brewern
Cadet
- Joined
- Dec 31, 1969
- Messages
- 12
In the spring of this year, the admiral and I started looking for our first boat on a limited budget of $1500. We wanted a family boat which would accommodate tubing, skiing, 'boat in camping' and fun on the lake. After joining this forum and asking around a little, I quickly started looking for a runabout. A few more questions and this forum proved invaluable, as always!
I hadn't met Jas yet so I wasn't looking for a tinny
, but I had followed several reno threads (with Frisco's being the first (thanks Jay)) and settled on a glasser.
A few thousand CL ads later, and learning more and more, I settled on a 1980 Rinkerbuilt Runabout with a 3.0 inline 4 cylinder and a SE106 lower unit. This boat had been garage kept it's entire life.
My son and I drove for about 3 hours to just north of Cincinnati, to pick her up. After getting lost and breaking down once (tensioner pulley froze up), I picked up my beautiful vintage Rinkerbuilt runabout. It was storming pretty badly, but he had every intention of taking me out on the lake before the bad weather hit. We hooked up the muffs, listened to her hum, put her in gear, shut her off, shook hands, traded the money, and my son and I drove off with our new boat! Yee haw! Happy day #1!
I was driving a 1994 For Ranger at the time, and on the way home the transmission started to overheat causing fluid to leak and drip on the muffler. Whew! I got scared when I saw the smoke. But, I pulled over, let it cool, and slowly limped my way down I-75. We made it home, and the Ranger was fine, but I knew it was time to sell the Ranger.
It took a while, but bye-bye good ol' truck:
Hello Durango!
Now I've got the power to haul it anywhere! We scheduled our first camping trip to Laurel Lake, and off we went:
Loved it. The weather was beautiful and the boat was running great.... until the knocking and pinging started.
Instead of reliving that adventure here, read this:
http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=559821
Now that you're caught up.... I've decided to start this thread as I start renovating our boat, "A Dog's Life".
Rinker was actually known as Rinkerbuilt in the early years, but if you are interested in Rinker's, they are the same manufacturers.
My intent is not to do a full tear down and rebuild, but instead, just pull out the old carpet, reupholster, change gauges, new steering wheel, etc. Basically, just get her looking great again. I'm not sure if I'll be pulling the motor just yet, but I may very well have to. I'm no mechanic, but I have friends that can help out if I pay them in food and beer.
I think I'll Durabak the floor and maybe get snap in carpeting later.... but we'll see. That's much further down the road.
That's enough for this post....
'A ship is always referred to as "she" because it costs so much to keep her in paint and powder.'
- Chester Nimitz
I hadn't met Jas yet so I wasn't looking for a tinny
, but I had followed several reno threads (with Frisco's being the first (thanks Jay)) and settled on a glasser. A few thousand CL ads later, and learning more and more, I settled on a 1980 Rinkerbuilt Runabout with a 3.0 inline 4 cylinder and a SE106 lower unit. This boat had been garage kept it's entire life.
My son and I drove for about 3 hours to just north of Cincinnati, to pick her up. After getting lost and breaking down once (tensioner pulley froze up), I picked up my beautiful vintage Rinkerbuilt runabout. It was storming pretty badly, but he had every intention of taking me out on the lake before the bad weather hit. We hooked up the muffs, listened to her hum, put her in gear, shut her off, shook hands, traded the money, and my son and I drove off with our new boat! Yee haw! Happy day #1!
I was driving a 1994 For Ranger at the time, and on the way home the transmission started to overheat causing fluid to leak and drip on the muffler. Whew! I got scared when I saw the smoke. But, I pulled over, let it cool, and slowly limped my way down I-75. We made it home, and the Ranger was fine, but I knew it was time to sell the Ranger.
It took a while, but bye-bye good ol' truck:
Hello Durango!
Now I've got the power to haul it anywhere! We scheduled our first camping trip to Laurel Lake, and off we went:
Loved it. The weather was beautiful and the boat was running great.... until the knocking and pinging started.
Instead of reliving that adventure here, read this:
http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=559821
Now that you're caught up.... I've decided to start this thread as I start renovating our boat, "A Dog's Life".
Rinker was actually known as Rinkerbuilt in the early years, but if you are interested in Rinker's, they are the same manufacturers.
My intent is not to do a full tear down and rebuild, but instead, just pull out the old carpet, reupholster, change gauges, new steering wheel, etc. Basically, just get her looking great again. I'm not sure if I'll be pulling the motor just yet, but I may very well have to. I'm no mechanic, but I have friends that can help out if I pay them in food and beer.
I think I'll Durabak the floor and maybe get snap in carpeting later.... but we'll see. That's much further down the road.
That's enough for this post....
'A ship is always referred to as "she" because it costs so much to keep her in paint and powder.'
- Chester Nimitz
