1976 Century Arabian - Mercruiser 888 - Boat Restoration

[jones01m]

Re: 1976 Century Arabian - Mercruiser 888 - Boat Restoration

So... I am trying to do this again. more to come if the picture. posts. Never give up

 

[djpeters]

Re: 1976 Century Arabian - Mercruiser 888 - Boat Restoration

Keep at it...you've invested to much not to finish...

 

[jones01m]

Re: 1976 Century Arabian - Mercruiser 888 - Boat Restoration

A bit of explanation on the long lag time...
moving and new house
New garage set up
New job
More responsibility
...probably enough said

The first thing for me to do starting back up was to set my engine mounts, which required the engine to be in the boat. Since the garage set up was new I was thinking future so I completely tore out the floor in the room above the garage and built a truss structure within the the floor joists to support an I-beam for ease of engine installation and removal.

So the pictures to follow

1) New I-beam set up
2) Ensuring engine alignment
3) Engine mount setting
4) Set engine mounts.
5) Glassed ski locker - I need to paint this next to finish floor construction over the top of it.

 

[jones01m]

Re: 1976 Century Arabian - Mercruiser 888 - Boat Restoration

Not a great deal done this week. Some late nights at work, but at least I am at the point where I can spend a couple of hours and accomplish something.

Pictures

1) Engine Mounts - my strategy here is to never have a screw or through bolt touch wood, so I pre-drill and holesaw everthing oversized and then fill with epoxy peanut butter with chopped strands. Then I will come back with through bolts. Overkill? Perhaps, but this is how I am rolling with this.

2) Tabbing - Applied my fillets and tabbed the gunwales to the deck in the engine compartment. Hull to stringers next.

...one step at a time

 

[Nocchipinti588]

Re: 1976 Century Arabian - Mercruiser 888 - Boat Restoration

This restoration is very inspiring, I have a 76 Arabian myself but its a v-drive with a GM 5.7 this all has to be done to mine I am saving money before I go ahead and tare it apart, I would love to be able to get in touch with you for any questions I might have. You did an awesome job! Love to see the finished pictures

 

[jones01m]

Re: 1976 Century Arabian - Mercruiser 888 - Boat Restoration

Nocchipinti,

I appreciate your comments and welcome to the iBoats forum. As you can see from the start date and the extremely long gap in work, this type of project takes tenacity, especially when you are balancing family, work, and other daily tasks. The one thing I don't want my kids ever thinking is that their dad does not see things through, so this will not be the case on the boat. To me not following through is a bad example to set. The second thing is I love the boat. We have already had good family memories and I can't wait to develop the memory of this thing splashing for the first time... again.

Please feel free to send me a private message and I will help in any way that I can. If the discussion is of larger value, we can post right here in the forum.

 

[Nocchipinti588]

Re: 1976 Century Arabian - Mercruiser 888 - Boat Restoration

Thank you for the quick response and willingness to help! I'm trying to figure out how to private message you as I am new to the forum

 

[jones01m]

Re: 1976 Century Arabian - Mercruiser 888 - Boat Restoration

Nocchipipinti, It look like we got the private message figured out. Good to know another 76 century boater.


Continuing with the build....

This weekend I focused on the engine compartment. I have it all gassed up, engine mounts set, and dropped the engine back down just to ensure I have maintained alignment with the over-sized glassed in through holes. The Engine alignment tool was also used to ensure proper alignment, and... Perfect.

Photos:

1) remarked the location of engine mounts and maintained perfect alignment as previous. Used a makeshift guide for drilling the holes straight, which worked pretty well. Its no drill press but does the job.

2) After piloting the through holes I went with over-sized 5/8 drill. Absolutely no wood chips after drill. There will be no future water penetration here.

 

[jones01m]

Re: 1976 Century Arabian - Mercruiser 888 - Boat Restoration

So I got a little bug to do something after work today. When I clamped the transom ply together with the outer skin many months ago there was always a bit of a dip in addition to a hollowed out area by the drain. So today I pulled the transom plate assembly and leveled this area out.

Pictures:

1) Equipment and materials used to screed the fairing compound. That chunk of sheet metal was just the right size!
2) final results immediately following the screed process

 

[jones01m]

Re: 1976 Century Arabian - Mercruiser 888 - Boat Restoration

Continueing on... fillets were added with reinforments. Since a portion of this work will be visible on the interior I added an additional scrim layer to finish off the layup. I am really happy with the way this last layer finished things off.

The layup schedule is as follows:

Fillets with 1/4 chopped strands
2.5 inch wide 1700
7 inch wide 1700
10 inch wide lightweight fabric (can't remember the weight)

Pictures:

1) 1700 and scrim scraps in the infamous milk carton mix container
2) Close-up of the complete tabbing
3) Final result

I need to get some paint to finish off the bilge and ski locker area before finishing up the deck.

 

[jones01m]

Re: 1976 Century Arabian - Mercruiser 888 - Boat Restoration

Could use some help on this one.


I am about ready to paint my ski locker and cover it up with the remainder of the deck but I am concerned about something. There are two hoses that attach to a front vent in the cap and run into the ski locker area - it would be just forced air from the boat moving forward. From the current configuration this does not make sense as there is nowhere for the air to go except up throught the ski locker door.

What makes more sense to me is that the air would ventillate throught the ski locker and into the engine compartment. I would have to cut a couple of ventillation holes in a partition that currently blocks the air from passing.

My question is what should I do? How is this particular system supposed to work. I believe the pictures from my previous post and the sketch below my help with what I am trying to describe.

Thanks in advance for you help.

 

[100horse]

Re: 1976 Century Arabian - Mercruiser 888 - Boat Restoration

I have enjoyed your build.
The venting as I see it is for moving any gas vapors out of the lowest part of the boat -I would be concerned on giving the "vapors " an additional path to get back to the engine compartment.

 

[jones01m]

Re: 1976 Century Arabian - Mercruiser 888 - Boat Restoration

100horse, thank you for your thoughts and comments and welcome to our forum. I am honored to be your first post. What you have mentioned is my first concern, which leaves me with the question: what purpose does it serve. The air has nowhere to go unless I place gaps in my ski locker cover boards or some other way for the air to flow. The previous owner was a hacker so I do not really know the original configuration. Arabian Owners - Does anyone know the original configuration? I would like to just replicate it. The help would be appreciated. Thanks

 

[chconger]

Re: 1976 Century Arabian - Mercruiser 888 - Boat Restoration

100horse, thank you for your thoughts and comments and welcome to our forum. I am honored to be your first post. What you have mentioned is my first concern, which leaves me with the question: what purpose does it serve. The air has nowhere to go unless I place gaps in my ski locker cover boards or some other way for the air to flow. The previous owner was a hacker so I do not really know the original configuration. Arabian Owners - Does anyone know the original configuration? I would like to just replicate it. The help would be appreciated. Thanks

Hi There Jones

Just came across your thread, your doing a great job here.

I think having vents in the ski locker is a great idea. You say there are 2 hoses bringing air in. I am not clear what the vents look like on your deck, but assuming they are some kind of cowl, perhaps you can turn one to face forward and one to face aft. Then when your running the vent facing aft is the exit for the air. That may have been the original intent as that's a fairly common way to vent a cabin.

Chris

 

[jones01m]

Re: 1976 Century Arabian - Mercruiser 888 - Boat Restoration

Chris, thank you for your response. Attached below is a picture from my previous post. There is a grill on the front with the "Century" label that is slotted and has two cylindrical attachments behind (inboard)for the hoses to attach.

 

[chconger]

Re: 1976 Century Arabian - Mercruiser 888 - Boat Restoration

Ahh. In-only.

I expect you will have better venting of the ski locker if you open up a passage to the engine. And off hand, I cant see any drawback. A lot of bilges are "vented" from bow to stern to allow water to get out. (bulkheads are not tabbed at the very bottom)

On the other hand; unless the ski locker hatch has a gasket, having it blow up around the cracks probably keeps it vented well enough. Certainly better venting than none at all; which is what my Glastron has.

Cheers
Chris

 

[4Winns2]

Re: 1976 Century Arabian - Mercruiser 888 - Boat Restoration

Great work! So meticulous that it's a little intimidating for me. I need to get started on mine so I can put it in the garage in a reconstruct mode and do all the messing deconstruction outside before the snow sets in. Century dealership just around the point from us. Growing up all I wanted was a Century. The Arabian is the class of their models, by far.

 

[4Winns2]

Re: 1976 Century Arabian - Mercruiser 888 - Boat Restoration

Check this site out if you haven't already: Century Boat Club Index

 

[jones01m]

Re: 1976 Century Arabian - Mercruiser 888 - Boat Restoration

Chris, thank you for the feedback. At a minimum I believe I will place provisions in for a vent. Maybe two 2" holes in the single bulkhead between the engine compartment and ski locker. 2" PVC can go through the holes. I'll cap them if I don't like it. It seems a though ventilation configuration would also be required for an inboard. 4Winns, I appreciate the comments on the work. Believe me, it is nothing to be intimidated by, especially when you consider the date I started. One little step at a time (the one year hiatus didn't help). I think about the process during the week and try to be as efficient as possible in the few hours available on the weekend. Thanks for the link also. I have not yet seen this and I love the history. Purchasing the Century book is probably in the near future.... thanks guys.

 

[4Winns2]

Re: 1976 Century Arabian - Mercruiser 888 - Boat Restoration

4Winns, I appreciate the comments on the work. Believe me, it is nothing to be intimidated by, especially when you consider the date I started. One little step at a time (the one year hiatus didn't help). I think about the process during the week and try to be as efficient as possible in the few hours available on the weekend. Thanks for the link also. I have not yet seen this and I love the history. Purchasing the Century book is probably in the near future.... thanks guys.[/QUOTE]

I agree, be efficient by setting manageable goals given the time you have. I have pulled the interior and the carpet (link to my resto thread in my sig) and the next step is pull the gas out of the tank and the tank then cut out the deck. My camera will be busy for reference shots and all here.

FYI: you're the second Arabian resto on this forum. A year or two older and it's an inboard. If you haven't seen it let me know and I'll pull the link to his resto.