Rebuild Thread - 1992 Flightcraft

[Cofooter]

And finally floors almost done. I'm going to carpet the front of the boat, and sides, til just past the ski pylon. In the rear, I'm going to have a removable carpet piece with a rubber backing pad that I can put in and take out as needed when it gets wet. So i used epoxy for the final two floor coats tinted with gray pigment to give it some color. Tinted epoxy sure doesn't flow or cover like paint. Pretty sure I'll be scuffing the epoxy up at some point and covering it with marine paint to make it look better.

Off on vacation for a week but plan to have it in the water by May 10th!

[Cofooter]

Also, forgot to mention, in the last picture, fitted and secured the two rear transom supports. These will need to be filleted, tabbed in, and coated with a few coats of resin.

[tvano]

what does "tabbed in" mean?

[Cofooter]

Tabbing refers to the connection between the the hull and the floors or other pieces that are attached to the hull. It's basically strips or several strips of fiberglass saturated with resin.

[martinarcher]

Nice work. That boat is coming along nicely!

[tvano]

Tabbing refers to the connection between the the hull and the floors or other pieces that are attached to the hull. It's basically strips or several strips of fiberglass saturated with resin.

thanks for that. impressive work with an amazingly aggressive time line.

[highlife02]

nice job on the rebuild makes my project look simple

[sparkin5280]

WOW, amazing build and write up! I know Malibu made this a great boat when it was new, but after reading this post I'm confident it's now BETTER than from the factory!! I learned to foot beside this boat last year, so I was one of those scores of people that got that interior wet.....sorry. I can attest to the amazing nature of this footing boat, and more over to the owner and his world class skiing buddy that comes with him I liked this 'Bu so much that I bought my own last September...

[ubugarrity]

That looks awesome. Great job and thanks for posting! Any work to outside?

John

[ryanhealy]

Amazing job. I have a 91 flightcraft. How many hours into the total project? Have you done anything else seats? Paint?

Edited May 8, 2013 by ryanhealy

[Cofooter]

Amazing job. I have a 91 flightcraft. How many hours into the total project? Have you done anything else seats? Paint?

HI Ryan, I estimate I probaly have 150 hrs into it, and another 10-15 to go to finish. Oh, then add another 50 hrs standing around drinking beer and contemplating the next steps..... LOL. VInyl was in pretty good shape, I had to fix a bit of wood rot (cut and replace) on both the side trims and re-staple the vinyl. gel coat is very faded especially on the top. I was going to see how this season goes, and then maybe next winter try to buff out the gel, or maybe get it painted or re-gelled.

More pics coming later this week.

[Cofooter]

That looks awesome. Great job and thanks for posting! Any work to outside?

John

Thanks, nice Flightcraft!! We're you the one talking about decals in this or another forum? Looking for a source. Not interested in doing this for anything other than a hobby. I do have my eyes on a 18 foot classic flat bottom v-drive race boat though. Needs same type of re-build and is almost free. Now that I've done this, may think about doing another one next winter.......

[Cofooter]

HIt it hard last week. Here are some pics of the home stretch!

Started the carpet first on the sides of the hull. Bought the carpet from boatcarpet.com and bought their glue as well. Carpet couldn't have been easier, one of the more enjoyable parts of the rebuild as I could see the project finally coming to a conclusion.

[Cofooter]

At the same time I was doing the carpet, I was also finishing the glass in the back on the transom supports. I used two layers of biax cloth to attach the support to the hull, deck and stingers.

[Cofooter]

Now that the epoxy and glass project was finished for the time being, I was never happier to ditch the set of sweats that I wore during the rebuild. I'm eventually (next year) going to do a bit more grinding and sanding in the bilge and transom area to get it ready for paint, but with 80 degree weather outside, I was anxious to get it in the water.

[Cofooter]

Here is the front carpet going in. As I previously mentioned, this went a lot better than I thought it would. Having never carpeted a boat before, I was a bit nervous about how it would turn out, and I'm very happy with the outcome. The key, I thought, I read somewhere, was to continuously change the blade on the knife (like every three or four feet of cuts) to ensure a clean cut at the edges.

[Cofooter]

Interior re-installed. I made the back section of the carpet removable. I'm going to contact cement the carpet to a rubber mat cut to fit to give the carpet some weight and to keep it from moving around in the back of the boat. I debated using snaps or velcro but I liked the mat idea better and thought it would be more durable.

So after about 8 weeks of work it's ready for the water again. I'm very happy with the way it turned out and know it will last many, many years. Next year, I'll work on the hull cosmetics to try to bring back some of the original shine.

A few observations now that it is done.

- the only part that truly sucked was working under the back deck on the transom supports and rear sections of the stringers and decks. There's barely enough room to turn over or maneuver in there and the whole time is spent laying down. Grinding and dust in there was terrible. If I had to do it again, I'd seriously consider de-capping it.

- Like I said, for the most part it was enjoyable work. I wish I was able to grind outside, but not practicle in Colorado wintertime.

- Glassing was fairly simple. I had worked with glass before, but was really impressed with the workability of the 1708 biax cloth. Very easy to work as it would easily conform to the many angles I needed it to. And incredibly strong.

- The pitot system was no doublt one of the sources of water seepage before the rebuild. I decided to get rid of the system and I patched to numerous pitot and tube holes in the hull with epoxy. I replaced one of the airguides with a PP digital GPS speedo.

- Spent about 175 hrs on the project and approx $1,300 not including the speedo.

I bought all the epoxy/glass/supplies from US Composites. I thought they were very helpful when I had questions, and very resonable for pricing.

Thanks for your interest. I'd be happy to answer any questions if someone is contemplating a similar project.

-

[Cofooter]

Here is a pic of the boat in the water after the re-build. Managed to get a few rips in last night and could not be happier with the boat. It sits higher in the water, quicker out of the hole and has about two more miles of top end, and the wake is noticeably better - Flightcraft perfect. There is a small leak where the outboard motor plate bolts to the transom. I did not mess with those bolt in the re-build so it must have been leaking there before. I have to yank the engine off to access the bolts, so will do that sometime during the season.

[Malibuzer]

That is great work! It really makes me want to take on a project like this sometime.

Fantastic documentation of what you did. Kudos to you.

[footndale]

Nice job! Missed the original post, but saw it in the barefooter forum.

Looks like many more fun hours on the water.

[BillFooter]

Really nice job. That makes me really miss my Flightcraft.

[Cofooter]

Thanks, guys. Really happy to finally have a Flightcraft. Going to put hydraulic steering on it in a few weeks here as I can tell the cables are about to go........... I'll post some pics of that, too.

[WakeGirl]

That is a simply awesome save on a fantastic boat. Nice job Co, I'll bet it feels great!

[obski]

Wow. I am always in awe of people that can do this kind of work.

Great job.

[Levi900RR]

Looks amazing