Astroglass Bass Boat

[clintard_leonard]

Hello everyone.

Im new and this is my first post, please bear with me.

I aquired my dads old bass boat and plan on restoring it soon. Need any information i can get. Thoughts, opinions, support, anything. I dont even know where to start so here we go:

about 5 years ago my father purchased a bass boat for about 3 grand. He barely got to use it because he had a lot of heart problems. Its a long long story but he got to the point that he only had 6% usage of his heart and was going to be put on a heart transplant list and have to wait in a hospital for possibly years. Being the stubborn guy he was, not wanting to mess with living in a hospital bed on life support, nor run the family broke driving 500 miles to see him and be with him, he shot himself. I was 17 at the time and my best memories of him were me and him out fishing on this particular boat. My uncle got the boat when he died, and he let it sit outside and rot in the weather for a couple years, only had it on the water a few times. (hes an idiot and i deem him incapable of operating or caring for a boat.) So i threw a fit, and forced him to sell me the boat. The boat is very centimental to me now.

Now that you have heard my sob story, i need your help. I have only had this thing out on the water maybe 5 times since i have owned it. It now sits covered in a garage. I travel for work so i dont have much time to mess with it in the summer, but im off all winter with money still coming in so i plan on getting busy then.

I want to restore this boat but i am having a really hard time finding information on it. Let me describe it to you and maybe you guys can help me

The boats title says it is a : 1978 Astroglass Cheater. Its 15 foot and has a 115 horsepower evinrude 2 cycle engine.

I dont know what year the engine is. I dont know what kind of trailor it has either.

What i do know

The boat has 2 livewells on it. one is between the driver and passenger and i think is for minnows and the other is a lot larger.

It has a 14 gallon stainless steel square gas tank mounted between the two batteries in back near the motor.

The engine has power trim, and im pretty sure has hydraulic steering and lift.

There is storage all over this boat, has compartments everywhere, 2 fishing chairs as well.

It leaks. I notice where you put the plug in on the back, the fiberglass is pulling away from whatever it is mounted to, making it so that when the plug is in, it still leaks water there. Im unsure if this is the only leak. When i had it out last, i had to run the bilge pump about every 45 minutes to an hour and quite a bit of water would come out

The wiring is a mess. My uncle tried to mess with it and screwed it all up. I plan on completely rewiring the entire boat.

I dont know how bad the floors are rotted out, like i said it sat outside rain or snow for like 2 years so its probably bad. When i was out on the boat it felt solid throughout but the carpet was a little dirty, nothing major that i know of.

It has a 50lb thrust trolling motor, fish finder, depth finder

The last time i had the boat out, it was missing a cylinder, i checked and the plug wire had split so i rigged a new wire and it seemed to run good and strong.

Its not very fast at all, seems like a 115 horse should go a lot faster, id say it goes in the 30mph range. Takes a lot to get it to plane out, when 2 people are in it if one person goes up front it will plane out instantly but getting it to plane is difficult. I dont know if this is because of how heavy it is, prop size, pitch, weak motor. Im new so i know very little

Also, the thing EATS and i mean EATS fuel, badly. My buddy has a bigger motor than me on a bigger boat and seems to get twice the gas milage i do.


Where would you start. What would you do first. Im in no rush to get it on the water, i just want to get it back to tip top shape.

If anyone could help me find information, pictures, anything helpful to me on this boat i would greatly appreciate it. Like i said i plan on restoring it but need more information before i start tearing it down.


Has anyone even heard of astroglass?


Sorry for the blabbing post, and thanks upfront for any replies i recieve

Clint

[carolina-rig-01]

man i have to say first off that your story makes me really feel for you! i am a lucky guy, my dad not only taught me to hunt and fish but took me along on so many occasions. i am now married and doing my own thing but he is still my very bestfriend and joins me on the water or afield all the time. according to your story you must be about my age or a little younger and i have to say that i am sorry for everything you have been through. now the boat....i probably won't be a lot of help but i will try anyways. yes i have heard of and seen many astroglass boats. first off i would have the motor looked at by a mechanic, give it a good tune up and make sure everything checks out ok there. as for the floors, if they feel solid then they probably are, but if you choose to replace the carpet then that is a good chance to fix any problems you might discover in the floor. the fiberglass might could be spruced up with some gel coat wax that you could buy at about any sporting good store. more than likley though you might need to take it to a fiberglass repair shop and have them bring it back to life. on the wiring, i would take it to a mechanic as well and have them fix it, not a cheap way to go at all but you can usually rely on it being right. best of luck to ya and once again sorry to hear about you dad!

[bassintom]

Have it checked out REAL GOOD!.That water leak by the plug seems to be pointing to rotted wood in the transom possibly.D a compression test,if that's OK then start with a fresh tune-up and filter change.Make sure there is no sediment or water in the fuel tank.Sitting so long could put condensation in there which is not good.