Restoring a Hustler 16' Victor

[B rad]

Cut out floor, dug out 3000# of wet foam, put in dehumidifier, sealed up w/visqueen, took 10 days to quit dripping (6 gals. of water), vinyl ester resin & marine ply, working on transom now, then foam, mat, put motor on (Merc 1150), seats & run it. It will be a rat rod this summer but it's summer, I'll make it pretty this coming winter, I'm in Northern Michigan, gotta get it when you can. I'm new to blogging(?) on a website (first time), may need guidance. I'll get to the pics.

[FMP]

What's blogging, swamps with logs?

[DanUmbarger]

What year is the Victor? I know we had to start putting foam in the boats to satisfy the Coast Guard but don't remember putting it under the floors, just under the front gas tank panel and in the deck if I remember correctly. I'm not putting any foam in my restore...just more places for water to soak in. I too dug out a lot of heavy water soaked foam. I want to get the deck sprayed with metal flake and clear then might put the steering in the boat and the motor on and get it in the water. I too can do the sanding during the winter.

Cut out floor, dug out 3000# of wet foam, put in dehumidifier, sealed up w/visqueen, took 10 days to quit dripping (6 gals. of water), vinyl ester resin & marine ply, working on transom now, then foam, mat, put motor on (Merc 1150), seats & run it. It will be a rat rod this summer but it's summer, I'll make it pretty this coming winter, I'm in Northern Michigan, gotta get it when you can. I'm new to blogging(?) on a website (first time), may need guidance. I'll get to the pics.

[sharpeye Mike]

I worked for a small time boat builder back in the days, a customer came in and asked us to remove the floor and foam, added extra stingers and fill the floor cavity with empty oil containers before replacing the floor. This was his way of putting in floatation.

[DanUmbarger]

A little update...got half the flake done...didn't want any runs so I'm doing it in 2 batches....so 2 more coats of flake then about 7 coats of clear. Then the sanding begins AGAIN!!! A couple of pics...one shows the thin spots and the other shows what it will look like in all directions( I hope).

[Hippie459MN]

Wow! That thing is going to look amazing! Cant wait to see it with some clear on it. Great job.

[DanUmbarger]

Have the deck all sprayed with clear and have started sanding it. LOTS of orange peel....gonna be a lot of sanding!!!

[FMP]

Looking good! I see a couple of nice project boats in the background.

[DanUmbarger]

Not too many nice boats up there on the fence line...but that's where this one resided for about 8 yrs before I decided to restore it. Most of the boats up there are boats that have been left here with too much in repair costs and they were just basically dumped here...no titles and no response to repeated letters...cost too much to get titles so they just sit there.

Looking good! I see a couple of nice project boats in the background.

[FMP]

That's how it goes, what's that big tri hull just getting up on plane and the white with blue? I'm a sucker for those old br.
In perfect world a full resto mod with all the goodies would put those cool lines back on the water.

[DanUmbarger]

More progress!!!! Now have it all sanded and buffed...tomorrow I'm gonna apply machine polish and wax it. Now it's all DOWNHILL!!!! I'm going to wait on the carpet till winter so I'm going to apply black gelcoat to the floor and the whole interior area , install the gunwale molding, steering,motor and seats,tach and get this thing on the water! Man it feels good to be this far.

[Hippie459MN]

Looking great! I cant wait to see it rigged.

[DanUmbarger]

Hopefully in the next week or two.

Looking great! I cant wait to see it rigged.

[John Dorn]

Looks Great!

[DanUmbarger]

Well, Almost ready to get it wet. A couple of things to tie up and will go for a ride on Wednesday evening! Am going to wait till winter to install the windshield,carpet and build a rear seat. Am also going to paint the gunwale molding white I think. Will take some pics of it in the water and post later in the week. This has been a long process but enjoyable.