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Howdy! Just came aboard!

If it doesn't pertain to metal, fiberglass, wire or fabric—but it is about classic fiberglass Chris-Crafts, ask your question or give your advice here.

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jameshooper
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Joined: Fri Dec 02, 2011 3:14 pm
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Howdy! Just came aboard!

Post by jameshooper » Fri Dec 02, 2011 3:56 pm

My name is James and I have just bought a 1973 xk 18 with a 454, which I am going to restore. I live on the Ottawa River in Canada, with a few hundred miles of navigable water in my front yard, not to mention a 25 minute (now around 15 minutes after the xk is in the water) commute to town. I would like to go as original as possible as I really think it was a striking and timeless design. One of my main concerns is finding stock exhaust manifolds. This one came with IMCO Powerflows with chrome risers that necessitated cutting 2 oval holes in the aft deck engine cover. I want to fix the deck and exchange/sell/trade the IMCOs for Glenwood logs with "snail?" risers. The IMCOS have less than 25hrs on them. Any help on this and most likely, many more challenges to come, would be greatly appreciated.
Regards,
James

PS Honoured to join such an august company of boat enthusiasts.

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Matt Smith
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Joined: Wed Oct 26, 2005 4:14 pm
Location: Reedville VA,
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Post by Matt Smith » Fri Dec 02, 2011 5:14 pm

Welcome aboard..Someone will find what you need. There are some folks that have restored these and should be able to help on all fronts.. Great to have you here..
1948 25' Chris Craft Sportsman
1937 16' Special Racer
1968 40' Rice Trawler
1968 11' Crab Skiff
2018 Hole in my head

WoodyBoater.com

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MikeM
Posts: 166
Joined: Mon Dec 05, 2005 8:24 pm
Location: Wilsonville, Oregon
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Post by MikeM » Fri Dec 02, 2011 8:25 pm

Matt,
Do you want to tell him it's not August anymore or should I?
MIkeM
1929 Hacker Craft Dolphin, 24'
1940 Century Utility, 17'
1947 Chris Craft Special, 16'
1947 Chris Craft Sportsman, 22'
1949 Chris Craft Racing Runabout, 19'
1952 Penn Yan Cartopper, 12'
1954 Chris~Craft Racing Runabout, 19' (For Sale)
1971 Century Arabian, 19'
1973 Dan Arena Custom, 21'

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Matt Smith
Posts: 921
Joined: Wed Oct 26, 2005 4:14 pm
Location: Reedville VA,
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Post by Matt Smith » Fri Dec 02, 2011 8:29 pm

Shhhhhhh, he is in his happy place. I wish I thought it was august!
1948 25' Chris Craft Sportsman
1937 16' Special Racer
1968 40' Rice Trawler
1968 11' Crab Skiff
2018 Hole in my head

WoodyBoater.com

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Budgiecat2
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Joined: Sun Dec 31, 2006 2:16 pm
Location: Florida & Oklahoma
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Post by Budgiecat2 » Sat Dec 03, 2011 3:59 pm

Welcome to the buzz, James. Don't pay too much attention to Matt and Mike - they are the sane ones in our group! We have a lot of XK-18 owners starting to come on board, and you shuold have help available. I have an XK-18 named Pumpkin, but don't know a source for the manifolds. You might try Peter Henkle - I don't know his website address - but our moderator, Bill Basler will, but Peter is a good source, as is Jim Staib at www.finewoodboats.com. You should also go to www.woodyboater.com for the latest antics, great info and reporting in the classic boating community, and there is a great list of sources down the left margin of the site. If you search XK-18 on woodyboater, you will find a recent and excellently restored blue XK-18 owned by Alex Watson. He will be a good source as well. I will help where I can, and we have another member from Heartland Classics ACBS chapter on here periodically, named Steve Spinharney. His XK-18 is named XKape. Good luck and welcome aboard!

jameshooper
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Joined: Fri Dec 02, 2011 3:14 pm
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It isn't August?

Post by jameshooper » Mon Dec 05, 2011 9:03 am

Thanks for the welcome fellas. Where I live I use my boat from April to November. In fact it's been so nice this fall i could have used it all last month. Having a blast sourcing hardware, parts etc. Wow! those "Jetson" stern lights are dear!! My boat has the WJ jacuzzi. Was this drive a 2 stage pump?.. as i noticed that literature states performance improvement is minimal with an energizer kit on the WJ versus the YJ. Any advice on checking and servicing the jet-pump would be much appreciated. The engine looks great so far. Every one I have consulted has advised me to keep the IMCOs and fair the aft deck to accommodate them. Kind of torn as the consensus is it would be a significant power loss to go back to logs, but I don't want to ruin the look of the deck. Thanks for the referrals.
James

motherofdog
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Joined: Fri Jun 12, 2009 10:13 am
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Post by motherofdog » Tue Dec 06, 2011 5:34 pm

Welcome James! I can't help you on your question but didn't want to pass up the opportunity to say hi. Do you have any photos of your project?

Jerri

jameshooper
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Joined: Fri Dec 02, 2011 3:14 pm
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10 months later

Post by jameshooper » Thu Oct 25, 2012 9:08 pm

Some pictures of my almost complete XK18. My wife calls it the Monte Carlo version. She picked the colour. Flag Blue. The windshield is supposed to be here tomorrow, and I have a couple of small issues, (waiting for a fuel pump), few small paint touch ups, hook up speedo.
Can't wait for Spring!
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dustoff135
Posts: 184
Joined: Thu Aug 10, 2006 9:30 am
Location: Smyrna, GA
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Post by dustoff135 » Fri Oct 26, 2012 3:44 am

Beautiful, they look fast, even on the trailer.
For those tempted by these, I found this one a couple of days ago. Looks complete and mostly unadulterated. Good luck.


http://houston.craigslist.org/boa/3283677016.html
Patrick

Previous projects: 1940 17' Barrelback, #71572
1971 XK19, ORCZ19-2016V

New project: Looking???

Peter M Jardine
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Joined: Sun Mar 18, 2012 10:27 am
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Post by Peter M Jardine » Fri Oct 26, 2012 6:12 pm

Right on James, nice job, love those boats.

Canadians love CC too :wink:

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