Jim, I spoke to Tom Miller about a month ago about re-gelcoating one of my boats, and he came up with an estimate of about $6,000.00 for the job. It would have to be taken down to bare finish, re-gelcoated (top to bottom) and block sanded back down. He said it is "very" labor intensive , and the final results may still look rather "orange peeled". He recomended just starting with a new one. Tom Miller is dead set against painting one of therse boats, although I've seen many of them done that way. Bob
My boat is painted because of the high cost of the gel coat. Mark's and Daniel's boat are painted too. I talked to Tom about this years ago and his opinion has not changed. You may have missed my earlier post where I said that if I do another 18, it will be a new one. The cost of restoring and modifying an old one can and has exceeded the cost of a new one if the work is hired done. If a guy does all of his own work, it is a different story. The guy that painted my boat claimed that he used the same paint as used on the unlimited hydroplanes. I never verified that. jim
I guess that I should add that my paint has held up well for 11 seasons. The advantage to paint is that is can easily be touched up when the hull is damaged. jim
Monzarati: Well I have to add my $0.02. If your boat is far from original and requires a serious overhaul or transformation to get it back on the water, follow Jim's path as he is the expert for i/o to o/b conversions, hands down. Jims boat is a work horse and a beautiful transition from inboard/outboard to outboard. If your boat is close to original and are looking at preserving a piece of history and want a collectable boat in the end, try and keep to the original setup including powerplant and interior. I have an i/o with original interior that I have tryed to keep in excellent to mint condition and find it to work well in the open water skiing and general boating ski needs. Its a little heavy in the transom but the 351 CID mercruiser has a pretty cool rumble on the water. Moral of the story is that change can be good for performance but maybe bad for resale/value. Cheers! Kevin!
I agree. You have to remember that I converted mine years ago. At that time both I/O's and outboard Dynes were plentiful. There was not much thought of the boats being collectible. The situation is much different now. I am still here to answer question both on the conversion and how to maintain the I/O. I ran the boat as an I/O for years. I developed some interesting mods for the drive that made it easier to drive and steer. jim
Well, the boat is pretty original. The interior was shot and is kind of cobbled together. The motor is not original either, since I replaced it. The outdrive is original (unfortunately) and needs some minor pieces (the hold down latch is broke and missing a couple cover plates). The hull, however, looks very sound and the paint is decent except for the cracking gelcoat in a few areas. The rubrail needs to be replaced and I'd guess that there might be a little rot under there. As a side note, I found a guy with a '78 18' 150 hp faststrike outboard with a bad lower unit that might consider a trade. He says that it might need a sheet of fiberglass on the hull. I'll look at it next week and keep you posted.
I think that '78 18 footer with the fast Strike and no reverse has been on here "for sale" before. I saw pictures of that boat on another site and it shows an oval section of the hull on the right side completely delaminated and missing. I'd be extra cautious when checking that one out. I believe the motor was a newer one, but had problems with reverse. Bob
Bob is right, that hull is in terrible shape, delam on the right side of the bottom, they hacked a storage compartment into the bow, the fin is gone.
