1988 Sylvan Sea Monster 15 restoration

[Slager]

Also, I tried one high density foam roller that I found at Menards, but it was very easily damaged by sharp aluminum edges, I was much happier with the Wiz ones.

 

[bonz_d]

I used the 6 inch Wiz rollers that Lowes caries. In these pictures, the gray looks like a light blue, but it is the battle ship gray.

That gray looks like the ticket.
Right now the interior of mine is a light tan, don't like it, and was looking for a gray. Machine gray and smoke gray Rusto. I think the Smoke would be too dark.
Carpet looks like it turned out nice too.

 

[Slager]

I couldn't find the machine gray Rustoleum locally, but the battleship gray was locally available and only cost about $1 more per qt. I really like how it turned out.

 

[bonz_d]

The Sea Nymph I'm going to be doing is about the same size. How much paint did it take you to do both inside and out?

 

[Slager]

I used two quarts of blue on the outside and one quart of gray on the inside. I thought about putting another coat of gray on, but would have needed to buy another quart.

 

[Slager]

I'm thinking about what all I need to do to get the engine back to life. It hasn't been run in a long time. It sat in a shed for about 7 years, and sat outside for about 6 months after that, but was straight upright the entire time. It is a 2001 mercury 40 hp 4-stroke, it is the carbed, 3-cylinder one. I already used a wrench to turn it over once to confirm that it wasn't seized up.

Here is my current plan:
1. Change oil and filter
2. Change lower unit gear lube
3. Change spark plugs
4. Change impeller

Things I'm not sure about:
Is there anything that must be done before I try and start it? I'm pretty sure the engine was put away with fuel in the lines, do I need to clean them out? I was thinking, if I can get it started, I'll run a gallon of gas with a bottle of Techron fuel system cleaner through it, or something similar.

Any specific suggestions?

 

[bonz_d]

Thanks for the paint info, now I have a baseline as to how much I'll probably need.

The engine plan sounds good. Might get some Marvel Mystery Oil and drop a few drops into each cylinder with the plugs pointed up and let it sit a day then turn it over to work the oil into the rings. You also may need to rebuild the carb/s if there was gas in them.

Good luck and let us know how it turns out!

 

[Slager]

I fired up the engine this weekend. It sputtered a bit at first, but is running reasonably smoothly. I'm posting a couple short videos of it running.

Here it is idling after a couple minutes of warming up, it took me a bit to get ready for filming.

Here I rev it a bit.


and here it is idling after warming up for about 15 minutes.


Hear anything to be concerned about? It sounded pretty good to me. Every now and then there is a very slight pop/clunk sound, but only about every 4-10 seconds or so. You should be able to hear it early on in the last video.



I've also been installing the interior, live-well, rod locker etc, but I haven't uploaded any pictures yet, I'll post some before too long.

 

[hotrod53]

I used 5/8" exterior B/C grade and that was what was marked on the old floor when I removed it. I went to a place that made fiberglass domes and bought their 2 part resin to coat my floor. I hope that your 1/2" is thick enough, I feel a slight give in the floor even with 5/8"

 

[Slager]

If you look early on in the rebuild, you can see that there were a couple aluminum sheets under the plywood. I reused those and also poured foam under outside compartments, and coating the wood in epoxy added some stiffness too. It feels pretty solid.