Nismoron's 1988 Mariner 210 Restoration

[Nismoron]

Are you sticking with the below deck tank? I'm curious to see if it was just foam holding it in.

Jamie

Yes, I'm sticking with a deck tank. Mine also has a 10-12 gal tank in the transom. I'm going to keep it too.

I dont think there are any feet welded to the tank. I have cleared the foam all the way around and can see all the way to the hull. It looks like they poured foam in the chamber, set the tank in and then screwed wooden blocks at the front ad back to hold the hank down while the foam cured. I just have to get the tank to separate from the foam on the bottom. After draining out all of the old gas...

 

[Watermann]

Guess you're left with drilling out the blind rivets holding those supports in place so you can remove them to get better access to the tank. Don't think I like the idea of just the bind of the foam holding a fuel tank in place but I guess it's pretty dang solid in there.

 

[Weep'n Willy]

Nice looking Mariner you got yourself. Good progress on the teardown. Good luck with her and will be tagging along as I owned a Mariner many moons ago.

 

[jmalecek]

Yes, I'm sticking with a deck tank. Mine also has a 10-12 gal tank in the transom. I'm going to keep it too. I dont think there are any feet welded to the tank. I have cleared the foam all the way around and can see all the way to the hull. It looks like they poured foam in the chamber, set the tank in and then screwed wooden blocks at the front ad back to hold the hank down while the foam cured. I just have to get the tank to separate from the foam on the bottom. After draining out all of the old gas...

Make sure you take pics of the tank gettin yanked. How many gall is the belly tank? Your boat looks to be a much better platform to start from than mine. I just found a bunch of corroded rivets on the bottom, heads flake off. Jamie

 

[Nismoron]

Guess you're left with drilling out the blind rivets holding those supports in place so you can remove them to get better access to the tank. Don't think I like the idea of just the bind of the foam holding a fuel tank in place but I guess it's pretty dang solid in there.

It had wooden bracing blocks holding it down from the top. They were bolted to the two stringers running beside the boat.

Make sure you take pics of the tank gettin yanked. How many gall is the belly tank? Your boat looks to be a much better platform to start from than mine. I just found a bunch of corroded rivets on the bottom, heads flake off. 😱 Jamie

The belly tamk is 20gal. I'm taking lots of pics. More than I am posting. Yeah, so far I have been very lucky. I have found very little corrosion. I was very surprised. The boat was used on Lake Ponchartraine. Salty! jmalecek- PM sent to you.

Tonight my motor guy came over and we tinkered with the motor. Tilt and trim works fine. We shot some gas in the carbs and it tried to fire off. He says go with it. He can make it run. So, tomorrow night I will disconnect all of the wiring and hoses in the console and get it ready to lift out. Then I maybe this weekend or next, we can get the engine hoist over here and lit the motor off. Then I can get into that rotten transom.

 

[JimbC]

Hmmmm! He is a motor guy and he didn't do a compression check??? That is the first thing I do. 3 things motors need to run compression, fuel and spark. I sent you a PM about the transom we will just have to figure out how to do this. If your not finding any corrosion maybe your transom will be fine as well for a pattern. We are only 3 and a half hrs away.:lol:

 

[Nismoron]

We had planned to do one, but he had to leave work early, very unexpectedly. His parents house caught on fire this afternoon. All is ok now. He left there (a couple of blocks from me) and came over. He didn't bring anything with him. So we just messed with it for about 5 mins.Shot some premix in the cylinders, let it sit a few. Shot some in carbs and turned it over. I didn't have a fuel hose with Merc connectors, so we couldn't do anything more. I didn't compression check motor when I got it. I was just looking at it as a hull purchase. Anything else that worked was just gravy! Previous owner said boat ran fine when set up. I believe him. Was a very forthcoming old guy. He was just not in health to use boat anymore.

 

[JimbC]

Maybe you get luckier than I. The motor on my boat was also used in salt water and was not treated as such, so needless to say it had very bad salt corossion inside the motor. click link and see some of what I had. Glad everyone was OK.

http://s61.photobucket.com/user/JimB...?sort=6&page=1

 

[jmalecek]

Sorry to hear of the fire. Sounds like you are making good progress.

BTW, I never received a PM from you Nismoron

Jamie

 

[Nismoron]

Sorry to hear of the fire. Sounds like you are making good progress.

BTW, I never received a PM from you Nismoron

Jamie

dunno. I was just asking if you were going to use your bow rails. One of mine is dented and I need another. I want the taller ones, but will take either that I can find...

 

[JimbC]

Bow Rails! My mariner didn't have any I want Bow Rails.

 

[Nismoron]

With the first day of College Football yesterday, I got NOTHING done on the boat. But I made up for it today.
I got a bunch of trash cleaned out of the boat, got everything on the console disconnected. The in and out hoses on the livewell were a TOTAL pain! I ended up having to cut the in hose off. I hope it is still long enough when it is time to go back on... The console is WAY to heavy to get out of the boat by myself, so I'll have to wait on some help. Unfortunately, I still live in the city... ALL of my friends have moved to the 'burbs, and would rather lop off an arm than come into town... I dont blame them.

The major victory for today was the removal of the fuel tank. I had previously dug all of the foam from around the tank. Today I got all of the fuel (6-8 gallons) pumped out. Then I took a pice of metal and dug out from under the front corners. I looped a piece of rope under the front corners and tied ends together. I then stood where the console was and looped the rope loop over my hands and under my elbows. I then squatted ant levered the tank out. It was stuck pretty good at first but after about 10 secs of hard pressure, it popped right out.

The tank had been installed in an interesting way. It was between the stringers and closed at the front and rear by bulkheads. Then there was a now non-existent piece of plywood about 6 inches wide that was riveted to the ribs in the floor. Then two 1/8 inch thick by 1 inch wide rubber strips laid on the wood. Then they dropped in the tank and screwed wooden blocks to the bulkheads to hold the tank down. After that they poured in the foam down the inside edges of the stringers. This of course allowed the foam to run under the tank. as it expanded, it blocked all of the drainage holes under the ribs as well as all of the holes on the stringers that allowed water to drain down into the bottom of the hull. Even with "all" of the foam removed, this sucker holds water bad. Some drain clearing and redesign is in order. I read somewhere that 1986 was the first year of the pour in foam. The hull drains were obviously not designed with pour foam blockage in mind. You can see in the 3rd and 4th pics how the water is just standing in place. Gonna have to do something about that. The 5th pic shows the tank out. I took that pic after dark with the flash. So it really brought out the white "fuzz" corrosion. It is nowhere near as bad as it looks in the pics. There are 4 or 5 holes, but they are all about the size of a BB. I have a fantastic TIG guy that specializes in welding thin aluminum. He should be able to tank it and weld it up.

 

[Nismoron]

In this pic, I outlined the standing water with a yellow line. The red arrows point to the foam blocking the drain areas.

 

[Watermann]

Man that is nasty, just filling everything up with expanding foam doesn't seem to be a very good way to add flotation to a boat. There's no way to get water to move to the bilge like that. Lot's of guys have put that foam back in their boats with some tricks to keep it out of the center and allow for side drainage.

Nismo is there a reason you haven't pulled the CC out and all the cables, it just seems like a chore to work around. If it's because you want to start the motor, you can remove everything and put the motor on a stand, minus the steering cable that is and still fire it up.

 

[Nismoron]

We fired the motor last week. The controls are all disconnected and all of the cables are just laying there in the trough. The console is just too heavy to move out of the boat by myself. It's gonna have to wait until the next time one of my friends is in town. I'll probably pull all of the cables tomorrow. We hope to get the motor off next weekend. I also have to build another stand. There is already a motor on my stand. I may just tow the boat over to my engine guy's house and pull the motor over there. It will be alot easier to deal with at his house. He has the engine hoist, as well as a stand to put it on.

 

[Watermann]

You could always deconstruct the CC inside the boat and loose most of the weight, just leaving a shell to lift out.

 

[Nismoron]

I could. But it has alot of gauges and the factory Starcraft wire harness. Only my first boat had any gauges and I never took it apart, so I would like to roll it over and get a good look at it all before I take it apart.

I do have a question though. The seat on the front of the console houses the livewell. If looking from the drivers position up into the console, there is a plywood box on the back of the livewell. It is about the same size as the livewell and does not have any openings. It doesn't house any of the pumps or fittings. I'm at a total loss on it. What is it? I'll get a pic up of it later today.

 

[JimbC]

the very front part under the lift up seat of the console should be the live well or ice chest which ever you want to use it as. At least that's what it looks like to me. The box under the main part of the console could be an add on from PO or it could be factory and just for storage. See PM

 

[Watermann]

Yeah the gauge wiring does look intimidating but once you get into them it's crazy how simple they are. Mark the sending wire for the gauges with tape is the main thing, the other 2 wires are power and ground each in a daisy chain. I recommend replacing both power and ground chains with new wire and new terminals on the sending wire leads for them to be trouble free.

 

[Nismoron]

I'm not antimidated. I did electrical work on automobiles for 14 years. Even Mercedes, Jaguar and the infamous Peterbilts that used all one color wire through whole truck!!

I dont think the plywood box was added by PO. To hard to get to and doesn't look like his style. Looks factory. haha
It's not storage. There's no way to get at it. It is way in the front of the console, up against the back of the livewell. And it has no openings. No wires, no plumbing, no lid.