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Topside question

J

jonescole

New member
Hello everyone,

I recently decided to restore a 15' 1975 checkmate with a 75hp johnson stinger 2 that a friend bassicaly gave to. So far i have replaced the stringers, floor, transom, carpet, and have got the motor running like it should. Last week i started the process of getting the topside ready for new paint and in the process fix some small cracks that were showing. So I got the top completely sanded and it turns out the entire thing is covered in what appears to be bondo. Seeing how this is the first time i have done work like this on a fiberglass boat i have been doing a ton of research through out the project and one thing i have read a lot is that you should not use bondo on boats. Does anyone know if this is how the boat was originally made? I know that at some point someone had modified the boat ( they added a different windshield, steering, dashboard, removed all the fittings/ lights and i believe changed the color of the topside) which has me wondering if the bondo was added by them. The bondo is pretty thick in a lot of places and i think that the thickness and the fact that bondo doesn't like to flex is the cause of the cracks, which after i sanded the paint of i realized there are a lot of. I sanded a couple of the cracks down to the fiberglass and it seems like they don't go into the glass and are just in the bondo itself. At this point im thinking of just sanding the bondo until the fiberglass starts to show and fixing what cracks are left but if that is actually how the boat should be i will just start going crack by crack and fix them unless there is a better way. Thank you for any advice i can get.

Here are some pics

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20140729_172637_zps86b232c4.jpg

20140729_172659_zpseacf192b.jpg
 
Bondo should not be on fiberglass. The cracks appear to be in the bondo which doesn't look to have been mixed and applied correctly. I guess whom ever decided to do it didn't know about bondo or how to use it.
Sand all that junk off and see whats left. Fiberglass doesn't dent so I'm guessing that theres holes or cracks covered which need to be repaired with refiberglassing and glassing products.
 
Thats what i figured. Im not sure why the person had put so much bondo in the thing, as far as i can tell it looks to be pretty much the same profile as it was before so it isnt like they changed the way the boat looks much. I could somewht understand them doing it if tge goal was for it to fit the different windsheild (even though the went about doing it wrong) but why the whole boat, it would have took forever. I guess that can be chalked up to people do stupid things. Is there anything i should watch out for once i start getting down to the glass?
 
I believe bondo is ok above the water line if it's applied properly and not to thick. As a side note, I don't think the boat in the pictures is a Checkmate. At least not one I have ever seen.
 
Redstrat, I was thinking the same thing. Definitely not an MX series (early to mid 70s) and it doesn't look like a V161 (late 60s) model.
 
It is definitely bondo, unless people lay gelcoat over 1/4" thick :eyecrazy:.

I have been sanding on it today and started with one of the most sever cracked areas and it looks like the fiberglass is perfect underneath. My guess is that the bondo was put on to give the boat a different profile, which might be why it doesn't look right, for example the ridge that rins where the windshield goes isn't actually there they just put about a 3/8" layer of bondo on to make it. My registration says its a 72 checkmate (for some reason i had thought newer) so that is what i was going off of, and i tried looking for a similar model awhile ago and the closest i came was a v-mate I, but it is possible that along the way the boat was changed and rather than change everything they just kept it registered as a checkmate. I got the boat from a friend who's dad got it in a trade in the 90's it has sat at his place unused until i got it last year with the motor and trailer for 500. I hope it is actually checkmate i was pretty pumped about that part.
 
It's a nice looking small boat but I suspect someone swapped the title/registration. All boats after 1973 have hull ID numbers stamped into the port side of the transom. All the Checkmates I've seen have distinctively sharper bow lines. If you go to the gallery section on this forum you can search factory literature by year. Hope this helps. Again, even if it's not a Checkmate, still great potential.
 
Well you guys got me thinking so i spent a few hours looking a speedboats, and it looks like its actually a glasstron skiflite 142 :confused: . At first i suspected that it was just swapping registration for why its not the right boat but i got out all my paperwork on it and found a note in there from the person who owned it prior to my friend that talks about the motor being overpowered and under that there is something about it being hard to legally prove and enforce but if they do its very hard to fight, and with that was a state form thathas the calculation for what hp it can handle and it says 75hp but i think its actually the checkmate that is on the registrations specs so it might have been a way around the fact it has a motor bigger than it is made for. Im not sure, i have the all the owners names back to 85 so i might try to get in contact with them to find out. Either way it looks like im in the wrong forum, sorry about that everyone but thank you you guys really clued me in on that.
 
Well if its ok and not against forum rules il keep posting. Also anyone have a good way to take bondo off fiberglass that doesnt take all summer :rof:
 
We have many guys here that dont have Checkmates. There basically all the same when it comes down to it. I'd grind it off with some 80 grit being care full to not dig into the glass.
 
Glad to hear i can stay :bigthumb: is it ok to leave the thread here or do i need to move it to a different section? After getting out of work tonight i spent a few hours researching as much as i could on the skiflites and as best as i can tell its in the 1961 to 1964 range (I am also restoring a 1964 jeep fc170 so they sould make a good pair). I also found out that these are only rated up to 50hp which is considerably less than my 75 but with the new stringers and transom im not really worried, i will just have to be smart about it. I cant wait to get this thing done and in the water to see what i can get it to do. The stinger 2 i have for it seems like a beast from the little i have run it (it sounds awesome, almost like a hopped up snowmobile and revs up like no other old outboard i'v ran) and from what i could find about it i think it was a factory race motor its a 1975 and is the same as the one in this thread http://checkmate-boats.com/forums/s...kmate-boats.com/forums/showthread.php?t=17424 but even if im wrong it should be way more than anything i need.
 
keith4216 said:
I think thats what he meant. They all are.
Click to expand...

I have two 1973's with #s on the port side. They must of pulled a switcheroo at some point.

Glad you're going to stick around Jonescole, can't get enough resto threads. :popcorn:
Beware though, if you stay long enough, your next boat will be a Checkmate.
 
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