1972 Silverline Comoro 17T I/O Restoration

[Squid Billy]

Hello fellow Skipper's

One can only chose to ignore the smell of what you know will only be bad news for so long. When you walk around the deck, and it's like walking on a trampoline, ... just think of something else like your favorite fishing day of the year, or a funny memory. But when your foot goes through the deck, ... you have to ask yourself, ... do I patch it, or, do I just simply stop ignoring the smell of mushy rotten wood and do something about it?

The fact is, ... it needs to be done! The painful thing is, their is no way out of it other than selling it, or scraping the hull and keep the motor, out-drive, trailer with all the hardware and look for another hull.

I have been putting it off for a year and a half now and as my foot goes through the deck, ... I am going to stop ignoring the 800 pound Giant Squid laying on my deck. It's time to get off my butt and keep me occupied until next summer because I want to take her out this coming summer.

As you all know, this will not be quite a an easy job by looking at the photos of my nightmare.

I better get a round of shots!


Specs;

Year; 1972
Make; Silverline
Model; Comoro
Length; 17'
Motor; Mercruiser 4cyl 140hp
Drive; Mercruiser I/O Pre Alpha

Any and all comments, advice or just a atta-boy would be most welcome!

 

[fishrdan]

Re: 1972 Silverline Comoro 17T I/O Restration

Re: 1972 Silverline Comoro 17T I/O Restration

Do you love the boat, I mean really love the boat? If so then it's worth the effort of rebuilding everything, stringers, transom, deck. If not....

I discovered the same type of mess in my old boat, 72 SeaSwirl trihull, and stripped it because I didn't like how the boat rode in chop. The boat was OK, but not worth the effort of a total rebuild to me. Mechanically the boat was sound, so I found a hull I liked and transplanted everything, or should I say finishing up the transplant.

 

[Squid Billy]

Re: 1972 Silverline Comoro 17T I/O Restration

Re: 1972 Silverline Comoro 17T I/O Restration

Here is the boat the last time it was out in the summer of 08.

My two boys.

 

[Squid Billy]

Re: 1972 Silverline Comoro 17T I/O Restration

Re: 1972 Silverline Comoro 17T I/O Restration

Well I kinda like the ol' girl so yeah, it could be worth it. The motor in this is all original and as clean as could be. The previous owners didn't use it very much and knew nothing of how to store it by the looks of the wood. It's ALL rotten, not one square inch is solid dry wood. The transom is also gone.

Hers some pictures of the motor in a post I made last year;
http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=253619

 

[Squid Billy]

Re: 1972 Silverline Comoro 17T I/O Restration

Re: 1972 Silverline Comoro 17T I/O Restration

Ok, ... I'm done for the knight.

It seems to be going better than i expected it to go, but who knows, ... Murphy likes to pop in when you least expect him too.

 

[Bob_VT]

Re: 1972 Silverline Comoro 17T I/O Restration

Re: 1972 Silverline Comoro 17T I/O Restration

Outstanding!!!

Have you taken a look at Jason's Completed Project .....dang near the same boat with a bit different power http://recaffeinated.net/skankybeast/page1.html

That will be a good read and will motivate you

 

[bigredinohio]

Re: 1972 Silverline Comoro 17T I/O Restration

Re: 1972 Silverline Comoro 17T I/O Restration

Glad to hear that you are going to rehab the boat. Better option as opposed to buying another hull which probably needs the same attention. I have a '73 Silverline Comoro 16T that is an outboard which will most likely be my project boat for next year.

 

[Squid Billy]

Re: 1972 Silverline Comoro 17T I/O Restration

Re: 1972 Silverline Comoro 17T I/O Restration

Hey Guy's

I just want to thank all of you for your input! It is Sooooo welcome as This is the first major restoration I have done, ... Well excluding a 13' wood Runabout back in the early 80's. But that was just a clean up, new paint, and installing a live bait tank in the "BOW" Which I clearly had my head up my %@ if you know what I mean. 30 gallons of water in the bow of a 13 foot flat bottom just was not a great idea as far as balance and the bow slapping the water, needless to say ... it housed life jackets after that! ... Doh! :redface:

 

[Squid Billy]

Re: 1972 Silverline Comoro 17T I/O Restration

Re: 1972 Silverline Comoro 17T I/O Restration

This weekend my goal is to remove the out drive and build a rolling stand for the outdrive and the engine. The stand is almost completed and I will take the outdrive and the stand to work with me tomorrow to make the part that will hold the outdrive and when the engine is out (next weekend) I will add the cross mounts to the stand for the engine to sit on.

The propeller was stuck on and after 3 days of hitting it with a hammer and wood block, I switched to just smacking the prop with a 2lb. rubber mallet and spraying about half of a can of BP on it, it still didn't want to budge. It looks like I will have to use a 6" puller from harbor freight. Drilling holes in the prop was simple enough but that now has made a perfectly good prop into trash!

Looks like I will have to make a prop puller that will NOT damage the prop.

It has some corrosion as you can see from the pictures, what level of corrosion, ... I have no idea as this is the first outdrive for me. Maybe someone here can tell me if this is excessive corrosion or not.

Here are a few pictures of the progress so far. As always, ... Comments good or bad are ALWAYS welcome!

Thanks in advance

 

[Squid Billy]

Re: 1972 Silverline Comoro 17T I/O Restration

Re: 1972 Silverline Comoro 17T I/O Restration

Today, ... I wasted no time on my lunch break. I made the dolly over the weekend and I brought it to work with me today to get a little help with lifting the outdrive on and off a couple of times. I managed to get the out drive addition added to it and it is way more stout than I thought it would be.

The 3.0 GM 4cyl 181 will go on the other end that is bare now. Cross braces will be added for the motor mount attachment points. The casters are 5" heavy duty with 3 grease fittings points and with steel rims.

It will be more than adequate for the job, maybe even a little overkill.

 

[fishrdan]

Re: 1972 Silverline Comoro 17T I/O Restration

Re: 1972 Silverline Comoro 17T I/O Restration

That's a pretty cool looking cart, I wished I would have built something like that for my resto.

I'm about finished installing my 140HP and from that experience I'd add a place to store the transom assembly (looks like the cart is plenty long enough for that) and maybe a parts box below the drive stand. That way your misc hardware won't grow legs

I stripped my old tri-hull almost 2 years ago,,, and surprised I haven't lost anything

 

[Squid Billy]

Re: 1972 Silverline Comoro 17T I/O Restration

Re: 1972 Silverline Comoro 17T I/O Restration

That's a pretty cool looking cart, I wished I would have built something like that for my resto.

I'm about finished installing my 140HP and from that experience I'd add a place to store the transom assembly (looks like the cart is plenty long enough for that) and maybe a parts box below the drive stand. That way your misc hardware won't grow legs

I stripped my old tri-hull almost 2 years ago,,, and surprised I haven't lost anything

Thanks fishrdan,

You guessed it exactly!

At first I was going to build it so that it had a piece of plywood to simulate the transom and assemble it all like it was on the boat so I would not forget anything, but that was tossed out the window as it seemed to much work for any benefit. There is plenty of room on that cart for the engine, transom assembly and the outdrive. I am also thinking of making a few PVC pipe uprights and cut up a tarp and snap it down to cover it all up like a closed box just to keep the dust and critters out. It will be stored like this hopefully no longer than 6 months. But if you look at the amount of work I have, I am hoping it wont be much longer than that (famous last words).

 

[fishrdan]

Re: 1972 Silverline Comoro 17T I/O Restration

Re: 1972 Silverline Comoro 17T I/O Restration

The tarp is a good idea to keep everything dust free, once I cleaned/painted all my parts I bagged them. Another thing to do, while the parts are fresh in your memory, zip-lock bag the parts together so you don't have to sift through a bunch of hardware to find a few bolts, transom bolts, outdrive hardware, engine hardware, etc. One thing I found good to clean up the nuts/bolts is Simple Green, let them soak in it for a few hours (maybe longer if they are crudded up) and them wash them off, they come out squeeky clean, I did this before bagging my hardware.

I had a 6 month goal for my resto project, but when I ran into paint problem last December it brought the project to a screeching halt. I fought the paint problem for a few months (Rustoleum ) and then got frustrated with it until 2 months ago where I started knocking it out. If I wasn't anal about painting, wiring & mechanical, I probably would have been done a year ago...

 

[Squid Billy]

Re: 1972 Silverline Comoro 17T I/O Restration

Re: 1972 Silverline Comoro 17T I/O Restration

Bags and PLENTY of pictures are in order here and I have already begun that. The biggest challenge for me is, once I get on a roll of dismantling anything, I get in the zone and forget to keep bagging. Many of work has been slowed down and the baggy box remained full only to be faced with the famous "were the hell did this go"!

I WILL enlist the help of my girlfriend to help with that. As I dismantle and hand over the hardware, she can tag and bag for me so momentum wont be lost.

 

[Squid Billy]

Re: 1972 Silverline Comoro 17T I/O Restration

Re: 1972 Silverline Comoro 17T I/O Restration

Here is a little tool that REALLY has helped out a lot. Harbor Freight has them for $37.99.

 

[Friscoboater]

Re: 1972 Silverline Comoro 17T I/O Restration

Re: 1972 Silverline Comoro 17T I/O Restration

Here is a little tool that REALLY has helped out a lot. Harbor Freight has them for $37.99.

That thing scares me!!!! One wrong move and poof there goes a finger.

 

[BobsGlasstream]

Re: 1972 Silverline Comoro 17T I/O Restration

Re: 1972 Silverline Comoro 17T I/O Restration

Hello Squid Billy,
I have that same tool. It does work pretty good. You do need to be alert when using it, just like any tool.
I found another tool that worked great for taking out deck, stringer and I'm going to use it to remove the transom. Here is a pic of it. I got it at HF too.

This thing allows you to get pretty close to the haul.
I'm glad you decided to rebuild the boat, it looks like it's worth a second chance.
Have fun.
Bob

 

[Squid Billy]

Re: 1972 Silverline Comoro 17T I/O Restration

Re: 1972 Silverline Comoro 17T I/O Restration

Bob,

I was thinking about that one when I was there buying the chain saw toothed one, ... It looks like it will get into some pretty nice spots and I would have bought that one specifically for the stringers, but as you can see from the photos, ... I don't seem to have any stringers that would require anything more than a stiff breeze to knock them over. I cant even make templates from the old ones they are so bad and just crumble when you touch them. :redface:

I'm glad I am restoring it also, shes a good boat and it would have been mint if it were not from them storing the boat nose down. Oh well, ... I will have a mint boat after were done. Although, ... I am restraining very hard from some modernization and more up to the times aesthetics.

 

[system-f]

Re: 1972 Silverline Comoro 17T I/O Restration

Re: 1972 Silverline Comoro 17T I/O Restration

I must have messed up my Lancelot and dulled it out somehow because it didn't work well for me. Then again my boat was 90% solid.

 

[Squid Billy]

Re: 1972 Silverline Comoro 17T I/O Restration

Re: 1972 Silverline Comoro 17T I/O Restration

Hmm, ... Mine rips up anything that I put to it, solid or rotten. It looks like you can resharpen the teeth with a chain saw file. I see this thing as my one tool that I can go to to rip up anything that is not usable.