New Guy from Montana

Greetings all,
I did not know where to begin for my first post so I just took a stab and here I am. Hope I followed proper protocol and all. Anyway, I am getting a 73 Chris Craft Catalina from a friend who has had it on his back lot for years. It's a fiber glass hull, 28 ft with 307 ci gas inboard. Needs oodles of work, hope I am up to the challenge. Which brings me to this forum. I am hoping and praying that I can get some good ideas on restoring this oldy but goody. She's a real looker and I will get some pics out as soon as I get them. He also has another cruiser back there I want to look at before I actually begin on the CC. Well that sums it up for what I am up to this summer. Hope I can learn something from you guys. I have never restored a boat before so hoping for the best. Know it is going to be some hard work though. Later and thanks for having me.
Signed,
Need all the help I can get this summer!

 

Welcome to the site. You will get a lot of assistance here from knowledgeable people.
You can start by cleaning it out and scrubbing it down with soap and water then you can see what needs to be done.

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If you do a search on Chris Craft Catalina you will find there are a lot of those boats still around. Also, all of the records, designs and info on Chris Craft is being held by the Mariners Museum in Newport News Virginia. http://www.marinersmuseum.org/ Call them and ask about the Chris Craft Collection. They can send you the original plans, for a price of course. Also there are lots of Chris Craft owners clubs, just do a search on the internet.

Post some pics here and you'll get a lot more comments.

By the way: where in Montana. My daughter lived in Bozeman for 7 years so I have a fair knowledge of the state.