25' 1976 Sleek Craft Ambassador Project

[Last Mohican]

Re: 25' 1976 Sleek Craft Ambassador Project

Sorry for the bad after pictures. I was working under a tree and the shade was a problem. I will get some better after pics at the lake today. I had to cut down the hold down for all the gauges. No bid deal. They are aluminum and cut easily with a hack saw. I also had to enlarge the hole for the tach slightly. I used a cheap little drum sander from Harbor Freight that fits in a drill.

http://www.harborfreight.com/20-piece-sanding-drum-kit-42006.html

(EDIT: Something is up at Photobucket. Hopefully the pics appear soon.)

Before




After

 

[83 sleek]

Re: 25' 1976 Sleek Craft Ambassador Project

Great looking sleek. I am doing same project. Put in lake for first time yesterday and was so excited. Mine came with homemade interior that was not pretty. I need to have some bench seats made for inside cabin and was wondering if yours were made to fit slope of hull or are they "shimmed" in front to sit level? Don't know where else to go figure this out? Would appreciate the info!

 

[archbuilder]

Re: 25' 1976 Sleek Craft Ambassador Project

Looks like you are making progres! Good talking to you today, hopefully next summer we can hook up. I'll let you know what I find out on the sleek pump up here.

 

[Last Mohican]

Re: 25' 1976 Sleek Craft Ambassador Project

Better pics

 

[Last Mohican]

Re: 25' 1976 Sleek Craft Ambassador Project

Great looking sleek. I am doing same project. Put in lake for first time yesterday and was so excited. Mine came with homemade interior that was not pretty. I need to have some bench seats made for inside cabin and was wondering if yours were made to fit slope of hull or are they "shimmed" in front to sit level? Don't know where else to go figure this out? Would appreciate the info!

Very cool old sled. What lake is that? I'll try to get in there this week and get some pics of how they are mounted. I have no clue but I would bet the seats are cut to fit with no shims to level them out.

 

[BobsGlasstream]

Re: 25' 1976 Sleek Craft Ambassador Project

Last Mohican,
Nice clean look. I like it.
What would we do without good old HF.
Keep the pic's coming.
Bob

 

[Last Mohican]

Re: 25' 1976 Sleek Craft Ambassador Project

Last Mohican,
Nice clean look. I like it.
What would we do without good old HF.
Keep the pic's coming.
Bob

Thanks Bob. As much as I hate to spend my money there if I need a disposable tool to do a job once you can't beat HF.

 

[83 sleek]

Re: 25' 1976 Sleek Craft Ambassador Project

It's Foster Resevoir in Sweet Home Oregon. It's always rough but didn't want to drive extra 15 miles to Green Peter Resevoir above it which is alot calmer. I picked up those gauges also. Thats a hell of a price. I would appreciate info on those seats. I had rear bench and back to backs made in Florida but back to backs are pretty bulky so I may "modify" them.

 

[Last Mohican]

Re: 25' 1976 Sleek Craft Ambassador Project

It's Foster Resevoir in Sweet Home Oregon. It's always rough but didn't want to drive extra 15 miles to Green Peter Resevoir above it which is alot calmer. I picked up those gauges also. Thats a hell of a price. I would appreciate info on those seats. I had rear bench and back to backs made in Florida but back to backs are pretty bulky so I may "modify" them.

Looks like a beautiful lake. Seats look great but they look a little close together. I'd love to see more pics of you boat. That's cool that you ordered the same gauges. If you tach is like mine was be prepared to open the tach hole a little bit. Rain is in the forecast here for the next couple of days. It may take me a few days to look at my seats and get pics for you.

 

[83 sleek]

Re: 25' 1976 Sleek Craft Ambassador Project

Yeah I'm going to scrap the back to backs and just go with jumps seats. I noticed on the Hardine site while looking for those gauges they have retro looking rounded jump seats for sale but were kinda pricey. I am debating on painting boat this winter cause there is absolutely no gel coat left on it and its not my favorite color (cashew brown). It's supposed to rain here too next couple of days.

 

[Last Mohican]

Re: 25' 1976 Sleek Craft Ambassador Project

Yeah I'm going to scrap the back to backs and just go with jumps seats. I noticed on the Hardine site while looking for those gauges they have retro looking rounded jump seats for sale but were kinda pricey. I am debating on painting boat this winter cause there is absolutely no gel coat left on it and its not my favorite color (cashew brown). It's supposed to rain here too next couple of days.

Great lookin boat. Gel looks good in the pics. The camera is always kind to these old boats.

 

[QC]

Re: 25' 1976 Sleek Craft Ambassador Project

Thanks QC. It would be cool to see some pics of more Sleeks. Especially from the sacred waters of Lake Havasu.

Very odd, but I didn't see any Classic Sleeks this weekend. With that said . . . there were a lot of distractions.

 

[Last Mohican]

Re: 25' 1976 Sleek Craft Ambassador Project

Imagine that. Distractions on Havasu on a holiday weekend.

 

[Last Mohican]

Re: 25' 1976 Sleek Craft Ambassador Project

I've got a fuel pressure issue. It will run great for 10 - 15 minutes at 3200 or so then it just peters out. The fuel pressure falls completely off to 0. After is sits (get towed) for 10 - 15 minutes it will fire right back up and the fuel pressure will return to ~ 6 lbs. This is a mechanical fuel pump and a Q-Jet carb. It has a new water separator and all new rubber fuel lines. My gut feeling is there is sediment in the tank that gets suspended and after 10 minutes or so it manages to pack the sock on the tank pickup. Once the boat dies is sloshes around and the sediment falls off the pick up and it is fine again. Wash, Rinse, Repeat. It has done this pretty consistently on every long haul I have made with it. It does just fine if I stick to short runs

In conversation with another boater at the lake this weekend he said he had the exact same issue and it was the same style water separator. He said he bypassed it with just a regular inline fuel filter and it resolved his issue. He said he fought it for a long time before finally getting it resolved.

The tanks are tabbed in with glass and I don't think I can get the pickup out without removing the tank. The plan is to bypass the separator with a filter. If that does not fix it I am going to borrow a portable fuel cell from a friend and use that instead of the on board tank. If the borrowed tank fixes it I know I have an issue in my tank. If not it has to be the pump.

Anyone have any other suggestions? I'm all ears.

 

[83 sleek]

Re: 25' 1976 Sleek Craft Ambassador Project

That's sounds right to me. I had same problem with a truck I have where it just felt like it was not getting enough fuel and what do you know there was a grease rag in the fuel tank and while driving it would float around and get stuck on the draw tube. Let it sit or blow air back thru line and it would run great for few minutes then same thing. I could not believe it!!

 

[QC]

Re: 25' 1976 Sleek Craft Ambassador Project

I like your plan. One change at a time. You may want to repost this in the I/O section too . . .

 

[Last Mohican]

Re: 25' 1976 Sleek Craft Ambassador Project

I have added a PDF that I am tracking all costs of this project. I will update it periodically. I am documenting all costs other than gas. If I bought a tool specifically for this project it is included. If you are interested you can download it here.
AmbassadorCost.pdf

I added a link to this file in post #1
As of 09-07-2010 I have spent $2,207.57

 

[sprintst]

Re: 25' 1976 Sleek Craft Ambassador Project

I was doing some reading a while back and the separators are rated differently for the amount of fuel they can handle. Assuming the filter is new then it should flow to the spec it was designed for.

The only thing I can think of if the pump is good is that the tank vent is plugged or there is a restriction in the fuel line setup. The filter doesn't have 3/8 fuel lines stepped down into 1/4 fuel lines or anything wierd does it.

Give it a whirl with an inline filter to see if that does it like you were looking at doing.

 

[BobsGlasstream]

Re: 25' 1976 Sleek Craft Ambassador Project

Last Mohican,
Sounds like a pretty good plan to me.
If it is the vent it is easy to test, Just inject some air (small amount) into the tank, if the vent is good you won't build any pressure. I have also seen wasp build nest in some strange places, (Like Vent tubes).
Good Luck
Bob

 

[Last Mohican]

Re: 25' 1976 Sleek Craft Ambassador Project

Kinda bummer out tonight. We have had torrential rains here today. I had a tarp stretched over the boat with a piece of 4" drain tube down the middle to give a little pitch to the tarp. It has worked great with the little bit of rain we had in the last month. No go today though. I got up this morning and the tarp had caved in to the boat under the weight of the water.

At this point most of the water was still on top of the tarp. I bailed the water, stretched the tarp over the boat again and headed to work. I had hoped the rain would subside a little so I could fix it better this evening. No such luck. When I got home the tarp had caved again and there was a good 8" of water in the bilge and 6" in the cabin foot well. The plug was out but debris had clogged the hole.

I know it is not that big a deal, The boat sat out in the rain uncovered for the last several years, but it still bums me out. Hopefully the rain will subside tomorrow and I can go pump the foot well out in the cabin. There is no drain from there. I cleared the drain from the bilge so it should be empty by now. I did fix the tarp again. This time I put some corrugated roofing material with 2X4 supports under the tarp. It has a pretty good pitch front to back so the water is draining pretty well now.