New Boat owner here. '72 MFG Niagara

Mark42

Fleet Admiral
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9,334
Re: New Boat owner here. '72 MFG Niagara

Nice work so far. I noticed there are no emblems on your boat. I have a pair on ebay right now if your interested. Check out my MFG Niagara project in me sig, it might help you out a bit.

Mark.
 

aarivers

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Re: New Boat owner here. '72 MFG Niagara

Alright I finally got the floors in! I used some Boatyard Resin along with some Evercoat Sea-Glass fiberglass mat I purchased off Amazon.com. It took about 3/4 gallon of the resin and 32 square feet of the fiberglass mat to cover the new wood and man, is that ever a messy job. I also ordered some adjustable seat pedestals off the "zon" to attache the folding seats that came with the boat. I'll eventually swap them out for some much nicer seats, I just want to get it river worthy at this point and start using it.

After I got the floors done I could turn my attention to the wiring and steering. I removed all the old steering cables and pulleys. I also pulled all the old wiring out so I can redo it and to run it all through tubes under the gunwales. Another couple of parts I picked up off eBay are the old jetboat steering wheel adapter, for the teleflex, and the steering arm link in the back to connect it to the engine. I'm not sure if it's the right length though for this motor, it doesn't seem like it's long enough to move the motor to the ends of it's pivot points. Anyone have any thoughts on this?

Today I pulled it outside and started painting the hull on the inside, I'm using tractor implement enamel. I've used it before on other outdoor projects and this stuff hold up great, and dries super tough. I just put one coat on, I might do another coat later. I haven't decided what I want to use over the floors, I was thinking some bass boat carpet, but I haven't decided.

Floor's in!

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Gettin' it glassed.

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aarivers

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Jul 17, 2012
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Re: New Boat owner here. '72 MFG Niagara

Time to rip out these old steering cables and pulleys. Watch out for the old wasps! You can also see the cable tubes under the gunwales, for some reason the PO decided not to use those to keep the cables all nice, neat and out of the way..

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Out with the old.

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In with the new.

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aarivers

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Re: New Boat owner here. '72 MFG Niagara

Here's the inside all painted up. It's Ford Tractor Light Gray.

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Steering wheel adapter worked great.

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Modified drivers seat pedestal, Cut 1 inch off the tube so it would go all the way down in the base and not sit up too high wheel driving.

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sphelps

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Re: New Boat owner here. '72 MFG Niagara

I see you didn,t rebuild the duck pond up in the bow .. :D Did you use the enamel hardener with the tractor paint ?
Was you able to get the foam dry ? Once that stuff gets saturated the only way to fix it is to take it out and replace it . Wet foam will also add unwanted weight to the hull .
Anyway it sure looks good with the new dance floor ! :dance: Getting close to splash day !
 

aarivers

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Re: New Boat owner here. '72 MFG Niagara

I see you didn,t rebuild the duck pond up in the bow .. :D Did you use the enamel hardener with the tractor paint ?
Was you able to get the foam dry ? Once that stuff gets saturated the only way to fix it is to take it out and replace it . Wet foam will also add unwanted weight to the hull .
Anyway it sure looks good with the new dance floor ! :dance: Getting close to splash day !

Yeah I figured it could do without the pond at the front. lol. I was able to get the foam dry by just leaving it to bake out in the hot Florida sun for about a month. Also my garage becomes a about a 110 degree oven during the day if the doors aren't open, so between that and the sun baking, it was nice and dry when i took a core sample.

I bought harder for the paint, but forgot to use it :facepalm: so I'll be waiting quite a while for this stuff to harden up, unfortunately. If I do another coat over it, I'll make sure to use the hardener this time.

Any suggestions on floor coverings? It'll mostly be used for fishing and relaxing on. I plan on putting in a couple L shaped benches in the corners to lounge on once I'm sure she's water worthy.
 

sphelps

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Re: New Boat owner here. '72 MFG Niagara

Carpet would be comfy but kinda squishy when wet . I have heard some of the guys over on the resto forum talk about using the Restoration stuff for wood and concrete decks from HD .. You could always paint another layer of the tractor paint and add some non-skid additive to it ..
 

aarivers

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Re: New Boat owner here. '72 MFG Niagara

Update time. The paint has dried enough that I could get in and start working on it today. I got all the lights and bilge pump rewired to new switches and also wired in the new ignition switch. I'll need to buy a battery for it next and get some gas in the tank so I can see if she starts up.

On the flooring side I was thinking about the MariDeck stuff MariDeck Product Information Seems to be some nice stuff with good reviews, would make for a nice consistent floor covering.

So now that I'm about to have her ready for a shake down run, what are the "must haves" when getting out there? Life jackets, fire extinguisher, what else? What and how much rope should I have?
 

sphelps

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Re: New Boat owner here. '72 MFG Niagara

Maybe paddles, horn/whistle, flares,cell phone or radio . Depending on the depth of the water I would think maybe 100 ft anchor line and the most important item would be the camera to catch all the splash action for us !
 

aarivers

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Jul 17, 2012
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Re: New Boat owner here. '72 MFG Niagara

Massive update incoming!!

A new battery was acquired and work began on the engine. After fixing multiple issues I was finally able to get the old Force 50 to fire up. For the full scope of the engine repairs you can see them here. The majority of it being a lot of bad wiring and a shoddy carb "fix".

So after a couple of runs in a tub of water and some adjustments here and there to the shift linkage I said it was time for the real test. I took her out for a shakedown run today on the Caloosahatchee, after a rough start I got her running and idling decent enough that I felt it was time to get out on the open water. I had to run with the hood off the motor to keep her from dying at low throttle but out on 1/2 to full throttle she ran great. The new Teleflex steering worked good too and she steered great, though the linkage I got is a little too short and full lock isn't as tight as it should be, so that will need to be fixed in the future.

So where do I go from here? Well my next step is to get this motor running like knew with no worries about whether she'll start up and idle, I might need to see an expert for that part since I am not a 2 stroke or carb guy. I have also thought of just selling the motor as is now that it runs and getting a newer fuel injected motor. But once my motor issues are sorted I can get it prepped for painting. A nice pearl white on the bottom with a lime green bass boat metal flake is what I have in mind now, maybe some 70's style pinstriping and panel effects? I haven't decided for sure yet.

I didn't get hardly any pics today as I was too busy making sure stuff was working, and my wife doesn't want to go on it till it's fully functional, so I was working solo today. Anyways here's the one pic i snapped and some vid I shot of the action.

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sphelps

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Re: New Boat owner here. '72 MFG Niagara

Well all right ! Nothing like getting some air blowing in your face from a first run !
I,m sure Frank can help ya get the kinks worked out over in the Chrysler forum .
Btw, LIME green just screams 70's ! :D
 

aarivers

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Re: New Boat owner here. '72 MFG Niagara

So I'll just copy this from the post in the Force engine section.

My good luck with this motor has finally run out. I guess this is a good reminder to always check compression before dumping any time or parts into an unknown motor.

Went to remove the head cover after soaking the rings in ATF did nothing to bring up the compression, and this carnage is what I found.

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And here's the lower cylinder for comparison. Looks factory fresh almost.

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So I have started parting out the motor, already sold the lower unit for $200 so after paying $350 for the boat and trailer I'm still not doing too bad. I haven't decided what I want to repower with, but in the mean time I have found another '72 Niagara on CL that I'm going to try and pick up, it has the original steering wheel and windshield, two parts I was really wanting for this boat. If the other boat is in better shape I might just transfer the goodies from this one to the new one.

I'll keep you guys updated.
 

sphelps

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Re: New Boat owner here. '72 MFG Niagara

Sorry about the engine ! That the way it goes sometimes I guess ..
Good luck with the Niagara !
 

Mark_VTfisherman

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1,486
Re: New Boat owner here. '72 MFG Niagara

I am enjoying your updates. Thanks. Looking forward to seeing the new donor boat too.

FWIW Force motors seem to always wind up with "stuff" wrong with them. I have a '85 Suzuki 40HP that performs as well or better than the "50" Force. Oil injected (I love it) and never wants maintenance! 4 strokes weigh way too much imho. And too pricey. good luck on finding a good motor! There are plenty of good ones out there.
 

aarivers

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Jul 17, 2012
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36
Okay so after I took the motor off the boat I noticed it was leaking brown water out the lower mount bolt holes..not good. I could take and squeeze the transom and water would come out of those holes, so that transom is toast. After contemplating putting more time and effort into this one I decided to just go and get the other Niagara I found on craigslist.

Last Sunday I made the trek up to Tampa and picked up the new member of the fleet. It doesn't have the serial and date plate so I'm not sure what year, it is, but it's no '72 like it stated in the ad. I'm thinking more early 60's, hard to tell though. It also had a rotted transom, but the PO (previous owner) had already hacked away about half of the old wood with his chainsaw, so rather than start from scratch on the '72 I'm just going to move the good stuff from the '72 to this new one. I found a local dealer for the Arjay 6011 transom core stuff in Sarasota so I'll be picking up a 5 gallon pail of that to pour into the transom cavity.

Here's how she looked after the tow home. This one had two things I really wanted for the '72, the glass and the factory steering wheel. The glass is actually in really good shape, not crazed and cracked like I was expecting, the steering wheel though is starting to crumble on the outside. Not sure how I'm going to restore it. I was actually thinking of trying to find a place that could scan and 3D print a new one for me.

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Here you can see the small cracks forming, eventually I'll replace this with some new polycarbonate, but right now a good sanding and polishing will pring it back into good nic.

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Here's the steering wheel I was lusting over, plenty of holes in the dash and no gauges. I'll probably just fabricate some aluminum panels to go over the holes in the middle of the dash.

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The floors are a little soft also. with some stress cracks forming all over. I guess I should go ahead and pull the floor out and redo it from the duck pond back, i'll probably make a drain for the duck pond also

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aarivers

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Not sure what these little blocks are for. I'll probably knock them off and clean up the left over glue.

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I like the fact that the splashwell in this boat is able to come out. It will make it so much easier when I take the floor out.

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Here you can kinda see the left over wood from the PO's attempts to clean it out.

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Unfortunantly the PO mangled the top part above the transom cap. I'll have to glass that back later also.

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So that's it for this post. I did get the transome completly cleared out last night late. I'll post some pictures of that process here in a few.
 

aarivers

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Clearing out the transom started by removing the splashwell, which was just a matter of removing some screws, and then popping out the old mangled and corroded brass drain tubes. Theses will get replaced with stainless or pvc once the transom is poured.


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She's coming apart!

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Ah out of the way.. Wow this really opens up the boat.. I makes me want to cut the splashwell down some so it's not so long.

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These guys had to go. Will be replaced with stainless steel units in the future.

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aarivers

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Took a dinner break after this then came out and started digging into the old wood. I used an old shower rod that I hammered one end flat into a chisel like device to stab and scrape the old wood out. Then took my small shopvac to suck the old wood out. I still have a little more to cleanup on the walls to do.

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So that's where it stands right now. Need to buy the transom fill and also find a motor for it.
 

sphelps

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Nov 16, 2011
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11,429
Nice score on the new to you MFG ! Before you start cutting the deck you may want to research it a bit . From the looks of it you just may have all fiberglass stringers and deck . I used seacast for my transom . I welded a steel rod to a cup type wire wheel to help clean the inside for the pour . I ended up just cutting the inside skin out to make it easier to clean for the best possible bond .
 

aarivers

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Jul 17, 2012
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Nice score on the new to you MFG ! Before you start cutting the deck you may want to research it a bit . From the looks of it you just may have all fiberglass stringers and deck .

I would say you're correct about the solid fiberglass floor, looks just the one you have in your boat. Was yours cracking and sagging a little between the stringers? If so what did you do, or suggest to get it solid again? Just glass over with with some chopped glass then a weave?

Thanks for the help so far.
 
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