1986 Mark Twain 169BR v-sonic I/O mercruiser 140 restoration

[Daddy75]

Hi yall,

I recieved a 1986 Mark Twain 169BR V-Sonic with I/O mercruiser 140 from a client of mine for some extra work I did in their house. It seemed a little soft in the floor, but being a carpenter, that is not a prob. I have been scouring the forums here for advice on every problem I have had, and it has been a life saver. I decided to pull the carpet, check the stringers and deck, and of course found rotten wood. My question is: The cap seems to include the front seat frames, as well as the consoles. I want to take it out so I can replace the stringers and the deck, but am not certain about if I will be able to pull it with 3 or four friends or not. I have been advised to patch in the accessible parts of the floor, But I hate to patch things.010.jpgBoat 001.jpgBoat 002.jpg001.jpg003.jpg I will have lots more questions in the future, but this is the current holdup.

[oops!]

Hi daddy......Welcome to iboats.

From the pics......you boat is fully waterlogged....
The waterline is the indication.

you will most likely be doing a full gut.
as far as the cap coming off.....i wouldnt worry about that right now.

my advise would be to get the motor running first......find out how that is....and the drive...

then the gut can happen

[Daddy75]

Sorry for the lack of info....I've already had her out on the water. Had to replace the starter when I first got it, also had to replace the brushes in the alternator (wouldn't have known anything about either until I found this forum....thanks). Have had several problems with the wiring being loose...hard to start sometimes. I also replaced the steering cable. These pics should show about where I am in the demo proccess
014.jpg008.jpg016.jpg017.jpg.014.jpg008.jpg016.jpg017.jpg

[Daddy75]

Here are some pics of her on the water. I don't know how to judge how waterlogged it is from how it sits in the water,
but here are some pics so you can see.
IMG_0036.jpgIMG_0035.jpg

[oops!]

exellent....glad to hear its running.

ok.....in the walk thru....that area is normally rotted.....however the rot often storp in the stringer just a half foot forward of the walk thru....that means you dont have to pull the cap. however....you must take a core sample of the stringers to determine this.

search core sample.....you will get a ton of posts.

as far as the waterline....
post 1 pic 4......see the scum line..... that is the boats at rest water line.....that is way too deep.
the pics of you in the water.....well ...there is weight up front.....so it sits level in the water.....
at rest...your boat was never designed to sit that deep.
your foam is really waterlogged....and there is a ton of weight in the boat....
im betting about 800 lbs.

you are going to be so happy when you are done.....and will actually laugh about the difference in hight that she sits at rest.

[Daddy75]

Sorry,
I forgot to mention it had been through the great flood in Pennsylvania this summer. The mudline on the back end is because muddy river water washed up high enough to make that mark while it was on the trailer, ten feet or so above water line. Supposedly both boat and trailer were picked up and put down again. It seemed to be in the same spot I left it though.

[Daddy75]

I have other pics of the boat with noone in it, and it sits level......they are too large to post on here, unfortunately.

[oops!]

my fave posting method is to up load to photo bucket.....resizing picts is not a problem...pics look like this...



it is a little easier for the reader.......but how ever you want to do it is just fine bud.

the flood explains a lot.....
but you are still going to find wet foam....lots.

it looks like you are in the right direction......search that core sample.....that will tell you if the cap comes off

[Daddy75]

Looking at the pictures after you saying it......it looks pretty obvious...

http://s1270.photobucket.com/albums/jj618/daddy751/

[JDA1975]

Looking at the pictures after you saying it......it looks pretty obvious...

http://s1270.photobucket.com/albums/jj618/daddy751/

that almost worked...just add [img] before and [/img] in CAPS after the URL...also on photo bucket there is an IMG tag you can but and paste on each photo

like this

[IMG] http://s1270.photobucket.com/albums/jj618/daddy751/ [/IMG]

[Kyledeo401]

Hi i have the same boat 140 mark twait she runs good for like 45 minutes then it starts boging ? I think it cold be bad gas at the bottom of the tank how can i get it out?

[Daddy75]

Hi i have the same boat 140 mark twait she runs good for like 45 minutes then it starts boging ? I think it cold be bad gas at the bottom of the tank how can i get it out?

There are at least a few different companies that make fuel siphons or fuel siphon pumps. Someone on this forum should be able to lead you to a half decent one. I bought a simple hand pump model from auto Zone, but it was not able to remove the gas while the tank was still in the boat, so I removed it. By the way, if your boat is the same as mine, that will be the first I have heard of, anywhere. Do you have any photos? I would love to see them. I haven't seen ANY photos of exactly the same boat I have.

[Kyledeo401]

I would but i dont know how to post pictures or upload them to my profile?

[Daddy75]

if you upload your photos to photobucket, you can then copy and paste a link.

[Daddy75]

Here are the latest pics of progress. I think I have decided to use foam core fiberglass stringers, patch it back together, and get it running.

uploaded 8-12-2012 030.jpguploaded 8-12-2012 031.jpguploaded 8-12-2012 034.jpg