What was, What is; and What may yet be

[Rollerdave]

Re: What was, What is; and What may yet be

Moving on to the interior....

When you step up on the trailer, and swing your leg over the side, which I can now do, (YAY for me!) you immediately notice a slight sponginess to the floor.

It maye be because I'm just under 400lbs or it may be a sign of an impending floor replacement. I tend to step directly over the stringers and it seems rock solid there so I'm thinking that if the floor DOES need replacing, it might (possibly, hopefully) be just the floor not the substructure.

Looking forward, we have the two front seats which are fairly typical (storage underneath and they fold flat like extremely skinny beds), padded dashboard with a courtesy light, centrally located gauge cluster, rear view mirror, and curved plexi windshield with a channel in the frame and a working center vent.

The gauge cluster has one fogged gauge, I think it's "hours"

At the helm we have a compass, a fish finder, an original steering wheel and the shift/ throttle lever. I think the other lever may be a manual choke.

There is some slight crazing in the curve of the plexi, but the rest is quite clear.

 

[This_lil_fishy]

Re: What was, What is; and What may yet be

Very nice looking classic, and good for you man. That's serious stuff!

Ian

 

[Rollerdave]

Re: What was, What is; and What may yet be

Looking aft the doghouse dominates the view, it is large, brown, covered with padded vinyl, and has a fishing rod holder on the front.

There are little afterthought jumpseats on either side, all three hinge forward.

Behind the starboard seat there is a cardboard box with two carb rebuild kits, a spare prop and fuel pump, and some other mysterious gubbins.

Under the doghouse is the obligatory motor, but I'm sure THAT comes as no surprise.

It's a 230CI 150HP Chevy inline six with two Rochester carbs.

It drives a Mercruiser sterndrive, but I don't know any of the boat savvy lingo for what this stuff is all called.

The battery is behind the port side jump seat.

There's yet another little vent on the gunwales on either side, and another courtesy light on the starboard side.

The gunwales on both sides have a long ribbed vinyl pad so that the seats can be used when flattened, and there are storage compartments both sides. The side panels are in great shape, no tears or holes.

There a a lot more pics in the full Phtotbucket album, which can be found here.

If there are any pics I missed or other things you want to see, I take requests so chime in and I'll fire up the Fuji camera!

Thanks for reading, please let me know what you think of her. If you know any info about any part of her, I would not be averse to your posting it, it might be something I was previously unaware of.

Thank you.

Please also feel free to make suggestions for "what may yet be" because I could always use ideas, even though I already have more than a few rattling around my noggin.

RD

 

[woosterken]

Re: What was, What is; and What may yet be

WOW, she is a beaut,don't look like She has ever been in the water.the two little chrome clam shells on the top of the transom are to force fresh air in to the engine when the boat is moving,the two grills on the back should be the
bilge blower vents.

you mite want to go down to the merc engine forum from the main list of forums,at the top is a topic "adults only" Thanks to Mr. Don S. you can find the Merc manual for your boat it is manual #1

woosterken

 

[Rollerdave]

Re: What was, What is; and What may yet be

Awesome! thank you Woosterken!

I'ma go check that out right now.

RD

 

[Rollerdave]

Re: What was, What is; and What may yet be

What may yet be....

So what are my goals for the old gal.

In the short term, my goals are to make sure she is legal and registered/insured..

Move her to her new home behind my MiL's garage, go over her and be sure she's seaworthy, and get her in the water.

There's a boat landing I know of that's not too busy, has a pretty decent dock to tie to, and a marine supply store right nearby, a perfect place to get her off her trailer and into the drink so I can figure out why our last attempt was so heartbreaking.

It's at Tanner Lake in St Paul, which is rather small so even if I don't get her figured out and reliable first try, I figure we can unship the oars and make it back to dock.

Unless I pick up a craig's list trolling motor and figure out a mount.

Once she's working properly, I want to enjoy her just as she is for a spell, get the feel of her, the spirit of her down pat before changing a thing.

What I envision might not be a good fit for her, so I want a chance to get to know her and make any revisions to my envisions, so to speak

In the long run her intended use is running up and down the Mississippi and St Croix rivers, some overnights, and a bit of light towing. Tubes, skis, stuff like that. I'm not a huge fisherman, but my ladies are and I got a buddy chomping at the bit to dip a line, probably wind up hitting more than a few lakes on his gasoline dime, hey, works for me!

Towards this end, I picture a top with screened sides, something to make the inside more tent-like, "sleepable" you know...

Maybe a swim platform to make getting in and out easier, or just one of those gunwale hook ladders.

I'm also kind of wanting a radio and some lighting. I doubt i'll need a 60 million candlepower spot, but I would imagine SOME kink of lighting would be a good idea, and I don't really want to blast my music for all to hear, but having a little close by might set the right mood when my lady and I go cruising.

My wildest fantasies are rife with paint schemes and redesigning the seating... but that's a lot to try to nail down on a poor old gal you haven't even gotten to know very well yet.

There ya go, plans 'n schemes; hopes 'n dreams.

RD

 

[Rollerdave]

Re: What was, What is; and What may yet be

OK, towards legality, and the registering of the old gal, I finally found my bill of sale, I'll have to call up the MN DMV and see about that registration. It doesn't expire until December of this year, but I gotta get it transferred to me, and get a copy to have onboard.

Got a week without my lady coming up, might be a good time to get her in the water for fuel system tinkering.

Slow progress, and I don't even know if anyone is still even interested, but I'll keep posting whatever progress I can.

RD

 

[IVAZ]

Re: What was, What is; and What may yet be

Still interested over here, keep posting.

 

[madurodave]

Re: What was, What is; and What may yet be

Great thread! Glad to hear your health is getting better! Keep rolling man, this is great!

 

[Rollerdave]

Re: What was, What is; and What may yet be

Awesome! Glad to hear you guys are still interested.

As to my health, I did just get diagnosed with plantar fasciitis which is about a minus one thousand on a scale of one to ten.

I'll be rolling a frozen water bottle back and forth on the floor with my feet, doing stretches and exercises, loads of fun.

As for dropping the old gal in the water for tinkering I'm gonna need to work up some sort of checklist.

The valves: I remember we opened up the valves and drained the engine and outdrive so I'd want to check those to be sure they were closed.

The battery: it has sat in it the whole time. It will still operate the lights and the starter solenoid does click. Do you think I could just charge her up and be good?

2 year old fuel: I figure I ought to siphon out the tank, take the top off the carbs and clean out the bowls, maybe change the fuel filter.

I kinda want to be sure it's all cleaned out, I have this comical Rube Goldberg vision of hooking up an electric fuel pump and cycling some kind of cleaning agent through the tank and lines until all and any gunk is just sediment in a gas can. But I guess if my tinkering produced an improvement this idea will go the way herds of my overcomplicated ideas have gone; extinction.

RD

 

[Rollerdave]

Re: What was, What is; and What may yet be

I am sorry to say that I will not be doing any more work on this boat.

What was, was.

What is, turns out not to be.

And what may yet come to be, who can say?

Relationships end, and with them some hopes and dreams must end as well.

I am sincerely sorry for wasting the time of all you kind folks, but it is now out of my hands and having to give up the boat is now the least of my worries.

Thank you all for your kind attention and words, I only hope it brought a measure of entertainment commensurate with the time spent reading it because it turned out to lead nowhere in the end.

Maybe one day when I know where and how I will land, I'll be back with an inflatable or one of those pool mattresses.

Maybe an inflatable lounge chair, at least those have cupholders.

All we can do is play the cards we are dealt. Looks like I've drawn aces and eights.

Bye for now,

RD

 

[SeanT]

Re: What was, What is; and What may yet be

It certainly wasn't a waste of our time, and there's no need to apologize. It's sad that you have to give up the boat - it will definitely be the one that got away. There's always one, and a lot of the time it was the first...

 

[txlawdog]

Re: What was, What is; and What may yet be

awesome boat...and thread! keep it going

 

[txlawdog]

Re: What was, What is; and What may yet be

whoops; just saw your last post. Sorry to hear that, but you still earned a nice pat on the back