94 Gambler 209 Resto

[RJP44]

soo last night i picked up my dream boat. a 94 Gambler 209. the boat is pretty solid, everything just needs a good cleaning, and the hull needs to be wetsanded badly. there are some spider cracks in the clear coat, i havent decided if i plan on sanding them out or just buffing it and seeing how it looks. now the really bad, the motor has a bad noise coming from it, i bought it thinking it was seized, well it wasnt seized but sounds like a rod knock to me when i turn it over. but im gonna have that checked out next week. well since i cant do much with the motor i figured its time to start cleaning it up

here are a couple quick pics for now next to my tracker, ill get better ones after i clean it up after work

[RJP44]

heres a little 50 / 50 shot, i didnt realize it had red metal flake throughout the black as well, i couldnt see it until i started buffing it

[totalbeverage]

That boat is going to clean up nice, have fun!

[Michael Stelly]

I like the look and size of front deck in this boat. This will be nice, keep the pictures coming.

[Cobra Bait]

you just got that from todd!!!! good for you!!!! i am glad its your dream boat cause its gonna be a project. enjoy it those are fast hulls. an old friend had a 19.5 ft gambler that did almost 120mph. strip that whole boat. grind all the stress cracks out and re gel it. good stuff! did he tell you what he has coming?

[RJP44]

yup bought it from todd, he mentioned he had bought another boat, the name slips my mind for some reason i thought it was a flats boat.

the plan as of now is clean it up a bit and this summer ill sand it all down and have it painted, it def cleaned up a little bit but the black is completely shot, its too bad cause the red metal flake came back like new, but the clear was just too sun baked to come back. no worries i orignally planned on this boat taking atleast 2 years and now im trying to get it all done in one week lol

[graymen]

Sweet! I love it when a plan comes together! You'll have some fun with that project.

[RJP44]

well wetsanded and buffed the top cap, its not really coming out like i wish it would. soo it looks like sanding the entire boat down is the next step here are a couple pics for now

[Gambler Bob]

Looks like the top cap is turning out pretty good from the pics.

[RJP44]

the metal flake came back like brand new, but the black is just too far sun baked, its more like grey in direct sun light. gonna take the boat by a couple gel coat places and see what they say about it, most likely its gonna be getting new gel coat because there are some spider cracks on the top cap that are gonna get repaired as well as a small hole on the top as well. i hope they might be able to keep most of the paint cause its not in terrible shape, just the top clear coat is gone

[RJP44]

here are the pics from the sanding i did last night, there are still some very fine cracks on this side that i will need to get out next week; but the major cracks are gone at least on the starboard side
before

[m.t.hands]

thats gonna make a nice rig

[flubyu]

Looking good, gonna be sweet when it's done!!

[RJP44]

[javelin90]

coming along good...
Are yuou going to paint the entire top and what color?

[RJP44]

i plan on painting the entire boat, top and bottom.
today i got a chance to pull the motor off. tomorrows plan is to take the jackplate off, all gauges out and remove the carpet

[BDA79]

Thats awesome! I just picked up a '88 stratos with a '92 175 merc on it and shes a little rough. I cant wait to see how yours turns out I'm not sure if I'll get that deep into mine or not.

[RJP44]

managed to strip most of the hardware off the boat today, gonna design a whole new gauge cluster hopefully having a flush mounted HDS7 in the dash. the plan is to move the tach over to where the speedo is, remove the sounder and speedo, and move the trim and volt meter to above the steering wheel, then mounting the HDS7 where the sounder and the tach used to be. gonna buy a couple sheets of brushed aluminum so i dont mess up the factory panel.

[Dan21XRS]

Keep us up to date... Or are you slacking? lol... always enjoy watching someone else work... lol... Good Luck... Dan

[jdskeeter]

I love the looks of a Gambler, I really look forward to seeing the finished product. It will definitely turn out to be a nice boat.