Stingray Boat Restoration

Mickmeister · Jul 2, 2009

I need some opinions on what should be done to restore this boat. As you can see from the pics, the engine compartment door has warped. The last guy used regular wood instead of marine grade. The carpeting needs to be replaced. I removed the door going into the to restore it. I don't know what they did, but the railing on the sides was so crooked. I took an angle grinder and evened it off on the left side. The right side is not done and you can see in the picture, especially near the throttle control is, where it is "wavy" going down the side.

My thoughts are:

1) Get rid of the seats and install two high back seats in the front

2) Remove the entire engine compartment and rebuild a new one with marine grade wood

3) Build a bench across the boat attached to the engine compartment

4) Upholster the sides with openings for skis and miscellaneous stuff

5) Remove the steering wheel and all the gauges. Cut out that space and have livorsi manufacture a new custom plate to go over that area

6) Replace the gauges and steering wheel

7) Recarpet the entire boat

The one stopping point for me are the walls. How would I go about building the custom walls? Would I used marine plywood to build the framing and then upholster over that? As far as upholstering goes, I would like to just frame out everything and then have a professional upholster it.

One additional thing, we have purchase a stereo system for it. I would like to install it and the marine radio beneath the steering wheel. Would I just build a frame and then upholster over that with the cutouts for the additional equipment?

Thanks for the help here! Here are a few pictures I took. Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated.