I don't believe I have ever seen one of these on our forum here, but I'll go ahead and blaze the trail. I'm sure there will be some useful information for someone down the road here.

Background:
I purchased this boat (my first boat!) in May of this year for $1000 after a trial run on the lake. It's a 1984 Skeeter "Champ" with an '85 Mariner 70HP on the back. I checked all of the important stuff (or what I thought was important at the time): the transom, the motor, the bilge, the electronics, the trailer/bearings/tires. Everything was good enough for me to feel safe in spending the $1000. The boat ran pretty good, but after each time out, I found a little something that needed attention.

Fast forward to July 4th. The lakes are starting to drop and while doing some checking of various things, I find some mushy wood. My first thought was to just replace the rot, but the more I dug around, the more rot I found. Around the first of August I decided that the boat would get a full blown restoration and makeover.

On the list for the project (at a high level), we have the following:
- new transom
- new stringers
- new deck
- revamped storage
- new paint job
- new carpet
- new seats
The following will be done, but probably not until a few months after the boat is "sea worthy" again
- new electronics
- new lighting
- marine radio
- updated hardware (rub rail, cleats, trailer hardware, etc)

Here's the boat the day I purchased it...


and the boat the first day I started to dig in to the project

Moving on to the bilge, you can see the rotted wood:


The foam was absolutely saturated with years of water and gasoline! The floor pulled up by hand in a pile of mush:


The bilge is just about cleaned out


Another shot of the bilge


Damage at the bow that the previous owner "repaired"


And the boat as it sat after this day

It was now time to put the ugly duckling on a diet. The engine bolts were a PITA to get out (they used a ton of sealant on both sides). The transom still appeared to be partially decent, but I wouldn't know for certain until I got the top cap off. Don't mind the messy garage, btw.

With the motor off, and everything else off (the TM, the steering, the control box, cleats, etc), it was finally time to pop the cap. I pulled the rubrail and went to town popping out the 100's of rivets holding the cap to the hull. Adding insult to injury, they had also used a strong silicone between the two! Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of this process (not sure why). For those that don't know, though, most [smaller] boats are built in two main pieces; the hull and the cap. The two are usually riveted or screwed together. By taking the cap off, you have full [EASY!] access to the transom, deck, stringers, and floatation foam.

Anyway, it was at this point that I fully realized that my transom was in need of a replacement (up to this point, I wasn't sure if it would be on my "to-do" list).

All of this pink resin was a pain to chip away!


What a mess!


BAD TRANSOM!


Wonder how old this beer can is...

After a good chunk of time pulling foam and cleaning out the hull, things were starting to look better

I took a couple of weeks break from the boat and had my brothers in town so we decided to pull the hull from the trailer, flip it over, and get ready to fix the hull and paint.

Here you can really see the extent of the damage to the keel that the previous owner "fixed"



And here is the damage that was hidden to me until now. It was "repaired" enough to be fully working, but it was a carp job; total carp!




There were a ton of these nicks and scratches and gouges that needed to be filled and faired

keep posting pics, boat restorations are great to look at. I did a refurb on my 82 champion, not near as extensive as yours but am proud of the way it looks.

After griding down the fiberglass on the two "repair" patches, I started to build it back up and fair it with the rest of the hull. I used a waterproof marine filler with very fine fiberglass fibers. Very easy to sand. It doesn't look too good right now, but it's a start and have a little faith.

A bit more work on the fairing of the hull. Still not looking good to the untrained eye, but it's getting there...





... and once you look down the keel, you can really start to see it come together


There still some "dents", but I don't believe I am going to concern myself much with them. I'm not a professional nor am I doing this for anyone by myself, so "close enough" works for me

While the filler was drying, I started working on the trailer. After stripping everything off of it, I found some areas that needed to be welded up.

Luckily, fellow TFF member zuma72 was nice enough to set me up with his brother-in-law locally whom came to my house and welded my trailer up for me for a very fair price (actually, I felt it was too low and gave him a little extra).

He did most of the grinding and prep work for me but left a little slag for me to put the "finishing touches" up on. I'm not sure if zuma72 will catch wind of this thread, but thanks again for setting me up with your brother-in-law!



Due to the location, we didn't grind these ones down. The 4 1/2" grinder wouldn't fit!

Now that I was "close enough" on the hull, it was time for my least favorite past-time ever... SANDING! Even with a DA sander and the RO sander, this was a PAIN! Since I decided to go with a marine paint instead of gelcoat, I had to sand off all of the "shine" of the gelcoat. Luckily, I didn't need to go too far, though. I first used 40 grit on the DA, then a progression of 60 grit and 150 grit on the RO, and finally I used 220 grit by hand.

I didn't realize it before, but my transom was about to fail in a major way. I forgot to take pictures before I repaired, but the vertical brown lines you see are stress indentions in the outer skin on the transom where the motor mounts. It wouldn't have been long before these dents became cracks and then a full blown transom failure!



Half way through my day of sanding. Dang, I HATE sanding!



The "repair" at the bow still looks pretty bad at this point, but overall it feels nice and smoother. Sure, it could have been better, but again, "close enough"

At the end of the day, this is what it was looking like

With the hull in good shape, it was time to turn back to the trailer. I removed the remaining hardware and got it ready for paint. I didn't take any pictures, but I used a 40 grit sanding disc on the grinder to remove all of the old paint/rust. I'm using the Rustoleum "clean metal" primer thinned with 10% acetone. My gun is a 1.4mm HVLP set at 35PSI at the gun and 120PSI at the compressor. 2 coats outta do! Here's the first coat.

And here we are after the second coat. I had two "goof ups" that I will need to fix.


This is the first goof


And this is the second


No, the vehicle was NOT parked there while I was spraying!

The trailer is ready for paint... and so is my driveway...


... and so are my jackstands! HA!


Not too shabby


And here is a close-up. Another "close enough" for me!

So with the trailer ready for paint (I just realized I didn't take any pictures of the fenders, bunk supports, or winch support but they are all done as well), it was time to move back to the hull.

I am using the exact same setup for shooting the hull as I did with the trailer. I thought I had more primer than I actually did, so I was only able to get about 1/4 of the hull shot at once.


The primer doesn't hide anything. All of the "dents" that I decided not to concern myself with while fairing are obvious... but I'm still not going to concern myself with them. Ha!

And now we are all caught up with where I am at as of 11/18/2011. I picked up the last two quarts of primer that I will need as well as a gallon of red paint and a gallon of white paint. I'm using Rustoleum Professional Oil-Based with an Enamel Hardener I picked up for Tractor Supply. There will be NO clear coat (it doesn't seem to like to play well with this paint). I also picked up some Blue and Black "artists oil paint" from Hobby Lobby. The red paint will soon become maroon!

If you look back on the original pictures, than plan is that anything dark brown will become maroon and anything in the light tan will become white. My wife wants to put camo seats in it, but I'm looking at a white/maroon set. We'll see who wins out over the next few months.

Anyway, here is where I ended my night last night:

So with all that posted now, I know I didn't give too much detail. If anyone would like specific details on anything, I would be more than glad to share.

Nice, I would'nt have the guts to do a fiberglass restoration, nice start. I am fixing up a Lowe 1648 jonboat that will be redone but still you are "THE MAN" to do this.

Thanks Sir, but for a boat of this size (it's only 16'), there's not much needed in the line of guts. Some might argue it would actually take a lack of smarts: sinking $1500-2000 on the full project, plus the $1000 purchase price, can be argued that boat isn't worth it... but I needed something to keep me busy and give me a challenge. Plus, I like the boat! And besides, when I am done it will be better than it was from the factory and I will KNOW that it will easily last another 30+ years!

I know we have questions come up on the forum time to time about soft floors and new carpet so hopefully, if nothing else, this thread can be used to show how to properly get it done

That is a large job! I did a very similiar work on my Cajun. I didn't need all the stringer work but after you seperate the two halves its not too bad. My problem is when you state it will be better than factory. Is some aspects I would agree but when you dont go back with Gelcoat you lose me there. There is no paint that will be as durable as the gelcoat was.

When I say "better than factory", I am mainly talking about the guts. The factory foam, for example, was an open cell foam. It soaked up water like a sponge. The closed cell I will be using will NOT absorb water. Also, the factory only gave this boat a half-azzed 'glass job on the stringers (I found areas that had NO glass on them at all). It was a "production boat" and there were shortcuts taken, no doubt about it (nor would I expect any different).

In terms of paint vs gelcoat, that could be left for debate (and actually is a pretty big debate amongst boat restorers). In terms of durability, hands down gelcoat wins. However, the main reason why Gelcoat is used by manufactures is because of the way a hull is built (from the outside in). Gelcoat is really just a glorified resin that the laid up fiberglass can bond to. You can't exactly paint a mold and then lay up fiberglass on it. For a beginner or backyard restorer (which I am both!), the cost, complexity, effort required, experience needed, equipment needed, etc for gelcoat is pretty much out of reach. When I first started, I had intended on doing gelcoat, but it was going to cost just as much for everything I needed to do it as it was going to cost for the entire rest of the restoration. For $100, this paint job will be tough enough (with the enamel hardener) and last long enough for me to accept it. There's a lot of information out there regarding using the Rustoleum with hardener on boat restorations. Even if I have to touch-up or repaint the boat every 5 years or so, I'm still ahead of the curve.

Trust me, I'm not going in to this blind and I'm not doing anything revolutionary. Everything I am doing has been well documented by many people.

My hats off to you. I've done several of what you're doing and can safely say that I was more proud of my restro project than my other "just bought" boats. My question is.....Why Rustoleum paint with a hardner instead of using the Easy Poxy by Petit or the Brightside by Interlux, or the one part poly paint by Top Secret. The Rustoleum is an enamal, so does the hardner make it fuel/oil proof? Because Rustoleum by itself on a motor will turn to chewing gum if exposed to fuel. Enquiring minds needing to know how you came up with the research information to use that combination.

The enamel hardener will just about make it bullet proof and it will be impervious to oil and gasoline. The hardener is the same stuff used on heavy duty equipment (CAT's, tractors, ets). The number one driving factor for Rustoleum was price and price alone. There is plenty of information on the net about using this method on boats so it was as simple as typing it in to Google and reading... and reading... and reading. I also made a call to both Rustoleum and Valspar to ask them about their products.