Dillon Laker 14/16.5 Wooden Tunnel Hull Build/Mod Project

gomopar440

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Nov 27, 2007
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281
Yea, the 2 hour drive to get it home wasn't fun with the carbon monoxide headache, open windows and cold snowy weather. As soon as I get the rims cleaned up and repainted I'll put some new tires on them. For now, I'm just running it with one wheel on each side and keeping the one good tire as a spare. I won't be hauling anything with it until after I get the clutch fixed and other maintenance items taken care of, so I'm not worried about using it as a single wheel setup for now.
 

gm280

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Jun 26, 2011
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Yea, the 2 hour drive to get it home wasn't fun with the carbon monoxide headache, open windows and cold snowy weather. As soon as I get the rims cleaned up and repainted I'll put some new tires on them. For now, I'm just running it with one wheel on each side and keeping the one good tire as a spare. I won't be hauling anything with it until after I get the clutch fixed and other maintenance items taken care of, so I'm not worried about using it as a single wheel setup for now.

Not sure about your new to you truck, but they do make floorpans as replacements for trucks. You could replace any rusted out flooring with one of them. Just an Idea.
 

gomopar440

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Nov 27, 2007
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281
The plan is to swap the regular cab out for a Club Cab sometime in the future. So for now, patches and seam sealer is fine for this cab floor to seal it back up.
 

gomopar440

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Nov 27, 2007
Messages
281
The long hiatus from the boat project goes on. Unfortunately I haven't had a chance to even touch the Laker since I got that truck. My little Mazda truck died on me after I had already bought all the parts to fix the Dodge. So, I had to leave the Mazda to sit and wait while I fixed the Dodge first.

BTW, those truck repairs I mentioned earlier turned into a WAAAY bigger job than I had anticipated. The simple reseal & re-gasket job on the engine turned into a full top to bottom rebuild. The pass side cast iron exhaust manifold has a 3" crack in it and I wasn't able to get it fixed anywhere around here. I wasn't able to find a replacement for it until after I had already bought a cheap set of stainless shorty headers to replace the cast manifolds.:rolleyes: At least the clutch job didn't offer any real surprises.

All this stuff took a lot longer than expected, mostly due to my limited budget available for parts every month. The Dodge is finally all back together and I had it running again, but it quit on me the first time I took it out to get gas in town. I made it about halfway there and it just shut down without warning. Honey-do list items have been keeping me from being able to troubleshoot it completely yet, but I'm hoping to get that done this weekend. All indications are it being an electrical issue, so I'm starting the troubleshooting and component testing there first.

And in other semi-related news, I just got back from picking up the boat that was thrown in as part of the deal with the truck. It's a 1965 Silver Line, Maverick 15'. The motor is a 65HP Mercury/Keikenhauser (SP?), but I haven't had time to take a good look at it to figure out what year model it is yet. The trailer is a tilt type, but I don't remember the brand name.

I'll try to get some pics to post of the truck and the new-to-me boat tomorrow when it's light outside.
 

archbuilder

Vice Admiral
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Sep 12, 2009
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5,697
Looking forward to seeing the new boat. Its Kiekhaefer, I never can get it right the first time! Hope the truck fix is an easy one!
 

gomopar440

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Nov 27, 2007
Messages
281
The Maverick isn't going to be sticking around long. It's completely rotten all throughout the floor and transom. The PO's numerous poorly made repairs just made things worse. It's only a parts boat for me, so once I get everything I want off of it, the hull will be heading off to the dump.

I just bought a HEI conversion distributor for the truck, so that should make any future troubleshooting simpler and parts for it will also be cheaper and easier to find.

EDIT: Here's a pic of the boat, the truck and the latest item on the never ending "honey-do" list. At least the tractor job is just a simple carb rebuild and battery replacement... (famous last words).
 

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Baylinerchuck

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Jul 29, 2016
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Glad to see you're still around, hope you get the truck figured out. The Laker is a neat build, looking forward to it continuing.
 

gomopar440

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
Nov 27, 2007
Messages
281
The dream of getting the Laker finished and on the water this year is long gone now. :grumpy: I'm going to continue working on the big truck until it's up and running reliably again. I don't have much of a choice there since I need it to take the place of my little DD truck that died on me.

I also need to repair the holes in the tent before the snow starts to fly around here as well. Letting the Laker project sit until I can get to it is one thing. Letting it get damaged by the elements before I can even finish isn't going to happen if I have anything to say about it.

BTW: The engine on the Maverick is a Merc 650 3 cylinder. However I'm having a tough time nailing down the exact year and model. It has a non-tilt/trim mount on it and the SN is 1846352 on the sticker on the mount. Looking it up by the SN isn't getting me anywhere since I just keep getting a message saying that SN can't be found. The Mercury OB SN list chart shows that the 3 cylinder 650s were produced from 1972-76. Maybe the mount with the SN sticker was swapped over from a different OB by a PO? Is there anywhere else I can look on this OB for a SN?
 

gomopar440

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Nov 27, 2007
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Well, the hull is almost stripped of everything I want off of it. The OB is unbolted and just hanging on the transom now. I need to build a OB stand so I have a place to put it before I can lift it off of there. Once that's done I'll haul the hull off to the dump.
 

gomopar440

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Nov 27, 2007
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281
After doing a little more digging online, it appears that this Merc 650 is a 1965 model. I've got it laying on a tire for the moment until I can get a stand built for it. I'm going to be keeping an eye out for a tilt/trim mount for it to replace this manual tilt mount.

The trailer is now empty after hauling the Maverick hull off to the dump today. When I got back home, I pulled everything off of the trailer with the exception of the pivot bolt for the tongue (tilt trailer). The axle spring mounts are unbolted and the trailer is just sitting on them until I'm ready to clean up those areas of the frame. rails.

I know I'm kinda hijacking my own thread by mentioning all this Silver Line FG boat stuff here, but it's all I've got for now since there hasn't been any progress on the Laker. :rolleyes:
 

gomopar440

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Nov 27, 2007
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The trailer tongue (ahead of the tilting part of the trailer) and both fenders are sanded and primed. The fenders will need some cracks around the mounting holes welded up and ground smooth, but I painted them anyway so they wouldn't rust. I did bang a couple dents out before priming them. I'm going to be painting the trailer bright white for the base coat. I'll probably add some blue pinstripes later to match the blue on the Rambler. It got dark outside before I could get pics of the progress from today.

EDIT: I forgot to mention something I noticed. I think I got the number of cylinders wrong on the 650. If it is a 1965 model, it should have 4 cylinders on it, not three. I must have missed seeing the fourth spark plug wire while I was focused on cleaning out the mice nest filth from the cowling.
 

gomopar440

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Nov 27, 2007
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Not much good news on the tow rig lately, bad news I've got plenty of though.

I rebuilt it and finally had it all back together and running fine, but on my first trip to town to go get some gas, the distributor's thrust bushing split apart and fell into the cam gear. The cam got locked up long enough to shear the timing gear dowel on the nose of the cam and things went south from there. It's only got 30PSI of compression now, so the valves and pistons apparently got a little too up-close and personal with each other. The #2 cylinder exhaust lifter also managed to knock a big chunk out of the cam lobe. So right now I'm still shopping around for a new cam, lifters and timing set.

The machine shop where I get my engine work done has a pair of closed chamber big block heads that are supposed to be in good shape that I'll be picking up next week. The new-to-me heads are going to cost less than fixing the valves, seats and guides on my current heads, so that's one bit of good news at least. I may still need push rods as there's a very good chance mine will be bent from the valve-to-piston contact. I'll be going through the new heads completely to make sure they're good to go before using them.

I already picked up a HEI conversion distributor to replace the original hall effect pickup type distributor, as well as a set of HEI style plug wires to fit it. One nice thing about going to a HEI system is that I'll be able to remove the firewall mounted ECU, coil, ballast resistor and all the associated wiring. It uses a stock Chevy cap/coil assembly, rotor and 4-pin HEI module, so maintenance/replacement parts will be easier to find as well.

I'm hoping to get the engine fixed and running again before the end of the year, if nothing else goes wrong with it that is.:dizzy:

And there's been one other boat project related thing to come up recently. It gets very windy up here in the mountains, and that wind along with the UV damage took a toll on the tent my Laker project resides in. In a wind storm (30MPH winds w/60MPH gusts) we had here last week, the tent ripped apart until I only had the small back wall on the west side remaining. Everything else was in shreds. The tent garage my wife has (identical to mine) for her Jeep, was recently converted to a short barn type of structure for the chickens, turkeys and sheep. Since she wasn't using the tarp parts on her tent frame anymore we put them on my tent frame to cover it back up. The sponsons were both still fine and the build table still appears to be solid and level.

So that's what's been going on with me lately. I'm still reading the posts here, I just haven't been posting anything myself for a while. Here's to hoping 2018 goes better than 2017 for the Laker project.:tea:


EDIT: I'll be going back and replacing the pics in this thread a little at a time. Thanks for the headache PB.:mad: The first couple of pics in the first post are done, just a few hundred more to go now.
 
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archbuilder

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Sep 12, 2009
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good to hear from you Mopar! Hope things smooth out and you can get back to the boat! It happens, life keeps moving even though sometimes the boat doesn't
 

Patfromny

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Dec 2, 2012
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1,197
Sorry to hear about the bad luck buddy. In case you didn't know...HEI uses 12 volts. Points systems used 7 or 8 volts. On GM's you just run a new wire to the fuse box and there is a spade connector on the ignition fuse. Hope Mopar has something similar. Something to keep in the back of your brain for when you do the switch. I figured it was good as a reminder if nothing else.
 

gomopar440

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
Nov 27, 2007
Messages
281
This truck has a starter relay with a keyed 12V post on it. The post is hot in both the Start and Run key positions. I'll be wiring a dedicated wire from there to the "BAT" terminal on the distributor. The green tach signal wire goes to the other pin on the HEI distributor. All the other original ignition wiring goes away, but only after I get it running again and can confirm the HEI system works.

I was going to pick up a set of 383 heads for the 440 today, but that deal got postponed. On to "Plan B". I went to a local junk yard and picked up a 1976 400 long block for $200. If, and that's a big IF, the parts I need turn out to be ok on the 400 I should be able to get the 440 back up and running fairly quickly. Fingers crossed...:pray2:
 
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Skipper Sean

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Sep 19, 2017
Messages
124
Ha. I traded a bunch of Mopar parts for my bigger boat too from Craigslist also. I’m kind of addicted to Craigslist. But you can barter and trade up for some cool goodies. Good luck with your projects!!
 

gomopar440

Petty Officer 1st Class
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Nov 27, 2007
Messages
281
Wow. I stepped out for a little while and someone changed all the curtains around this place on me.:lol:

I'm still working on the tow rig as time and money permits, so there is still no new progress to report on the boat. The tent over the boat is holding up so far, so I'm not loosing anything I've already done to it thankfully. The 400 engine I got from the JY for parts was a decent deal overall, but some of the critical parts I wanted off of it were bad. I was able to use the heads, but I had to get all new valves for them. Then the hydraulic flat tappet cam from the 400 was wiped out on a few of the lobes, so I decided to replace it with a hydraulic roller cam. There a lot of other parts required to make the roller cam work in my engine, so it's taking a bit longer to get it together than I had hoped. I've got most of it now, but the new heads will need to be reworked again to be able to accept the roller specific parts. If nothing else goes wrong, I should be able to get it running in a month or two. (knock on wood)
 
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