Update. Still working on this beast. My hobby is now an obsession and a curse. I have been working all over this thing and never seem to get anything done. In no certain order with pictures to follow.
I worked on the fish ice box. Patching some rough areas and prepping it for the last coat of paint. I wanted the inside top to bottom very smooth so I could take a rag and wipe down and clean the inside without snagging on fiberglass hairs or rough spots where fish guts and blood would collect and stink up the boat.
Worked under the gunnels cutting out rotted wood and replacing with either 3/4" or 1/2" resin coated ply PB'd in place and covered in CSM.
Cleaned and painted the second transom plate and gimbal plate. Of course had issues with the gimbal plate where an old roller bearing fell apart so ordered new bearing and seals which should be here today. Once they are installed I am going to attach the gimbal ring before I attach it to the transom.
On the other gimbal plate for the port side that I had already attached to the transom I tried installing the gimbal ring :facepalm: sometimes I wonder about what was I thinking or not thinking. I placed the ring on the gimbal plate, put the bottom shim in and knocked the pin in place with no issues. With my confidence level raised beyond my capabilities I proceeded to install the upper pin. Centered everything and knocked the pin into place, screwed in the 2 1/2" set screw and the bottom allen head plug. Wow that was easy. Did I miss any steps here? Jumped up into the boat to inspect my handiwork from that side, darn forgot to put the top shim and steering arm on, is that really needed? :mad-new: Take it all apart and figured out a way to hold the steering arm in place and knock the pin into place. OK perfect now tighten down that 2 1/2" set screw and what's this? Its stripped out, awesome. And look here when I check the clearance with the shims in place the movement up and down exceeds specs by quit a bit so now I have ordered a .06 and .03 shim and new bolt. So I remove the steering arm bolt, allen head plug, 2 1/2" stripped set screw and drop the pin again (and I do mean drop into the dirt with it covered in grease) and now the top oil seal falls out, turns out it got pinched and smashed during the second installation of the pin so lets go order more stuff. When I started working on this boat a year ago I didn't even like beer that much and if I drank one a month that was a rarity. By the time I am done with this boat I will be an alcoholic.
Lets turn our attention to the second engine which I haven't even touched yet. The block minus the head and oil pan is leaned up over in the corner of the garage . I started looking very close at it and realized it has a lot of rust where the water pump mounts in the water jackets. I popped the freeze plugs and don't like what I am seeing. So I strip everything off the block leaving just the block and pressure wash inside all the openings to the water jackets, wow that's a lot of rusted metal flakes coming out of this thing. I decided that too much of the cylinder walls and block have turned to rust and the landing is pitted everywhere. Lets move to plan "B". About 25 years ago I drove down to south Florida with a small trailer in tow to visit my brother who was working for this company that made kit cars. Somewhere they collected 2 Chevy truck engines that happened to be Chevy 250's, 4.1L inline 6 engines which they wanted to give away as in free. Since they have never been used as boat engines they have no real rust issues. I brought them back for spare engines for the boat and put them in the shed behind my dads house. 25 years later I am loading them on a trailer again and moving them to my house. Turns out both engines look great. I removed all the parts I couldn't use and cleaned off a 100,000 miles of grease and dirt which took a pressure washer and 4 hours. The cylinder walls have the expected wear and tear but they are standard bore so I will be able to have them bored out .030 over and buy a .030 over rebuild kit
. Back in business. I have done a ton of other little things but not worth reporting on.
.
