The next project.... this one freaks me out a little.

I know we always say 'nothing is ever too far gone'... but his one gives me pause.

So much, that it's actually been sitting in storage for two years already because it's such a mess.


It's a 1959 Jetstreak Crestliner aluminum boat.

There are sites out there dedicated to nothing but these things.
So while I'm excited to dig in, I fear that it may be a money pit.
(Stay tuned for the 'after' -- we hope to have it done by this summer.)

We picked this model because it looked durable.
Able to stay tied up to the pier and weather the storm without falling apart.
We had the aluminum sandblasted to remove the old paint, and we plan on doing minimal interior work to restore it.
Maybe some custom built upholstered cushions? (Plaid!)
And a vintage mercury outboard.

Here is an idea of what it is supposed to look like:

These images reflect the journey thus far:

- Meeting a guy in a Walmart parking lot in MI to pick it up.

- Bring it to Chicago and decide to sandblast off the blue, down to the bare aluminum. 

- We leave the white paint on from the belt line down, as it's in OK shape.

- Bring it to Wanda and place a flag and windscreen on it just to get a sense for how it could look.

PLAN: 

we'll try to buff the exposed aluminum tio see if we can get it to a mirror finish. If that looks good, we won't repaint the top, just leave it aluminum. If that doesn't work, we can always repaint it.

NEXT STEPS: 

Not planning to do a "correct" restoration. Will build a simple wood plank floor with simple benches. No fancy bucket seats with upholstery, We want it to be more low maintenance.
We pulled the Johnson motor off it and will use the old Evinrude 35 Horse Big Twin. We'll need to go through all the steering control cables to make sure they're good to go. And we'll probably get the lights in the rear tail lights in the fins running again because that feature is just too damn cool not to!
We won't be able to find the right vintage or NOS windscreen, so we'll cut a stencil for it out of cardboard and have one of our neighbors who owns a plexi company cut one for us.

PICKED UP IN A WALMART PARKING LOT! Nothing could be sadder...

she had been neglected for sure.

HERE SHE IS AT 'THE DOCTOR'- a sandblasting shop who stripped all of her old paint off.

 CURRENT CONDITION AT CAMP:

Interior cushion (vintage marine grade mesh outdoor fabric sourced in the Wales)-- to make a custom bench seat. In a fabric called 'chelsea plaid'. I learned that this stuff is impossible to source in the US. but in the UK they still refurbish their vintage resort furniture, and manufacture the original fabrics. for the floorboards, id love to use a marine sealed teak with black seams.  durable is the first priority, though!

 here is a detail of alt floorboards (commonly used for this application) a grid that drops into place and is removable 

Now that she is sandblasted, we can polish her skin up  (like we did the canned ham) to a mirror finish.

the goal- as always- is to do this whole project on a dime. which means we are going to be buffing, building and repairing this ourselves. (except for the outboard repair and windscreen manufacturing, we feel like its doable.)

fingers crossed and stay tuned.