My 86 Advance restoration

[ramseybrown44]

I wanted to take a moment and thank everyone on this forum for all of the great advice and info provided here. This is my first time posting but have spent a ton of time on here and its been a huge resource while we worked through this rebuild.
 I bought this 86 Advance a couple years back and it was in rough shape. The owner was going to take a chainsaw to the boat and salvage the 350 engine block if I didn’t buy it that day. Got it for $900! The floor was rotted out but after removing it we found the stringers were still in good shape. My buddy Chris and I decided to basically strip the boat and pretty much re-do every surface. The floor was replaced with marine ply. We then laid down sealed strips of Koa wood and calked the seams. The Hull and topside were completely sanded down and gelcoat redone. We used Interlux Perfection paint for the hull. I designed the updated American Skier font for the decals and had custom “bubble” decals made for the hull and transom. We did the work over the course of our long PNW winter and the boat now sits in my boathouse on Lake Roesiger in Snohomish, WA. She runs and pulls like a dream and I wouldn’t trade her for a 2018 Mastercraft.   
You can see photos of our progress here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/R94ySwAwpo2esUvN9
Some of the other work we did includes:
- Complete engine rebuild with electronic ignition
- New rub-rail with rope inlay
- all new electrical to new panel and added house battery
- New upholstery
- new custom dash matt
- Underwater transom lights
- Cabin lights (rope lighting under side rails)
- New instrument package
- New Momo steering wheel with 86 American silver dollar inlay
- Custom made throttle knob
I hope you like it. Thanks again!

[myager]

Your boat looks fantastic!  A lot of time and love I am sure $$$$. I am the original owner of a 1987, joined at the hip for 31 years.

[wettrthebetter]

Looks Great,  it takes A lot time ,Effort and $$$  to do what you did.
the reward is It is done the way You want it.
What is the floor Material?
The layer after the plywood.
Enjoy your Boat.
Paul

[RonT]

Awesome job, well done!!! When people ask about the cost or man-hours it takes to do a restoration they usually have no idea how much time goes into a project like this. Great Job...RonT

[ramseybrown44]

Thanks guys. It was a labor of love. Our neighbor growing up had an American Skier and I always drooled over it. I tried to stay true to the styling of the era while adding some modern updates. Installing a hot air blower this winter for those chilly evening ski sessions and then I'm done.

@wettrthebetter  the layer you are talking about is a thin laminate we put in to make a template for a Seadek floor. We also wanted to see how the striped "teak and holly" look would turn out. It was actually really hard to get the strip alignment just right. We ended up ditching the Seadek idea and glued the laminate down to the marine ply. Then we used the print on the laminate as our guide for the Koa wood strips which we fastened through to the marine ply every 24".
Cheers!
Ramsey

[spindlebeak]

Outstanding!  Thanks for sharing.