MOBILEMERCMAN

I agree no rear railing is better, but filling holes with out painting will take some doing. I would rather see the rail then the repairs unless you plan to paint it. Its Nice 24 Degrees added his pictures.
Jim

knollwoodworker

Jim, Any thoughts on how much it would be to paint the boat? I would like to soda blast the bottom to remove the paint and then possibly paint. Just a single color with as much prep as I could realistically do myself. Thanks for the Pic s 24 Degrees!

MOBILEMERCMAN

It wouldn't be fair for my to guess, There are so many variables. I will say though my friend has a paint shop in Annapolis, Maryland and has been painting boats for 30 some years. Lilly Sport Boats paint a lot of boats and are very good. Labor rate in MD is less then where you are. What ever you do have someone with boat experience paint it. Boats are very different then cars.
Jim

knollwoodworker

I'm not near the boat to check but it look from my pictures that the stanchion mounts are in the teak along the side and only in the fiberglass along the back. Maybe after the screw hole repairs the color could be blended into the surrounding area? Just a thought. I want to rename the boat and was thinking "Got Wood!?"

MOBILEMERCMAN

My guess is the old name will show after you remove it. If the gelcoat is in really good shape you might get a decent match on the blend but the reality is blending paint to gelcoat anyways shows. It might not at first but the gel chaulks and fades and the paint doesn't. Maybe the repairs in the back can be done with gelcoat to suffice for now and restore everything you can, enjoy the boat and paint it at some later time.
Jim

Stormrider

knollwood, check w/ Jamie from Lakeside... he'd be a good person to talk to!
http://lakesiderestorations.com/
He goes by Donzi33 on the site here.

knollwoodworker

Thanks Stormrider.....Ross

stinger390

Hey Ross,

You can sand or scrape the bottom paint off and instead of painting the bottom...wet sand it perfectly smooth with like 600-800 grit sandpaper. My stinger came out great that way. If you repaint it...it's likely the paint will come off if it is not well bonded, and will most assuredly slow the boat down more than a bare wet sanded hull.

I gained 5 mph after stripping the bottom paint, and wet sanding the bottom. It looks like new, as I'm sure yours would as well.

As far as repower...what drives do you have? Alpha's? If you could stuff a couple of 350's in there, I'll bet that thing would take off running like you could not believe. Pop some holes in the transom and put the exhaust out the back to let them breath. If it does nearly 60 now with the 6 cyl and bottom paint, I'll bet she would really scream with the torque of v8's and no bottom paint. You could also spin some larger props with the larger engines. You might even be able to try better props now. If the guy had the boat for 20 years...prop technology has changed big time and you might even get a few knots with different props. Try a few wide open runs and see where your rpm's are. With more efficient props at the optimum engine rpm you would be amazed what kind of performance you can get.

This site is an amazing resource for anything you need to know...engine / outdrives,technical, paint, props, trailering, parts pretty much anything you never wanted to know. The brain power here is worth more than gold when it comes to keeping these things running.

Saw your missed call the other day. No message, so I figured it was not important, and I was putting out a few fires on my end this weekend. Try me again when you get a chance. I'll be on the road with Hodge the next few days.

Todd

Hot Duck

Is that boat still at Ocean Performance?

24degrees

Here's a few more pics of early 24s.......stolen from the internet......