1st time boat project. Looking for info

[TheMechanic]

Hi everyone. I'm new here and to running my own boat. I've always been on and around the family boat until we had to give it up and park it. Id love to surprise dad one day and restore his SeaRay but until i can sneak her safely over to my garage I found myself a project from a guy down the road from me who got in over his head. I don't know much about it other then what i can see.
It seems so far that I found out its a! Bayliner. Bow rider i believe is the style. Its a out board motor. Seems to be 15ft tri hull. Mercury makes the motor. I saw another member on here restoring a yellow one like mine and seem by his post and a emblem on my bow that its a Runaway model? I can take pics if i can figure out how to post them. Id love to get more feed back on history of the boat the motor etc. She's gonna be my first boat restoration. More of a car guy but missed the water. Any help on info about the boat or tips to fixing her up and about the motor would be great help. Can't wait till I can get her back into the water

 

[crabby captain john]

Re: 1st time boat project. Looking for info

The 2 most important tips are 1. get a lot of rest now as once you start all that free labor takes up time and 2. fill up your check book as you may find (even with free labor) you could have bought a boat in good condition for less. NOW-- have fun!

 

[TheMechanic]

Re: 1st time boat project. Looking for info

Thanks captain. That's def the truth ive come across over the years on other projects. I hope I'm in a decent project here. The previous owner said he replaced the floor last sunmer and it shows that that hold true tho he had it outside without a cover also. Seems sound when i was poking around. Now it sits under my car port and i have some makeshift covers for it. Hes tied up with school and his friend moved so he went and bought a lil lake boat. So this was too much for him. He said motor ran until the strator went? Said thats like a alternator for out boards. I know i need plugs and to plumb up the gas tank and missing mirrors horn. Broken pole mounts no cover. Seats are decent yet bow seats need recovering. Think its late 70s or early 80s. No speedo or tach(if ever was one).

 

[crabby captain john]

Re: 1st time boat project. Looking for info

Glad he replaced the floor but since boats most often rot from the bottom up-- how are the stringers and transom? Those 2 usually go before the floor tells you there is a problem. Don't even think of a speedo as they are not accurate anyway. If you ever add a GPS you will get accurate speed and a lot more. However, I sure like having a tach! Had a ski boat for a couple weeks once and it had mirrors but no other boat has. Before I'd put any more in there are just a couple things -- one is to have the registration as required in your state in hand. The other is to open the floor hatches and peak around with a light and mirror at the stringers. If that is acceptable, lift the motor and push hard on the lower unit looking for the slightest flex in the transom.... I did one boat that needed stringers and transom. I did the stringers and sent the transom out. I learned FOR ME if the stringers and/or transom have rot take it to the landfill.

 

[TheMechanic]

Re: 1st time boat project. Looking for info

Hmmm looks like I'll be pulling the floor to look. I haven't yet poked around as she just came home last night and its insanely hot outside. Looks like it had mirrors and a horn from the location of holes. My dad's searay has driver mirror and horns. Yeah his speedo never seemed right lol. Id love to wire up a tach and have one around to. Ill have to go check that play in the rear.

 

[TheMechanic]

Re: 1st time boat project. Looking for info

So I did that motor check for flex and looks like were sound there. I was lifting
the trailer off the ground haha so looks like thats ok the floor underneath is next to check but honestly there really isnt much floor haha its pretty much a few inches.

 

[pckeen]

Re: 1st time boat project. Looking for info

Posting Pictures

Hi Mechanic, and Welcome to Iboats. I've posted this on a few threads now. Users would really like to see pics of your boat - because that will give us a much better idea of what you are dealing with.

There are a couple of ways to post pictures - begin with your computer by resizing whatever images you have so that they are small for the web. If you have a microsoft computer, you can do this using the edit function on 'photo gallery'

Next, you can upload them in one of two ways. You can hit the 'go advanced' button below the text entry screen, then scroll down to 'manage attachments' Click on that, and an attachments box will pop up - simply follow the instructions to post the pictures. If you do so, they will look like this.

View attachment 201348

The better way - to get large pictures - is to open a 'photobucket' account. After uploading pictures to photobucket, you click on the photo you want, then click on the textbox to the right of the letters "IMG". This copies the web address for that photo. You then return to the iboats page, and right click on the screen where you want to insert the photo, then click on 'paste'. What that does is insert a link to your photo on photobucket. The images you get using this method are bigger and easier to see, like the one below.



Best regards, and good luck with your project!

 

[TheMechanic]

Re: 1st time boat project. Looking for info

Nice i took some pics today i wanna upload. Any tips from smart phones?

 

[Grub54891]

Re: 1st time boat project. Looking for info

How about a few pics..... I-Boats is a great place to gain info from,you will enjoy your restoration alot by posting some pics,and therefore getting great advice.
Grub
Ah,I see someone already asked for pics.

 

[TheMechanic]

Re: 1st time boat project. Looking for info



Lets try this shot of the rear

 

[TheMechanic]

Re: 1st time boat project. Looking for info

Sweet that worked. Hang on guys gonna load up some pics. I'd love to know what I got. Thanks

 

[TheMechanic]

Re: 1st time boat project. Looking for info

 

[TheMechanic]

Re: 1st time boat project. Looking for info

 

[TheMechanic]

Re: 1st time boat project. Looking for info

The prior owner said the motor needs a stator. What is that?

 

[Grub54891]

Re: 1st time boat project. Looking for info

The stator is what keeps the battery charged and keeps the whole ignition systym solid. Fix that,after you check compression,make sure the rest of the motor is in good shape first. Stators can be pricy, but a boat is just that,pricy. Same with any play things. My old school polaris 400 atv just the cooling fan is $200.00 but I bought another blown up one for parts. Paid $200.00 for a complete machine, if I was to buy parts seperatly, I'd be in the 1,500.00 range just for the parts I've used so far. And a few to use up yet. Find a crappy one, steal the stator.....lol Ususlly the things blow up and get scrapped with good parts. The dude that sold me his keeps asking for his parts back, for really cheap, because he bought another peice of s... I ask for half of value, he buys new. And his keeps breaking,mine's always at the ready...!
Grub

 

[TheMechanic]

Re: 1st time boat project. Looking for info

Ok he mentioned it was like a alternator in cars. Now if i can find a pic of it for this motor. Id love to know where boat junk yards are near me.

 

[TheMechanic]

Re: 1st time boat project. Looking for info

Found a pic of it now to find mine on the motor. Id love to see pics of mine complete like where battery is gas tank(mine is a small 8gall) ect seems much got changed over the years lol.

 

[TheMechanic]

Re: 1st time boat project. Looking for info



Front of the hull.

 

[crabby captain john]

Re: 1st time boat project. Looking for info

Good news your transom test indicates it is solid. Before ripping up the floor to check the stringers just open the all hatches and peak around all you can with a flashlight and mirror, your cell phone may work OK too.
I don't do mechanical stuff on my boat but heard my mechanic tell a customer the toughest part of changing a stator is getting the flywheel off. Then tighten down, check the gap and put her back together. Sounded easy enough but if it were my boat he would have been told "then there should be a tiny labor bill". Then he would have fallen down laughing.

 

[TheMechanic]

Re: 1st time boat project. Looking for info

Lol the PO left me this state of the art gas tank to use(yes left there not hooked up but full lol).


Captains would love to look but I don't see any hatches to check.