1956 17ft Chris Craft Restoration

We received an awesome video and some photos from a customer, Alston, that did his first ever restoration of a boat. He chose to restore a 17ft 1956 Chris Craft and it turned out absolutely incredible! Check out the videos and photos below.

Here’s a little back story from Alston about the restoration:

“I was looking for over 6 years to find one to restore and finally pulled the trigger in January of 2013. I found it on craigslist literally down the street from me so I took it as a sign. The previous owner was looking for a buyer that was going to restore it themselves being that he had a passion for restoring projects himself. I had no idea what I was getting myself into but was willing to do the research and the work to get the project done. I have always been pretty good with my hands but never restored anything so it was a first for me. I did most of my research online and read plenty of books. Even though I did a lot of countless hours of research there was a lot of trial and error. I wanted to do most of the work myself so it explains the learning obstacles along the way. I visited the Antique Boat show in Sunny Land in Tavares Florida in March of 2013 after purchasing the boat and that was the first year that I was actually exposed to Christ Craft boats fully restored in person, explains why my dream and obsession grew even larger to complete the restore. My vision for restoring the boat was different than what I was admiring at the boat show and the restores that I was researching online. I wanted to take the Classic 1956 Chris Craft boat and add a retro modern twist to it with a little help from my imagination. A lot of the people that are into restoring these boats could be my grandfather so their view on restoring these boats doesn’t veer away from how they were delivered from the factory. I on the other hand wanted to bring my boat into this century hence why I wanted to go with Seadek in my boat vs. the traditional carpet/rubber flooring. The Engine was upgraded from a 95hp inline 6 out of the factory to a small block V8 Chevy 383 with 350+Hp; the sound system is JL Audio to include the Amp, 8.8 Subwoofer along with two 6.5 and two 7.7-inch speakers. The system runs via Bluetooth so no radio necessary. All the woodwork was done by me to include the electrical work for the sound system and LED lighting. I interviewed several local mobile marine mechanics and was fortunate enough to meet the owner of Mobile Marine Tech Joe and he saw my crazy vision and helped me put it all together which was no easy task.”

A few pictures of the boat from before the restoration:

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We couldn’t be more thrilled that he chose SeaDek for his restoration! His boat is equipped with Mocha over Camel faux teak.

To order custom SeaDek for your boat, contact customer service at: customerservice@seadek.com or 321-632-4466.