86 charger dl

[carson]

Looking at picking up an 86 charger dl project. Needs some interior work and transom work, which is no big deal for me. Just a few questions, its got a crack about an inch long at the top left of the transom ontop. Ive read its from over powering them and the balsa cant take it. Im going to redo with marine ply. Every ones always talking about making sure the cores dry, im going to assume thats the flotation foam under the floor? Im not new to boats just this is going to be my first "real" hi performance boat. Want to bring it back to its original beauty and then some.going to be running a late 80's 200 black max on it. Sry for the newb questions!

[V-bottom]

Hey neighbour I'm from Barrie also. 86 was a BAD year for Chargers. It was the first year they started to make them cheap ( compared to previous years). They stopped using full balsa core to save time to generate more profit. I know I bought 1 bought One brand new in 1986 and the knees separated at the transom and floor after just 3 weeks. Had to send the boat back to the factory to get repaired. Was never as good as the earlier year boats. You could see through the gel in a number of spots. Lots of stress cracks started to appear. Maybe you have my old one - lol. I'm not saying they were all bad - but there were other "new" boats at the factory getting repaired when I dropped mine off.
It's one thing to replace the stingers, transom, knees and floor ( structural) - but if you have to get into repairing gel ( cosmetic) it can get costly by the time you complete your project. Figure the cost for a full restoration versus finding a similar hull that is already done and compare your options dollar for dollar. Figure on running 75 - 78 with that motor. That boat is difficult to break 80.

[carson]

Hey thanks for the reply. If you check ontario kijiji you will see it there, have a look maybe it is your old boat lol. I dont mind if i have to do floors stringers etc. ill just take a good look over the gel coat and make sure it all looks ok. Im sure the poor craftsman ship can be fixed. For $400 ill take a gambled lol

[V-bottom]

Not my old boat btw. Not sure if you are just trying to make a boat that floats that you can hang on a motor and have some fun or you expect it to look like new when your finished. Even if the boat was free you have a lot of work to make that boat look close to new judging by the pics. Maybe it will look better when you see it in person.

[carson]

Yea going to look at it tomorrow. If the hull is still in decent shape ill grab it. Not trying to win any show and shines right now lol a good buff and wax and ill be happy. I dont plan on having it in the water this year.

[David]

Fibreglass boats are often a sandwich. Gel outside, then glass, then core, often balsa, then glass. Core is not the flotation between the floor and the sandwich bottom. Search here on restore threads, there are lots. It isa lot of work to replace the core.