Boat Restoration Project

[Boost4VR4]

Sooo... this is a much different build than everyone is used to. No car here... Yes, it's a boat project. Here's the scoop:

Monday was my mom's boyfriend's birthday and she wanted to buy him a project boat, nothing insane, but something we can all go out on and enjoy and do some fishing here since we are on the lake. Originally we were just looking for a trailer because my mom's boyfriend had a 12 foot boat already but it didn't have a trailer. So we were looking around and we found a boat fairly close with a trailer, lifetime trailer registration, and boat up to date on registration, but my mom was not willing to spend what the ad wanted for the boat which was $900. So I told her, email the guy and offer your maximum expense that you want on the boat and see what happens, so she offered $500. The guy responded back with $650 so we took it. Went out to pick it up.

The boat is a 1979 Glastron Sportster Tri-Hull with an 85 horsepower Johnson Outboard. The boat has rotted floor, upholstery was shot, needs new seats, and the motor needs a few tweaks to get going. We pulled it home and the trailer tires were dry rotted and pieces of the tread were coming off. We made it home without blowing the tire up and parked it. While I was downtown for some job interviews, my mom and the boyfriend went to town on the boat. My mom cut the floor out and made an oopsie and cut the hull (I told her to use my roto zip to cut the floor out instead of the big ass circular saw.) So I have been put in charge of rewiring the boat and polishing the boat throughout. My mom's boyfriend is going to get the outboard going, which he was able to get going, however, he thinks the starter is having issues and needs some work first. The outboard was completely rebuilt at some point because it has evidence of a socket being on the bolts.

I polished the boat today on the exterior and got rid of most of the staining over the years, but to really do a good job it would require some sandpaper and a repaint, so we are going to leave it. The stains are barely visible. I pulled the railings off on the bow section and pulled the front light assembly off. The seal for the front light is in good shape, but the bulb needs to be replaced.

More pics to come....

[DocWalt]

Boats :) Pics required!

[fastfalcon94]

Nice. I'm involved in a boat project right now too. I was going to start a thread, but figured I would wait until it's all done. If you do decide to paint it, I"m having very good luck with Interlux products. I have their 2 part epoxy primer which sand really easy, and their brightside gloss paint which lays down really flat and has a nice shine to it.

[Boost4VR4]

Nice. I'm involved in a boat project right now too. I was going to start a thread, but figured I would wait until it's all done. If you do decide to paint it, I"m having very good luck with Interlux products. I have their 2 part epoxy primer which sand really easy, and their brightside gloss paint which lays down really flat and has a nice shine to it.

Nice I will have my mom check it out as she will probably be doing the painting.

[Turbo Beast]

The floor was rotten but the stringers were good?

[Boost4VR4]

The floor was rotten but the stringers were good?

The joists supporting the floor need some work too, We are going to cut some slots in the joists and run more solid wood planks perpendicular to the existing joists. To re-run the joists would be quite a bit of work as most of the boat would need to be stripped out.

[Boost4VR4]

Ok here's an update. First of all, I don't have any pics YET. But I will get some pics.

Here's what we have so far:

- New Boat seats from a small Wholesaler locally. Picked up light blue lounge seats x 2 for 130 each which has plastic frames instead of wood frames (BIG PLUS)
- New 3/4 inch pressure treated flooring sheets of plywood. This should be more than sufficient for our needs as this boat is on a budget and we are going to most likely do a spray on bedliner to coat the surface prior to putting the carpeting on.
- New marine carpeting that is the typical blue.
- New upholstery that my mom and her boyfriend picked out. It's a crazy zebra looking blue and white pattern. The reupholster is for the accent boards around the perimeter of the boat, the next thing to pick up is the foam for the reupholster.
- Not necessarily marine grade, but, Sony Xplod head unit with 4 channel and 1 pre-amp out. Also, we have 4 speakers to mount in the boat that are not marine grade, but not a big deal.
- New rear light post.
- New light bulbs for front light

I ran a couple tests on the ignition switch in the Johnson control center and found that the switch appears to be fine, we might have an issue with the neutral safety switch. I did test the neutral safety switch continuity and it looked good so we're going to try it out. I am suspecting that the wiring from the outboard to the battery needs replacement as it is older and probably has corrosion behind the insulation, the wiring from the control center to the outboard is very clean and solid. The boat came with a fuel pump rebuild kit for the outboard which we have already rebuilt the fuel pump and we tested the starter and the starter is working perfectly normal. Tomorrow is going to be a test day and then I am going to be running the wiring for the speakers, amplifier, and re-running the wiring for the head unit and getting it all tested and running. I am also probably going to wire in the antenna wire for the marine CB radio so we can have that for safety even though we are not going to be taking this boat on very large lakes.

Pics will follow tomorrow.

[DocWalt]

Good progress :)

[Boost4VR4]

Here we GO!

Pics as promised:

http://i869.photobucket.com/albums/ab253/kevpi1/Boat%20Project/temporary-15.jpg (http://s869.photobucket.com/user/kevpi1/media/Boat%20Project/temporary-15.jpg.html)
http://i869.photobucket.com/albums/ab253/kevpi1/Boat%20Project/temporary-14.jpg (http://s869.photobucket.com/user/kevpi1/media/Boat%20Project/temporary-14.jpg.html)

It's a pretty nice boat, can't complain too much.

So here's some more stuff:

http://i869.photobucket.com/albums/ab253/kevpi1/Boat%20Project/temporary-18.jpg (http://s869.photobucket.com/user/kevpi1/media/Boat%20Project/temporary-18.jpg.html)
http://i869.photobucket.com/albums/ab253/kevpi1/Boat%20Project/temporary-17.jpg (http://s869.photobucket.com/user/kevpi1/media/Boat%20Project/temporary-17.jpg.html)

Here's the flooring taken out as it was rotting:
http://i869.photobucket.com/albums/ab253/kevpi1/Boat%20Project/temporary-16.jpg (http://s869.photobucket.com/user/kevpi1/media/Boat%20Project/temporary-16.jpg.html)

Seats and marine upholstery:
http://i869.photobucket.com/albums/ab253/kevpi1/Boat%20Project/temporary-13.jpg (http://s869.photobucket.com/user/kevpi1/media/Boat%20Project/temporary-13.jpg.html)
Carpet:
http://i869.photobucket.com/albums/ab253/kevpi1/Boat%20Project/temporary-12.jpg (http://s869.photobucket.com/user/kevpi1/media/Boat%20Project/temporary-12.jpg.html)

That's all for now. I finished the wiring for the stereo and speakers. We are also going to put a subwoofer in under the stereo... It wasn't my idea, my mom wants a subwoofer installed, so I need to run the power wire from the battery to the front once the floor is installed. I am sorting out the wire for the remote power on for the head unit. The head unit has a remote amp turn on wire as well as 1 set of pre-amp outs. I found a wiring diagram:
http://i869.photobucket.com/albums/ab253/kevpi1/Boat%20Project/overallSwitch.png (http://s869.photobucket.com/user/kevpi1/media/Boat%20Project/overallSwitch.png.html)

I am going to be using the violet wire for the On Position for turning on the head unit and amplifier. That way in the event the stereo is left on, the key turned to off turns the head unit and amplifier off.

[sketch]

subbed. boats are awesome.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8T095mFdW8

[Boost4VR4]

Alright, major progress today!

New Floor sections in!

(Reserved for pic)

Wired in the ignition switch wire from the head unit. Picked up new terminals, and ring terminals for all of the positive and ground wires for the lights, stereo, and outboard. Tested the ignition wire that I ran for the head unit, head unit turned on, tested ignition switch for the outboard, ignition switch works great. We had a couple glitches with the control center. The throttle was getting stuck and wouldn't allow reverse, took it all apart and found quite a bit of crud in the control center. We need a new shift detent ball bearing and re-grease some of the sections in the control center, namely the shift lever. The outboard did run, we found some issues with the carburetors leaking fuel and the fuel pump couldn't pump because the carburetors can't hold fuel or pressure in them. The next step is to disassemble the carburetors and do a rebuild and reseal them unless we find out they are cracked. All of the wiring is done and the outboard does run!

[anyonebutme]

moar pics

[Boost4VR4]

Pics that have been long overdue:

Here's the progress so far. Floor is in, carpet is in, seats are test fitted in, front bow cushions are re-upholstered, replaced head unit because previous head unit was not working well enough, and we have been tweaking the outboard and getting it going. We found some issues with the outboard, it looks like the prop seal is shot which is causing oil to leak through the seal. It isn't a slow leak either, it's a major leak. Here's some pictures:
New carpet and seats:
http://i869.photobucket.com/albums/ab253/kevpi1/Boat%20Project/temporary-19-1.jpg (http://s869.photobucket.com/user/kevpi1/media/Boat%20Project/temporary-19-1.jpg.html)
Transom area painted with water resistant outdoor paint:
http://i869.photobucket.com/albums/ab253/kevpi1/Boat%20Project/temporary-20-1.jpg (http://s869.photobucket.com/user/kevpi1/media/Boat%20Project/temporary-20-1.jpg.html)
Outboard cover off, carburetor cover pulled off due to bottom carb leaking despite all of the tuning that we have done to the float adjustment. We may be replacing the float and needles on both carbs to see if there is some change.
http://i869.photobucket.com/albums/ab253/kevpi1/Boat%20Project/temporary-21.jpg (http://s869.photobucket.com/user/kevpi1/media/Boat%20Project/temporary-21.jpg.html)
Front Cushions with new upholstery:
http://i869.photobucket.com/albums/ab253/kevpi1/Boat%20Project/temporary-20.jpg (http://s869.photobucket.com/user/kevpi1/media/Boat%20Project/temporary-20.jpg.html)
Front bow area without cushions and storage compartment areas painted with waterproof outdoor paint. We are still thinking about a place to put the subwoofer (yes, a subwoofer in a boat!):
http://i869.photobucket.com/albums/ab253/kevpi1/Boat%20Project/temporary-19.jpg (http://s869.photobucket.com/user/kevpi1/media/Boat%20Project/temporary-19.jpg.html)
Electrical wiring redone:
http://i869.photobucket.com/albums/ab253/kevpi1/Boat%20Project/temporary-18-1.jpg (http://s869.photobucket.com/user/kevpi1/media/Boat%20Project/temporary-18-1.jpg.html)
Head Unit out of my Stealth after I replaced this head unit with a carpc:
http://i869.photobucket.com/albums/ab253/kevpi1/Boat%20Project/temporary-17-1.jpg (http://s869.photobucket.com/user/kevpi1/media/Boat%20Project/temporary-17-1.jpg.html)
We found some inexpensive gauges at a thrift store. One is a barometer pressure, thermometer, and Humidity. We are still deciding where we want to install them.
Left Speaker:
http://i869.photobucket.com/albums/ab253/kevpi1/Boat%20Project/temporary-16-1.jpg (http://s869.photobucket.com/user/kevpi1/media/Boat%20Project/temporary-16-1.jpg.html)
Right Speaker:
http://i869.photobucket.com/albums/ab253/kevpi1/Boat%20Project/temporary-15-1.jpg (http://s869.photobucket.com/user/kevpi1/media/Boat%20Project/temporary-15-1.jpg.html)
Templates for accent boards that will be reupholstered:
http://i869.photobucket.com/albums/ab253/kevpi1/Boat%20Project/temporary-15-1.jpg (http://s869.photobucket.com/user/kevpi1/media/Boat%20Project/temporary-15-1.jpg.html)
All Cut:
http://i869.photobucket.com/albums/ab253/kevpi1/Boat%20Project/temporary-13-1.jpg (http://s869.photobucket.com/user/kevpi1/media/Boat%20Project/temporary-13-1.jpg.html)

[Boost4VR4]

Well, all of the seats are in the boat, 95% of upholstery is done, outboard has new gearcase oil, rebuilt the bottom carburetor.

We put the boat in the water yesterday and when the boat was at the launch site, the boat failed to start. Pulled the engine cover off and the top carb was flooded. Looks like we will need to rebuild the top carb and get a new needle and seat for the jet. After that, boat should be drivable on the water!

[anyonebutme]

moar pics?

[Boost4VR4]

Guess what? Boat runs on the water!

The top carb rebuild did the trick and the boat is quite fun! I want to get one really quick pass on the water and see how fast it is on the water. It is a shallow boat so slowing down and turning is a little clunkier, but for the most part it is nice.

We have an issue with the shocks on the outboard, they are allowing the motor to come out of the water when going in to reverse, so that is on the list for replacement. Also, we have a few interior things to do and then it will be completed.

[sketch]

moar pics?

^^^ ^^^

[Boost4VR4]

I will post some up tonight hopefully. Maybe get a vid with my gopro :D

[wingnut]

Nice job man, takes lotsa patience cause as much as i love boats...

Break
Out
Another
Thousand

...the best day ever was when we sold ours :money:

[Boost4VR4]

Oh we resolved the outboard once and for all. We swapped out the bad power pack on cylinder 1 and 2. Now the outboard is running in tip-top shape.

We did some tubing today and it did well. We can get the boat up to around 30-35 mph. Not too bad at all for a boat that is over 30 years old.

So total spent on the boat: 1300 dollars.

[DocWalt]

I'm on a boat!

That's is really inexpensive for a boat. Nice work!

[Boost4VR4]

I'm on a boat!

That's is really inexpensive for a boat. Nice work!

Yea, that is 1300 including the price of the boat :) Can't beat it at all. The outboard was completely rebuilt at some point in its life and a little work and it turned out to be a great project.

[wingnut]

lol @ on a boat...

http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs46/f/2009/196/7/d/Im_on_a_boat__by_charliechainsaw.jpg

...nice job man, cant beat the price!