Merc 65hp on a Jet Star? (now with pictures!)

[Gibbles]

Re: Merc 65hp on a Jet Star? (now with pictures!)

I have a bunch of pictures in my camera that I just need to put onto my computer, resize, and upload...


But the floor panels have been fitted, and I spent a good hour thinking about the best way to do the seats...

Once I gave up on the best way I decided on one way...

Using some scraps of 3/4in ply I cut strips to use as a mounting spot for the seats

Two strips going on the outside, and two going on the inside/middle

And my trusty Harbor Freight palm sander is officially dead now, it finally fell apart.

I got alot of use out of that $10 pos, started with my house, and finally kicked the bucket on my boat.


I glued the strips down with epoxy and screwed down from the underside, then I coated both sides of the floor sealing over the screw heads.

Loaded a fresh tank of propane in my heater and tilted the panels up against the garage door.

With the new insulation in my garage door I held an easy 80f in that garage


I also replaced all of the foam that was under the floor, about half of it was melted; I assume from the glue they used when the carpet was installed...

Also with that piece of aluminum that was riveted down in the front, while cleaning up all of the dirt and gunk that built up over the years, I removed both sides to take a look under/clean, found that it is aluminum sheet without a doubt (was unsure) and I installed a piece of foam under both sides, then riveted back down.

Also I found that Lowes sells aluminum rivets.
At first I thought they were aluminum with steel inserts, but they are all aluminum.

And I had dream last night... It was spring, and my first trial run of the boat with the 65, everything went great except for a minor issue with my key switch, I had some girl tell me how nice it ran and looked...
Alan Jackson's just an old plywood boat playing on my radio...

Loaded it up for the day; and when I got home and saw my trailer/boat was gone
then I woke up...


Now I have that song in my head...

It was just an old plywood boat
A '75 Mercury with electric choke
A young boy two hands on the wheel
I can't replace the way it make me feel
And I would turn her sharp
And I would make her whine

 

[Gibbles]

Re: Merc 65hp on a Jet Star? (now with pictures!)

Ok I have been thinking more about my kicker steering
Here is a little picture I drew up with my current idea...

Idea is to use a tie rod end like this one on ebay
http://www.ebay.com/itm/130287682468?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

I found them in all sorts of sizes, up to 3/4in

My idea is to get one close to the size of my steering link arm, then straight to my kicker...
with hopes that this will allow it to flex just enough to allow me to steer with either the main raised, kicker down, or kicker up, and main down (after modding the kicker to give me a new position).

 

[Gibbles]

Re: Merc 65hp on a Jet Star? (now with pictures!)

cabelas had a nice little sale this weekend, and I got two new seats for $25 each
I had wanted 4 but they only had these in the color I wanted.

 

[Gibbles]

Re: Merc 65hp on a Jet Star? (now with pictures!)

And this is what I found under the old floor

 

[Gibbles]

Re: Merc 65hp on a Jet Star? (now with pictures!)

New floor installed

Using the left over side pieces I'm looking at making side pannels, this is a rough fit.

I'm trying to figure out the best way to fit the pannel in though...


And I had planned on getting more pictures through this, including one of it cleaned up with all new foam, and I may have even less time to work on the boat soon.

I got promoted (kinda) at work...
I'm getting taken off of the third shift, and going to a normal day shift.
I'm loosing that extra $$ for the third shift, and being put into a slightly upper pay grade that may make up for the change, and I get a whole bunch more work to do!

should be intresting as it unfolds...

 

[rheagler]

Re: Merc 65hp on a Jet Star? (now with pictures!)

The boat's looking real good. Congrats on the kinda-promotion, hope it works out as an upgrade!

 

[dozerII]

Re: Merc 65hp on a Jet Star? (now with pictures!)

Congrats on the sorta promotion, I got one of those too a while back a little more money and a whole lot more work. Great job on the boat.
Glen

 

[Gibbles]

Re: Merc 65hp on a Jet Star? (now with pictures!)

Thanks, the boat is coming together nicely

I saw home depot has some nice rubber mats that I may lay down on the floors once I get a good coat of paint down this summer

I also need to finish my garage floor once it warms up, and I?m kinda thinking the epoxy floor paint would be nice in the boat, and should hold up well? but that stuff is pretty $$

Although cheaper than the west system epoxy?

I need to get my hands on bunch of cardboard for the side panels, I?m trying to figure out the best way to do the panels
And the floor from stern to bow has a little curve to it, making it hard to fit the panels in

My old position was really laid back; I'm going to miss it
I don?t fully know what my new job entails but its funny how some people?s attitude towards me changed overnight? lol

 

[GA_Boater]

Re: Merc 65hp on a Jet Star? (now with pictures!)

Good progress, Gib. And congrats on getting off 3rd shift. As long as the pay is about the same sleeping at night is worth it. Trying to sleep during the day was a killer for me. And I was always beat. So keep up the good work on the Jet and good luck on your new position at work.

 

[lakelover]

Re: Merc 65hp on a Jet Star? (now with pictures!)

Congrats on the sorta-promotion; at least you're getting money and not just a title! That was always the joke, when there was no money, they would give you a "title".

 

[Gibbles]

Re: Merc 65hp on a Jet Star? (now with pictures!)

Thanks, and I'm a bit nervous about the new position...
I just hope it comes close to what I was making on the 3rd shift, wife is very happy as now we have the same schedule.

And I worked the sleeping during the day out well, I darkened the windows, and then finished it off by installing/fitting some foam into our bedroom window, cut out noise from outside and made it pitch black.
Then earplugs to cut out anything inside of the house.

My wife will love having her bedroom window back lol



And here is the start of my steering linkage for the kicker...
the tie rods cost me about $4 each with free shipping, they are very smooth and tight.
I have to wait till tomorrow for a speciality store for some 1/2 - 20 threaded rod...

 

[lakelover]

Re: Merc 65hp on a Jet Star? (now with pictures!)

That same schedule thing will be nice...my wife and I haven't had weekends together in 29 years, but she'd getting into a M-F job at the end of this month!

Nice job on the linkage, good thinking. I don't see why it wouldn't work fine, but a lot of times when I have a flawless plan, something doesn't quite fit. I guess that's why I'm not an engineer.

 

[Gibbles]

Re: Merc 65hp on a Jet Star? (now with pictures!)

Wife is likes seeing me more so far, but its only my second day...
& seeing cars on the road going into work sucks, I will miss my nice quite drives, radio & cruise on
not a huge fan of talk shows, I just want my country...


My last Idea for a linkage did not work out so well, biggest issue was it's failure to pivot...
In order to raise the engine I had to disconnect the linkage...

but time will tell if this idea actually works

I did not have time to get the threaded rod yesterday, will try today.

 

[Gibbles]

Re: Merc 65hp on a Jet Star? (now with pictures!)

A little progress

I picked up a 3ft piece of threaded rod (1/2-20) for the kicker tie rods

I installed a nice straight piece and it worked great, but then I noticed that I could turn further left than right

So my problem...
If I install the kicker far enough away from the side of boat so I can tilt it up, then I'm too close to the steering cable rod to make a full right turn

So I raised the kicker by 2in and tried again
with it raised by 2in I can move it closer to the side of the boat and still raise the kicker, but the straight rod will not work!

So I played with a few ideas, and while half asleep and found that if I bend the threaded rod in a U shape to get around the clamp on the kicker it will work, but it does pull the steering rod to the side when turning left... not sure if it will be an issue...

This would be much easier if I moved the kicker to the starboard side, but it makes more sense having it on the port side to offset my weight when boating alone.

And I need to find my old map/oxy setup, will make bending that 1/2in rod much easier... :facepalm:


Also; seafoam deepcreep works great as a make shift cutting oil.

 

[Gibbles]

Re: Merc 65hp on a Jet Star? (now with pictures!)

A little update before I head off to work...

I figured the benches out mostly, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, I ended up making the seats sit as low as I could get away with (pictures later)

And the steering seems to work pretty good now, I tried to get pictures, but its to dark for my camera, and flash floods it out.

I bid on some fara gauges on ebay, and I got them for about $50 shipped for the set.
Mostly I got the set for the tach, seems to be the correct type.

I had wanted a darker set, but these look pretty good IMO

 

[lakelover]

Re: Merc 65hp on a Jet Star? (now with pictures!)

Nothing wrong with the way those gauges look If you wanted to go to the trouble, you could probably disassemble or mask off the faces and spray paint them a darker color. Looking forward to seeing what you did with the seats. Glad to hear that your persistence paid off with the steering, I think that's way cool.

 

[Gibbles]

Re: Merc 65hp on a Jet Star? (now with pictures!)

Overall I like the way they look, I had wanted a bit more contrast.
I like it when the numbers stand out a bit more, but these will look good.

Mostly I had just wanted a tach to be sure I don't over rev my engine due to how light my boat is.


Now what color should I make the dash to match the new gauges?

 

[Gibbles]

Re: Merc 65hp on a Jet Star? (now with pictures!)

I think I might need to join Starcraft AA...


I bought another boat today...
guy was asking $500 for a unknown starcraft
Trailer looked good in the picture, boat looked sexy...

My FIL has been wanting to go tin due to weight and him having a small truck.

So thinking of him I went to go look at it.

had a mercury 80hp, old redband (what is it with me and mercurys, they keep falling into my lap )

Boat has been stripped, and it looks like the prev owner started restore work on it, coated the rivets with gulvit, took out the floors ect...

Trailer is bent and will need to be replaced, but it towed great

Boat is a 1973 Starcraft Nova
Paint has been stripped mostly, and its bare aluminum.

Boat is quite a bit wider than my jetstar, and it has the stringer setup for a flat floor, and it has mounts for side pannels

There are some kinda serious dents in the hull, main one is around the trim edge at the top of the boat, looks like something clamped down on it and crushed the channel, but its only about 2in wide.

Transom is also rotten

trailer does have some nice parts to it (Will get pictures later).

And I'm not sure what I want to do, I may fix this one up and give it to my FIL, or fix it up and keep it for my self giving up the jetstar...

oh well another project when I finish my jetstar

oh yeah $350 invested, if I can get that 80hp running I could be able to get my money back...

I'll get pictures later, snowing hard and dark outside

I was a bit worried, I had to drive 30 miles in the snow, with no trailer lights, and in traffic...

 

[GA_Boater]

Re: Merc 65hp on a Jet Star? (now with pictures!)

Yep, Gib - We need pics. Novas are far and few between. And Mercs are good motors. Your new gauges look good.

 

[jasoutside]

Re: Merc 65hp on a Jet Star? (now with pictures!)

Another!!!! Sweet!!!! Yah, Novas are a rare bird