1988 Marlin Ski Magnum overhaul

[J. Mark]

Re: Back to work on sanding and grinding

Re: Back to work on sanding and grinding

Thanks guys. The vent set up has the pick up tube running through the middle of it and picks up from the bottom of the tank, so I think it should work fine. The alternative was welding a bung onto the fill neck, or drilling and tapping a fitting into the tank. It can be done on a used tank without blowing yourself up if you vent exhaust gas from a running engine into the tank, lubricate the drill with water and use an air powered drill rather than an electric. I understand the how to, but I still don't like the idea.

Now back to your regularly scheduled insanity

 

[sbbamafan]

Re: Back to work on sanding and grinding

Re: Back to work on sanding and grinding

Looking good, Billy Ray. Glad to see you got the vent issue resolved. Much simpler (and cheaper) than what I suggested! Sometimes, you start thinking it will take something complicated to resolve what has become a complicated seeming issue. The simple things work best. RTR!

 

[J. Mark]

Re: Back to work on sanding and grinding

Re: Back to work on sanding and grinding

I guess Billy Ray is better than Bobby Sue!

When are you going to come to Nashville and help me burn some fuel?

 

[wtrgrl]

Re: Back to work on sanding and grinding

Re: Back to work on sanding and grinding

Your boat looks awesome. I also own a 1988 Marlin Magnum. Great boat. I joined this forum based on this thread.

 

[J. Mark]

Re: Back to work on sanding and grinding

Re: Back to work on sanding and grinding

I'd love to see pictures of your boat! The rear seat was gone in mine and though I have plans, I am not completely happy with them.

Got my electrical all squared away and the dash back in and had planned to tab the floors in tonight, but thunderstorms, muggy weather and being tired from driving 6 hours today and getting up at 4 am left me less than motivated.

Yesterday I was wiring the bow light and inspected the bow hook. The nut on one side is pretty much rusted away to nothing and there is a very flimsy backing plate. I am going to drill a core sample and see if I have to replace the wood or not, but a small dark area at the bottom tells me I am going to have to do the work. Not a hard job, but grinding under the bow in the 90+ degree heat isn't something I look forward to.

I have apparently cursed myself with this thread title and fear I will always have just a bit more grinding to do.

Here is a picture of the dash and two paint drawings of the graphics I am considering.

and welcome to I Boats-there is a great crew here and I am just a novice compared to most of these folks

 

[sbbamafan]

Re: Back to work on sanding and grinding

Re: Back to work on sanding and grinding

How are you planning to do the graphics? What material?

 

[J. Mark]

Re: Back to work on sanding and grinding

Re: Back to work on sanding and grinding

I'm going to mill them out of solid gold plate 1/4 thick-should only increase my restoration cost 10-15%

LOL

7 year vinyl cut locally and attached to a backer for easy application

 

[J. Mark]

Re: 1988 Marlin Ski Magnum overhaul

Thanks for the rename of the thread Bob_VT that was quick and just what I wanted!

 

[Bob_VT]

Re: 1988 Marlin Ski Magnum overhaul

You are welcome

 

[J. Mark]

Re: 1988 Marlin Ski Magnum overhaul

Had beautiful weather today and got the floors tabbed in. Whenever you hear preparation is the key, listen! The whole job just took a few hours and came out looking good. It was well prepped and I managed to finish it without any problems. I precut my cloth and it went in easy and neat.

I also got my exhaust reconfigured by adding a couple of OSCO 3" 80 degree elbows. I need some new clamps and will add them tomorrow. With the changes my engine cover fits again and the removable section of the center rear deck I precut fits perfectly. It is, however still flimsy and the change from 3/4 to 5/8th wood really amplified the problem. I am going to add a second layer underneath that sits snug between the stringers.

I got my gat tank in, though I may tweak the positioning just a bit tomorrow before I plumb my fuel system. The new vent clears the hull cap going in but just barely. I had to cut the neck on my new fuel fill and that staineless was a total pain to cut. It ate my reciprocating saw's new metal blade up so I had to use a grinder and a cut off wheel.

When I wrap up for the day tomorrow I'll take some pictures and try and get them posted.

Tomorrow I'll address remaining clamps, the fuel system, the bow eye that needs replacement. cut the deck reinforcement, trial fit it and then epoxy coat it, remove the boards from the gunwales and hopefully start on modifying the port seat frame and building the rear seat riser.

I ordered a seat slider for the helm and should get it in in the next few days.

I'm anticipating the first water test in less than two weeks.

Thanks for the hepl and support, I would have taken much longer on this project without the assistance of the folks here.

 

[J. Mark]

Re: 1988 Marlin Ski Magnum overhaul

Sorry, no pictures yet, but I did get about 2/3rds of what I hoped for done. Wasn't u[ for resin work as it got into the mid 90's today and I had to take the mid afternoon off. I'm running low on resin and West Marine is the only place around with epoxy resin and they are out of the MAS, so it looks like I'm going to order more, but I am far enough along that I am going to use up the last bit I have before I order anymore. My Bow eye wasn't in stock at West either, so it looks like iboats is going to get more of my business.

 

[J. Mark]

Re: 1988 Marlin Ski Magnum overhaul

A little more work tonight as I finished my removable floor panels and installed the front passenger seat frame and built the rear bench riser and top. Will need to spend some time finishing them out as the wood is not the prettiest and will need some sanding before I decide if it gets paint or epoxy before being wrapped in vinyl (Here's a clue-I ordered more epoxy today)

It is odd after waiting many months for the weather to break and then having to do things one after another and never being able to progress as fast as I hoped, the boat is starting to come together. I could see water testing it in a day or two if I could find the time and if my seat bracket would come in.

I still have a ton of interior work to do, but I am okay with taking it out as a work in progress.

 

[J. Mark]

Re: 1988 Marlin Ski Magnum overhaul

Okay, the interior is progressing and I set it in place just to see how it would look. Because the seat dimensions were different than I anticipated, I had a choice of either putting them on the floor or reversing the bottoms and the backs. Here is the reversed seats on a riser. I will need to make some angled shims for the seat bottoms (now backs) to sit right, but that is easy enough.


Exhaust is all done and I have a few small things to work on tomorrow night.

One or two more pics and that is it.

 

[J. Mark]

Re: 1988 Marlin Ski Magnum overhaul

Final pics for the night. The three across rear seating is too tight and won't work and the standard seat position is simply too low to the floor to allow a riser without the tops sticking up way too high.

The other alternative is to use the seats in the normal position but with the seat backs being removable or foldable for skiing- I still have to play with that option.

 

[J. Mark]

Re: 1988 Marlin Ski Magnum overhaul

Okay I lied I have three more pictures.

I sat in the seats yuck! Flipped em back normal . . . much better.

Looks better too, but is high enough to catch a rope when skiing off the pylon.

So I'm going to make the seatbacks easily removable since no one can sit back there while someone is skiing off the pylon.

Threw in the other seats while I was at it. Driver seat will be sitting an inch or so higher and a bit forward with 6 inches of available travel.

Upholstery time is approaching . . .

Any thoughts?

 

[danond]

Re: 1988 Marlin Ski Magnum overhaul

You need a wakeboard tower on that. And some fat sacks. You know that, right? What's another couple grand?

 

[J. Mark]

Re: 1988 Marlin Ski Magnum overhaul

A wakeboard tower is in the works, but I have to say no to fat sacks

I'm thinking of an alternative along these lines http://switchbladewake.com/index.php

They have a manual version, but I think I can make something similar that would work just as well and cost well under the 2K they are asking.

Since it can generate over a thousand pounds of downforce, I am thinking the attachment points would need to be majorly reinforced.

or I could just ski, which is what I like best.

 

[J. Mark]

Re: 1988 Marlin Ski Magnum overhaul

Got my neighbors boat running for him tonight and then got back to my boat and replaced the bow eye. I pulled the bow support/winch post off and cut the old bow eye off with a grinder and a cutting disc and drove out the old bolts from the outside. It wasn't sealed well, but the core samples showed good wood so I sealed everything up and put the new bow eye in. Not having to work under the bow for more than 5 minutes in the 90 degree heat was a blessing and it was an easy job. On a scale of 1-10 it was a 11.5 or 2 at worst.

Tank vent is installed, bilge lines are installed and all the is left before water testing is to run the bilge vent hoses in back, wire and adjust the electric choke, solder seal and heat shrink wrap the bilge pump connections and if my seat bracket arrives, install the driver's seat. If not I am going to bolt a piece of 3/4 ply to the bottom of the seat and temporarily mount it friday after work and water test the boat Saturday morning after checking all the bolts, clamps, packing and such one last time.


From here on out, I have lot's of minor stuff to do, mainly upholstery and exterior work, but it looks like a boat again and the registration numbers are on it. Tomorrow I am going to call my insurance company and get insurance from either them or someone like Boat US.

I am going to add foam, but it isn't here yet. It will be interesting to see what the difference will feel like.

I'll continue to update as my work progresses, but than you all for your support and help. I am sure I spent 2-3 hours here for every one I worked and that the knowledge I gained saved me time and helped me do things right the first time.

to iboats.com! Salude!

 

[J. Mark]

Re: 1988 Marlin Ski Magnum overhaul

Well the test day came and I was almost thwarted by the gremlins.

When I rewired the dash I wired the accessories always hot and burnt out my ignition coil. After a lot of head scratching and fighting a balky meter, I got it straight and fired it up.

I managed to get everything done that needed to be and we hit the water at 6:45 racing the setting sun on the Cumberland river

As we were launching the boat the winch strap broke, but it resulted in a perfect launch

Engine fired up right away and reverse gear sounded a little off, I'll look into that tomorrow and suspect a cable adjustment.

The starboard speedometer filled with water and leaked on me for the whole run.

Without any tuning WOT was limited to 4400 rpm and top speed on the speedometer that did work was around 37 mph but I would be surprised if it wasn't faster.

I have a throttle cable bracket I need to look at and I want to check the advance on the distributor, but it all felt really good. The boat carves a turn beautifully and accelerates onto plane much as if it was just leaping out of the water. I am happy with the first run and will get back on the water in the morning for a more thorough shakedown.

 

[sbbamafan]

Re: 1988 Marlin Ski Magnum overhaul

couple of thoughts -

Use a gps for speed verification.
Get better life jackets for the little ones.
I rode in a mastercraft last night. As an I/O guy I thought their reverse sounded funny - a bit of a high pitch whir - they said this is normal and it always was that way.