TOPIC: 1964 Johnson Deluxe Restoration Project

Hi and thanks for a great Forum! I am just embarking on a restoration of a boat similar to one my dad had back in the late '60s. His was the '63 model with the 88 hp 2 cycle engine. The one I recently found has the Buick V6, thankfully. I will post photos along the way and ask for help and advice. The biggest challenge i see right now is the repair of the rotted floor. I did some test holes and found that the foam was surprisingly pretty dry. The boat was in indoor storage for over 25 years, that's what probably saved it from being much worse. Right off the bat I'm going to be needing the running light lenses and one seat. Other than that it's one piece at a time. I already went through the outdrive and replaced some seals and the impeller. Also fixed the steering wheel and painted some interior parts. We got the engine out and started unmounting the starter, alternator and other electrical components. I'll continue to report as things progress.

Very nice condition overall ! Those boats and trailers were built like tanks. The OMC engineer in charge of these boats and their Evinrude counterparts was a man by the name of Ralph Lambrecht. I worked for him for several years when he was head of OMC Corporate service dept. He was also involved with the record setting boats that OMC/Evinrude campaigned and were very successful with. Ralph passed on not long ago. Am sure he would be proud to see one of his boats being brought back into service.
Looks like you are in Florida? If so, what part??

The OMC Deluxe and ultra rare Dual Deluxes are just the bees knees! Very cool and in what looks to be very good condition. Keep us updated!

Eric

I am in Cape Coral, southwest Florida.

Hello Robert,
Don't know if you have used the black search option tab above yet ?
But there are a few restorations of 1964 Johnson Deluxe boats.
There is a real nice complete restoration from "agleason"
Anyway:
once you hit the search tab:
in the "search or keyword" enter "Johnson deluxe"
in the "search by user name" enter "agleason"
in the " find post from" leave the "year ago" box as is but change the "and newer" to "and older"
then go to the bottom and hit "search"
enjoy your search !
And welcome to fiberglassics !!!

Thank you for the response and the information! I have actually spoken to the "guru" of Johnson restoration, agleason! Very nice fellow and a ton of info from him on his posts and videos. Looking forward to posting progress on mine as it happens. Right now we are in the guts of the intermediate housing, ordering parts from Crowley Marine as needed. Trying to resurrect the original 150 HP OMC drivetrain. Lucky for us this was a freshwater boat, so not much corrosion to deal with.