88 Prostar - Resto - Slight Twist on the Classic (Pics)

Luv2Ski · #1 08-05-2010, 11:39 PM

Wanted to share the results of my project boat thus far.

Purchased in late November in pretty sad shape. The previous owner had bought her new and I am sure loved it back in the 80s when he was an avid slalom skier; however, over the years his family grew, a MariStar joined the fleet and this MasterCraft sat at the dock and aged (his wife hated this boat - too "wet"). Bummer for him, great for me.

Picked it up on Craigs list and got to work. At purchase the transmission reverse gear was blown and the front seal leaked about a quart every half hour. He had six quarts of oil in the storage compartments and simply added oil each outing. There was oil everywhere! When I would step out of the boat, I left oily foot prints in my garage. The sun had really taken its toll as well, vinyl shot, carpet shot, gelcoat heavy faded with plenty of chips. Engine ran, but far from well.

I appreciate all the folks who go for the bone stock restoration. I wanted to modernize the look a bit and re-designed the vinyl using some newer styles (like the carbon fiber texture and French seams). I also designed the graphics with the same goal in mind. Pretty happy with the results, but would love to hear opinions from fellow enthusiasts.

In summary:

Rebuilt transmission
New prop shaft bearings and stuffing
Hours of cleaning
Hours and hours of gelcoat repair and buffing
TONS of sanding and refinishing to swim platform (thank you belt sander)
New graphics
New distributor, plugs, oil sending unit, solenoid, coil
Rebuilt carburetor
Rebuild speedometers, added new pitots
New carpet
New vinyl and foam
New bunk carpet
Powerdcoated black trim pieces, swim step supports, and pylon
New rubrail
Reinforced instrument cluster (glass on back)
New ventilation and heater ducting
Painted steering wheel
Painted trailer frame
Added a wench and bow roller (hated the bar)
lots other small misc fixes

Finished all this up almost four months ago but was too busy using up spare time skiing to sit down and post pics. It has been a blast and we are looking forward to having this boat in the family for years.

Items I hope to get done this fall:

Install stereo (have components already)
Clean underside (has some growth on it)
Polish trailer fenders (hard to get motivated on this one)
Install shower
Install power ports (can’t believe it does not have any)

As many have said... thanks to all those who post on this amazing resource. The many searches I did here saved me countless hours finding solutions to problems. This is an amazing resource.

One thing I really regret is the lack of "in process" pictures I took... pretty dumb of me to take so few, but I was too focused on getting her in the water (Limited time with a wife and young kid deserving the bulk of my attention)

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