After years of reading, talking and going to calssic boat shows, my
brother-in-law and I are looking to purchase a classic Chris Craft to
restore for use at our cabin in northern Wisconsin.

We have found a 1942 Chris Craft Rocket that has peaked our interest.
The only problem we see with it is the fact that its bottom has been
fiberglassed over. We've done alot of research and reading and we
both want to remove the fiberglass bottom.

Our question is this... how hard is it to remove the fiberglass from
the bottom of one of these boats? Is it a huge problem or just a
minor setback in our quest to rebuld the bottom of the boat? How much
work is in volved in removing the fiberglass (the boat is only a
16'er). We were going to keep it (the fiberglass bottom), but we
didn't want to deem the fiberglass bottom to be solid and restore the
rest of the boat only to learn later on that the bottom is junk and
needs to be replaced anyway.

Any help with this would be greatly appreciated. Any tips on what to
look for/try when rebuilding the bottom would also be appreciated.

Thanks.

Jerod,

1942 is before CC started doing glass on the bottom of the Tahoe boats.
So, it is not OE.

If you don't know who did it and how long ago, you may be in luck.

If they were cheap, they did it with polyester resin. That is good for
you, but not so good for the boat. Poly resin will most likely just
peal right off - glass and all - and do little to the wood beneath.

In any case, before you go any farther, get all over the bottom with a
soft faced hammer and sound it all. Any places where the wood is gone
you will note a very different rebound, and if/where the glass has
separated from the planking you may still get a solid rebound, but you
will hear and feel the snap as the layers come together.

If you are going to strip the glass off, it is worth your while to
remove the engine and roll the boat over (16-17' - not too tough) so you
are working like a human. Get a box of full tyvek suits and good masks
and respirators and just grind or sand it off. A 7" side grinder with
24 grit paper on a flex back will do that job pretty fast (you can even
go the 16 or 12 paper if there is that much glass. But try cutting to
the planking and pealing before you work too long and hard.
BTDT
Matt Colie -
Lifelong Waterman, Licensed Mariner and Perpetual Sailor

wrote:
After years of reading, talking and going to calssic boat shows, my
brother-in-law and I are looking to purchase a classic Chris Craft to
restore for use at our cabin in northern Wisconsin.

We have found a 1942 Chris Craft Rocket that has peaked our interest.
The only problem we see with it is the fact that its bottom has been
fiberglassed over. We've done alot of research and reading and we
both want to remove the fiberglass bottom.

Our question is this... how hard is it to remove the fiberglass from
the bottom of one of these boats? Is it a huge problem or just a
minor setback in our quest to rebuld the bottom of the boat? How much
work is in volved in removing the fiberglass (the boat is only a
16'er). We were going to keep it (the fiberglass bottom), but we
didn't want to deem the fiberglass bottom to be solid and restore the
rest of the boat only to learn later on that the bottom is junk and
needs to be replaced anyway.

Any help with this would be greatly appreciated. Any tips on what to
look for/try when rebuilding the bottom would also be appreciated.

Thanks.