings).

At this point, I was done with the overhaul, although it's untested and untimed. I then turned to the boat deck, which was soft when I acquired it, and had been sitting around in the rain since then. I was half hoping I could just pop in the engine, align it, and try a water test, but even I knew that was wishful thinking. Testing the deck, I almost put my foot through it in a few places. I took a reciprocating saw to a few places to test it out... I was hoping I could epoxy off the bad spots and maybe layer a new deck on top, but yeah, I'm going to have to take this down to the stringers.

Which brings us up to today (July 8, 2010). I want to completely redo the deck configuration aft of the consoles, so I started to cut out the deck and seat boxes. I fish. A lot. Like, I seriously fish a lot. So, I want something with enough room to run back and forth around the boat. But, I also want to be able to do the sunset cruises with the wife and kids and various guests and family members. So, I'm going to keep the fore-console seating (the cushions are toast, but I'll re-sew those). In the aft, I'm taking out both seat-boxes, I'm going to run a bench along the port side with storage underneath. Starboard, I'll have a captain's chair on a pedestal, but nothing else. Along the transom I'll have the engine box and a couple seats. Center clear, with some leg room.

The ski-locker area is a disaster (as can be seen above), so I'm going to put an extra bulkhead in there, and split it into two smaller storage areas, since the port-side bench seat locker will be long and roomy. Should give the deck a little more stability.

 

[petermarcus]

Re: 1994 Bayliner Capri 1950 Restoration

But, since we're up to date, here's today's pics of the deck removed over the gas tank

The port bench and foam mostly gone:

Fore of the gas tank, with the bulkhead rotted out almost completely:

But, I have to say, the stringers and transom are in really good shape. I'll be doing a couple exploratory drills to confirm that, but it looks like I just might have to replace the bulkheads, add an extra one in the ski-locker area, and re-deck.

When I say the stringers look in good shape, there are only a couple wet/soft spots along the top where the bulkheads rotted. I have to look a little closer when I finish getting the deck off, but I'm thinking at the worst so far (heh heh heh, I'm jinxing myself), I might need to carve out an inch or two and fill with epoxy to brace it. I'm tring to accept that I'm not in denial, but the truth will come out when the deck is gone.

Now that I'm current, I'm hoping that I'll update this as I proceed. Nothing like gutting fiberglass decks in Florida in July. I'm hot and sweaty and every bit of my legs and arms and hands itch like I rolled around in a mound of fire ants.

 

[ezmobee]

Re: 1994 Bayliner Capri 1950 Restoration

That's a nice classic looking boat. Well worth the restore. Good luck with it! Looks like you'll fit in great around here

 

[petermarcus]

Re: 1994 Bayliner Capri 1950 Restoration

Thanks EZ!

On to today...I was worried with the rotten deck that the transom would be shot, but when I cleared out wet foam near the stern, it was pink/red and as hard as the hull with no scratches. The plywood near the outdrive mount was not as lucky.

I did a few more tests, and according my serious MS Paint Skillz:

Red is gone (test in previous photo is circled in red). Everything else is good. Yellow is where the wet foam was sitting next to the stern, but it looks pretty good.

So, more work that I hoped I wouldn't have to do, but at least it's not the whole stern.

 

[ezmobee]

Re: 1994 Bayliner Capri 1950 Restoration

Pretty sure you should replace the whole transom.

 

[petermarcus]

Re: 1994 Bayliner Capri 1950 Restoration

Here's where I'm not sure about the terminology. In the picture above, the red square is (was) a couple sheets of plywood with some glass in between, but that red square is attached to the entire stern (in blue, above). The two green squares are the same -- they're glassed plywood attached to the stern.

In my tests so far, the red square is gone, but everything else, the blue and the green and yellow are solid and dry.

Here's a larger hole in the red part:

The only thing left is shavings and the inner-glass. But that red in the backgound looks like the hull, and so far seems in good shape (hard to see in the pic, but when I clean the splinters from the plywood off, it's clean and solid. I'm not done testing yet, but it's solid where I've checked.

I know I'm going to have to replace at least the red square area, and I'm dismantling the area around it so I can get a good template.

But, terminology, is the transom the red square? Or is the transom the whole stern -- the blue square above?

 

[petermarcus]

Re: 1994 Bayliner Capri 1950 Restoration

Wrestled off the I/O housing. Some of the threads for the lower bolts were chunks of rust, which wasn't surprising considering the state of the bilge. Had to use a breaker-bar, which ended up pulling the bolts out of the outboard part of the housing, instead of pulling the locknut off the inboard side. Which is fine, because they needed to be replaced anyway.

Before:

Obligatory view of the boat through the keyhole:

From the inside:

Next, taking off that shelf of 3/8" plywood around the bilge/housing, then seeing if I can carve out that glass on the plywood part of the transom and get a template.

In that last pic, there's that black and yellow screwdriver on that shelf pointing to the stern. The white part of the stern that the screwdriver is pointing to is just glass over the hull, really thin. Maybe 1/4" to 1/2". The shelf the screwdriver is sitting on, and the and sides down into the bilge is just a box to hold up stuff like the I/O tilt motor. But, inside that box is a couple inches of plywood (you can see from the shadows that it's raised/attached to the thin hull). That seems to be what's rotted to pieces. The thin hull itself is fine wherever I've checked, and I think it's just mat and epoxy/poly/whatever. I don't think there's any wood in there at all to rot. That square bit of plywood behind the housing (the red box itself in the pic a couple posts above) seems to be the only wood on the stern that's bad, and it's segregated from the other plywood pieces attached to the stern (the green boxes in the pic above). So, I'm cautiously optimistic at this point that it'll be a fix that isn't exactly easy, but isn't a complete pain in the neck either.

Plan is:
* Get a decent template out of the plywood sawdust that used to be the transom.
* Match it with new ply and epoxy/glass so that it's in the tolerances for the Alpha One housing (2" to 2 1/4" thick, with 1/8" flatness and parallel)
* Bond the new transom to the stern/hull as flat as possible
* Re-attach the housing
* Head on to the rest of the deck, finish tearing it out, and check the stringers along the rest of the boat.

 

[MountaineerMiner]

Re: 1994 Bayliner Capri 1950 Restoration

Im with EZ on this one...I think you should look into replacing the entire transom?where there is some rot, there is a lot more. On most any boat I would bet there is wood in there, especially a Bayliner. Your set up is not very different from my own, with the bump outs for mounting points.

I would seriously question the stringers in this boat too. If you have that much rot in the bulkheads you more than likely have rot in the stringers (which are connected to the transom).

You did an amazing job on that power train!!! Now it?s time to fix this baby up to handle it!!!

 

[petermarcus]

Re: 1994 Bayliner Capri 1950 Restoration

Hi MM!

I'm still dismantling, but at this point I don't see more of a transom. A couple posts above, I have a cheap MS Paint outline of my stern. There's a blue outline, two green outlines, and a red outline. From what I've seen so far, the blue outline is like the hull -- it's basically poly or epoxy with mat or glass, but no wood. Inside the boat, it's gelcoat or something similar over what looks like the bottom of the boat under the deck. It's, like 1/2" thick, tops, or even thinner.

The green and red squares on that pic above are plywood bonded to the stern hull material. The red plywood chunk attached to the hull material is gone, and I have to replace the whole thing. It's hollow right now. The green ones on the side are like little islands attached to the hull material, and everything I've checked on thems is clean (so far). But that blue box (which on my other boat a few years ago was plywood and glass) doesn't seem to contain any actual wood, other than the green and red boxes attached to inboard surface of it.

I could very well be wrong on this. When I take off that red-box part in the next couple days, I'll be able to see what's left, and I'll get a measurable cross-section through the keyhole, so I'll see if there's any wood there.

If I have to do it, then I have to do it, I want a safe boat and I'll replace it all. So far, I just don't see any wood in the transom/stern other than those green and red chunks attached to the hull material.

 

[MountaineerMiner]

Re: 1994 Bayliner Capri 1950 Restoration

You could drill ?core holes? into, but not all the way through the transom to see what you are working with. Using a twist drill inspect the chips that are coming out, if any.

It?s possible someone else performed a partial transom replacement and used Seacast or a similar product, Bayliner may have even integrated something like this in from the factory (I doubt it though). Check out Archbuilders thread?he used this stuff to make his stringers, http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=364284

I?m not extremely familiar with Bayliners, but the Capri seems to be a popular model to restore on this board. Maybe try a search for another Capri of the same vintage and see if they have any pictures of a transom/stringer replacement.

 

[petermarcus]

Re: 1994 Bayliner Capri 1950 Restoration

Fun time with the transom removal so far, and still some mystery about the stern.

My 21' Larson several years ago had a thick plywood transom that spanned the whole stern, but I'm more convinced now that this stern is basically hull material (gelcoat and molded glass) with some chopped glass/gelcoat blown over the top. There is a center section that had a good chunk of plywood (up to 2" thick) bonded over the stern/hull material, which is now gone, and some side chunks of plywood that were isolated. But, there doesn't seem to be a stern-encompassing piece of plywood across the whole stern.

Here's more of the demo:

Red is the rotten piece I'm going to remove. Blue areas are about 1/4" thick (maybe more) but seem to just be glass hull, with a glass sprayed top coat. Green is one of the other pieces of plywood bonded to the stern/hull.

Another pic from a little farther back. Again, the blue areas are thin and seem to be only glass:

I tore out the shelf over the I/O mounting plywood with a grinder, then started to cut around the blown/chopped glass surface area with a Dremel. The Dremel did a really good job, but was slow. When I got to the bottom of the plywood, I was greeted by a mini waterfall:

Yuck. This boat had been in my garage for a year before I got around to working on the deck/transom, so this stuff had been sitting in there for a while.

After I cut around the entire perimeter with the Dremel, some gentle persuasion with a hammer and crowbar, along with some unprintable words for lubrication, the glass came off to reveal what I had to deal with:

Bottom part is gone and falls out with a stiff breeze. The top part seems to be pretty solid, and I actually kind of wish is was rotten, too, to make it easier to remove. How am I going to get nearly 2" of unrotten plywood off the back of the stern? Is there a way to accelerate rot where I want it?

Looks like three of the eight bolts holding on the outdrive were in unrotten wood. Glad I poked around.

 

[petermarcus]

Re: 1994 Bayliner Capri 1950 Restoration

Here's a close up at the bottom:

And a closeup of the corner. Once again, the blue arrows are all the same thickness, with the green arrow at top left part of a different, isolated chunk of plywood on the stern.

So, other than figuring out how I'm going to convince the top chunk of that plywood that it needs to let go of my boat, I'm actually fairly happy with this. It doesn't look like I need to take the cap off the boat (so far...), and that I just need to bond up epoxied plywood and glass in this red area until it's 2"-2 1/4", then re-install the outdrive.

On the other hand, I still need to check out the rest of the stringers and remove the rest of the deck. The battery box is sounding ominously hollow, no surprise, and I haven't seen the stringers on that side. The motor mount seems to be a solid chunk of wood instead of plywood, but I don't like the fact that it's been sitting in water next to the rest of this rot, so I'm thinking I'll need to rebuild that whole area, too.

My agenda for the weekend:
* Figure out a way to get that plywood off.
* Get a template for the area and start working on building up the new transom/plywood mount.
* Demo the rest of the deck and decide if I'm going to take out the forward seating, too.
* Stringer check.

All of this in 90 degree Florida heat in mid-July

 

[MountaineerMiner]

Re: 1994 Bayliner Capri 1950 Restoration

To get the un-rotted plywood out of my boat I used a flat pry bar and a hammer and took each individual "ply" out, I was then able to scrape the last layer off without too much effort. A flap wheel on an angle grinder made quick work of any stubborn areas.

I have a feeling you?re going to find some rotted stringers this weekend....

By saying take out the forward seating, do you plan to cut out the fiberglass formed seating area??? If so, it?s my opinion it is better to remove the cap than use this method....

 

[petermarcus]

Re: 1994 Bayliner Capri 1950 Restoration

I'm thinking some rot in the stringers is most likely at this point. So far, I've found an inch wide chunk of rot in one stringer next to a rotten bulkhead, but I was thinking of chopping that out a few inches on each side and sistering it with epoxied wood, and pouring some seacast or something like it in the original stringer's few inches. But, if I'm missing good chunks of the other one (I'll also be taking core sample of both along the whole length, and top and bottom), then I'll bite the bullet and do a whole stringer job.

With the seats, I'm just thinking out loud. Part of the re-deck is me rearranging the seats and benches. My forward/bow seats aren't molded into the cap, they're glassed plywood boxes attached to deck and gunwales:

I'd like to have forward seating that's a little nicer than benches and an anchor locker...then again, that's a tight area to work with, right up on the hull. I may make a chalk outline of the dimensions on my driveway to see what I can jam in there. I've tested the sides of the seating and haven't found any rot or damp so far.

 

[joshn569]

Re: 1994 Bayliner Capri 1950 Restoration

oh yea......... Nice job so far, the motor came out looking pristine! I actually wish I had the 3.0 in my boat over the 2.3 OMC. Good luck with the project and keep the pics comming

 

[MountaineerMiner]

Re: 1994 Bayliner Capri 1950 Restoration

Hopefully someone that knows more than I about these capris chims in soon. I am only guessing that someone prior to you cut out the fiberglass that was attached to the cap to replace the floor at some point. Maybe these boats used this setup from the factory...the only reason I would think different is the glass work on the seating area looks completely different from the pics of the transom and hull