Well thanks for your help so far, and I looked up your Bio and see that you are a retired outboard mechanic, so I am confident that what you share is good information ...... so again, thanks. Just so you know that you're not talking to some kid, I am also retired and am no avid fisherman/boater, but do enjoy going out now and then, and now that I am officially retired, have more time to do so and intend to do so. As I said, I had an old 76 SeaRay Cuddy, that I (like so many other old boats you see in peoples yards) neglected when I got busy before I retired. I could have brought it back to life but decided that I really wanted something just a bit smaller with outboards instead of a big inboard. I'm also a cheap boater/fisherman, very cheap when it comes to spending much money on this perhaps hobby/pastime. So I sold the non running SeaRay for $250 (without the dual axle EZ Loader galvanized trailer I had under it), we parked the SeaRay on the ground in the yard of the fella that bought it, and I bought this 1975 18ft Olympic (manufactured by Columbia Fiberglass in Rochester Washington ..... no longer in business), for $500 with an old single axle very rusty trailer (that I sold for $200 after adjusting my EZ Loader and then transferring the Olympic to my trailer, and of course it came with that 1975 70 HP Johnson.
So the story goes like this .....................
The fella I bought it from had a friend that liked to work on boats and was handy and so he and his friend bought this boat to restore. The friend tore out the floor, repaired what was needed in the stringers, removed all the old insulation waterlogged or not, put in new closed cell insulation and a new marine grade plywood floor and glassed it over, carpetetd the entire floor and sidewalls (except under the rear splash well and the last two feet at the bow), inside with a tight flat indoor/outdoor carpet The floor is as solid as concrete, seems like he did a good job. The other fella that now had the boat knew the motor (it was his dads) and he said it always ran well, and he mated it to this boat. Then his friend that did the interior work moved and this boat just set there in his yard for a couple of years until he decided to sell it. That's where I came in.
He was asking $700 as is, I offered and after some arm wring managed to buy it for $500. It needed extensive topside work. I spent two weeks removing all the hardware top and windshield and sides, sanding much of it down to glass, some places still had good enough gel coat where I didn't remove it all. I then primer-ed and painted, then reinstalled the hardware and windshield. The lower glass and gel, though dirty is in decent shape, I'll only fix a few chips, clean and polish it out. It has a newer top that I can just about stand under (touches the top of my head standing straight up,my wife can though without feeling like something is pressing down on top of her head). Yesterday I bought two new seats and swivels and will be removing the old back to backs. I am getting close to fiddling with the motor and electrical, and that brings me to why I first asked about the switch. So far I am in the boat $50 for the boat ....... that's $500 minus $250 for my old boat and $200 for the trailer that was under it. I've got about another $150 in paint, primer, stainless nuts and bolts, $100 for the $200 seats (used a Cabellas gift card that's been lying around since I retired), and we'll see how many more hundreds I'll have to spend. If the motor doesn't up the ante, I figure It might be pretty decent by the time I've spent $1000 to $1500 total. Of course I'll be cheating because I took my nice Ray-Marine finder/plotter, my CB and Marine band radios and antennas, my OMC auxiliary engine mount, and a whole host of other stuff off my SeaRay before I got rid of her so I won't be buying any of that.
So now that I've written a small novel, would you mind if I kept asking questions about other things that I'm sure will come up and I'm just as sure I won't have answers to?
Thanks again
