Chris Cat interior redo.
 

Well thanks to a recent tornado (along with high winds and some hail) my boat is now getting a new interior! Gonna take a few months to get everything done, my interior guy is back logged 2 months, so in the mean time things might spiral into a complete resto (maybe lol). As it sits interior needs redone, I have to swap one transmission, and replace a transom seal on that same side as well.

Here are some pics. First two are of when I bought her 3 years ago, last one is when I started to pull her apart sunday. I'll take some more monday when we pull the motor. Until then enjoy!

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e6...5__medium_.jpg
http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e6...2__medium_.jpg
http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e6...t/IMAG0809.jpg

nice project!!!

I'm in the process of buying an '85. Fortunately it doesn't need any major resto work....yet ;) I'll be keeping an eye on the thread.

Cool project... :signs069:

Thanks guys. This boat has been a love hate relationship. Worked great the first year and then just fell apart on me after that.... but I guess that's how it goes with a 25 year old boat. Shes been off the water the last two seasons due to a divorce and tight finances but thanks to mother nature and being single again its time to put her back to her old glory!

Stay with it, it will be awesome. They are cool boats esp when updated a little IMO.

:DVery Nice Classic Chris Craft you have there.:)

Well had a couple buddies meet me out at the shop last night. managed to get the sun deck off, pulled a motor so we can replace the transmission, took the ugly decals off the side, dranks a few beers and talked about paint jobs... Now I am waiting on parts to show up so I can put the motor back in. In the mean time I'll probably take some more of the interior apart and start taking the rub rail off. It's amazing how much faster it goes when you have 2 people helping you out!

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e6...9/IMAG0817.jpg
http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e6...9/IMAG0821.jpg
http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e6...9/IMAG0823.jpg
http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e6...9/IMAG0824.jpg

Not to much to show, but my buddy got all my new LED lights, electric trailer brakes, and breakaway kit all wired up and installed today. Looking pretty cool, now I got to paint it (to match the boat) after I am done painting the boat and I get it back in the water and off the trailer.

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e6...gejpeg_2_6.jpg

Bigo: I see you have # 2 speed masters and no spacers. How is that Cat to get up on plane?

Who is doing your interior. Mine's original too, need to have it redone.

Wannabe

It takes her a minute to get up on plane, definitely not as quick as a new boat, but she gets there... I haven't seen another chris cat so I don't know how it compares to any others but I don't mind. As for interior a guy here in town that did my role bar boat is probably goin to do it for me. Shop is called No Coast Customs the guy's name is Eli. I have known him for a while and he use to be a fellow boater as well, but just sold his Donzi this year.

Bigo: Thanks, I have the spacers in mine and debating taking them out. How much Hp do you have. I have 454's bored to 468, put new heads and cams in them and dyno at 475.

Wannabe

I am running 2's without spacers as well, about 625hp a side. Comes up on plane at about 3500-3800 rpm and then bites pretty hard.

My Chris Cat with ASD8 (drives down) comes up nice ~3000with low throttle no need to push it..

Our old Chris cat with speedie II's took a long time to plane out. Not sure if there were spacers or not.

Wannabe, Try giving Dave at XT-Innovators a call. He did the upgrade to my cockpit and cabin. Nice work.

Bigo, Keep up the great work. Keep the pics coming. Like seeing others doing their Cat restoration projects.

Will do! Its gonna be kind of slow going, the next couple months I have a wedding I am part of a trip to Arizona and a vacation to puerto Rico. I'm still hoping to have her back on the water by the 4th of July.

Well what is interesting is mine is a first year cat and my drives appear to be mounted much higher on the transom than Bigo's. Looking at his pics and mine my current X dimension is only a little lower with the spacers in. Taking them out might put me a too high an X and make planing tough. Right now I trim in and they bite around 3000-3500 and can hold a plane all the way down to 30 mph- it's a wet ride at that speed.

Wannabe

Thats about how mine is. I got to spin them loose and hold it at about 3500 and then as she starts to come up and bite i back her off. I am running bone stock mark IV 502's so I think I am somewhere aroune the 385hp mark, but I could be wrong. I can't remember what they were rated at.

We installed the spacers in your #2's Wannabe. If you want to take them out, we have the hardware you will need. However, it's not going to work very well unless you go to a much larger diameter prop. (then you can start replacing propshafts and/or bearings), or put trim tabs/tunnel tab on the boat. Once on plane without spacers, the boat will work fine except the "Linder" hop will be somewhat more noticable with the reduced bow lift.