(This will be a long read, sorry just venting I guess, plus a bit bored hehe) I won't be offended if you don't feel like reading the whole thing!
My story begins because I just spent the last few days going through the rather large pile of reciepts I have accumulated for my rebuild, and I have to say never again!!!
Some background info... (I consider myself spoiled as I have always been given my grandfather's old boats when he bought a new one... they were always garage kept, factory maintained, and basically perfect).
1st boat: 1972, 12' montgomery ward, shakespear wondercraft 12, with a 9.8 merc on it, when I was 12.
2nd boat: 1979, 17' Aquasport CC with 100 Evinrude when I was 16
3rd boat: 1974, 20' Sea Ray SRV200, when I was 20
4th boat: 1989, 22' wellcraft 215 eclipse BR when I was 28
Then he stopped giving me boats
... this was a sad day indeed!
Basically when he gave me an upgrade, he got to sell the old one and keep the money, but I never had to pay a dime for the boat, so I basically got to use boats for free for almost 20 years!
Anyway...
Since I was no longer getting boats from my grandfather, I decided it was time to buy one on my own... About 4 years ago... I picked up an old tri-hull (1985' Riveria bowrider), for 700 bucks from my neighbor... It was the first used boat I have purchased myself, well before I knew about iboats, or really knew anything much about actually "buying" a boat in the first place... my grandfather had passed, and the wellcraft was history (sold it for financial reasons about 9 years ago). I had been about 4 years boatless, so I was desperate to get back on the water... In my hurry to get something, I didn't really check the boat out that well (or at all), but I knew it had been stored outside, sitting for many many years, and looked like holy hell... but I figured for 700 bucks, if I could get it to run (wasn't running when I bought it), I figured the motor would be worth at least the money I paid... (77' 70HP evinrude). I'm an auto mechanic by trade, so I figured at least the engine part would be easy...
I was hoping to just get something cheap, and throw it on the water to have something to use again... I missed boating waaaaay to much!!!
Well lets just say I totally dropped the ball on this one!
The day I bought it, I was moving it over from her yard to my yard, and the tilt lock failed, the motor dropped down, and dug into the dirt while I was backing up... and BAM! It punched the transom through the fiberglass... water came squishing out, and I was like hmmmm thats not good! So I started to do a little poking around, and sure enough the whole thing was rotted... well crap! (In hindsight, it's probably a good thing that I never got it out on the water, who knows what would have happened). (Also I didn't feel right about arguing with the old lady next door whom I bought it from, because I'm the one that punched the back of it, not her, even though it was rotted).
I was debating right then and there whether to ditch it or fix it, so I thought I would give the motor a go first... hooked up a battery, some fresh fuel, click... wouldn't turn over.. I pulled the plugs, oiled up the cylinders heavily, and let it sit for a few days... went back, turned the flywheel over by hand with a ratchet, and it freed up! Great I thought. Hooked up the muffs, fuel, and blamo it started! OK good! So at that point, I figured what the hell, I guess I'll keep it. It's not "that" bad looking, and if I am going to rebuild it, I know it will be strong at least!
I took an inventory, and there was not one single thing I could re-use on the damn setup anywhere, (boat or trailer), except the hull shell itself. Everything was completely shot.
Steering/Steering wheel: Shot
Seats/vinyl: Shot
Running lights: Shot
Wiring: Shot
Horn: Shot
It did not have:
Bilge pump
Batteries
Fuel tank(s)/Hoses
UGH! I needed to buy EVERYTHING new.
OK no problem... I had a little extra money, so I set myself a budget of 2k, (figured that would do it and with the original cost of the boat, I wouldn't be "that" far in the hole). (Boy was I wrong! More detail below hehe)
So I bought all new seats, seat hardware, rack & pinion steering/steering wheel, running lights, horn, bilge pump, two batteries, two 6-gal. tanks, (hoses and fittings), Tach, speedo, pretty much the works!
Came home, and took off the rub rail, drilled out the rivets, popped the cap, cut out the inner hull, and started digging out all the old nastyness... as with most of the stories here, it was wet mulch, wet foam, and just downright nasty...
Bought the new wood for the deck, bunch of resin, glass, etc. and started the rebuild... luckily I am fairly handy, having been in construction, and the automotive business, so re-building it wasnt that hard, just hot (I'm in FL, and it was april when I started), itchy and nasty. Things were going ok... laid the new stringer (only has one thankfully), glassed it in. Built a nice new transom out of two pieces of 10-ply 3/4", glassed together, and glassed it in.. I figure if I was going to do all this work, I should at least do it right! (Sadly I didnt know about CSM at the time, I used regular cloth, but too late to go back now). I changed the design of the front, and just built in a deck. The bow seats were worthless anyways, and I want to use it for fishing besides water sports.
I painted the inside of the hull to seal it up. Glassed a new deck and painted the bottom. Laid that in, and glassed it in... won't have to worry about water damaging the new wood this time!!! Built the new bow piece (glassed over 3/4" ply), and this is where I made my first big mistake (besides only using layers of cloth instead of CSM). I decided since I was putting a pedestal seat in the bow, that I wanted to layer up some CSM to make it really strong (learned about it now). Well I had no idea it used so much resin!!! I totally fubared the application, and the resin started to gel before I could finish, I scrambled to mix up more, and poured it on, ended up being waaaaay to thick with resin, was all lumpy and looked horrible...
Right about then I lost my job... oh sh*t! Boat has to go on hold for now... I decided to buy a small business, that consumed ALL my time, so basically the boat got parked for 3 years half finished... I tried to keep it covered the best I could, but it got some sun. I checked on it once in a blue moon when I got a free minute, and BLAM! The horrible job I did on the front deck all cracked open because of the way too thick resin...
I was pretty much disgusted at this point, but I had already burned up my 2k budget, and wasnt even halfway finished, so I figured I was past the point of no return now... I couldn't sell it and get my money back the way that it was, and I still did really want a working boat, plus I had all the hardware already purchased, still had the gel-coat, etc. So nothing to do but finish the task...
Fast foward to about a month ago...
(This next section is what I have been doing for the past month, working almost daily on the darn thing)...
SO I get out the grinder, and ground away the front deck... got it back down to the wood, and re-did it the correct way this time... took me a week of grinding/sanding to get rid of all that cracked nasty resin.. what a mess...
Finished it off, Phew thats done!
Next, I built in some seat bases behind the dash halves (I don't like back-to-back seats, and wanted to configure the boat for storage and a livewell). Once the inside was done (as far as building), I went back to the cap. (I know I probably should just finish one thing before moving on, but I can't stand doing the same thing for too long, so I mix it up a bit).
I built a dash for the top cap, sanded everything down, and went to gel-coat it... well this was my first time attempting to spray gel-coat... no fun at all!! The first batch, I made too much, and it started gelling in my sprayer, had to throw it away... (along with the sprayer), so I said hell with spraying it, I'm just going to roll it on... tried that, and it came out all lumpy and looked awful... so I had to sand it all off (another lost few days) and go back to spraying it... of course now I had to buy more gel-coat cause I used up all I had in my learning process... Got the new gel coat, mixed small easy to work with batches, and finally got the cap sprayed and looking decent, but its using up a lot more gel coat than I had thought which means I am going to need 3x what I have left to do the hull... (UGH more money out the door...)
OK, Cap is done being gelled, so I figured I would finish getting it ready by assembling the steering, and wiring, lights, etc... oh crap, I need wire, wire loom, wire holders, solder, tape, blah blah blah to get the new harness built... back to the store for more supplies and more money out the door...
Ok Phew, Got the cap all configured, decided to go back to the hull... I had to build a boat flipper aparatus (hehe see my thread for redneck boat flip). Got the boat flipped and started sanding off the old nasty bottom paint, (breathing that dust even with a respirator made me sick, I don't know whats in it, but it is absolutely horrible and far worse than even fiberglass dust!). I have a new found hatred for bottom paint now! Anyway, continuing on, I fixed all the holes/scratches, (the thing had two bow eyes for some reason). had to fill one set of those as well... got it all ready to gel-coat... So where I am at currently on the hull is, it's sanded and ready to gel, but I am waiting for more gel coat to arrive since I used up all I had on the cap...
OK since I am waiting on gel coat, I guess I'll tidy up the motor... ewwwy! The motor is an absolute mess.. yes it runs, but its full of corrosion and pits, it has water coming out of the shift rod hole (shouldn't), pours gas out of one of the carbs now, and generally needs a good overhaul... ok well first things first, I'll start at the bottom and work my way up... lets make sure it has a good impeller (it pumps but not that good). I drop the lower unit, and UGH! It has 3 wasps nests in it, full of salt and corrosion, and most of the shift rod housing metal is deteriorated. AHHHH !! It's missing some of the mounting bolts, and needs an intake screen... ok time to order even more parts, and more money out the door... I get to the mid-section, and there's a bad gasket, ok add that to the list... along with the carb kits...
And thats where I stopped at today... all I can say is ()&#*)(*$#)$* I can't wait for this thing to be done!
All told, this is where I am at currently:
700.00 - original price for Boat/Motor/trailer
2500.00 (and counting) for materials to rebuild (Resin, Glass, wood, gel-coat, filler, steering/steering wheel, lighting, gauges (tach/speedo), switch panel, horn, bilge pump, batteries, gas tanks, fuel hoses, etc).. More gel-coat, resin, cloth, to fix all my previous mistakes...
400.00 (and counting) for fixing up the engine (impeller kit, ignition switch, new bolts, shift rod housing, intake screen, gaskets, cowl seal, decals, paint/primer, etc.)
250.00 fixing up the trailer, new bunks, rollers, axle bolts, bearings/seals, winch, tongue jack, etc.
(I forgot to mention that while the trailer frame is galvanized, pretty much the rest of the trailer was shot too... winch was bad, didnt have a tongue jack, bunks bad, rollers bad, etc.). Soooo more parts picked up and more money out the door...
I am probably still a good 2-3 weeks away from getting the boat on the water, I have owned it for 4 years, and have sunk over 3800 bucks in it (worth half that, maybe), and still have some more engine parts to get before its ready... hell I wont even know if it will go once its on the water... wish me luck!
Hopefully this will give some people some insight on how NOT to go about preparing for and completing a rebuild... I pretty much did everything in all the wrong order... I should have made sure the motor was 100% before ever moving on to anything else!
I'll be sure to post the complete rebuild pics once I find them all, and definitely let you know how it goes on its maiden voyage!
I am soooo thankful I found iboats, and have gained a wealth of knowledge from this site... If I ever do buy another boat again, I will know what to look for, and what to buy, and make sure I don't ever have to do another rebuild as long as I live!!!
SOOOOooooo the moral of this long and rather boring story (if you're still with me), is NEVER AGAIN!!!
Thanks guys for your time and I hope you enjoyed the read...
Num
My story begins because I just spent the last few days going through the rather large pile of reciepts I have accumulated for my rebuild, and I have to say never again!!!
Some background info... (I consider myself spoiled as I have always been given my grandfather's old boats when he bought a new one... they were always garage kept, factory maintained, and basically perfect).
1st boat: 1972, 12' montgomery ward, shakespear wondercraft 12, with a 9.8 merc on it, when I was 12.
2nd boat: 1979, 17' Aquasport CC with 100 Evinrude when I was 16
3rd boat: 1974, 20' Sea Ray SRV200, when I was 20
4th boat: 1989, 22' wellcraft 215 eclipse BR when I was 28
Then he stopped giving me boats
... this was a sad day indeed!Basically when he gave me an upgrade, he got to sell the old one and keep the money, but I never had to pay a dime for the boat, so I basically got to use boats for free for almost 20 years!
Anyway...
Since I was no longer getting boats from my grandfather, I decided it was time to buy one on my own... About 4 years ago... I picked up an old tri-hull (1985' Riveria bowrider), for 700 bucks from my neighbor... It was the first used boat I have purchased myself, well before I knew about iboats, or really knew anything much about actually "buying" a boat in the first place... my grandfather had passed, and the wellcraft was history (sold it for financial reasons about 9 years ago). I had been about 4 years boatless, so I was desperate to get back on the water... In my hurry to get something, I didn't really check the boat out that well (or at all), but I knew it had been stored outside, sitting for many many years, and looked like holy hell... but I figured for 700 bucks, if I could get it to run (wasn't running when I bought it), I figured the motor would be worth at least the money I paid... (77' 70HP evinrude). I'm an auto mechanic by trade, so I figured at least the engine part would be easy...
I was hoping to just get something cheap, and throw it on the water to have something to use again... I missed boating waaaaay to much!!!
Well lets just say I totally dropped the ball on this one!
The day I bought it, I was moving it over from her yard to my yard, and the tilt lock failed, the motor dropped down, and dug into the dirt while I was backing up... and BAM! It punched the transom through the fiberglass... water came squishing out, and I was like hmmmm thats not good! So I started to do a little poking around, and sure enough the whole thing was rotted... well crap! (In hindsight, it's probably a good thing that I never got it out on the water, who knows what would have happened). (Also I didn't feel right about arguing with the old lady next door whom I bought it from, because I'm the one that punched the back of it, not her, even though it was rotted).
I was debating right then and there whether to ditch it or fix it, so I thought I would give the motor a go first... hooked up a battery, some fresh fuel, click... wouldn't turn over..
I pulled the plugs, oiled up the cylinders heavily, and let it sit for a few days... went back, turned the flywheel over by hand with a ratchet, and it freed up! Great I thought. Hooked up the muffs, fuel, and blamo it started! OK good! So at that point, I figured what the hell, I guess I'll keep it. It's not "that" bad looking, and if I am going to rebuild it, I know it will be strong at least!I took an inventory, and there was not one single thing I could re-use on the damn setup anywhere, (boat or trailer), except the hull shell itself.
Everything was completely shot. Steering/Steering wheel: Shot
Seats/vinyl: Shot
Running lights: Shot
Wiring: Shot
Horn: Shot
It did not have:
Bilge pump
Batteries
Fuel tank(s)/Hoses
UGH! I needed to buy EVERYTHING new.
OK no problem... I had a little extra money, so I set myself a budget of 2k, (figured that would do it and with the original cost of the boat, I wouldn't be "that" far in the hole). (Boy was I wrong! More detail below hehe)
So I bought all new seats, seat hardware, rack & pinion steering/steering wheel, running lights, horn, bilge pump, two batteries, two 6-gal. tanks, (hoses and fittings), Tach, speedo, pretty much the works!
Came home, and took off the rub rail, drilled out the rivets, popped the cap, cut out the inner hull, and started digging out all the old nastyness... as with most of the stories here, it was wet mulch, wet foam, and just downright nasty...
Bought the new wood for the deck, bunch of resin, glass, etc. and started the rebuild... luckily I am fairly handy, having been in construction, and the automotive business, so re-building it wasnt that hard, just hot (I'm in FL, and it was april when I started), itchy and nasty. Things were going ok... laid the new stringer (only has one thankfully), glassed it in. Built a nice new transom out of two pieces of 10-ply 3/4", glassed together, and glassed it in.. I figure if I was going to do all this work, I should at least do it right! (Sadly I didnt know about CSM at the time, I used regular cloth, but too late to go back now). I changed the design of the front, and just built in a deck. The bow seats were worthless anyways, and I want to use it for fishing besides water sports.
I painted the inside of the hull to seal it up. Glassed a new deck and painted the bottom. Laid that in, and glassed it in... won't have to worry about water damaging the new wood this time!!! Built the new bow piece (glassed over 3/4" ply), and this is where I made my first big mistake (besides only using layers of cloth instead of CSM). I decided since I was putting a pedestal seat in the bow, that I wanted to layer up some CSM to make it really strong (learned about it now). Well I had no idea it used so much resin!!! I totally fubared the application, and the resin started to gel before I could finish, I scrambled to mix up more, and poured it on, ended up being waaaaay to thick with resin, was all lumpy and looked horrible...
Right about then I lost my job... oh sh*t! Boat has to go on hold for now... I decided to buy a small business, that consumed ALL my time, so basically the boat got parked for 3 years half finished... I tried to keep it covered the best I could, but it got some sun. I checked on it once in a blue moon when I got a free minute, and BLAM! The horrible job I did on the front deck all cracked open because of the way too thick resin...
I was pretty much disgusted at this point, but I had already burned up my 2k budget, and wasnt even halfway finished, so I figured I was past the point of no return now... I couldn't sell it and get my money back the way that it was, and I still did really want a working boat, plus I had all the hardware already purchased, still had the gel-coat, etc. So nothing to do but finish the task...
Fast foward to about a month ago...
(This next section is what I have been doing for the past month, working almost daily on the darn thing)...
SO I get out the grinder, and ground away the front deck... got it back down to the wood, and re-did it the correct way this time... took me a week of grinding/sanding to get rid of all that cracked nasty resin.. what a mess...
Finished it off, Phew thats done!
Next, I built in some seat bases behind the dash halves (I don't like back-to-back seats, and wanted to configure the boat for storage and a livewell). Once the inside was done (as far as building), I went back to the cap. (I know I probably should just finish one thing before moving on, but I can't stand doing the same thing for too long, so I mix it up a bit).
I built a dash for the top cap, sanded everything down, and went to gel-coat it... well this was my first time attempting to spray gel-coat... no fun at all!! The first batch, I made too much, and it started gelling in my sprayer, had to throw it away... (along with the sprayer), so I said hell with spraying it, I'm just going to roll it on... tried that, and it came out all lumpy and looked awful... so I had to sand it all off (another lost few days) and go back to spraying it... of course now I had to buy more gel-coat cause I used up all I had in my learning process... Got the new gel coat, mixed small easy to work with batches, and finally got the cap sprayed and looking decent, but its using up a lot more gel coat than I had thought which means I am going to need 3x what I have left to do the hull... (UGH more money out the door...)
OK, Cap is done being gelled, so I figured I would finish getting it ready by assembling the steering, and wiring, lights, etc... oh crap, I need wire, wire loom, wire holders, solder, tape, blah blah blah to get the new harness built... back to the store for more supplies and more money out the door...
Ok Phew, Got the cap all configured, decided to go back to the hull... I had to build a boat flipper aparatus (hehe see my thread for redneck boat flip). Got the boat flipped and started sanding off the old nasty bottom paint, (breathing that dust even with a respirator made me sick, I don't know whats in it, but it is absolutely horrible and far worse than even fiberglass dust!). I have a new found hatred for bottom paint now! Anyway, continuing on, I fixed all the holes/scratches, (the thing had two bow eyes for some reason). had to fill one set of those as well... got it all ready to gel-coat... So where I am at currently on the hull is, it's sanded and ready to gel, but I am waiting for more gel coat to arrive since I used up all I had on the cap...
OK since I am waiting on gel coat, I guess I'll tidy up the motor... ewwwy! The motor is an absolute mess.. yes it runs, but its full of corrosion and pits, it has water coming out of the shift rod hole (shouldn't), pours gas out of one of the carbs now, and generally needs a good overhaul... ok well first things first, I'll start at the bottom and work my way up... lets make sure it has a good impeller (it pumps but not that good). I drop the lower unit, and UGH! It has 3 wasps nests in it, full of salt and corrosion, and most of the shift rod housing metal is deteriorated. AHHHH !! It's missing some of the mounting bolts, and needs an intake screen... ok time to order even more parts, and more money out the door... I get to the mid-section, and there's a bad gasket, ok add that to the list... along with the carb kits...
And thats where I stopped at today... all I can say is ()&#*)(*$#)$* I can't wait for this thing to be done!
All told, this is where I am at currently:
700.00 - original price for Boat/Motor/trailer
2500.00 (and counting) for materials to rebuild (Resin, Glass, wood, gel-coat, filler, steering/steering wheel, lighting, gauges (tach/speedo), switch panel, horn, bilge pump, batteries, gas tanks, fuel hoses, etc).. More gel-coat, resin, cloth, to fix all my previous mistakes...
400.00 (and counting) for fixing up the engine (impeller kit, ignition switch, new bolts, shift rod housing, intake screen, gaskets, cowl seal, decals, paint/primer, etc.)
250.00 fixing up the trailer, new bunks, rollers, axle bolts, bearings/seals, winch, tongue jack, etc.
(I forgot to mention that while the trailer frame is galvanized, pretty much the rest of the trailer was shot too... winch was bad, didnt have a tongue jack, bunks bad, rollers bad, etc.). Soooo more parts picked up and more money out the door...
I am probably still a good 2-3 weeks away from getting the boat on the water, I have owned it for 4 years, and have sunk over 3800 bucks in it (worth half that, maybe), and still have some more engine parts to get before its ready... hell I wont even know if it will go once its on the water... wish me luck!
Hopefully this will give some people some insight on how NOT to go about preparing for and completing a rebuild... I pretty much did everything in all the wrong order... I should have made sure the motor was 100% before ever moving on to anything else!
I'll be sure to post the complete rebuild pics once I find them all, and definitely let you know how it goes on its maiden voyage!
I am soooo thankful I found iboats, and have gained a wealth of knowledge from this site... If I ever do buy another boat again, I will know what to look for, and what to buy, and make sure I don't ever have to do another rebuild as long as I live!!!
SOOOOooooo the moral of this long and rather boring story (if you're still with me
), is NEVER AGAIN!!!Thanks guys for your time and I hope you enjoyed the read...
Num
