1987 Four Winns 215 Sundowner Refit/Repower

[solar7647]

I am starting a refit and repower project. I will be working on my 1987 Four Winns 215 sundowner. The boat is in good condition with few real problems, but everything in it is 22years old so I want to upgrade it so that it will last for another 22 years. Plus this is the reason I got the boat, it has always been a project I wanted to do. The project kicks off on New Year?s weekend. I will be adding photos as I go starting with the before so you can see what I started with.
The plan is to:
1)The floor has a soft spot so all new floors and carpet
2)A complete redesign of the seats and upholstery and there location
3)Over haul of drive unit- it doesn?t have any issues just needs a good once over
4)Removal of the current 3.7L 224 CID Merc
5)Install of new 4.3L Merc
6)Add some color and style to the current all white Gel Coat
7)All new dash and electronics
I am going to try to post every weekend, as of now I will be doing the majority of my work weekends because of work and because the boat is 15 miles from home. I found a nice elderly women who is allowing me to use her barn to work in, complete with over head wench, air compressor and machines galore, it used to be a shop for farm tractors so that should help a lot . Not to forget it prevents me from having to work in the bitter cold!

Look out for my questions, I shure I will be asking plenty!
Wish me luck

 

[Alpheus]

Re: 1987 Four Winns 215 Sundowner Refit/Repower

I found a nice elderly women who is allowing me to use her barn to work in, complete with over head wench, air compressor and machines galore, it used to be a shop for farm tractors so that should help a lot .

LUCKY!!!

Next your gonna tell us that while you were working on your boat that you look over and noticed a car that's covered with an old tarp. You pull off the tarp and there sits a 1969 Camaro SS Yenko in mint condition with 10 miles on the odometer. You ask the ederly lady about the car and she says "oh that old thing? My jerk of an x-husband left that car here years ago when he ran off with his secretary. Tell ya what, when your finished with your boat you can take that old car with ya for free."

 

[Bondo]

Re: 1987 Four Winns 215 Sundowner Refit/Repower

complete with over head wench

Ayuh,... Is she Cute,..??

An overhead Winch might be of more Help....

 

[solar7647]

Re: 1987 Four Winns 215 Sundowner Refit/Repower

What the boat looks like now:





These were taken at the end of the summer but nothing has changed.

 

[solar7647]

Re: 1987 Four Winns 215 Sundowner Refit/Repower

LUCKY!!!

Next your gonna tell us that while you were working on your boat that you look over and noticed a car that's covered with an old tarp. You pull off the tarp and there sits a 1969 Camaro SS Yenko in mint condition with 10 miles on the odometer. You ask the ederly lady about the car and she says "oh that old thing? My jerk of an x-husband left that car here years ago when he ran off with his secretary. Tell ya what, when your finished with your boat you can take that old car with ya for free."

Yea I wish, there is just an old S-10 in the corner, But there are two other barns on the property that may hold a treasure!

 

[solar7647]

Re: 1987 Four Winns 215 Sundowner Refit/Repower

Ayuh,... Is she Cute,..??

An overhead Winch might be of more Help....

Yea..Yea I know. I am better with tools and engineering then words!

 

[Lou C]

Re: 1987 Four Winns 215 Sundowner Refit/Repower

I did something similar on my '88 FW 200 Horizon a few years back....did a deck replacement...stringer repair...and replaced much of the interior....hopefully the soft spot in the floor can be replaced by just doing the deck....and as far as carpet...I'd get rid of all of it...all it does is hold moisture and that is what creates the conditions to start rot...I had mine gelcoated after I installed the new deck and just kept the carpet on the gunnels so I didn't have to gelcoat the whole interior.....

My outside gelcoat is red and badly oxidized...I am going to try to restore it with a dual action (rotary and random orbit) Makita buffer this spring but if that's not feasable the only other alternative is to paint....keep the white gelcoat it's much less maintenance than colored gelcoats....

My engine and drive are original and still running OK....22 years old....

 

[solar7647]

Re: 1987 Four Winns 215 Sundowner Refit/Repower

Ok day one..I got about 4 hours of work in today, I had to spend a couple hour organizing my work area and making some space. I was able to remove all the upholstery and a lot of the carpet. I also got all of the wood trim removed and all the hardware for the camper top.

 

[solar7647]

Re: 1987 Four Winns 215 Sundowner Refit/Repower

I was able to get some of the cabin taken apart too...there where so many stupid trim pieces in there it was a pain in the a**!

Once got the carpet up I was able to see what kind of condition the wood was in. It was much better then i thought it was going to be the only bad areas of the floor are around the engine...this I expected. The surprise was the stringer along the right side is completely screwed so I will be replacing that. The bad parts are circled in the photos...The rest of the floor is really solid along with the other stringer. I will be able to see more next weekend when I rip up the floor....Does any one have any tips on the best way to rip up the floor?

I also included a photo of the pile of crap I ripped out!

 

[solar7647]

Re: 1987 Four Winns 215 Sundowner Refit/Repower

I was messin around with paint shop and think i have a ok workup of how I want this thing to look like when i finish.........feel free to give me input!

 

[Bondo]

Re: 1987 Four Winns 215 Sundowner Refit/Repower

Does any one have any tips on the best way to rip up the floor?

Ayuh,.... A circular saw, with the blade depth set to equal the thickness of the decking works quite well....

Btw,.... Boats don't have Floors,... But they do have Decks.....

 

[Lou C]

Re: 1987 Four Winns 215 Sundowner Refit/Repower

You did a lot already! Anyway be careful cutting the deck when you get close to the edge of the hull where the gunnels are...it's easy to cut through the bottom of the hull if you're not careful and also make note of where the fuel lines are...my '88 has a hatch over the gas tank that I duplicated in the rebuild....yours seems to be just decked over with an inspection hatch....Once you get that bad section of decking up you'll see what else needs to be done...
As far as the outside....I'd leave it as is...any dark colors are a real pain maintenance wise and if you buff that out with a rotary buffer I bet it'll look great for not much money...

When you finish the deck job as I said I'd lose the carpet and consider using a deck paint such as Durabak or similar....you can get nice captain's chairs that match the colors of your interior from Overton's and other suppliers...that's what I did with mine...I used benches for a pontoon boat for the rear seat (2 36" benches together) and matching captain's chairs for the helm...

 

[solar7647]

Re: 1987 Four Winns 215 Sundowner Refit/Repower

Thanks for the tips on getting the deck ripped up! ......I have two small inspection hatches for the fuel tank...one at each end of the tank so I know where the fuel line are..as for cutting along the seam where the deck is glassed to the hull, i have an electric multi tool that has a more controllable cutting blade so i am going to give that a shot..it will prob take more time but its worth it to not cut through the hull!

I am going to try and get some more done today....finish ripping out the carpet that is on the sides and walls in the cabin and remove the bow rail, windshield, lights ext...

Lou C...I was looking into the solution for the benches...did you have to do a lot of modifications to the pontoon benches to get them to work?

 

[Lou C]

Re: 1987 Four Winns 215 Sundowner Refit/Repower

Thanks for the tips on getting the deck ripped up! ......I have two small inspection hatches for the fuel tank...one at each end of the tank so I know where the fuel line are..as for cutting along the seam where the deck is glassed to the hull, i have an electric multi tool that has a more controllable cutting blade so i am going to give that a shot..it will prob take more time but its worth it to not cut through the hull!

I am going to try and get some more done today....finish ripping out the carpet that is on the sides and walls in the cabin and remove the bow rail, windshield, lights ext...

Lou C...I was looking into the solution for the benches...did you have to do a lot of modifications to the pontoon benches to get them to work?

What I did when I cut out my old deck was to leave a lip about 3" wide all around...then I made a shelf to fit under that...and the new deck dropped onto the shelf...and was level with the old deck...Since I left this 3" lip I didn't have to worry too much about getting too close to the bottom of the hull...If you look closely you can see them in these pix...

As far as using the pontoon seating...for my boat it worked because I had the big sunpad and the wide bench seat across the boat...not the doghouse engine cover and the 2 small seats on either side of the engine...the only mod I had to make was to cut away a bit of that shelf that's basically carpeted plywood on each side of the gunnels...the seats total were 72" wide which was exactly the width of the sunpad/engine compartment cover and the shelves had to be trimmed about 1/2 in on each side...and the seats dropped right in...I used a set of threaded steel inserts installed in the new deck so I could used machine screws into the inserts to hold down the seats...that way I can remove them easily to work on the engine when needed and I'm not removing a screw from the new deck every time I have to move the seats out of the way...
rear seats are these:

http://www.overtons.com/modperl/pro...Boat-Furniture&aID=601D12&merchID=1009&r=view

front captains chairs are these:

http://www.overtons.com/modperl/pro...cket-Boat-Seats&aID=601C3&merchID=1009&r=view

BTW
this stuff was a lot cheaper when I did this job 3 years ago and you could build a rear bench out of 3/4 in plywood and have an upholstery shop cover it for you probably for less....

 

[solar7647]

Re: 1987 Four Winns 215 Sundowner Refit/Repower

What I did when I cut out my old deck was to leave a lip about 3" wide all around...then I made a shelf to fit under that...and the new deck dropped onto the shelf...and was level with the old deck...Since I left this 3" lip I didn't have to worry too much about getting too close to the bottom of the hull...If you look closely you can see them in these pix....

I see what you did and i think I will use this method ....I went and got some more done and investigated the deck some more and found that the deck from the walls of the hull in about a foot are original and very solid but the rest is what seams to be off the shelf plywood with a real sh*ty glass job!

I was able to get 2 hours in today and got the last of the carpet and padding out of the cabin, the windshield off and the pop up window from the the bow out. I also ripped the last of the carpet from the walls, the last of the carpet is attached to two small walls that I will be taking out so I am not going to bother with ripping off the carpet. I got another huge pile of crap.....I cant believe there is so much... and a lot of it was behind and under other crap so you couldn't even see it...whats the point???? oh well...the new pics are below.

 

[solar7647]

Re: 1987 Four Winns 215 Sundowner Refit/Repower

So I was able to get some help for this weekends work. If all goes to plan the Deck will be ripped up, the engine removed and the drive..and hopefully the helm. My goal is this weekend and next weekend will rap-up the distruction phase.. so I will have the end of jan all of Feb, March and Apr to get finished so I can be on the water in May....lets hope i can pull it off!

 

[solar7647]

Re: 1987 Four Winns 215 Sundowner Refit/Repower

Well I did not get every thing I wanted done this week end because having to help family do a last min move so I only got to work today.

So day three I was able to remove all the hardware from the hull and get the two walls that split the cabin from the rest of the boat..that was a huge pain. I also got the swim deck off and began to make cuts to remove the deck. I also got the overhead winch moved into place for the engine removal.

I am going to remove the deck after the engine so that it is easier to work on the engine.

 

[solar7647]

Re: 1987 Four Winns 215 Sundowner Refit/Repower

I am headed out to get some work done today. Lets see if I can get this engine and drive out. then the floor and that will start the actual building and fixing part!!

 

[81 beachcomber]

Re: 1987 Four Winns 215 Sundowner Refit/Repower

Solar, works looking good, good luck with the project

What I did when I cut out my old deck was to leave a lip about 3" wide all around...then I made a shelf to fit under that...and the new deck dropped onto the shelf...and was level with the old deck.....

I am just about to pull my boat into the garage today (gonna clean it out today) then i am replacing my floor too. I like this idea and think i will use it too

 

[solar7647]

Re: 1987 Four Winns 215 Sundowner Refit/Repower

Ok..I got the drive off
The drive was a complete pain...it would not come off i would get it to seperate a 1/2 inch but no further...tried for 45 min then reallized the shifter was not in foward :redface: so I put it in foward and it came off easy as pie. I was surprised to see the gimble bearing was in good shape, once I get the bell housing off i will give it a better look over to see if it needs to be changed. The bellows are bad though. No damage but super dry. I was also surprised that none of the bolts were seized and it came off with no proplems, nothing missing or broken. I have set my mind to not be surprised if I find something completely screwed up but I havent yet. This boat has only had two previouse owners but i know there are alot of back yard engineers out there that will try to fix anything with what ever they have laying around. So far everything has the proper parts and nothing is rigged!