Another Mark Twain Restore

I Started on this project late last fall. I am new to the whole boat restoration area and am very glad I found this site otherwise I don't think this would be possible. This was my first boat purchase, and yes it was found on CL... But I have sure learned a lot since then. So here's a little background and my plans. The boat is a 1981 Mark Twain 175VBR, the previous owner had found water in the oil and took it to his mechanic. The mechanic said that it had a cracked head but the block was fine... yea not so much, I found out the block was also cracked along with the exhaust manifold... Well the guy decided to sell it rather than fix it so I did get it cheap. He did claim the floor was solid and me not knowing better didn't check it out thoroughly enough as the soft spots I eventually found were in the ski locker and under the passenger seat. I was able to get it out on the lake a coulple times before it got too cold and before I decided it needed a new deck, transom, and stringers. My plan is to use poly resin, araucoply plywood, and PL premium for bedding and transom install. I have not decided on the deck covering yet. So far I have the tear down and grinding done (besides what I have to do between glassing). I have built new stringers/transom and I have the transom in and glassed over.
Here are some pics of the boat and work so far...

Re: Another Mark Twain Restore

More Pics:






I have a bunch more, some are on my phone because I lost my camera for awhile and I haven't got them to the computer yet.

Re: Another Mark Twain Restore

Welcome! Looks like you already have this pretty well figured out. Nice work thus far!

Re: Another Mark Twain Restore

Thanks, in addition to the hours upon hours of grinding I did hours upon hours of reading to get this far.

Here are some more pics, these were some from my phone so this is as large as I could make them and they are a little out of order.

I got the engine put back together and hooked it up to water and it fired right off! The block I found was an automotive engine that I moved all the marine stuff to. I was suprised how quickly I found one with the front mounting ear needed.


The stringers and deck.



I had to patch a few places where I did a little too much grinding


And where I used PL to attach the transom.

Re: Another Mark Twain Restore

Very nice to see another 'Twain on here!
Also like the looks of that horse trailer in the background! It is nice to have more than one thing to keep you out of trouble with
Keep us updated!