Do I attempt to salvage this recent buy?

[flyer4ever]

I don't want to waste poeples time BUT! I just this past week bought a 87 chaperral 17ft 3.0 with mercruiser drive. I bought this over the internet, I know STUPID! right? Ok the boat arrived at nite and we started it with muffs and it ran great. As the man left and waved he said good luck and even smiled. The first thing I noticed is that it seemed to sit on the trailor a little low to starbord . OK poor loading job. Yesterday I took it to the lake before winterizing to try it one time. Pushed her in and she sat in the water 8 inches deeper on the starbord side. Fired her up and it runs like a good swiss watch with no problems at all. still sitting low. I had a terrible time getting it out of the water, Thought the winch rope would break. HEAVY! When I got home I did some checking and found no drainage to the bilge area. Drilled 5 cores through floors by the back seats and found no standing water only very water soaked foam. The floors are solid,no found rot. Checked port side with a core and all is good. My question is ,Do I junk this thing? , Open up a 2x2 area and fish out the foam? I will not resell it to anyone,Wave and say good luck. I live in Maine and we have already seen a few snow flakes in the air so if I do nothing I'm fairley certin freezing will take care of everything. Any Ideas. Thanks.

 

[allpoints360]

Re: Do I attempt to salvage this recent buy?

Unfortunately, your problem is not uncommon. "Buyers are liars and sellers are hellers."

You don't really have a lot of options. The foam will need to come out, and that means removing the floor. Or you could strip her of everything useful and find another hull. Or you could get out now. It will depend on your situation. Maybe you could drag her back to the PO?

You've come to the right place if you decide to fix her. Search this forum and look at the completed projects forum also. Many have faced your problem and fixed it the right way.

Most here will tell you that you have the most to gain by fixing her.

Good luck.

 

[flyer4ever]

Re: Do I attempt to salvage this recent buy?

I can't belirve how fast this is going. This am my son and I took out the seats, lifted the carpet, Found the stringers, marked everything, and put the skilsaw to her. Took up the starbord side floor and pulled out 200+ lbs of water saturated floatation foam. We did some more cores to the port side and NO signs of water. Looking at the water stains on the outside of the boat makes it look like she was sitting with a lot of water in the hull ,leaning to starbord. The stringers and glass covered floors show no signs of water damage. At this point my plan is to let everything dry. Then in the spring, new floatation, reinstall the floor, lay new carpet and put her back in the water where she belongs. Big job but not as much as I thought. This is not a restoration project but an attempt to teach myself and my 12yr old son that all is not lost and with some work we can still get some use out of an old boat. I would not have attempted this if I had not seen what some of you folks have done with some of your boats. Ernie

 

[jonesg]

Re: Do I attempt to salvage this recent buy?

Sounds like a good plan, cover it up tight and tent it so the snow will slide off, be sure to think of drainage when re-foaming. Store bow up and drain plug out so it can continue to drain.

I undercut my foam so water can drain down to the bilge, cut relief holes in the stringers and sealed them with resin. I used an elec chainsaw to undercut the foam.

 

[flyer4ever]

Re: Do I attempt to salvage this recent buy?

Great, Thanks for the ideas. Normaly I would not have bothered with a boat like this other than it runs really strong and seats and all padding have no tears. Seemed unusual for a boat this old. Only hoping to get a year or two of use without a lot of money. Thanks Ernie

 

[ezmobee]

Re: Do I attempt to salvage this recent buy?

It has a good motor and drive, and good upholstery. Sounds like it would be well worth the effort to fix up properly when you get the chance. Done properly, it could be made better than it was when new. We want pics!

 

[redfury]

Re: Do I attempt to salvage this recent buy?

You'll want to do a thorough search to find out where that water was coming in from before you decide to call it done. You may have a leak in the hull underneath where you can't see it on that side, which is why the other side was dry...this is my guess. They hit something, it sat at a dock, it listed to the side, they pulled it out before it sank and sold it on the trailer. Honestly, it's their loss and your gain if that's the case, because the only thing you have to do is repair the deck after getting out the foam and fixing the hull from the inside and maybe a small gel coat repair on the outside. Sure, it's some work, but all things considered, it's really not all that bad ( sometimes wish that was the only problem I had/have with MY boat! )

 

[jonesg]

Re: Do I attempt to salvage this recent buy?

It could just have been a leaking deck on one side too,
I like to think lazy first.

 

[flyer4ever]

Re: Do I attempt to salvage this recent buy?

You guys are incredible. I would not have thought of some of these things. I do plan on replacing the carpet because it's seen better days. More work than I had planed but I think it will all come together. I do also have a 1986Glastron with an OMC and a 3.0 that runs and goes really nice that just needs some BTB seats. After I bought it, I got a little worried because a few folks told me I was nuts because it's an OMC drive. But it sure runs nice. Too many projects going at the same time. Ernie

 

[scott11]

Re: Do I attempt to salvage this recent buy?

I have to agree you are lucky if thats all thats wrong. I bought my boat thinking all i would have to do is some new carpet and upholstery then it gradually is turning into a complete restore. Doesnt bother me though since i will have a boat completely designed to my preferences when all finished and the satisfaction that i did it all myself (with the help of you guys too of course).

 

[F14CRAZY]

Re: Do I attempt to salvage this recent buy?

It sounds like you'll come out ok. Your stringers seem to be fine and redoing the decking won't take that much time/effort/money to do properly.

It sucks the foam was wet but good your stringers are dry

 

[mattb1974]

Re: Do I attempt to salvage this recent buy?

Hey, I live in Maine too !! Snowed last night. Anyway I got a 1998 Glastron this fall. It listed to starboard about 4" the first time I put her in the water. WET FOAM Took about 4 hours with a wonder bar to pull out about 400 lbs of the wet foam. Do some reading here and you will be on your way to replacing that deck correctly.

 

[redeye1962]

Re: Do I attempt to salvage this recent buy?

This will be a good bonding for you and your son. I know my son is always encouraging me to get outside and work on the boat. After a while he is nowhere to be seen.........but it is good he is seeing how this is done. He wanted to buy a sailboat and I constantly encourage him to so we can learn to sail. I know it is alot of work but hey it saves on gas.

Keep going and try to find some winter jobs to do in the garage like cut out the deck and prep it for the spring etc.

Good Luck

 

[spudshaft]

Re: Do I attempt to salvage this recent buy?

I say fix it. I've had the same thoughts with an old runabout I have, but even if you junk it, the next one will likely have the same problems. At least you know this one runs well. Work with what you have

 

[flyer4ever]

Re: Do I attempt to salvage this recent buy?

OK I'm back after ,well it seems like forever. I ended up taking up the floor on the starboard side and removed all the foam. Why do they put in floatation foam if it just soaks up water? Anyway everything else seems good. The side of the stringer is wet on the side that was next to the foam but no sign of rot so I'm not replacing the floor yet because I dont want to seal in any more moisture. I brought in the seat boxes and decieded to build new ones because they were put together with staples and getting a little rickety. The seats other than that are good with no rips or tears. I didn't think that was bad as these are the origional seats in a 1987 boat. Anyway I needed a new shift arm and throttle control and happen to spot my same boat 5 miles from my home sitting in the dirt out behind a garage half full of water. And it had a working shift in it . I asked the owner about the boat and he said it was going to the dump as soon as he could get it there. Also said for 20 bucks I could take anything I wanted from it because it wont be here long. Well the motor and drive were gone but I did manage to fill my trunk with parts like, throttle control,trim pump,horn,merc bell housing. and probley more junk than I'll ever use. Starting to shop for carpet but I'm running out of good weather. I don't have any questions at this time because I've been able to find all the answers on this site. Thanks to all Ernie

 

[Big Pete]

Re: Do I attempt to salvage this recent buy?

I hope your going to give us pictures

It will be good to see it progress ..

 

[tinkeringwackyone]

Re: Do I attempt to salvage this recent buy?

sounds like you are on the right track. you and your son will have a great bonding experience with this. good luck