Any historical info on Aero-Glass Phantoms?

[Tim-B]

I am in the process of customizing an 1976 Aero-Glass Phantom 14 for use in the small lakes of Ga restricted to <10hp or electric motor. My design concept is a for a 14 foot bass boat that fishes like a 20 footer (with obvious concessions for engine performance and speed).

I like the lines on this boat but am unable to find much historical information on the manufacturer, any pics of surviving models, and no performance reviews. I have googled the name every which way and even checked most of the marine liquidator sites; there are few if any models surviving, even as scrap project boats. Any of you old timers know anything about these boats or known someone who owned one?

One note of interest to any of you who restore/repair old boats. As I was disassembling her, I found lots of short cuts taken during the manufacturing process. The most humorous to me being the old drill chuck pockets that were used to tab the top deck to the vertical hull supports. As a matter of fact, the chuck pockets still had the 1976 price stickers on them. It is no surprise to me that this company went out of business in 1989.

At present, I have the entire interior stripped bare to glass and the exterior hull refinished and painted with the exception of the transom. Will post some pics as soon as I make a bit more progress.

Would appreciate any leads on information about the Aero-glass company or any remembrances of past boats.

Best regards,

Tim B.

[cart7]

Aero Glass or Arrow Glass?

[Tim-B]

Munufacturer's Identification Code "AGB".
Aero-Glass Boat Company
3315 Old Hickory Rd, Hickory Tenn.
In business 1973-1989.

That's about all I know now.

[Dukestor]

I recently bought a 1989 Phantom Panther (The last year in business). Before I put the money down, I called Riverside Marine in Old Hickory, TN and asked about the boat, since they used to be a/the dealer. The guy I talked to knew all about Phantom, and said they were manufactured there in Old Hickory by Riverside. He said in their day, it was a fine boat. Mine seems to be reasonably solid with only a few weak spots which I'm repairing over the winter. Like you, I could find almost nothing about this boat, but I did eventually discover Aero-Glass was purchased in 1989 by the Interplastic Corporation. Not sure what they did with it - maybe used the plugs for composite testing? I've also heard the factory and some of the employees in Old Hickory were later used by another company (Stratos?) but I can't confirm that. If you want more history, call Riverside.

http://www.uscgboating.org/rec...d=AGB

[Tim-B]

Thanks for the tip Dukestor. I'll call the man at Riverside soon.

I found the same (and similar) info as your link but really no information beyond that. Is yours also 14' long? Mine originally had a vinyl hull decal that said "Fish Formula." The deacal was long gone when I got the boat but found glue traces of it when refinishing the hull.

I am impressed with how much thought seems to have been put into the boat design, especially about how big boat accessories might be provided in a smaller package. Mine originally had a 5 gallon live well and aerator that both pumped in and drained fresh water thru two thru hulls. It also had a built in insulated cooler that could be drained into the bilge area.

Unfortunately, the construction of these accessories was not all that well executed and when the fiberglass over plywood compartments eventually delaminated over time, water poured under the floor, soaked the stringers and transom, and you can imagine what happened after that. Its many thru hull penetrations ended up a liability as less and less maintenance was done as it aged.

I acquired the boat because I was looking for a cheap fixer-upper that I could gut and customize. This boat came with a very serviceable trailer, functioning 1972 9.5 Johnson, and foot controlled Minn-Kota TM. I got it at a very low price on ebay.

Good luck on your repairs and I would love to see some pix of your boat. I'll try to post one or two of mine with this thread in the next day or so - still need to figure out how its done.

Best regards,

Tim B.


Modified by Tim-B at 4:25 AM 1/21/2007

[Tim-B]

Dukestor,

Here are some pix of my Phantom 14 when I acquired it last year. If you look closely you will begin to notice a few of its many "issues." I'm also using this post, in part, to learn how to post photobucket albums to this site. If this works, I'll post some of my progress pix on another thread.

Try the link below:

http://s144.photobucket.com/al...uired/

Thanks again for the info,

TB

[Dukestor]

Mine's a maroon/black 18' V-hull single console with a Merc 150 XR4 & Turbo 25". It's similar to other late 80's tournament-style boats with the triangular bow platform (Glasstream, Astro, Astroglass, etc.). Lots of storage, locking hatches, dual livewells (front/rear), 24 gal. tank, 12/24 trolling motor, hotfoot, Rite-Hite jackplate, dual fishfinders and most likely a couple more things I haven't found yet. :-) It's a solid-feeling hull with a smooth ride. The previous owner had the jackplate set pretty low with the prop shaft @ 8" below the pad. So I won't have any real performance numbers until I play with the jack plate a bit and get my GPS set up.

From what I can tell so far this hull will probably need transom work in the future, as it's flexing just a little more than I'd like to see if I jump up and down on the back of the motor. However, it doesn't appear to be rotten, just moist (I drilled some test holes through the fiberglass skin on the inside). The Rot Doctor treatment in the upper transom may be a viable option if necessary. We'll see.

My current project is the wet sand/buffing compound/wax trick to the gel coat, which really brings out the sparkle - Looks almost like new. I'm also working on the lower transom where the livewell plumbing and drain plug hardware pass through the hull. This boat has an inset transom where the lower 6" of the center section of the transom sits about 8" forward of the upper transom. I noticed that the threaded plastic fittings going through this were loose, so I pulled them out to re-seal and discovered the wood inside the holes was soaked. It appears it was actually getting wet from the 'inside', where the fiberglass cloth has gotten soft around the edges of one of the holes and is allowing water into the transom's wood from the inside. The fact that all three fittings were loose didn't help. So I've had a fan blowing through the open holes for about a week now and they're finally dry. I'm planning to double check for any rot (This section is small 6" tall x 18" wide), get that fixed if necessary, and lay some new fiberglass over this section. Then re-drill the holes through the new fiberglass, re-run the fittings and re-seal everything with some 3M 4200. Sure am glad I found this site or I'd never know how to do any of this!

One other thing I've noticed while working in this section is the drain plug hole sits about 1/2" above the bilge floor, which means you can't drain all the water out of the boat (should any get in). Even if you tilt the front of the trailer up, some water remains below the hole. So I/m planning to build up the floor at the back so that it's level with the bottom of the drain hole. The only drawback to this, is water would then flow forward away from the bilge pump if the boat is level. But that's probably not a big deal in the long run compared to being able to completely drain the boat on the way home.

I'll try to get some pictures posted when we get some decent weather here and I can get it out in the sunshine.

-Duke

[Rmart30]

Neat looking little boat......are you planning on keeping the current engineor upgrading?

[Tim-B]

My plan right now is to put a small jack plate on it (a mini-jacker) and swap back and forth between a less than 10 hp engine for lakes regulated for that and a yet-to-be purchased 25-30 hp tiller operated engine that I'll use in slightly bigger nearby water like Lakes Hartwell, Lanier, or Oconee.

The original model was is rated to 60hp according to iboats and that's why it had a console. I believe what happened was that as the boat aged and deteriorated, various owners sold off the original and a series of smaller engines to recover some of their equity. This boat does look good but, in the end, was in pretty rough shape -- rotten stringers, deck and transom.

My thought is that by using a tiller operated motor, I can remove the console in favor of extending the front deck to cover about 50% of the front cockpit. I have seen a few web pictures of some smaller bass-fishing type boats manufactured in Japan that intrigue me which use the same approach... tiller operated motors, bench seats, large front decks. I guess the space concious life-styles of Japan have created a demand for smaller boats that fish bigger than a john boat.

[Tim-B]

Duke,

Your boat sounds very nice. This company sounds like it was big on accessories. I am looking forward to seeing some pix.

Mine also rotted from the inside out and the drain plug does sit about 1/2" above low point. I think this was necessary to accommodate the flange in the plug. My below waterline fittings were all brass.

Your description of transom condition rings familiar. The original stringers in my boat were plywood w/out any moisture barrier over them. Where the stringers were tabbed to the bottom of the hull using 4" wide matt, the wood retained some of its original color. Otherwise they were reduced to mush.

Goodluck on your repairs. Sounds like you're off to a good start.

TB

[Ritchie]

That could be a really fun project! I like your thoughts on making most of the boat "all deck"... as long as you have the abilities and can keep it safe, I think modifying boats to your personal tastes is great! Have fun and keep us posted.

[fotoman]

I searched high & low on the web for info regarding a cool looking little black metalflake bass boat I bought that was simply written up on the title as 1980 " Phantom" .

No luck until I happened upon this absolute goldmine of a website !!!! Kudos to the webmaster ...as I am doing the "were not worthy" to the bassboat god who started this place ...

I must say though there are some similarities to Tim- B's ...there are even more differences. Not sure if it is paint ... front ejector seat attached to a hatch ....lack of carpet ..wood siding/ flooring and a saw took the missing bits I am not seeing in your photos ...unfortunately mine has already undergone too many transformations in preparation of turning it in to a super nice modern puddle jumper for smaller lakes around here. I will post images once I take a few and will post progress reports with images as I go along should they be of any use to Tim-B.

Mine also is a " 14" but came with the fully linered hull ...got it with a nice clean 50 hp merc the owner couldn't start and was easily fixed . It is now on my brothers larger aluminum Cajun he just fixed up last year . Also got a matching trailer for it that looks like new. Won't mention the price ....but the motor or trailer alone were worth what I paid.

I intend to totally reconfigure this Phantom as an updated small lake hopper and have already installed a nice recent vintage remote steer ...key start 9.9 merc 2 stroke . I have installed a new dash & steering system/ racing wheel ...full set of modern gauges .

Now that said ...I'll get to the bad news of what lies ahead . I have torn it down to the hull to remove what the manufacturer would call stringers ....this compound tunnel hull is neat looking but will make for some interesting repairs ...no wonder the manufacturer just put any old small scraps of wood and just draped saturated cloth up either side without bothering to encapsulate it in the odd shaped voids and let the foam become the structural support . Could only imagine the little boats I rode in as a kid at the amusement parks once I got in to it and looked underneath stuff . They did spend a great deal of effort at the transom and along both sides of the rear and deck areas to do it right. No transom issues at all and that's amazing. With the 9.9 .. and even a trim/tilt kit I maybe kicking around as an option ...rot wouldn't have been too big a deal ...but zero ....solid as a rock ....no BS.

Did yours have a live well fitting on the bottom of the right chine ???? I see yours has that useless skinny long hatch in the back I cannot even get my big arms inside ...and the cavern between the seats they expect you to shove the gas tank to get back into that huge area of wasted space. I am resolving all those issues and making a full front casting deck with water tight storage , rod locker & cooler ...have a new permant 18 gallon gas tank of I am installing with ... useable hatches and a custom made livewell system at the back ....and best of all no wood at all left on the boat ...save for the stock stuff still left in the upper console..and well sealed transom.

It's a damn shame ..but I chucked two of the coolest looking 3- D phantom logo cast aluminum 3/4 inch recessed seat post bases ....and some other phantom doodads I didn't plan on re using. That said ...perhaps the folks at phantom made some custom models ????

I have another boat I bought new back in 1987 that has some major repairs started ...a gofast with a 350 V-8 I have been working on to make rot proof as well ...and have all sorts of exotic composite materials I gathered to use for it ...balsa ,carbon , kevlar ...several types of glass and even some new "Basalt Fiber" that someone picked up from an eastern block source . Much of this stuff will also be used to keep the pond hopper light as a feather so I can get up the lake with that weedwacker on the back .

Well don't wish to wear out my welcome before I post some actual work on here ...but figured I'd share my buying experience with you folks for chuckle without divulging any info to make the previous owner angry.

I bought it on E-bay and drove 4 hours to go get it ....This just after selling a new canoe in March that damn near drowned me and left me on a bird sanctuary island in chest deep ice cold water ...a nice 12 ft Deep Vee aluminum starcraft with a 2.5 Toehatsu that was likewise too tippy and my dad now has ...a 14 ft meyers deep Vee with a twist on the transom Minn Kota I almost fried due to poor battery contact ...Was almost stable enough for a 260 lb ...6'2" tall clod such as myself but made way too much noise and spooked fish no mater how dainty and careful I was ... Figured a glass boat to be more quiet and stable ....so sold the last one and bidded on a winner. All in about 6 months or so.

PS.... 16 ft canoes are awful hard to right in deep water ...and even harder to get into solo ....embarassing as hell durring haul out soaking wet too.

Arrived and met the selllers sons ....both built like haystacks calhoun ...made me look like shrimp dip ...wife did too ....then pops came home. A mountain of a man ....who told me the boat was just getting a bit too small for his family . I looked at them and that tiny boat and wondered how the hell they even got on the thing.

Well looked the boat over ...was a bit dirty and wet .. carpet worn bad ...everything dated ...but functional . Motor wouldn't start . Drove so far ... really wanted to fix it up with a 9.9 ...shook hands and hooked up anyway as is . Took off up the mountain and wondered if the trailer brakes were on ...or the wheel bearings were shot ....Did notice that it was a heavy boat when I tried to lift the tongue to line 'er up with the hitch . Wasn't until I got home and got all the leaves , moon pie wrappers and worm cups out ...and tipped it up for the night that I realized something was really wrong. Could hear water sloshing but nothing came out the back drain plug . Much later I found the entire hull ...foam ..etc below decks was full of water and saturated . All of it is towards the front from the bilge due to construction ...and because of how it is shaped with a tunnel hull would never drain to the back. The owner did mention once the motor didn't start that in the last year or so the motor had seemed to slow down. I ...he ...we assumed it was just those big kids growing.

Upon demoing found a though hull on the very bottom of the right chine that was rigged up and a crack that had been repaired there as well . The factory had an encapsulated plywood deck across the vee portion of that chine or sponson ...and the through hull went straight through that flimsy thin plywood to the bottom of the chine 6 - 8 inches below ...no back up support or thought given to placement . Looks like the boat struck a rock and the whole works broke ...hull too. The gel coat repair putty someone slathered around it did nothing to keep the water out either.

That and a few other odd hull penetrations are being addressed as well .

Likely have a bunch of goodies and photos for you folks to read before it's back in the water .

Thanks for all the inspiration ...some nice work on this site ...and do pass this on to Tim for me . I'd be very happy to help with first hand advice of what lurks beneath the mask of the "Phantom ".


Take care and tight lines .....Hugh