tlzimmerman
Petty Officer 3rd Class
- Joined
- May 21, 2010
- Messages
- 82
Hello everyone.
Going to try to catalog the rebuild of my 1969 Mark Twain I picked up last week for $300. It has a 1974 115 Evinrude "Starflite"(I hope...pretty sure its a 74...will be asking for help from the community on is one, ezmobee said he could tell the year by pics). First thing I did when I got it home was see if it would run....and surprisingly it fired with little issues after being in storage since 1998. Luckily it was winterized before. I only let it run for about 8-10 seconds with muffs, I was getting no water out of the back anywhere and I didn't want to overheat or score the engine.
I am a somewhat noob when it comes to boat repair, have only ever worked on my dads from time to time when very young, and haven't done that for 10 years since he bought a lund. I am an avid internet and forum user, so I found iboats quickly and man.....so glad I did. I researched for about 4 hours on here before I decided to go ahead and buy the boat. I am somewhat mechanical, and an avid do it yourselfer. This will be mostly my first time working with fiberglass, I do alot of home restoration so I am pretty good with wood. I think its going to be a pretty straightforward process.
I am a little ways into tearing down. All the seats are bad and gone, the floor is rotted in the back, and can't get to the front yet without cutting away part of the cap. The entire rebuild will be done outside, hope to borrow a garage for the glass work though. I am also planning on purchasing a cover once the boat is gutted. The boat will be stored outside during the summer, and hopefully under a lean two in the winter.
This will not be an entire restoration, just building it back to functional. From my preliminary looking, the floor and stringers will be replaced (the stringers are still mostly solid, but are wet in some places...and I am just going to replace them). The transom seems very solid, I can stand on the motor and jump on it with no flex at all, and I tested in a spot and the core is still dry. Lucked out on that. I do not want to split the boat, and the cap in the front comes over to form seats....my plan at this time is to cut out that portion of the cap that forms the seats so I can replace the floor in the front, and mount a swivel seat up front. Seating is up in the air at this point, pondering swivels for fishing because we do alot of fishing.
Was saving and looking for a boat in the $1500 range when we came across this and pulled the trigger. So I am setting the budget at $1500 for a drivable boat with a drivers seat at least (other seats may not fit in that $1500). Boat was $300, so I am looking at $1200 budget to replace floor and stringers, put in carpet, and custom fabricate some storage and new interior trim. Would love a smaller trolling motor in that budget as well, but I think I am dreaming.
Here is pics before starting the initial tear down. I'll post some initial questions for the community after this.
Going to try to catalog the rebuild of my 1969 Mark Twain I picked up last week for $300. It has a 1974 115 Evinrude "Starflite"(I hope...pretty sure its a 74...will be asking for help from the community on is one, ezmobee said he could tell the year by pics). First thing I did when I got it home was see if it would run....and surprisingly it fired with little issues after being in storage since 1998. Luckily it was winterized before. I only let it run for about 8-10 seconds with muffs, I was getting no water out of the back anywhere and I didn't want to overheat or score the engine.
I am a somewhat noob when it comes to boat repair, have only ever worked on my dads from time to time when very young, and haven't done that for 10 years since he bought a lund. I am an avid internet and forum user, so I found iboats quickly and man.....so glad I did. I researched for about 4 hours on here before I decided to go ahead and buy the boat. I am somewhat mechanical, and an avid do it yourselfer. This will be mostly my first time working with fiberglass, I do alot of home restoration so I am pretty good with wood. I think its going to be a pretty straightforward process.
I am a little ways into tearing down. All the seats are bad and gone, the floor is rotted in the back, and can't get to the front yet without cutting away part of the cap. The entire rebuild will be done outside, hope to borrow a garage for the glass work though. I am also planning on purchasing a cover once the boat is gutted. The boat will be stored outside during the summer, and hopefully under a lean two in the winter.
This will not be an entire restoration, just building it back to functional. From my preliminary looking, the floor and stringers will be replaced (the stringers are still mostly solid, but are wet in some places...and I am just going to replace them). The transom seems very solid, I can stand on the motor and jump on it with no flex at all, and I tested in a spot and the core is still dry. Lucked out on that. I do not want to split the boat, and the cap in the front comes over to form seats....my plan at this time is to cut out that portion of the cap that forms the seats so I can replace the floor in the front, and mount a swivel seat up front. Seating is up in the air at this point, pondering swivels for fishing because we do alot of fishing.
Was saving and looking for a boat in the $1500 range when we came across this and pulled the trigger. So I am setting the budget at $1500 for a drivable boat with a drivers seat at least (other seats may not fit in that $1500). Boat was $300, so I am looking at $1200 budget to replace floor and stringers, put in carpet, and custom fabricate some storage and new interior trim. Would love a smaller trolling motor in that budget as well, but I think I am dreaming.
Here is pics before starting the initial tear down. I'll post some initial questions for the community after this.
As long as you remember to disconnect the shift rod you're good.
