TOPIC: My newest boat.. What a steal!

Last friday I was crusing craigslist and noticed this little gem.
150.00 the ad said.. for a 1960 "something" with motor..



I called the guy up he's about an hour and a half from me, I talked him down to 100 bucks site unseen.. I wanted the parts from the boat thinking that its sat for over 12 years from what he told me.

You know the HULL HAD TO BE BAD..

So yesterday a buddy of mine and I headed out to go pick it up..
Low and behold its a 17.5 Aristo-Craft Funliner.. The hull is damned near perfect ( Aristo-Crafts have only fiberglass stringers no wood..)

Its got a 75 horse Johnson on it it good shape. But again I figured it was gona be locked up or wouldn't run without a major overhaul.

So 100 bucks later and 70 miles we get it back home.

First things first... Clean the deck out.. Man it was dirty
My daughter helped me clean out the hull probably 80 pounds of dust and mud from sitting uncovered so long.



Next thing we did was check the hull for minor/ major leaks.
This is where I found out the hull has no wood in it.. SWEET..
(I found the specs here in the library ) Floor is solid no sponge feeling anywhere.. So I put about 6 inches of water in the boat with the plug in..Nope not a single leak its dry as a bone on the bottom..

Good signs so far..

So We drain the boat dry again, and a few hours later I decide to just test my luck.. As all the controls are in fair shape, no leaks, the trailer is rough but in good shape, and I have a KEY for the ignition...

So 1 battery and a tank of fuel later, we decide to try to fire it up..

Mind you this boat hasn't seen the water in over 12 years, has NOT been started since then either..

It fired right up after about 5 secs of cranking.. I am beside myself here.. I have never seen ANY motor fire up after sitting for that long with no problems.. It ran great and the water pump works too..




I got real lucky on this one.. It was a good day to play with boats yesterday..

i finally figured out why my luck stinks! you stole ALL of it!

nice find! maybe this will be that "15 minute" restore that i saw in another thread...

lol not likely, I'll be stripping the gel off of it next weekend, then to see to any repairs it needs. It will be about a 3 or 4 month project But a fun one at that..

You got way too good of a deal. You need to give away either the motor, or the trailer or both.

Holy smokes, you scored big! I would really like to see you put a new impeller in there though. It's probably stiff as a board and when it starts cracking up it will plug up the cooling gallys.

ohh yea I already have one to put in, I'm gona take my time with this one, I want to make it look a pretty as many of the other classics I've seen here on the site. Only thing I might have a hard time with is the windshield, and the hard top canopy that came on it originally.

Dumb question. But I am curious as to why you are stripping the gel off of her, if the hull is so nice already?

Maybe I missed something, but MAN that's a lot of work, if it doesn't need it. Can you sand it down a re-buff her instead?

rghering,

and i thought that i was lucky w/my two 250.oo rigs!

yours, satx

lots of spider cracks.. I supposed I could sand down and try to fill the deeper ones on the topside. the bottomside is good.. I ment the topside btw not the whole boat..

Thanks. The top side is more fun to re-do, than the bottom. That's where the WOW factor is.

High build primer works wonders on those nasty spider cracks.

if you're interested, i have a glass (not plexiglass) windshield off of a 1965 that might just fit.

interested yes. What you looking at for price and where are you located? or can it be shipped safely.