1987 Four Winns 215 Sundowner Refit/Repower

[solar7647]

Re: 1987 Four Winns 215 Sundowner Refit/Repower

I was able to get the motor pulled today along with the drive
...this went pretty good figuring I was alone...I had to be a little more carefull with the engine though, my budget has changed so instead of the new 4.3L i wanted I will have to rebuild the 3.7L so I am going to get a new remaned long block and a few other odd and ends to make myself a strong replacment. I only had one real problem with this engine (blew a piston ring)...I was able to get it fixed pretty painless but the block needs machined and remaned, so instead of doing it my self, ripping it down and sending parts to the machine shop I am getting a new long block that has a 500Hr warrenty, that why I am not screwed if anything goes wrong with it.

Well this engine came out real easy, just had to:
1. Remove water inlet hose from bell transom mount
2. Disconnect two power stearing lines, the in and out from the stearing piston
3. Disconnect the trottle and shifting cable
4.And last was unpluged the wires
After that all I had to do was remove two bolts from the the transom mount and 4 bolts from the front....hooked up the chain and up she went...I used an over head steel gantry that had a pully that slid its length so I was able to go streight up then over the side of the boat and down.....I will say that even with the pully, it only really reduced the weight by about half maybe a little more..so I was pretty wooped after...so I called it a day!

I took a photo every break..thats why there are alot of it coming out!

 

[sprintst]

Re: 1987 Four Winns 215 Sundowner Refit/Repower

Nice work.. You've taken a real bite out of it. You'll look back later and say "I can't believe I did all that" or "I can't believe I spent all that"

Boats tend to make you say things like that

 

[solar7647]

Re: 1987 Four Winns 215 Sundowner Refit/Repower

Thanks for the coments all

Hear is a preveiw of tomorrows work load
I need to remove the rest of the odds and ends in the engine area such as gas lines, trim pump transom mount and so on...we will see if i can get it all out and start ripping up that deck!

 

[solar7647]

Re: 1987 Four Winns 215 Sundowner Refit/Repower

I got 5hrs of work done today!

I got the transom mount off and the bell housing and trim assembly...again i was very surprised with the condition of the equipment and the fact that all the proper parts were there. The guy I bought the boat from said he took good care of it but what person selling a boat dosnt say that.

I also got a large portion of the deck up and was able to see why the deck had a new piece of wood in the center. It looks like someone had to do something with the gas tank...its clear something was done but i cant tell what..maybe had to empty a tank of bad gas.

I found only one bad stringer..the one i already knew was bad. It looks like the damage was caused when the gas tank was messed with, there was a large part of the stringer that was missing fiber glass leaving the wood exposed.

I am happy the report that the transom is solid as a rock. I was really happy to see that. When i removed the transom mount and trim assembly I was worried because the exposed wood where the hole was cut in the transom for the drive was black but when i took a closer look and cleaned it up it was oil and grease and the wood was like new still hard and you can see in the photos that the area of the transom that was cover by the transom mount is golden brown and you can see the grain of the wood through the fiberglass.

 

[solar7647]

Re: 1987 Four Winns 215 Sundowner Refit/Repower

Well i have a big Hockey game to attend this week end so I wont be doing a lot of work on the boat. I will be going through to see what has to be replaced and what can be kept as far as the wires,and such and see what is worth posting for sale. I am also going to attempt the start of cleaning and fixing of the transome mount and the bell housing.

I do have a few questions;

Where is the best place to buy fiberglass and resin from and I should use Poly resin? I belive that that is what it has now, it light brown and i remember reading that indicates its poly.--any suggestios on brand to get would help also--

I found that the wood platform that the front of the engin mounts to has some rot, would it be ok to fabricate a steel mount and fiberglass the steel mount, rather then replace the wood? I would really like to eliminate the chance of the mount rotting and allowing the lag bolts to pull out again.

Is there anything I should do to prep the cut out in the transom for the drive? The wood is good (no Rot in transom) but the wood is exposed where the hole was cut and i would like to take any steps I can to keep it from going bad.

Thanks

GO Walleye!!

(Toledo Walleye- ECHL - NHL affiliates: Red wings and Black Hawks)

 

[solar7647]

Re: 1987 Four Winns 215 Sundowner Refit/Repower

Well I have been at a stand still for the past two weeks as far as major work. I have really only been cleaning and removing screws and and glue. III have been busy ordering and tool shopping though. My house will be a very busy place this week for the UPS guy. I have paint, carpet,fiberglass, resin, seats, marine body filler all being delivered this week! Plus I will get my showroom dollies delivered tomorrow.
My big plain this week end is to get the boat off the trailer and on the dollies. Then starts the fun!

 

[solar7647]

Re: 1987 Four Winns 215 Sundowner Refit/Repower

Well I got the boat off the trailer today and onto the dollies. Now it can be moved around as i need to work on different areas. I also made a paint booth using 6mil plastic, that way I can heat the area to a good warm temp when I lay the fiber glass and so I can keep the dust from sanding contained and the paint when it gets to that point.

My house has been like Xmas all week I have been getting a ton of stuff delivered with more to come. I got the fiber glass, resin, paint, 3m marine body filler and the dollies. I still need the the steering wheel assembly, shifter and the new gauges!

I will update tomorrow with photos so it can all be seen!

 

[81 beachcomber]

Re: 1987 Four Winns 215 Sundowner Refit/Repower

sounds like you're on your way.. good to hear, can't wait to see pics buddy..

 

[solar7647]

Re: 1987 Four Winns 215 Sundowner Refit/Repower

Some photos of it on the dollies and of the process of moving it. What I did was first used the gantry to lift the stern and used a jack under the bow to lift it off the trailer, i then slid the trailer forward and let the stern down onto one of the dollies, I then moved the gantry to the bow hooked it up and picked up the bow. The trailer came out leaving the boat supported by the gantry one dolly then i just slid the other dolly under and unhooked the gantry. The hole thing took about two hours, but that includes the time it took to put the dollies together, I will post again later with photos of the tent around it, I need to take some photos of it.

 

[solar7647]

Re: 1987 Four Winns 215 Sundowner Refit/Repower

As promised some photos of the tent that i put up to cut down on dust when sand and allow me to control the temp when i lay fiberglass and paint. I also added some safety straps to the dollies. I was doing some reading and found that it is not un-common for a dolly to be thrown out from under a boat because of sliding across the bunks on the dolly. I left one area open to the rest of the barn for now because it is where the bench with all my tools is.

I will be cutting the bad stringer out this week and prepping the area for the new one. Finally getting to the fun stuff

also added a photo of the Ohio country side sun set as I was leaving to come home.

 

[solar7647]

Re: 1987 Four Winns 215 Sundowner Refit/Repower

I was really busy this weekend.....I began cutting and ripping out the bad stringer and other wood. I was able to rip out one stringer and the cross members that where also rotted. I got the gas tank out, that by far took the longest out of everything that I did. It didnt help that there was still about 5 gallons of gas left in it.

I need to remove a little more wood yet and clean things up so i can cut and fiberglass the new stringer in.

 

[sprintst]

Re: 1987 Four Winns 215 Sundowner Refit/Repower

Nice setup. You're good to go to get into the guts of it now.

 

[solar7647]

Re: 1987 Four Winns 215 Sundowner Refit/Repower

Well i am all ready to lay fiber glass. I wanted to get it done today but I had to see the big US vs Canada game so I put it on hold. I got the bad wood out, two stringers and the motor mount. I found a puddle of water under the wood of the motor mount that was crazy. It was about 1.5 inch deep!

Once I got all the trash out i spent about two hours grinding so i have clean joining surface far the new fiberglass, I used a 4inch SS wire wheel on a angle grinder and it worked really well eating through stuff with out needing to be worried about doing damage that would take more fixing.

I only got one photo of my work and it was before i did the grinding. Now you can see the fiber glass! unlike in the photo

 

[solar7647]

Re: 1987 Four Winns 215 Sundowner Refit/Repower

Well its been awile since the last post! I had some computer issues (my brother in-law decided to screw up my computer You can probly geuss how)

Any ways. I got the new stringers and motor mount in and sacured. The motor mount was a little bit of a pain to get cut to the right size due to equipment issues but I got her done. I got the motor mount glassed in completely and and also got the joints of the stringers glassed in. I glassed all the joints and any areas that are going to have more stress with 1.5oz matt then a second layer of 10oz cloth. The motor mount in completly glassed that way. I did this because when I was ripping everything out I noticed that these areas where much thicker then the rest of the fiberglass.

I used the matt because it would have taken to much cloth to get it built up to the thickness i wanted with out the matt.
I also found while doing research that matt tends to provide better water proofing so I figured what the hell.
I am letting the joints cure over night then hitting it with a wire wheel in the morning to clean them and putting on the 10oz cloth that will incase the wood for the stringers.

 

[solar7647]

Re: 1987 Four Winns 215 Sundowner Refit/Repower

Well I got the new long block! Put it up on the engine stand today, I will be begining the build of it this week since i will be doing this in my garage at home it should be pretty quick as far as updates about it. I am going to start a seperat post in the Mec forum and try to make it a how to referance for all those 3.7L and 470 owners out there. I found that there is a good amount of info out there to fix these engines but they usally stop short of really giving you a clear understanding of what to do, such as doing the updates to the early model engine that gave the engine such a bad rep.

Any way photos are below!

 

[solar7647]

Re: 1987 Four Winns 215 Sundowner Refit/Repower

I finished glassing in the stringers, they set up pretty quick because it was 69 degrees today! And I must say are pretty solid. It took me about three hours to get it done, since it was so warm I only worked with 16oz's of resin at a time so I didnt have it setting up in the cup. I ended up with about 8oz of extra resin when i was done so I gave the bilge a coat of resin to get rid of it.
I also brought the engine home so that I can begin to rip it down and build the long block up. This shouldnt take to much time because having it at home gives me more time to work on it rather then only on the weekends like I do with the rest of the boat.

 

[seamorewaterVIP]

Re: 1987 Four Winns 215 Sundowner Refit/Repower

hey sollar just a suggestion cuz i am lazy can you resize you pics to like 640x480 instead of thumbs?

 

[solar7647]

Re: 1987 Four Winns 215 Sundowner Refit/Repower

Ok I just figured out how to get the images to be in the body of the post. I figured the only way was to get a photo bucket account, that why i never did it. I just saw that I can have a photo album on Iboats so I will work on convertting the other photos and start posting them larger. Maybe I will get more traffic through my tread that way.

Anyway I got the Gas tank in and sacured in place. I used the same method as it was when i removed it but used less foam and put the foam in more stratigicly.

I also cuth the wood for the floor and got it mocked up

That was all done last night.
Today I cut the access holes in the deck for the gas tank, sealed the under side of the deck ( since when the deck rotts it starts from the under side) and attached the floors to the stringers. I also cut and put up the dividing wall for the cuddy. I will get photos of that work up soon. I forgot my phone today so I didnt get any photos.

 

[solar7647]

Re: 1987 Four Winns 215 Sundowner Refit/Repower

Well first The photos of the dividing wall for the cabbin and the floor with the holes cut in it that i didnt have with my last post.
The wall

The floor

 

[solar7647]

Re: 1987 Four Winns 215 Sundowner Refit/Repower

Now the new stuff:
I first removed all the stripes and stickers from the hull using an electric multi tool that has a scraper that made is super quick to get them off. I then sanded the hull once with 80 grit to get the small scratches out of the gel-coat then again with 120 grit to smooth every thing out. Once I was done doing that I applied the 3M marine filler to all the holes left by screws and the scratches and chips in the gel-coat that where to deep to sand out. Tomorrow I am going to sand the filler and do another round on the hole hull with 200 grit. Once I complete that I am going to tape it off and clean it so I can paint the hull.

The fist photo is of the side of the boat before the stickers where removed ( so you can see how much was taken off)

This of the top during sanding ( what a mess )

The next two are after the filler was put on

and the last is of the dash with everything removed and sanded