1962 Arkansas Traveler restoration

[micks110]

Re: 1962 Arkansas Traveler restoration

arch- Agreed on the quality and not going with cheap ones. I put this much into it, what a couple more bucks. It's like my light switch and horn- they both still worked but why put this much into it, cut the corners a bit, only to regret it later.

I almost forgot, the boat dealer ship I go to has a boat show from Friday through this Sunday. I walked around and went into their big building where they had everything set up to look at and buy- WOW! It was impressive looking at $100,000 boats and being able to walk through them. That was the first boat show I was too and it was neat. Too bad all the boats I like were $80k or better

 

[ezmobee]

Re: 1962 Arkansas Traveler restoration

I put a rack system in my last boat. It was nice a smooth but I felt it was a tad sloppy. Went with a rotary for this boat. Hopefully it's better.

 

[archbuilder]

Re: 1962 Arkansas Traveler restoration

Boat shows are always fun! I love looking at the new stuff and stuff I can't afford! (which would be about 95% of the boats!). David K and I toured a $1,200,000 cruiser at the Tulsa show, wow that was a cool boat. Apparently someone bought it and put it on his lake, it will be interesting to see how often its out this summer. Looking forward to the updates Mick!

 

[jspano]

Re: 1962 Arkansas Traveler restoration

looks great! man you know your close when you start with the gauges and electrical.
i'm going to miss all your great glassing skills... itch,itch.LOL

 

[tmcalavy]

Re: 1962 Arkansas Traveler restoration

Mmmm...goodies have arrived. More pix and vids when you can.

 

[osborn159]

Re: 1962 Arkansas Traveler restoration

alright!!! its good to see you back at it, parts look nice, christmas in april, hope all goes well during the rest of your project, D

 

[micks110]

Re: 1962 Arkansas Traveler restoration

The last 3 days I have had time to work on the boat at night. I got all the holes in the rub rail glassed and all the other miscellaneous holes as well. Then I made some supports along the gunnel for the wiring. Before there were screws that went through the inside that you saw- this will eliminate those.

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Then I moved onto electrical. I have done electrical stuff around the house but never on a boat before so this is new to me. I asked alot of questions at my boat place I go to and from some guys on here.

First I got a 6 fuse block that has the hook ups for the positive and negative from the battery, and the male ends for the female adapters, plus the fuses. I mounted that with some bolts.

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Next I mounted the 12 volt charger for cell phones and whatever else I want to plug in. One wire to the positive on the block and one to the negative

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After that I drilled for the horn and the light switch and mounted them on the dash. I'm limited with space so this was the best area in my opinion for them right above the key plate and power plate.

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Heres a look behind the dash. I used green for positive and brown for negative. I cut the wires to length and crimped on female ends to them.

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I did the same thing when I ran the wires back for the stern light and up front for the bow light(ran out of green wire so I went with yellow- I'm using wire I had laying around)

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continued...

 

[micks110]

Re: 1962 Arkansas Traveler restoration

The wires run for the bow light

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Here is what the block looks like so far

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Then I marked for my gauges and cut out the holes (lol- I spelled speedo wrong!)

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And what they look like installed. The ammeter gauge and gas gauge have to go where they are at because of the support in the rear of the dash.

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And here is what it looks like at this point.

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I need to take the unicharger to my boat place to ask some questions about it and how to wire the ammeter gauge and gas gauge.
I'm also not sure if I want to add the speedometer also. It is tight up there but I don't think it would look to bad and I don't want to regret it later if I don't add it. So I'm still pondering that but you can see where it will have to go.

On the passenger dash I will have a radio, and in the center of the dash I am still pondering what I want to do. If the radio fits there then that's where I'll put it- if not I would like to add a storage pocket but I am having a tough time finding something.

Let me know what you guys think about the speedometer.
Thanks- Goodnight!

OH YEH- A VIDEO!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32GlMev5Rew

 

[SKIBUM1M]

Re: 1962 Arkansas Traveler restoration

Mick, I would put the spedo in. Even if its not acurate it will give you a reference. I use my phones gps for speed but kept the spedo because its a pain in the ... to pull out the blackberry every time i want to know aproximately how fast im going. Is the other hole for the tach? It must be nice wiring with the cap flipped. I did mine on my back under the dash.

 

[ezmobee]

Re: 1962 Arkansas Traveler restoration

I'm not a fan of the speedos. They don't even read until you hit a certain speed, it's a pain to run that hose back and through the transom and you have a pitot to mount and have hanging back there. More trouble than they're worth. I will say though that my boat came with one and on my test run it was accurate compared with my GPS. I had originally planned to reinstall it just because I already had all the parts and it worked but as soon as I noticed that the backlighting was broken on it, I said screw this and patched the holes in the transom that were for the hose and pitot screws and was done with it.

 

[osborn159]

Re: 1962 Arkansas Traveler restoration

food for thought Mick, heat shrink all your crimp connections,
in my experience less corrosion issues down the road,
HF sells it if there is one nearby, otherwise you have a napa store closeby?

 

[archbuilder]

Re: 1962 Arkansas Traveler restoration

Looks nice Mick! I would go with a spedo, its nice to have if you are pulling skiers or someone on a wake board. I'm actually looking forward to wiring, anything that doesn't involve sanding!

 

[tallcanadian]

Re: 1962 Arkansas Traveler restoration

I gotta say, I have an Airguide speedometer and it's pretty close to my gps. Maybe 1 or 2 mph in the difference.

 

[micks110]

Re: 1962 Arkansas Traveler restoration

Thanks guys for the comments!

Yeh, it is definitely easier wiring the boat with it flipped over. If I would have to do it with the cap on I would have to work through a 1'X2' opening that is up off the floor.

I was going to heat shrink everything, I have all the tubing so I still may. Anything is better than what was in here before!

I'm probably going to go with the speedo- just for the fact that it would be a reference to the speed and it would fill out the dash and other gauges nice.

Skibum- that other hole was from the old location of the ammeter gauge.

 

[micks110]

Re: 1962 Arkansas Traveler restoration

arch- I here ya! That's why I don't want to build a storage box for the center of the dash. I want to do as little fiberglass work as possible from here on out

 

[tinkeringwackyone]

Re: 1962 Arkansas Traveler restoration

looking good, so much easier to work on when its upside down. are you going to make a schematic for future reference?

 

[BobsGlasstream]

Re: 1962 Arkansas Traveler restoration

Hey Mick,
Glad to see you getting some time on the boat again. It's looking good.
As for the speedo, Call me old school but I like them. It does make a good reference. I will probably have both GPS and standard.
Keep the pic's coming.
Bob

 

[SKIBUM1M]

Re: 1962 Arkansas Traveler restoration

I took mine out for a test drive after everything was installed and it was so much nicer to have working gauges. I didnt check it against the gps because it was a bit cold but I think the spedo was pretty accurate. It seemed pretty steady. It consistantly read 30 knots at full throttle and gps said 35 mph the day before. If only it read mph. Who uses knots anyway? Ill have to print out a conversion chat and tape it to the dash till I get used to it.

 

[micks110]

Re: 1962 Arkansas Traveler restoration

That's funny skibum!

Ok, I got alot done last night- I was up until 4am working on the electrical. I pretty much have everything done except the speedo because it's not here yet. I think I'm going to go ahead and order the tach also because I had to move the speedo over to the center of the dash because of lack of room because the speedo is 4" in diameter. So now I have some open space where the speedo was supposed to be so I think I'm going to go ahead and do the tach (2").

The other area I have issue with is the stereo hook up- I'm stuck right now. Check out the pics and the part in the video and let me know what you think!

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OK- here are the other pics of the dash with the rotary steering in place- I didn't run the cable yet- I'm still waiting on the wheel to arrive.
Also, the stereo and speakers are in. All my electrical is done except for the speedo and tach. Although I have to undo everything soon before I sand, fill, prime, and paint.

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The VIDEO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5y122X3jYc

 

[osborn159]

Re: 1962 Arkansas Traveler restoration

Mick, all looks nice, not sure about your wiring ???s
cmon man get the lid flipped and get some paint goin, i want to see this baby when shes done!!! this will b one cool vintage boat should look great running in a lake/river, keep at it your nearing the finish line. D