to restore or not??

first off i want to say i'm a correct craft guy and will always be! but I have come across a blue and white starts and stripes master craft and have dreamed of owning one all my life. The boat has been sitting in the same spot for some time. I knoticed it when i was younger and just came across it again the other day. I want to know if it would be worth restoring? It looks as if its been covered. I just dont want myself to get into a big mess with stringers and such. I also dont know what its worth? PLEASE HELP!

Mars88,

I haven't seen a Stars and Stripes Mastercraft that will sell for as much as a Nautique of the same age. They just don't seem to draw in the money a Nautique will. So if you're looking to restore it to make some money I'm not so sure it's gonna be a winner. If it's the boat you've always wanted and need a fix then go for it. Good chance a boat that age is gonna have soft floors or stringers so check it out.

I have owned two stars and stripes MC's before my current Nautique. I put 800 hard barefoot hours on my 82 MC and that boat never let me down. We used to pull 3 deepwater footers any day of the week with that powerslot. It was the most used boat on the lake pulling footers, slalom, parasailing or half a dozen kneeboarders playing murder board.

Second what Bill 336 said. Definitely check out
tmcowners.com. I've seen all stages of restoration on that site from redoing the metalflake gelcoat, to replacing rotted swimsteps.
As far as rotting floors, stringers, etc. I'm not expert an on Mastercraft, but I do know
that MC went to all fibergla** composite construction well before CC. However, I doubt that MC was all fibergla** going back to the S&S boats.

BKH

i'm in des moines iowa. Thanks for the help! I'd be restoring for pleasure. We have an 88 baby blue nautique. My dad and I always wanted a stars and stripes so i want to restore one for my own use in a few years.

I believe the way this site is set up, the original image must be deposited on a web site, any web site, so that it has a url. You can then hit the button that looks like the earth in the post reply section to create a hyperlink to your stored picture, or you can hit the button that looks like a tree to attach the image. The add image function doesn't like large file sizes.

BKH
       

Mars,

Regarding posting photos. Go to Photobucket.com. You have to register but its free and very simple to use. It gives clear instructions on how to upload to their site and then transfer to a site like this. Once your photo is uploaded to photobucket just copy and paste the lower most address line (Img) under the photo to your post here. So simple, even I could do it!!!

I have done a 1976 MC SS I I didnt have to touch the floor or stringers they were in great shape just Like the Tigue I had I took the old ford out and went back with a 260 5.7 Mercruier in it and it would fly had about 40 more ponys than the old ford did only age problem I had was first test run I snapped the shaft at about 3/4 throttle pucker ! instant right turn almost put under

Mars , go for it!
Im like most of the guys here....LOVE those Correct Crafts!!! But,If you have to have a mc ...it would have to be a stars and stripes. I learned to ski behind an early 70s one....

as for thec fiberglass/ wood construction on a mc, did they ever make a wooden one? Im not real familiar with them, but never remember seeing a mc older than around a 1968? and of coarse that was glass....Anyone know?

My 82 Stars and stripes still had wood stringers. The all composite boat came shortly after but I do not know the exact year. The metal flake faded very badly as the boat sat in the water in the sun all summer long. All we did was remove the vinyl MasterCraft lettering and all the stars, then clear coated it and installed new vinyl. Looked like new and only took a day to do. I might take some heat for this but the MC is wider than a Nautique of the same vintage and turns so much nicer, very flat full throttle turns, the boat does not roll over at all. I love my CC but nothing wrong with an old stars and stripes.

I believe 68 is correct for the first MC. I owned a 1971 that was hull #15 so the early years were not high production. At the time I restored the 71 it was the oldest known MC other than the one that MC had in the showroom at their factory. Bought that boat as a basket case for $800 and sold it one year later for $6500. I'll try to dig up some photos and post later.

Mars88,
Just so you have a starting point here are some photos I dug up of what I would classify as a Big Mess. If The boat you're looking at isn't this bad then go for it.

We drove 21 hours for this? The engine and tranny came home in the bed of the pickup.Nightmare

There should be no stars on a 71, we stripped the whole boat
wrong color too
Going back together
Holman Moody 302

almost done


Final paint was White Imron with a Bronze Metallic stripe and Red pinstriping . Started looking pretty good. Took one year to get that far. I never even finished it. I took it to the lake a few times for test runs and someone offered $6500 for it. Money talks so off it went.

I saw the boat a few months later and the new owner put STARS back on it.

81Nautique, great looking old MC! My wife recently bought a 1972 MC for my birthday and until now I have only seen the 1968 MC that is on display at the factory. My boat is the original blue gel coat with white letters and striping. I'm the third owner and it's all original and runs great but of course the stringer are bad. Would you mind sharing with me how you went about doing the stringer? What type of wood did you use and did you cut the top off the originals to remove the bad stringers or did you start from scratch? Thanks,

Tom

Tomncis,

My boat was much worse than just stringers. The way the old MC's were made was the bottom of the hull was actually outside gelcoat, layers of glass, then 1/2" thick plywood cut into blocks in assorted sizes from about1-3" wide by 2-4" long, then final layers of fiberglass. The plywood was cut into small squares and laid in so they would follow the curve of the bottom. On my 71 the hull had leaked for a long time where the prop shaft goes through. The plywood got soaked and eventually it all delaminated.

When I got the boat, the floors had been cut out, the stringers were rotted beyond any use and I had to cut out and replace to interior skin of glass on the bottom from the transom to about center under the engine. That was a hugh project but it went back together pretty good. Worse part was that I had very few reference points because someelse had started the project. The integrity of the hull and the actual shape of the hull had been lost also so I did my best to get the hull to look straight but ended up with hull that porposed real bad at WOT. Finally put some small fixed trim tabs on it and ground them down to fine tune it and it drove pretty good after that.

For stringers I hand picked the straightest Fir 2x12's I could find and scribed them to fit full length of the boat in one piece. The boat was pretty solid when repaired as I probably overdid it with resin and glass.

Thanks for the compliments everyone. I sort of wish I had kept it but then I wouldn't have my CC now would I.