1986 Brougham Bridger Yukon Delta Fishing boat renovation

[Jeff Fro]

It sure does!! It's been a long road so far and still a ways to go, but at least we can see the end of the restoration. It may not be completely done by the end of March, but we are determined to splash it by then.

 

[buxmj]

I just finished rereading your whole thread and this is such an awesome build, so glad you found the boat, or maybe the boat found you? Either way, such a unique project, you 2 are doing amazing work and I look forward to seeing more progress.

 

[Jeff Fro]

Had a little break in working on the boat. The Admiral decided she want to go somewhere warm to avoid the 0-15 degree weather we were having. So a short 8 day adventure to Hawaii happened. It was a welcomed break from work as well. Gave me some time to work on the electrical sketches/plan I had in my head. This is a slight modification of a schematic I saw on a google search. It seems like a viable direction, but I just can't seem to believe that it is a bit overkill. I'll be starting off with a 2 battery house bank and one starting battery in the system. Currently I have a 55A alternator, plans are to upgrade it to 105A. Plans are to have a 12 position fuse block up front with a common Neg buss and a 6 fuse block with a common Neg buss back by the engine. The engine, trim tabs, lower trim, and the nav lights will all be powered from the starting battery. I'm thinking there are a few too many fuses with this setup. See anything wrong/right with this setup?

Comments? Questions? All are good.

 

[Jeff Fro]

Had a paint full weekend. Ran out of primer and paint. The top half needs one more final coat and the sides need to be primed.

 

[Jeff Fro]

And the color. A bit darker than what we were wanting, but still not bad.

 

[kcassells]

And the color. A bit darker than what we were wanting, but still not bad.

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Really looks Great! And you shouldn't have any problems running out of juice with that set up.
Cheers!

 

[Jeff Fro]

Really looks Great! And you shouldn't have any problems running out of juice with that set up.
Cheers!

Hope not, we're going to start out with two house batteries and go from there.

Other than watching paint dry, changing the dark gray to more of a silver, worked on the instrument box. Wasn't sure of what I really wanted, but came up with this for now.

 

[kcassells]

Nice who's gauges? Looks good.

 

[Jeff Fro]

Nice who's gauges? Looks good.

They are Sierra marine gauges, Eclipse model.

This is the way the garage looks at the completion of the painting stage. What a mess. Clean up starts today.

 

[kcassells]

Nice sheen.

 

[Jeff Fro]

Pulled the plastic off of the upper half. Still have a couple of areas to touch up. Couple of sags to fix. Main harness has been made, ready to install.

 

[buxmj]

Wow, that looks great! Such a cool project, keep the pics coming!

Buck.

 

[briangcc]

Such a long ways from when it was drug out of the mud. Keep the progress rolling!

And...um...friendly advice...put a ring on it. Not many GF's willingly climb onto a mildew/algae covered boat and clean it OR are found underneath grinding off god knows what

 

[kcassells]

Such a long ways from when it was drug out of the mud. Keep the progress rolling!

And...um...friendly advice...put a ring on it. Not many GF's willingly climb onto a mildew/algae covered boat and clean it OR are found underneath grinding off god knows what

Well said!

 

[Jeff Fro]

Such a long ways from when it was drug out of the mud. Keep the progress rolling!

And...um...friendly advice...put a ring on it. Not many GF's willingly climb onto a mildew/algae covered boat and clean it OR are found underneath grinding off god knows what

Yes it has, and yes she is pretty awesome. We've both been married before and neither of us like drama. So, we both agree that we don't need to be married to be happy together. And that works for us. My Mom calls us Frick and Frack...her words.

Anyways, she cut carpet today for the back floor and started installing the windows. Over the weekend, we got the big wire bundle installed and hooked up, made the switch harness, and wired the harness to the instruments.







Don't know if we'll go with the carpet up on the step or the seat.

 

[Jeff Fro]

Engine in. Engine wiring done. Batteries and lower unit are next.

Need to find a cap for the lower tilt reservoir.

 

[Jeff Fro]

After spending time out of town for work, family issues, farm issues, and other life issues, we were able to get back to the Hopper. Wiring for stage one has been completed. Which is wiring that is required, next will be the rest of it. Ran out of wire tie downs and wire ties. Will be tidying up the wiring after resupply. The upper instrument panel has to come back off to be able to get it out of the garage.

Current plans are to splash it by the weekend.

 

[kcassells]

Looking good Jeff Fro

 

[Jeff Fro]

Thanks Kcassells.
Finally got it out of the garage. Seems we added a bit of weight to the boat (drive line, 3 batteries, wire, hyd trim unit, etc). Too much for the two of us to push. Had to hook the truck up to it and pull it out. Used our makeshift lift to raise it up to get it on the trailer. Yea, last time to use it. It was creaking way more than it ever has. Used a hyd floor jack to aid in lifting it up. It is finally on the trailer.

 

[Jeff Fro]

And she's SPLASHED!!!

Finally had time on Monday to splash her. Went to Lake Lou Yeager in Litchfield, IL. It was the closest unlimited HP lake to us. Will be rebuilding the carb that's on it. Had times where we were at 4k rpm scooting across the lake, then hit a wave and dropped to 2200-2500 rpm. But I did take a carb from another boat that hadn't ran in 10 years or better.

Overall, pretty happy with the way it ran and floated.

Couldn't have done it with out the advice from all of you.