Baby Blue Saltare Project

[texas scarecrow]

I purchased an 87 saltare that's in pretty bad shape. The motor is blown (low end problem) the floor has some soft spots and the exterior is heavily oxidized. The good news the upholstery is in good shape.....and I picked her up pretty cheap...
The first question I have is regarding the floor. From what I have read, if the floor is bad the stringers are also bad. So before I start tearing out the floor how bad do the stringers have to be for them to need replacement?
I've attached some images so people can watch the progress.

Also any links that you think might be helpful to learning how to glass in floors and stringers would be great.

Thanks

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[haugy]

Well, if the floor is rotten, I will guarantee that the stringers (even if intact now) are not far behind.

If you go with the full floor replacement, you might as well do the stringers while it's completely apart. You wouldn't change the oil in your car, and then refill it with the original oil would you?

Get it done right the first time. It's going to be a tough job anyways. Do you want to do it once, right? Or do it twice?

Congrats on the Saltare, there are a few of us here with them.

[Salty87]

i haven't seen that shade of blue on a saltare before, nice find. is that the bottom of lake travis in the background? i guess it could be almost anywhere is texas.

agree with haugy, if you plan on keeping this boat for awhile might as well do the stringers and never have to worry about it again. the real problem is that the stringers were notched every few feet for cross-supports. the notches don't last long so you're probably looking at patching the stringers and might as well just start over. you reach a point where you've got too much blood, sweat, and bucks into it to justify cutting corners.

i did a bunch of reading on iboats forum before i started mine. they have a section dedicated to restorations: http://forums.iboats.com/forumdisplay.php?f=22

this thread is an absolute beast but it's loaded with helpful info and pics....http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=234392
just takes a while to find it all. you don't need to read the whole thing, they should have closed the thread once the project was done.

[sybrmike]

Yes, soft floors = soft stringers (99.9999% of the time). Take the advice from the two Salts above - if you're gonna dig into the floor, go ahead and do it right if you plan on keeping her for any length of time. Yeah my floors were soft and stringers mush, but the foam was holding it all together & I mighta gotten by for awhile. But Salty87's rebuild thread (and others like it) inspired me to go ahead & do it right since I'd looked for this boat for 2 years before finding "the one". The iboats link is full of info and check out Salty87's above thread, Okie Boarder, RickR, mine, and others here. Lots of different ways to approach it and opportunities to get creative. Good luck.

[texas scarecrow]

Thanks for the help so far fellas, I'm sure I will be needing a lot more.

Salty 87 that is Travis in the background.

[Okie Boarder]

I definitely agree with the sentiment so far. I would plan that you need to do the full stringer and deck replacement. From what I have seen from others and what I went through, it almost seems like it would be more work to try to patch it. Anyone else have thoughts on that?

That color actually looks like it could be the same blue color as mine, but heavily oxidized. I'm interested to see what it looks like once you cut through all that oxidation.

You'll get a lot of help on here so keep this thread going. Good pictures and questions will help you along the way. The iboats links Salty posted are good...lots of reading, but good. I read through a bunch of those and did a few practice pieces with each step I did to make sure I had the jist of it. It got a little easier and the work looked better the further I went. As many of us have realized, it won't be too tough to do just as good or even better than the factory did.

[Okie Boarder]

Thanks for the help so far fellas, I'm sure I will be needing a lot more.

Salty 87 that is Travis in the background.

I saw some pics of Travis posted on wakeboarder this morning showing the progression downward since January. Pretty wild! Reminds me of what Shasta went through up until a year or two ago.

[lively]

So how is the project coming along ? Have u inspected the rot ?

[texas scarecrow]

I havent started yet. I bought two bots this summer. The saltare and an 85 ski nautique both with blown engins. The idea is to get the nautique running and use the moey from that sale to fund the saltare which I will keep. I just finished the nautique and will put it on craigslist as soon as im sure its broken in well.

[lively]

well good luck to your sale and becoming a supra owner ! ha ha get ready for some de foaming action !!

[devovino]

Good looking Saltare, in fact its just about the same boat I purchased last winter, except my interior was pretty shot so I spent a few months re-doing my interior, it came out pretty stelllar there some pics out there some where. As with my floors, same deal- I tore out the back seat and re did that and found the floor underneath it to be shot, and the stringers below ( just like Salty87 said) to be rotted at the cross braces, and could visually see under the gas tank things were the same way, so this winter I plan on doind a cap off restoration as the rest of the dudes on here have done. Possibly adding some below floor ballast in the rear sides. Other than that the motor has low hours, bought it with 380, it now has 408, runs like a top. Luckily I have been able to run it all summer with no probs, which is perfect- will make it easier to justify to the wifey the tear down sine we have ghad some good times over the summer. ;-) so you and I will be doing the same thing att the same time, good luck to us, should be an adventure!