Crestliner Sportfish Project

[McGR]

Re: I Hung Around This Forum Too Long - See What Happened

Re: I Hung Around This Forum Too Long - See What Happened

I'm going to get started on my transom tomorrow. Obviously, I need to pull the motor. After that, I need to pull the cap off the transom. Unfortunatly, I've got this nicely welded transom cap on my Crestliner. Before, I butcher my project boat... does anyone know the best way to deal with removing the welded cap? I'm thinking cutting the welds with a Dremel/cutting wheel. Even after cutting welds, it seems that the gunwales may be in the way. Any advice at this point is greatly appreciated.

 

[McGR]

Re: I Hung Around This Forum Too Long - See What Happened

Re: I Hung Around This Forum Too Long - See What Happened

OK, so it looks like nobody knows how to deal with a Crestliner....

So... I've started to move ahead using my best judgement. Tonight I started by grinding off the corners/welds off the transom cap. I hated messing up the beautiful orignial welds, but it had to be done. I managed to get the starboard side loose without too much damage. I'll probably do the other side tomorrow evening. After that, I need to get motor off.

In the mean time I'm thinking about the rest of the job. Hopefully, after removing the motor, transom cap and various other fasteners, I can remove the old transom. However, one thing I'm unsure of is how to deal with the splash well drains. Is there a prescribed method for taking them out? Do they then get discarded? Or are they reuseable? Advice is greatly appreciated.

 

[Huron Angler]

Re: I Hung Around This Forum Too Long - See What Happened

Re: I Hung Around This Forum Too Long - See What Happened

The entire splashwell and drains should be reusable, new drains can be purchased that will fit the holes that exist but you should be fine.

Glad to hear you're getting after it, is the OB still on the transom?

 

[McGR]

Re: I Hung Around This Forum Too Long - See What Happened

Re: I Hung Around This Forum Too Long - See What Happened

Yea, the motor is still mounted. I'm going to have a buddy or two come over in a few days so we can muscle it off of there.

So, how are the drains constructed that they are reuseable. Are they just pressed in, or threaded or what?? How should I plan on removing them - grind them out or drive them out or unscrew them??

 

[Huron Angler]

Re: I Hung Around This Forum Too Long - See What Happened

Re: I Hung Around This Forum Too Long - See What Happened

I would grind the inside and try to push the drains out to leave the ring intact for the visible exterior. If not then a new pipe could always be pushed in whatever size hole you need. You could make them larger to drain faster but that's probably a good size.

 

[erikgreen]

Re: I Hung Around This Forum Too Long - See What Happened

Re: I Hung Around This Forum Too Long - See What Happened

I came to this thread a bit too late, but oh, well.

I'd have recommended cutting the corners not at the welds but on the flat near them. Much easier to hide a re-work there, and also to re-weld if needed.

But nice work so far, looks like she has potential.

Erik

 

[McGR]

Re: I Hung Around This Forum Too Long - See What Happened

Re: I Hung Around This Forum Too Long - See What Happened

OK - we're making some progress now (I think). Got the motor off this morning and finished removing the welds on the transom cap this evening. It didn't look quite as bad as I thought it might under the cap. Nonetheless, it is definitely in need of replacement. Hopefully the old wood will come out of there without too much trouble.

 

[McGR]

Re: Crestliner Sportfish Project

Making Great Progress??



I guess the transom did need a little bit more than minor epoxy repair after all.



It don't get any better than this.

 

[ezmobee]

Re: Crestliner Sportfish Project

You sir, have made a fine mess

 

[BobsGlasstream]

Re: Crestliner Sportfish Project

McGR,
Great start.
Now the fun begins.
A little Elmer's and a few tooth pic's and your as good as new.
Bob

 

[pmillar]

Re: Crestliner Sportfish Project

I'm not sure how I missed this thread until now. As the owner of a recently purchased '97 sportfish 1750 this is very interesting... except for the part about needing to redo your transom Hopefully that's not in my near future since my boat has a pretty clean interior from garage storage and/or a full snap on cover. Ironically, I'm coming at it from the other end of the sprectrum... clean boat with a dead motor, albeit for about the same price. (plus lots of added goodies like a trolling motor, fish finder, life jackets, etc.)

If I end up needing to get into the floor and transom it's not the deal I hoped for since I need to rebuild my powerhead or pick up another motor. Supposedly the VRO puked on the Johnson 115 Faststrike so hopefully it's not too involved. (pistons/rings/seals)

Keep up the progress and good luck! And please share any insight on the gas tank under the floor if you have old gas to deal with. I'm pretty sure I do.

 

[McGR]

Re: Crestliner Sportfish Project

PM -

My Sportfish was basically left out in the elements for what appears to be an extroadinary amount of time. It's no surprise that the transom was shot. I would not think the condition of my transom would be representative of all similar generation Crestliners.

I've never been a VRO fan myself. I think premix is the most reliable "oil injection" you can get. I removed the VRO from a 40HP I had several years back and never looked back. I've been debating with myself over removing it from this motor too. I'll worry about that when I get around to the motor phase... first I need to fix the boat.

When I bought the boat, I never thought to ask about how old the gas was. Though, I did see the motor run on the gas in the tank. I've been thinking about pumping out the gas a couple of gallons at a time and burning it off in my car. It seems that it can't be too bad if it was running the Evinrude.

I'm not too sure if I got a good deal on this boat or not. But, I do like the looks of the hull and expect that when I'm done I'll be happy with it, though there have been moments when I wondered if I just bought $3000 worth of junk.

 

[mikezohsix]

Re: Crestliner Sportfish Project

I'm doing what you're getting into on a Grumman I/O now.
http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=362705

I haven't posted with todays "find" which was more wet floors and carpenter ants forward of the console, so all the floors are out and all the poured in foam is out.

I wish I had dug in all at once rather than, fixing the motor, fixing the OD, pulling the transom, addressing aluminum corrosion and now the floor.

One thing I'm glad of, and you may end up being too, is that we're not dealing with rotted stringers in a glass boat, and the transom replacement is a whole lot more straight forward too.

I like the looks of your boat and would have considered it myself, so, if you're like me, it's just a project........

 

[fishrdan]

Re: Crestliner Sportfish Project

I've been thinking about pumping out the gas a couple of gallons at a time and burning it off in my car.

I made that mistake when I bought my project boat. I drained the tank and proceeded to dump a few gallons into my truck when I thought,,, I wonder if there's any water in the gas . Dumped some on a stick and hit it with a match,,, no fire Well, it smelled like gas... Luckily, (I guess luckily...) I discovered the water in the gas as the car was going to get a couple gallons also.

I doubt you have this problem, but check and make sure it's "gas" that comes out of the tank.

 

[McGR]

Re: Crestliner Sportfish Project

OK... I think I may have finally turned the corner with this thing. As opposed to just tearing things apart, at last I'm beginning to put things back together. This evening I slid in the epoxy covered hunk of plywood in to the stern of the boat. I'm too tired and it's too cold to finish off the job this evening. Tomorrow I'll get in there and get it bolted in properly. Things are finally looking up - soon I can start the fun stuff.

 

[McGR]

Re: Crestliner Sportfish Project

Got the transom mounted last weekend. Putting the finishing touches on today. After considering my options, I decided to give "JB Stik" a shot at replacing the welds that needed to be ground off the ends of the transom cover. Will it work ? - I sure hope so. One way or the other I'm going to find out.

Note that I did add reinforcing screws at the ends of the cover. So, the JB Stick is not really structural it's just filling the gaps.

 

[Huron Angler]

Re: Crestliner Sportfish Project

McGR looking good on that new transom, should last you a while(not the most fun job to do so hopefully) I will be doing the same to mine soon so I appreciate you sharing the project.

I like the looks of that boat, can't wait to see her all done this spring

I may be borrowing your idea for storing the OB on the garage floor too since I have no room for a stand anywhere and don't feel like hauling it to my basement.

Have you had any issues with the Evinrude being stored like that?

 

[McGR]

Re: Crestliner Sportfish Project

I have a motor stand from a past project available... unfortunatly there just wasn't room. So, on its side it went. I don't think the motor will be a problem. I drained the carbs and emptied the l/u before removing it. Hopefully it will be mounted again on the new transom in the next few weeks.

Update... just got done doing some filing and sanding on the JB Stik. It looks like it will work fine. I'm just going to give it a few layers of regular JB to fill and level it out. I think it's going to work well.

Hopefully, I can start making some headway on the interior now. Those lakes will be thawing out before you know it - got to get moving with this thing.

 

[fishrdan]

Re: Crestliner Sportfish Project

I used JB weld to repair repair a 1/8" cut in the aluminum transom cap on my project (thieves cut through it) and it looked perfect,,, until the sun and cold got to it. Aluminum expanded at a different rate than the JB weld and it popped at the seam. I'm going to make a 2-3" cap to cover it and 5200 the cap on, along with a couple screws. (My cut is in the middle of the transom cap, cosmetic since I have an I/O.)

I wanted to get the cut welded but the shops I talked to wouldn't touch it because of the wood under the cap. If I could weld aluminum I would have went for it,,, just to get the aluminum stuck together.

 

[Huron Angler]

Re: Crestliner Sportfish Project

thieves cut through it

To steal what?...the old transom wood