Restoration of my 1965 Glasspar Avolon

[wishboneZ51]

Hello everybody my name is Robert and my nickname has been Wishbone for as long as I can remember. I have built two boats before this one but they were tin boats. When I first saw this boat I could not think straight. I love the 60'sand 70's in just about everything. And sense I got out of the Coast Guard back in 2003 I have been really wanting to purchase my own boat. I bugged this guy for about 3 months and he was way over his head no pun intended! So he called me up last weekend and wammo she now lies in her new home while my pride and joy Corvette sits outside urrrrr.

Ok so on to the boat. She looks really good. There is no rot what so ever. The transom looks solid as it did from the factory. All the pieces are there I think from what I can tell from taking things off. The only thing that was damaged was the back splash cover which I am fixing right now.

My plans are to fix any damage, prime and paint, add decking and some sort of floor. My seats, the steering and all running gear. Letme know if I am missing anything as I am a rookie and it looks like I have a lot of reading to do from what everybody on here has already accomplished. I can use any and all advice so please have at it. I will post pictures along the way as well and ofcourse what would a new member be without posting up some pictures

 

[wishboneZ51]

Re: Restoration of my 1965 Glasspar Avolon

Here are some more pics.

 

[wishboneZ51]

Re: Restoration of my 1965 Glasspar Avolon

Here are some more pictures of the splash guard in back.

 

[wishboneZ51]

Re: Restoration of my 1965 Glasspar Avolon

More pictures of the splash guard!

 

[wishboneZ51]

Re: Restoration of my 1965 Glasspar Avolon

Here are the remainder of the splash pics.

 

[wishboneZ51]

Re: Restoration of my 1965 Glasspar Avolon

Here is the rest of the boat. Please let me know what you all thinkabout any direction I may need to go and are overlooking,thanks for viewing my Glasspar rebuild.

 

[wishboneZ51]

Re: Restoration of my 1965 Glasspar Avolon

Oh and here are my two motors.The origional 1966 Mercury 650 65 HP Which I am realy excited about getting running, man she just looks built American Tough.
My 1974 Johnson 50HP which I did a lot of work to her and she is ready to go. I am planning on putting the Johnson on for now with my brand new CNC Jack Plate I purchased and is ready for install. I am doing this so we can go out on the boat and have loads of fun while I am working on the other motor.

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: Restoration of my 1965 Glasspar Avolon

Welcome to iBoats! Very nice Find! Your boat is a LOT like mine. Looks to be in a little better shape than mine was, so good for you. I will be very interested in watching your re-build. I have not started mine due to the HEAT WAVE here in Oklahoma but HOPEFULLY in the next month I will be able to do so. Plan on flipping the hull to start on prepping for paint. My deck and transom are solid to so my work is cosmetic only. My Seats were there so I only have to recover. Motor is a 40 HP Evinrude Lark being Rebuilt by my Brother In Law. Paint scheme is Identical to yours. Got a kool Gator Trailer that I will be sandblasting and repainting next month as well. We BOTH will be having fun soon.

Good Luck look forward to watching your project as it progresses.

I'm just sayin...

 

[wishboneZ51]

Re: Restoration of my 1965 Glasspar Avolon

That is awesome to here. You will have to let me know when you start yours so I can take a look at all of your pics. I subsribed to the Glasspar association and website. They only specialize in our boats so there is a ton of info there. Let me know if you want there info. I like gaining knowledge from a wide array of references and IBOATS ROCKS.

I wish the seats were still there bummer. I just love these old boats, so much style and character in my book.

Did yours come with the origional steering wheel? I am looking to get one of those, but atleast I have the speedometer.

 

[ajgraz]

Re: Restoration of my 1965 Glasspar Avolon

Woodonglass,

I'm checking in on the neighbor's dog while they're in Wyoming for the summer. I noticed a Glasspar boat and motor in their yard that looks identical to yours except that it's rotting away under a tree

Most of the hardware is there except no windshield.

Strange thing, it's sitting on a virtually brand-new galvanized trailer

Must ask what they're planning to do with it...

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: Restoration of my 1965 Glasspar Avolon

Actually my boat is a LONESTAR, It looks Like a Glasspar but it is not. You can check it out in my thread in my signature. I hope to get started in earnest next month. I have stripped her down and just need to get her off the trailer and flip her so I can get started on prepping the hull for filler, sanding and paint. Gunna use Pettit EasyPoxy Gloss White to pretty her up.
Gunna get the Gator Trailer fixed up too!

Guess we'll all be working together.

I'm just sayin...

 

[wishboneZ51]

Re: Restoration of my 1965 Glasspar Avalon UPDATE !!!

Re: Restoration of my 1965 Glasspar Avalon UPDATE !!!

OK everybody I worked on a couple of different things tonight on the boat...

First things first was too finish getting all of the ancient wireing out. After that I scrubbed the deck to get all of the grease, grime, dirt as well as the battery acid that has been really irritating me the last couple of days.

Next on the list was to check the transom and beams for rot and softness. Drilled a small bit starting from the top right underneith the gunnel in a hidden place and this area was clean as a whistle. Next stop 6 inches lower same side and clean again. I then proceded down to the drain plug and drilled one above the water line and one below and both of these areas were clean with nothing but shavings. I then checked on both sides of the boat in the stern drilling down into the beams and those were clean as well. So it looks like I am very lucky with not having to replace these right now. The transom is good and solid with no movement. YEAH!!! :woohoo:

Next up was to start polishing all of the aluminum back to its shine at the factory. I started but stopped after one piece. I used a rough cut polish on it to get all of the impurities out of the metal. I will then go over it with a medium followed by a fine compound where it will be shinnier then chrome.

 

[wishboneZ51]

Re: Restoration of my 1965 Glasspar Avolon

Here are the last of the pictures.

 

[tsennett]

Re: Restoration of my 1965 Glasspar Avolon

I have a 67 Avalon - same hull - not running at present - the engine needs some work, and I have another boat that I am using instead. I use it on a lake where the little Avalon gets bounced around a bit much, so the other boat (Sea Ray 180) handles the wakes and waves a little better. That Avalon hull is actually pretty good at rough water, but the whole package is pretty light (mine was less than a thousand lbs, even with the old Johnson 80 hp), so you can get tossed around on rougher days. Plus the Sea Ray is about 20 mph faster. Anyway, I am still fond of my Avalon - it was my first boat - and wish you the best of luck with your project. It looks like your boat is in superb shape for the age - the windshields are hard to come by - and the hardware at the corners of the windshields is often cracked. Mine has a flat floor with two back to back seats - it looks like yours has a different configuration. I see you are using the glasspar site - tons of good info there, although iboats has much more resources.
Keep posting. Love to see the progress.

 

[wishboneZ51]

Re: Restoration of my 1965 Glasspar Avolon

Thanks guys,

Today we worked on a couple of things. We finished taking all of the running gear off the top of the boat. I got half way done with taking off the old hard rubber bumper and drilled out half of the rivets. I still have the other side to do.

I purchased my paint, and supplies for the top cap as well. I am using INTERFLUX paint with solid white in the middle like origional and all of the teel green is going to be covered with a dark red burgandy color.

I have been working on polishing all of the running gear and they are turning out nice except for any guages that were in them.

STAY TUNED

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: Restoration of my 1965 Glasspar Avolon

Hey wishbone,

Looking good dude. Great news on the transom. Mine is 50 years old and solid as a rock too. Floor and stringers solid to. I jus have to paint and reupholster the seats. Keep up the good work and keep the picks coming. Weather man says heat is gunna let up next week so maybe I can get started on mine. I hope so, you are driving me crazy seeing your progress.

I'm just sayin...

 

[wishboneZ51]

Re: Restoration of my 1965 Glasspar Avolon

Thats great bro,

The wife is going out of town on business for 4 whole days. So I should get a lot of work done in that time frame. I will take a ton of pics and will post them up. Lots of sanding to do yuk but needs the attention to look good.

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: Restoration of my 1965 Glasspar Avolon

Hey wishbone,

Check this out for cleaning your old trim parts. It worked WONDERS on MINE!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Jdlo-AQoAY

I'm just sayin...

 

[wishboneZ51]

Re: Restoration of my 1965 Glasspar Avolon

Well thanks Woodonglass I will do that now.

Ok here is an update on the progress made. I wasn't able to spend much time on the boat this weekend due to spending time with the wife before she goes off for 4 days.

Here are some pictures of the cap seperated from the hull. I have to admit it was a pain in the toosh getting them seperated and it took some real elbow grease to get it accomplished.

The rubber bumper rail was just as dry as epoxy. So that is going to need to be replaced. The aluminum rail that the bumper sits into, can it be replaced? I have some nicks and deep scratches in mine and was wondering what we can do to get it looking nice?

I also included my CNC jack plate which I am going to use for added performance and clearence in shallow water.

Oh and a picture of the paint I purchased the other day. Now just a couple more things to take off the top cap and I am going to start the dreaded sanding and filling of all the cracks. I think there are thousands of them, how do you guys take care of the small cracks?

 

[JakeEddie]

Re: Restoration of my 1965 Glasspar Avolon

I just sign up today. Working on a 1960 Glasspar Lido. I'll attach a pic if I can. She runs but not well ..... and that's why I'm here. Think I may just have an intake leak.