Woodies Restorations -

We have removed the engine and transmission from the boat to begin rebuilding. In the video above you will see that we test fired the engine after removing and it seems to turn over just fine.

We now have your old fuel tank removed from the boat and as you can see you were definitely in need of a new one. The pictures at the bottom show the condition of the inside. You can see the obvious rust on the sides and flakes of rust settled at the bottom and the black gunk along the bottom is old fuel that has varnished. We have the metal ready and should be started on the new aluminum tank in a few days once complete we will post some pictures of the new compared to the old.

We have removed the gauges from the dash and carefully labeled the wiring behind the dash. Although the gauges appear to be in decent shape, we will be sending them to be rebuilt and will be brand new inside and out when we put them back into the dash.

We have started the process of stripping the varnish from the decks and sides of the boat. After a couple of coats of stripper the varnish should lift off and then we can get started bleaching and staining the wood.

We have the chrome removed from the boat and ready to send off to be redone. We did encounter a problem with the stem bead, shown in the picture to the left. After we started buffing what should have been a piece of stainless steel we found that the piece was actually brass that had been plated. The piece also had a few weak spots and as you can see actually broke in half. So we will have to replace this piece with a new piece of stainless. Also the two pieces in the picture to the right were not original to the boat we can have these redone if you would like to put them back on the boat. If not we can replace them with the original cleats.

The varnish is rolling right off the boat. Once we are finished removing the stripper and varnish we will look over the boat and determine if another coat or two of stripper is necessary or if there is very little to no varnish left we can move on to sanding the boat and prepping it for bleach.

We now have all of the varnish stripped from the boat and are in the process of fairing the planks. This boat is a very straight boat and will not require very much sanding. Once we are finished sanding we will then bleach the wood and prep the boat for stain.

We now have the center section of the deck stained with the correct blonde stain and one coat of sealer applied. The color will turn golden after more coats of sealer and varnish. Once the rest of the boat has been stained the blonde will really stand out.

The decks and sides have been stained with Chris Craft red mahogany stain and we have one coat of sealer on the decks and sides. After we put about four coats of sealer on the boat we will then begin applying varnish.

The varnish work is coming along nicely. We now have five coats of varnish applied to the sides and decks. After coat number four we wet sanded the boat completely flat so that we can ensure that the remaining coats of varnish lay smooth and even on the boat.

The freshly chromed hardware came in this week from the chrome plater and looks amazing. We can't wait to get this back on the boat and see it sparkle in the sunlight.

The flooring is almost complete. We have most of the pieces glued down just a few more to go and then we can trim off the extra material then its ready to go back in the boat.

We are currently working on the transom graphic for your boat. Lots of questions. Would you like to keep or change the name? The current letters are small would you like to make the name larger? Do you have a specific font in mind for the name? If you can just send us an email letting us know what you would like to do and we can get started on a draft for you to approve.

The gauges are back in from being rebuilt and the pictures don't do them justice. You can see a difference in the pictures but once you see them in person they are beautiful.

Here is your windshield. I know it just looks like a box but I promise there is a new windshield in there. Once we are ready to install it we will post more pictures, which shouldn't be long. This will greatly reduce the chances of scratching the new windshield.

The engine box is complete and looks fantastic. We are still awaiting the arrival of the rest of the antique white to finish the seats. We should be receiving the rest of the material the first of next week at which time we can then finish the seats.

So here is a sneak peek of your new windshield we are anxious to get it unwrapped and installed on the boat but we are waiting so that we don't take a chance on scratching it.

We have began work on the bottom of the boat. Today we taped off the water line on the varnished edge of the boat today. Then we proceeded to clean out all of the plank seams. After the plank seams were free of debris we then began to start applying Slick Seam to the seams between the bottom planks. After all of the Slick Seam is applied we will then sand the bottom and prep for paint.

As you can see we have been very busy with varnish work. We now have the final coat of varnish on the entire boat and it is looking slick. We also are very close to being finished with the ceiling boards for the inside of the boat.

As you can see we are nearing the end of your restoration. We now have the gauges, fuel tank and chrome hardware installed on the boat. We are currently finishing the mooring cover and tying up all of the loose end with the engine.