Not a tractor for sure

JimR · Jul 20, 2005

Yesterday morning I looked at this 1988 Celebrity Cabin Cruiser for $4K. It came with a double axle galvanized trailer with brakes, bimini top, full cover, oars, life vests, fire extinguishers, tube, cockpit cover and whatever else the guy had for it. The guy just put in all new floors and rugs. But he did it over the old bad floors. So it really needs new floors and supports underneath to be back to perfect. The seats are near perfect and it needs new cuddy cushions. The 260 HP Mercruiser was replaced in 1995. It now has 124 hours on it. He was asking $4K for it. I told him what was wrong with the boat and that he had repaired the floors incorrectly. I also showed him the broken outdrive rubber boots. He called me up last night and asked me if I would give him $1500.00 for it. Well it didn't take me long to jump all over that deal. So she is now home with new owners. I also got 4 tires with it to replace the cracked ones on the trailer.

JayC · Jul 20, 2005

That's sure a nice looking boat! I love boats. That sounds like a good deal, too. So, when is the christening? /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

JimR · Jul 21, 2005

( That's sure a nice looking boat! I love boats. That sounds like a good deal, too. So, when is the christening? /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif )

I'm not sure when we will get her in the water. I have the outdrive completely off right now to change out the rubber boots for the shift cable, exhaust and drive unit. Today I'll be putting it all back together, installing a new battery, checking out the brakes, wheel bearings if I have time. Its been 5 years since we had our last boat. I can't wait to get her into the water to do some fishing down the Cape.

nobull1 · Jul 21, 2005

Looks like quite the deal. A few more close up pic's would be nice.

JimR · Jul 21, 2005

( Looks like quite the deal. A few more close up pic's would be nice. )
I'll get some tomorrow during the day. I spent my day welding a new skeg on the bottom of the outdrive and replacing the rear shift cable and all the rubber boots. The whole back end is done. Now I need to make a box for the fold-down seats on the passenger side to sit on. I also put the proper battery in the boat today and hooked up the radio, electric antenna, trim tab motor and whatever other wires were hanging around the battery. The guy put a new battery in but it was too small and didn't have the double terminals for smaller wires to be attached to. Here's a shot of the new skeg I just put on.

JimR · Jul 21, 2005

Here's a shot of the back of the boat.

JimR · Jul 22, 2005

Here's a shot of the cockpit area uncompleted at the moment.

JimR · Jul 22, 2005

Here's a shot of the front area. The captain's seat is getting moved back over where it belongs in the captain's position. I just finished building a new box to put the fold down double seat back in the passenger side of the boat. I'll have that done tomorrow. I also had to fix the trim tabs (dirty fuse connection), air horn (mud wasp nest in the tube) 120 PSI took care of that, Spot light ( blown fuse and dirty switch), radio, dirty fuse connection. I also need to cut a hole in the floor for that cover that you can see in the picture. It seems this boat has sat for quite some time. No wonder the guy wanted to dump it. She's almost done now.

JimR · Jul 26, 2005

Here's a few shots of the inside for you. The seats are back in with a new plywood box I built under the double seat. I have cleaned it all up and put Tung Oil on all the wood. She sure did clean up nicely.

JimR · Jul 26, 2005

I think the only thing that I have left to do is to install my fishfinder in it. That will be glued to the inside of the hull near the engine. The fishfinder works real well when located there. Here's the back of the inside of the boat.

Mith · Jul 26, 2005

Also not a tractor /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Very nice boat, do you plan to do waterskiing exc behind it while cruising?

nobull1 · Jul 26, 2005

Jim
Looks like you put a few hard days in to get it to this condition. How many more hours before it hits the water /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif I see you are installing a fish finder. What might your fish of choice be?

JimR · Jul 26, 2005

I may do some skiing behind it. I use to have a 19 foot ski boat. We bought this to just cruise and fish. We also have 2 O'Brien tubes for it.

JimR · Jul 26, 2005

( Jim
Looks like you put a few hard days in to get it to this condition. How many more hours before it hits the water /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif I see you are installing a fish finder. What might your fish of choice be? )

I have spent the last 7 days working on the boat to get it where it is right now. Just about everything works now except for a bad front spotlight switch that I am having a hard time finding. The trailer has a new master cylinder and break away safety wire. I also replaced 2 sets of wheel bearings out of the 4 sets. I replaced a few lights and reflectors also. The brakes are real good now. I hope to get it in the water this weekend. We'll be fishing for Blues and Stripers off the coast and Long Island Sound this fall. I still need to find a GPS for it too. Time to dig out my old boat cooler and clean up the fishing reels that haven't been used in 5 years.