TOPIC: 1968 Glastron Futura V153 project

I picked up this old Glastron in trade for grinding out a tree stump for a guy. I liked the look of it and expect it will be a fair amount of fun for my son and I this summer if all goes well.

The first thing I did was to see if I can get the Merc 1000 to run after it's been sitting for the past 15 years. With the help of many of the folks that have posted in the mercury outpost section I tore into the wiring and rebuilt the fuel pumps, carburetors and the water pump.
RUNS like a champ!!

The floor is rotted, but the stringers and transom are solid so I'll be taking care of that next. Steering is seized and nothing I've tried can loosen it, so I'm going to replace the whole system with a new rack system.

Here's a few pics of what I'm starting with....

Sweet looking classic Glastron! Good to hear that the Merc 1000 runs great. I think you did very well with your trade.

bens68futura wrote:

The floor is rotted, but the stringers and transom are solid so I'll be taking care of that next.

Look her over carefully when you get the floor out Ben. Love the classic Glastrons, but they're notorious for stringer and lower transom rot due to poor drainage. (If the floor is rotted there's a really good chance other areas below need attention as well.) Lots of help here to guide you through it, definitely worth the trouble to do it right from the start.

Thanks for the heads-up Mark. I'll be checking it out for sure.

bens68futura,

WELCOME ABOARD. = Looks NICE.

You may also want to look at: www.classicglastron.com = there is a LOT of good info there.

yours, satx

thanks for the welcome! I have been checking out that site as well - never hurts to have more info!

Ben, again, welcome. Always glad to have someone who can share information with all of us.
Nice sophisticated way of taking pictures with your pinky finger extended At least you had the sun at your back.
Mark is a Glastron guru who's been down many of the streets.

Sorry a little late to this but welcome aboard Ben and nice find at a good price!

Bob

It's been awhile, but just got the floor glassed and back today! I work for a company that builds custom tanks and equipment out of fiberglass so I had a couple of the guys work on the floor. Might as well let the pros do it, right? Anyway, I sure couldn't be more pleased with the result - it's super solid now!

Outstanding!!!!!!!!!!!

Bob

Makes me jealous.

Nice.

So what kind of wood and glass did they use? Did they Glass both sides?

for the stringer, they used foam for the core and glassed it. That's the way we build 20,000 gallon tanks, so it's plenty strong. They used heavy chop and resin for the top of the floor. The back side was sealed with a layer of cloth and resin as well. The voids between the floor and hull were filled with remnant pieces of 3" foam that were in the discard bin, so no cost. The plywood came from the mill my brother works at - it was exterior grade as they didn't have any marine grade. I figured it would last long enough. The grand total for the floor was less than $300.00 materials and labor.

That's good that they sealed the back side of the floor and that they put some foam in too!!! Ext. Grade plywood is plenty good. As long as it's sealed well (Whick it now is) and you don't go punching a bunch of holes in it!!!, it should last a good long time!!!! GREAT JOB!!!

I'm not sure how to link a video, but hoping this will work...
It's my first time out with it and I'm pretty pleased!!
vid95.photobucket.com/albums/l126/benmon59/20150816_16283511_zpswrquqk1r.mp4

SWEET!