Retro Crestliner Discussion Forum

John VanKrevelen · Joined: 26 Jul 2006 Posts: 4

I have recently started to restore my dad's old boat. I know the boat was green with a white strip going down the side. It has been repainted a couple of times so it is hard to see the original color.

Is there any way to find the original paint so I can restore it back to its original color?

I also need to find material for the seats. The seats have been redone years ago. I would like to have them redone to original material.

One more thing, need lights, front and back, switch for lights, battery holder and I am sure many other parts.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

OutBdNut · Joined: 27 Mar 2005 Posts: 593 Location: Minnesota

That's a great boat! I bought a 550 a few years ago. Mine has been repainted at some time and needs it again - mine is blue and white. It also needs seat work. If you go to the retrocrestliner home page and click on Jetstreak Interior, then click on Jetstreak restoration plans - you will see a lot of photos taken by a guy that rebuilt seats in his Jetstreak. There are a lot of similarities between the construction of the 550 seats and the Jetstreak seats. The 550 was only made in 1957.
There was no battery holder - you can build something to fit behind the seat from treated pine that you can set an off-the-shelf plastic boat battery box and gas tank on to keep them from sliding back and forth on corners. These 550s did not come with lights and deck hardware unless it was ordered that way. My 550 had no lights or deck hardware (except the standard handle at the bow) when I got it and there were no holes where any had ever been. Back then, a lot of buyers and marine dealers ordered boats without hardware and put on whatever brand they stocked, so more important to get hardware from the same period than the stuff Crestliner used. Crestliner did not make their own hardware - they put on off the shelf stuff that they also listed in their accessory catalogs. A lot of it shows up on E-Bay. Watch out for price - some people want way more than the stuff is worth. If you need to fill in holes used for hardware in the past; on a previous aluminum boat, I used a product from a hardware store called Devcon liquid metal (comes in a tube) filled the holes, could be sanded, and didn't show when painted over - not sure if this stuff is still on the market, but if not, there has to be something similar out there. You can find generic switches for lights that will fit a hole drilled in the dashboard at NAPA stores. Mine has a Cestliner glove box - not sure if that was standard or not.
If you have not done so already, look at the 1957 catalog on this site and you will find a black and white photo of your boat.

There don't seem to be many of these 550s around - maybe because in 1957, outboard manufacturers went to 35 HP and the 550 is rated for 30 HP max. ; or maybe because 14 footers were more popular then. In the last 4 years, I've only heard of or seen 4 or 5 others nationwide.

Below are a couple photos of mine. It has the 1976 35 Johnson it had when I got it, but I'm working on a 1958 35 Evinrude and a 1956 30 HP Johnson for it:

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57 Commander 12 Custom Deluxe 550
58 Commodore 14 Speedster (modified)
58 Cadillac Riviera 14 split deck
Dozens of old outboards

John VanKrevelen · Joined: 26 Jul 2006 Posts: 4

Thanks for the information, I do have some holes in the front that could be patched up.

Once I get going on it I will post some pictures of it.

Thanks so much!