1982 Rinker V165 Restoration

[Tiger Oscar]

So as a young boy I always wanted a boat, I got limited on the water experience from occasional boat rides/kayaking, and now as a young man I bought a boat. I knew nothing going in, got the boat for a steal, and now I'm in the thick of it. Started a thread on TheHullTruth, but as I have learned more about boating I have also learned that this may be a much nicer forum to partake in =)

So here I am, continuing my restoration story here, although I have already started into it. Here's the other thread: https://www.thehulltruth.com/boating...5-project.html

And I'll catch y'all up here.

So I bought the boat knowing nothing about boats, thinking it just had some engine troubles. I, being a handy guy with engines, thought this was perfect. Here's the first pics I took once home:

So it came with a Mercury 70 HP, which I later diagnosed the problem and found out -there's a big hole in the head!

So I went and bought a new outboard, again at a steal, an 80's Mercury 800 80 HP

Meanwhile, I've taken the old Merc 70 HP apart and I am trying to sell it in parts - surprisingly difficult. I guess the market for old boat engine parts is slim! Probably if I lived closer to water and a boating community it wouldn't be so bad, but honestly I'm considering just taking the engine to the recycling depot and selling for scrap!

Further inspection of the boat revealed bad stringers and a bad transom - I should have expected this, but I knew nothing! I initially considerd just tossing the boat and giving up, but I can sometimes really get in to a project, and I think I'm going for it. New transom, stringers, the works. Apparently it's a "cheap" , "throwaway" boat, but it's what I got and I am determined! Here's the transom before removal and stringers:

And here's where I am now - stringers cut out, transom mostly out, deciding what to do next



So today, I ran the 80 HP engine for the first time on the stand. First of all, the previous owner forgot to give me the key. So I took the mercontrol apart to hot-wire it, and all the wires started falling apart, not good. I did manage to hot-wire the engine, red wire to starter solenoid is all it takes. After some coaxing, the engine started, but the carbs spat fuel out when priming (bad needles probably) and the telltale was weak (new impeller needed of course)

Here's a (brief) summation of my current plan of action:

1. New stringers - AB exterior wood 3/4", chop mat, 6 oz cloth, two layers

2. New transom - AB exterior wood 3/4" in two layers, chop mat over transom and 1708, two layers

3. seal holes in transom - I don't want the transducer holes in there anymore, I might go with a surface mount transducer system later on, but for now I'm going with no transducer

4. fix up engine - known problems require carb clean/float height/needle seats, new propeller, new spark plug boots and wires (animal got in the cowl and chewed it up)

5. Electrical connections to engine are possibly shot - the wires in the controller box are crumbly, so how can i trust the wires in the cables that go to the engine? The connection boot doesn't fit very well either.

Intended use for this boat is pleasure/towing tubers, in the northern Illinois/southern Wisconsin area. I am especially excited to take it on the Wisconsin river in the upper dells, somewhere I have kayaked a good bit.

I am learning a lot from Youtube and Friscoboater (thanks man!), his videos are simply amazing resources.

In terms of comments I would appreciate now - items 3 and 5 I am still wrestling with.

3 - For sealing the holes in the transom, I have seen many instructions on how to plug a transom when the wood is still in, but what about when the transom is stripped? There must be a more permanent way to patch the hole while I have it down to the glass. My best guess is to grind a bevel or cup shape in the glass down to the hole, then build up with fiberglass in successive larger layers until level with the rest of the shell again. But I am a little nervous to shape fiberglass.

5 - For the wiring, I looked at replacement control wire harnesses, and it is stupid expensive. I am considering just buying 12ga stranded wire in the colors I need and pulling the wires out of the rubber bundle and replacing them. Since I just came across this issue today, I am still deciding what to do about it. As far as the key goes, I know I have a #134 and I found it online for $15, probably cheaper than putting in a new key switch

All right, that's about it for now, thanks for reading and I hope to update more soon. I like to do this both as a log of my thoughts and plans and because more experienced boaters like yourself have some great advice, thank you!

 

[Tiger Oscar]

Thought of a couple more questions, and I am not sure this thread got on the forums? Since I am a new user maybe it's locked for moderation or something?

Anyway, thinking of grinding the fiberglass tomorrow, getting the wood and cutting the wood to shape, have some questions on that:

1.) should the stringers bottom (hull side) be cut at an angle to match the slant of the hull?
2.) This boat didn't originally have a keel stringers, just two inner stringers and two outer stringers. Should I put in a keel stringer, or just go with the original design? I'd rather not, since that's more wood and more glass and more resin...
3.)Speaking of original design, the fronts of the stringers terminated square at the front bulkhead. But in many boat projects, I see the stringers follow the curve of the hull up until they terminate flush, should I re-design the stringers to work that way?
4.) I think I understand how to cut the transom, but what do I do with the top edge? orginally, the top edge was bare wood and was covered by the cap. I want complete fiberglass coverage in my rebuild, so maybe I should make the top edge about 3/16" shorter than the top, router a quarter round onto the inside of the transom, and wrap glass up over the top, terminating at the shell...just an idea