New Bass boat owner and In need of help please! 1977 Champion

[rescue95095]

Hi everyone my name is Justin this is my first post ever please bear with me I have many questions and am brand new to boating and forums. OK here it goes I just bought a 1977 Champion bass boat with an 85 HP 850 series mercury outboard year 1973 that has a Mercontrol throttle with Tilt/Terim on throttle.
The boat is in very rough shape and hasnt been started for 2 years but my cousin said it works well he just doesnt use it, I git it home took out all nasty carpet and almost all wireing due to nothing worked but engine after new battery. I am curious what i need to do before starting this engine I changed lower unit grease already and totally cleaned the inside and will be putting in new floors. I am stuck big time on the live well system, there are 2 wells and was only one pump and a bilge pump, there was garden hose hooked to livewell pump but nothing worked and I want to re do the correct way but dont know how?? Also Electrical was a rats nest and rotted old wire and the Guages didnt work I removed all but am unsure how to hook up battery to engine to I am reading I need fuse pannel with fuses and am just unsure how to formulate this>? Also the trolling motor on the bow im unsure how is powered and also the trim and tilt works from the bow but not throttle??
The sparkly finish is red and looks great in some spots that were covered byt absolutely nasty every where else, can i sand this and put a clear coat on? I appreciate any help sorry for the novel!

 

[GT1000000]

Re: New Bass boat owner and In need of help please! 1977 Champion

Hi and welcome to the Iboats Dry Dock, rescue95095...
You are in the best place to get all the info you will need to do this bass boat up right...
First of all, slow way down...I know this being your first boat and all you are excited to get everything done and ready for the water...
You will get there but I can tell you it will take some time, money and a fairly steep learning curve...
The first thing you need to do is begin reading several restoration threads to get an idea of not only what to look for, but how to do it...
Check the signatures of the guys who post here to see what they are up to...
Here is some great reading material... http://forums.iboats.com/boat-resto...r/how-tos-other-great-information-288451.html
Also, brush up on these...Forum Rules and Guidelines
Then get yourself a free photobucket account, take and load lots of pictures there, then click on the "IMG code Tag" and post up some pics here in your thread...they will help us to see what you see and give the best advice on how to proceed...
Start a thread here...http://forums.iboats.com/mercury-mariner-outboards-25/ to ask all the questions about what to do with the engine...lots of knowledgeable and helpful guys there...
You can also get great advice on your electrical here...Electrical, Electronics, Audio and Trolling Motors
Finally, I want to tell you to be prepared for some bad news regarding your boat...it may have a lot of rot...you can only tell for sure by doing core samples of the underlying wooden substructure and you can usually only do that by tearing up the deck...which from your description, sounds like it has soft spots in it...hopefully I am wrong, but usually these old boats that have sat in the elements for any length of time will exhibit these problems...Anyhow, we'll get to that soon enough...
OK, now get busy...you've got a lot to do...
Best of luck,
GT1M

 

[jigngrub]

Re: New Bass boat owner and In need of help please! 1977 Champion

You'll want to replace the water pump (impeller) before running that motor for very long, lots of youtube vids on how to do this. Your carbs will probably need rebuilding too.

When you remove the decks (floors) you'll probably find waterlogged foam and rotten stringers under them, these need to be removed and replaced too. Your transom is probably rotten and needs replacing too.

You can try wet sanding the paint to get it back, but it probably won't do much good. Once metal flake paint is faded it's pretty well shot.

Your best bet for all of this is to read the different restoration threads in this forum and educate yourself in the ways of boat restoration, if you're interested in doing this work and having a nice boat it will be enjoyable. There's a wealth on information on this site and it's free, all you have to do is research it.

 

[rescue95095]

Re: New Bass boat owner and In need of help please! 1977 Champion

Ok so I got the engine running and rewired the whole boat with a fuse pannel its very nice! I am going to put new carpet down soon I fixed the two soft spots in the floor! I put in a new bilge pump but this boat has two livewells in it that do not work I tore the plunking out and got a new 800 gph though hall pump w two discharges for the two diff livewwlls. The old garden hose was bad does anyone know how I need to redoo these livewells? I'm clueless on the operations! Thank you I am next going to try to sand and get the shine back also cluelesson!