'88 Skier Restoration

[Steve B.]

Hang in there, and keep up the good work Lee52. It's great watching the project. Thanks for the progress pics.

Steve B.

[skier_88]

Awesome!! I have everything out of my Skier....pulling the floor in about a week. Thanks for the pics:rockon: I will be using a lot of these for guidance. So how are you going to put your motor mounts back in? Lag again?

[dlb]

Wow! The effort you are putting in to getting the work done while paying attention to doing a very detailed job is tremendous. Keep at it, I thought of restoring a boat some day. Great to see someone doing it.

[90Euro]

Very nice. I'm going to have to do that to my boat some day. Bookmarked.

[rugger]

Congrats on the progress. Looks like its coming together nicely.

In terms of the floor, I used the Malibu floor that you mentioned above and was very happy with it. If a drive to Merced isn't out of the question, I'd recommend at least talking to a few folks at the factory for some price quotes. I say this because when I restored my old Sunsetter I researched everything I could find online, and decided the best/cost solution was simply fiberglassing in wood/marine floors (was going to wrap both sides, West epoxy). Then off hand, I mentioned my floor situation to Chee at Malibu (who was stitching the custom vinyl for it) , and he put me in touch with one of his friends at the factory. Long story short, for the price I was going to pay in just materials for wood/glassed floors, they installed composite floor and carpet. Malibu as a company is very helpful if you ask. They like the old boats to look good, and I'd recommend the phone call. PM me if you want the contact info. He'd probably get you the floatation foam cheap too (I had bought mine from some Florida company already.)

Here was my project http://picasaweb.google.com/myfourday . It now belongs to another member here who's made even more mods. Although since the Malibu guy did the floors, I didn't get pics of the install.

I'm not as familiar with Skiers, but besides beefing up the transom for a wedge the other mod we made was adding bulkheads across the back, perpendicular to the stringers. The Sunsetter had voids on the outsides of the stringers between the floor and transom. Essentially, the floatation foam was exposed and became a 20+ year sponge for lake water. So I sealed that off with bulkeads which also proves more support for weight (which you won't need since you don't want ballast). But if Skiers have the same void space, it's at least one option to consider.

There's another guy on here (jdog?) who's in about the same spot as you with an 89 Sunsetter. He might have better thoughts. I tried talking him into making it a V-drive, but no go.

Thanks for the post. This will be very helpful to LOTS of people, probably more than you think. Looks like you're doing a hell of a job. That's a lot of work and looks fantastic already. Good luck the rest of the way and enjoy your 'new' boat.

[skier_88]

I dropped the Skier off to the shop this AM. I'm expecting about a month or so for the work to be complete. I did everything that I could to cut the cost down, but was too chicken to go any further so I decided to pay to get it down. In Ohio, we don't have too many stringer repair shops, I found two, one was an instant no and the others was a nautique dealer that got the gig. I'm always skeptical about other people doing major work like this, but he sold me with, we don't want this boat back any more than y ou want to have this done again haha. Also they will be letting me come in and watch progress and help out.....so pics are to follow. I'm hoping, stringer repair is the worst case scenario.

Thanks for these pictures, they'll help out!

[Ndawg12]

It looks great so far but I'm not sure the Cool Whip epoxy is going to hold up very well

[Lee52]

Here are another few pictures of my Skier restoration. Fiberglass is done on both stringers but nothing else has changed significantly. I'm hoping that was the worst of the fiberglass work ... there's a lot more to go, but it's mostly flat surfaces instead of more complex shapes, and nothing else should have two layers of glass.

[martinarcher]

Awesome. It looks like it's coming along very well. It looks like your taking your time and doing everything very meticulously. Nice job! Can't wait to see the floor going back in!

[Levi900RR]

Nice work dude. I hope one of your Christmas presents is some quality time to work on the Bu!!!

[Lee52]

I finally have a few consecutive days to get a lot of fiberglass done, so here's the progress from today.

Originally I was going to re-coat everything with a heavy layer of fiberglass, but in the interest of time, weight, and sanity I'm going to do the sides with six ounce cloth just to give it a thin layer since I didn't grind much out of the sides. There were several places on the bottom where I had to grind through the hull to get rid of stress cracks and bad fiberglass, so it seemed worthwhile to put a fresh layer down over everything, after patching the damaged spots. The picture of the dry glass laid out in a T over the fins is a good example. The front fin, which is also where the pylon mounts to, had stress cracks and quite a bit of yellow saturated fiberglass.

If anybody is curious, what I've used so far for fiberglass has mainly been 24 oz roving with a light mat stitched to it, and 18 oz biaxial cloth, also stitched to a light mat. The biaxial cloth doesn't mold to curves at well, but I used it as the base layer over the stringers and for layup to rebuild the thickness of the rudder mount. The 24 oz stitchmat conforms much better so I'm using that for the large pieces like the ones in the pictures.

[WakingMeHappy]

Impressive would be an understatement!

[tvano]

my knees and back hurt just looking at the pictures.

you have a lot more free time than i do (and i'm retired)!

keep up the good work.

[Levi900RR]

Lee, I love this thread. Your doing a GREAT job with the re-build.

I still think you should reinforce that Transom while your in there so it would support a wedge

[skier_88]

Wow this is looking great!!! I'll get pictures of my rebuild asap, although it isn't to the extent of yours. Just basically a stringer over haul, the rest is in tip top shape.

[Lee52]

More pictures of fiberglass work from the last few days:

[infantrybu]

good job im actually gonna continue doin this on my 89 sunsetter in march.......ive got all the foam out and the engine ready to be pulled but i wont be able to continue any further until march...would love to hear any tips, maybe articles that u looked at...for me ive learned alot at iboats...my biggest part will be cutting the stringers because i dont think i will be able to use my old ones as a layout to go from they are pretty rotten.

[Lee52]

good job im actually gonna continue doin this on my 89 sunsetter in march.......ive got all the foam out and the engine ready to be pulled but i wont be able to continue any further until march...would love to hear any tips, maybe articles that u looked at...for me ive learned alot at iboats...my biggest part will be cutting the stringers because i dont think i will be able to use my old ones as a layout to go from they are pretty rotten.

I used a reciprocating saw and went through five blades to cut out the stringers intact. It can certainly be done, but that was probably the most physically difficult and aggravating part of the entire restoration so far. It was extremely challenging to get good leverage and keep the sawblade flat against the bottom. The wood in mine was still solid in most places, so if yours are badly rotten it may be easier since you'll be mostly cutting fiberglass instead of solid wood as well.

Even if everything is rotten, the old stringers should give you good templates if you can cut them out in one piece. The fiberglass will hold its shape and probably hold together a lot of the rotten wood. If you're not confident in that, get some heavy brown masking paper and use it to make a template of the inboard side of each stringer. That would get you close enough to be able to shape new pieces of wood before you start fine-tuning the fit inside the boat.

[skier_88]

Its looking great! Check out my forum I added a few pics to it. I am hoping to be done next week! i was so suprised b the poor build of this boat. Did you find that your secondary stringers were plywood? Mine were. I havent figured out what wood the main stringers were made out of, I don't know how it lasted 20 years, but it did! I say that now, the new stuff may be worse yet!

http://www.themalibucrew.com/forums/index.php?/topic/29905-surgery-on-the-skier/

Edited January 13, 2011 by skier_88

[Oberon]

I used a reciprocating saw and went through five blades to cut out the stringers intact. It can certainly be done, but that was probably the most physically difficult and aggravating part of the entire restoration so far. It was extremely challenging to get good leverage and keep the sawblade flat against the bottom. The wood in mine was still solid in most places, so if yours are badly rotten it may be easier since you'll be mostly cutting fiberglass instead of solid wood as well.

Even if everything is rotten, the old stringers should give you good templates if you can cut them out in one piece. The fiberglass will hold its shape and probably hold together a lot of the rotten wood. If you're not confident in that, get some heavy brown masking paper and use it to make a template of the inboard side of each stringer. That would get you close enough to be able to shape new pieces of wood before you start fine-tuning the fit inside the boat.

I don't plan on doing this to my boat any time soon, but do you think an angle grinder would work? I would think you could cut thought the fiberglass easily with an angle grinder, but I don't know about the wood. Is the wood boded to the bilge?

[rugger]

Its looking great! Check out my forum I added a few pics to it. I am hoping to be done next week! i was so suprised b the poor build of this boat. Did you find that your secondary stringers were plywood? Mine were. I havent figured out what wood the main stringers were made out of, I don't know how it lasted 20 years, but it did! I say that now, the new stuff may be worse yet!

http://www.themalibucrew.com/forums/index.php?/topic/29905-surgery-on-the-skier/

88, the outer stringers on the 87 SS were also two pieces of offset plywood... but that's actually pretty common for the wood stringer boats. Really the outer ones are just floor supports, not really for hull strength especially on that little boat. It's the poor fastening steps that made those boats so vulnerable. The materials should have been fine. But hundreds of staples, screws and bolts boring into the wood made it a ticking timebomb.

You guys are doing great on the rebuild. I feel your pain. Just take time to reattach the floors, mounts, etc, the right way this time. I still had a limited number of screws from the floors to stringers, but all of them are surrounded by plexus epoxy/goop for a permanent seal and adhesion (same stuff Malibu uses now). They didn't do that back in the day. Even the cheaper polyester fiberglass materials today are better than what they used back then. I'm pretty sure the floors were simply sprayed with resin back then, not wrapped.

Awesome work guys

[Lee52]

88, the outer stringers on the 87 SS were also two pieces of offset plywood... but that's actually pretty common for the wood stringer boats. Really the outer ones are just floor supports, not really for hull strength especially on that little boat. It's the poor fastening steps that made those boats so vulnerable. The materials should have been fine. But hundreds of staples, screws and bolts boring into the wood made it a ticking timebomb.

You guys are doing great on the rebuild. I feel your pain. Just take time to reattach the floors, mounts, etc, the right way this time. I still had a limited number of screws from the floors to stringers, but all of them are surrounded by plexus epoxy/goop for a permanent seal and adhesion (same stuff Malibu uses now). They didn't do that back in the day. Even the cheaper polyester fiberglass materials today are better than what they used back then. I'm pretty sure the floors were simply sprayed with resin back then, not wrapped.

Awesome work guys

I know this has been mentioned before, I think by you, but aside from all the penetrations in the fiberglass from screws and bolts, overall quality just wasn't that good, especially the fact that the foam under the floorboards was open to bilge water near the stringers. The drivers seat base in mine was made out of 2x4s, and when I pulled it apart they were completely saturated with water. Even without screws everywhere, the fiberglass around the stringers was just poorly laid and had holes in the weave that would have let in water all over the place.

All it takes is one good soaking to get water into those places and keep everything wet, and I'm sure everyone has had that happen at least once. For me it was when the rudder loosened up and dropped out in 200 feet of water. I was idling in gear and the boat just started making a slow right turn, then the bilge pump kicked on as water started rising over the floorboards. It's amusing now, but in addition to the fact that I nearly sank the boat that day, it probably contributed to a lot of the problems I'm fixing now.

[rugger]

I know this has been mentioned before, I think by you, but aside from all the penetrations in the fiberglass from screws and bolts, overall quality just wasn't that good, especially the fact that the foam under the floorboards was open to bilge water near the stringers. The drivers seat base in mine was made out of 2x4s, and when I pulled it apart they were completely saturated with water. Even without screws everywhere, the fiberglass around the stringers was just poorly laid and had holes in the weave that would have let in water all over the place.

All it takes is one good soaking to get water into those places and keep everything wet, and I'm sure everyone has had that happen at least once. For me it was when the rudder loosened up and dropped out in 200 feet of water. I was idling in gear and the boat just started making a slow right turn, then the bilge pump kicked on as water started rising over the floorboards. It's amusing now, but in addition to the fact that I nearly sank the boat that day, it probably contributed to a lot of the problems I'm fixing now.

Totally agree. Trust me... I was sick to my stomache over it. It was shoddy all around. Even simple things like seat construction had short cuts; the bow section wasn't even symmetrical when I measured to rebuild it. I was more or less referring to wood -- plywood is fine for floor supports and the stringers were strong at one time. Even Mastercraft, who built much better boats in the 80s, used the same. Keep up the good work.

[skier_88]

What did you use for cloth? Polyester? Also what type of mat did you use?

[Lee52]

What did you use for cloth? Polyester? Also what type of mat did you use?

I used 17 oz biaxial cloth with chopped strand mat stitched to it, and 24 oz woven roving stitched to light mat. I've used the biaxial cloth for any of the high stress spots, particularly around the rudder, and as the first layer over the stringers.

Biaxial Cloth

Roving