1975 Checkmate V-Mate II Restore

[bigredinohio]

Re: 1975 Checkmate V-Mate II Restore

I would give the dogs a chance. Although the dog hair might be a problem, their attitudes will be different. My folks have a german shephard and if any one of us touches her tail, she will knawl on us however if my daughter does it, she will lick her to pieces.

I wish you hadn't lost your motivation on the boat. I really want to see you on the water this spring. Hopefully you won't have much more to go and you'll be out there with me. If not, I'm definitely coming over to give you a hand to finish up!

BTW, I bought another boat yesterday...'72 or '73 Silverline 17' tri hull that needs a new deck and most likely stringers. It has a '77 Mercury 150 HP that has 5-10 hours on a rebuilt engine.

 

[chrishayes]

Re: 1975 Checkmate V-Mate II Restore

I would give the dogs a chance. Although the dog hair might be a problem, their attitudes will be different. My folks have a german shephard and if any one of us touches her tail, she will knawl on us however if my daughter does it, she will lick her to pieces.

I wish you hadn't lost your motivation on the boat. I really want to see you on the water this spring. Hopefully you won't have much more to go and you'll be out there with me. If not, I'm definitely coming over to give you a hand to finish up!

BTW, I bought another boat yesterday...'72 or '73 Silverline 17' tri hull that needs a new deck and most likely stringers. It has a '77 Mercury 150 HP that has 5-10 hours on a rebuilt engine.

Awesome, I almost bought one of those as well but it was an I/O. Hell of a nice boat, wish I wouldve done it now. Then I would have a killer boat plus the wellcraft to restore when time allowed. An hey, you arent at all ahead of me. I have exactly the same things done on mine. My deck is glassed just not installed. I feel as though it wont take that long to finish it off as long as I have the motor complete and some, if not, all the interior done so that I just need to complete the deck install, paint then rewire and add all the gizmos and whistles that I want. Paint is something that can be done down the road when time and patience allow. I am rather confident that I will be ready by mid spring early summer.

 

[bigredinohio]

Re: 1975 Checkmate V-Mate II Restore

Here is an update on progress...I have all my pieces glassed on both sides except my deck. I have the bottom side glassed but will do the top side after installation. Meanwhile, I did buy the Silverline tri hull for an extra motor since the one I currently have is questionable. I bought the boat, motor and trailer for $500. Here are some pictures.

 

[bigredinohio]

Re: 1975 Checkmate V-Mate II Restore

 

[83vert]

Re: 1975 Checkmate V-Mate II Restore

Great find. That is exactly what I need to come up with so that when spring comes I have some sort of power plant to rig on the boat. You could sell that with the other motor on it and recoup some if not all of your money.

 

[ezmobee]

Re: 1975 Checkmate V-Mate II Restore

Wow that Silverline looks pretty cherry. Especially that Merc!

 

[bigredinohio]

Re: 1975 Checkmate V-Mate II Restore

Thanks guys! I think the deal was pretty sweet. The motor was rebuilt in '01 or '02 and only has approximately 5-10 hours on it. The floor is soft and the reason the boat hasn't been used for many years. The transom was "worked on" which now has a big plate on it which we all know what that means. I think I'm going to take it and have the motor and trim checked out and use this early next year while the Checkmate is being completed then switch out the motors and start the restoration on this. I didn't like the dark green color at first but it's starting to grow on me and I actually like the interior layout of the boat. Definitely more family friendly then the 'Mate so I'm thinking of keeping it and restoring it as well. Another benefit of the deal is the trailer which is way superior to the one my 'Mate is on. I just wish it was was a side step trailer which I might be able to add down the road if possible.

 

[jcsercsa]

Re: 1975 Checkmate V-Mate II Restore

Nice find there Red !! the motor worth twice that !!! did i miss the lenght?? John

 

[bigredinohio]

Re: 1975 Checkmate V-Mate II Restore

The plate on the boat says it's a Comoro 16 1/2 T which I thought was 16.5' long but I looked it up on Nada which says 15' long? I'll have to do it the old fashion way and get my tape measure out tomorrow because it does not seem like a 15' boat. Rebuild on these motors run around $1,000 and a 115 hp Merc on Craigslist was running the same.

 

[bigredinohio]

Re: 1975 Checkmate V-Mate II Restore

Here are some pictures of old props that came with the V-Mate. One is a 25 pitch bronze three blade and the other is a damaged 19 pitch aluminum three blade. The other two props are 17 and 21 pitch aluminum three bladed which are currently on the motors.

 

[bigredinohio]

Re: 1975 Checkmate V-Mate II Restore

I removed some more rotted core while standing on my head today. It has to be the best thing to do when not watching football...NOT! Anyways, it had to be done and here are some pictures of the core removed and hopefully I will have it replaced later this week.

 

[vegasphotoman]

Re: 1975 Checkmate V-Mate II Restore

Nice score on the green machine...wow the interior is in real nice shape....are the seats glitter vinyl or just look that way in the pc kinda....cool either way
yeah that is a great deal....the merc is awsome....
hey might as well have a family boat and a fun ski boat what the heck...for the prices you pay it's very affordable....

Big Red....If I might say ......if you feather the edges of the hull cutouts...it might be better and such for a bit more strength when you fiberglass...hard line edges crack easier...just my 2 cents....
over all looking good!

ps and if you like the green...I bet the POLI GLOW gelcoat treatment would make short work of that ...it would shine almost like new!
heres thier website with video

 

[bigredinohio]

Re: 1975 Checkmate V-Mate II Restore

Thanks Vegas! The seats are just old green vinyl. The hull cutouts have to be straight because it would be impossible to cut core at a bevel. After I get the core replaced, I will add a layer of glass over just the repair area to build it up which offers support for and seals the replacement core and then I'm going to blanket the entire bottom of the hull, probably with 1708, overlapping the cuts so there should be no question of strength. It's just taking forever to do, especially with trying to get the new trailer/boat in good enough condition to tow a good distance to storage.

I've been pondering if I want to use Poly Glow or wet sand/polish/wax. Maybe I do half the boat in one and the other half the other way and see which looks and lasts best.

 

[archbuilder]

Re: 1975 Checkmate V-Mate II Restore

Very nice job, and a great looking boat! I've been working on the interior layout of mine and I saw the fiber glass "tabs" sticking up from the hull close to the gunnels. What are those for?

 

[vegasphotoman]

Re: 1975 Checkmate V-Mate II Restore

could always wet sand 320 grit and shoot a coat of automotive clearcoat over it...that'd last about 10 years....

any updates????????

 

[bigredinohio]

Re: 1975 Checkmate V-Mate II Restore

Wow, I can't believe I've been away this long! Time to get the ball rolling again on this boat.

 

[bigredinohio]

Re: 1975 Checkmate V-Mate II Restore

could always wet sand 320 grit and shoot a coat of automotive clearcoat over it...that'd last about 10 years....

any updates????????

I've done some wet sanding when I first got it but the color is too far shot. I'm going to probably prep it, sand and shoot Imron on it but that's still ways off.

As for updates, I'm going to prep the newer motor I bought and get it running within a few weeks. I need to order some more glassing supplies and complete the core repair so I can get the stringer and deck installed and move on from there.

 

[bigredinohio]

Re: 1975 Checkmate V-Mate II Restore

The weather has been getting warmer and I'm getting my motivation going again. I ordered some fiberglassing materials last Friday from U.S. Composites to finish up the last of the core repair. I also ordered poly resin which I haven't worked much with but it will be exciting. I bought some CSM and Woven Roven to rebuild the spashwell, fabricate a solid fiberglass windshield and to patch unwanted holes such as in the dash and around inside the interior.

Shopping list was:
3 gallons of epoxy
2 gallons of poly
2 containers of cabosil
1 container of 3M Glass bubbles
3 yards of WR
9 yards of CSM

Also, I've been tinkering with my old outboard (my back up motor) that went with the Checkmate. I stopped by a Mercury dealer and bought some goodies for the other motor but I've been itching to mess with this one. I purchased lower unit oil, fogging oil, 2 stoke oil, carb repair kit, water pump kit and some other misc. items. The past couple of days, I've been working on taping up bare wires in my external wire harness and stator wires. I also removed each spark plug and sprayed a little fogging oil into each cylinder and turned the flywheel by hand to coat each wall. Today, I decided to fire it up and but the starter acted up. The starter would spin in place and not engage the flywheel. I ended up taking a screw driver and freed the starter and sprayed a little lube onto the shaft.

I must of done something wrong...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41FfOkV2yRk

IT STARTED!!!

The motor still needs some attention. I still need to do a compression test so I'm not wasting too much time and money into this thing. Gas did gush out of the carbs when I pumped the bulb so they'll probably need rebuilt. I'd like to replace the water pump and replace all bad wires.

Now I just hope the motor that I do intend to use starts up with no problems and passes the compression test.

 

[bigredinohio]

Re: 1975 Checkmate V-Mate II Restore

Today, I got to pull the boat out and get some work done on it. The first thing I did was to pop the cap back off so I could do some trimming and sanding. I stribed a line where the spashwell was hanging up on the transom to allow for a better fit.

Afterwards, I sanded the gelcoat and metal flake off down to actual fiberglass. When I start to rebuild the splashwell, I'll need this so I can adhere the new layup to.

When I bought this boat, they had the steering coming from the hole in the right. I didn't pay any attention if I could use the factory hole but I'm thinking of going ahead and patching that hole and if I need it, I'll simply drill a new one.

Bottom of spashwell sanded

Lastly, I removed the last of my bad core...FINALLY! It was a real pain even with the cap slid forward for easier access. I hope either tonight or tomorrow that I can go ahead and epoxy the new core in and hopefully lay some glass over the repair area. If I ever have to do core repair in my lifetime, it will be too soon.

No more black rotted core

All in all, it's been a pretty good week!

 

[ezmobee]

Re: 1975 Checkmate V-Mate II Restore

Glad to see you back on it!