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Now that I've actually eaten I'll give a better update. I went out this morning and picked up 32 cinder blocks and 2 4x4's to lay the top cap off when finished. Once I got home around 8:30 the snow had let up (it wasn't very bad to begin with) so I decided to start tackling the rivets. After 15 or so my black oxide bit was toast, and let me tell you guys....countersinks are the answer to rivet problems. I hadn't heard a think about them yet but I picked up a 1/2" bit for 8$ and it chewed through 30 rivets in about 5 minutes, then just popped them through with a punch.
The O/B removal was actually a lot easier than expected. It only took us a couple hours to get all the connections named, removed, and then get the actual motor off. The only problem we ran into was that the hydraulic tilt on the low end couldn't be engaged due to it touching the driveway, so that made getting it onto the stand just a little bit tricky. We got most 80% of the boat separated by 3:30 but ran into problems around the transom. I actually crammed myself down into the ski locker for about 30 minutes to chisel away whatever material was used to "glue" the top cap into the transom. Hours went by and we just could NOT budge this thing, I mean the top cap was flexing all sorts of horrible but it just wouldn't come off. After that I hopped back in the ski locker and could finally see what the problem was, the damn copper pieces that seal the drains above the water line in the transom area were the only 2 pieces keeping us from pulling the entire cap up. Man we felt like idiots, and I broke one of the 4x4's at a knot after dropping it (damn the splinters) so I'll need to grab one of those before tomorrow. Two connections need to come off in the morning then my wife will assist in getting on the blocks. What. A. Day.
Here are some of the pictures removing motor parts, pulling the rivets, then cap, and what I had in mind for the front with ratchet straps finally coming to life.
