Project Greenie ? Making it mine.

[GlastronJohn]

My name is John and I?ve been lurking for some time. I?m involved in a project I wouldn?t have tried without this amazing resource available. I figured I?d catch everyone up before soliciting advice from the group.

Here?s the background, I bought Greenie several years ago at a very good price. Greenie is a 1980?s Sears Gamefisher with a 25hp Mercury tiller motor. The plan was to use the boat to explore the upper parts of the Saint Lucie River as well as the flats in Fort Pierce, exposing my daughters to my favorite aspect of Florida living ? the water.
This is what I started with:

The first thing to go was the seat up front as it was extremely flimsy and the kids insisted on riding up there even with it threatening to tear off.
The OD green paint was next, it was so unbearably hot to stand on that standing on a wet towel was painful. Between that and itchies every time you touched the boat, I painted the inside.

 

[GlastronJohn]

Re: Project Greenie ? Making it mine.

This helped and I was happy for a while. But, you can see there was a bunch of rot and some questionable construction going on underneath the deck up front.

More than I thought so I tore it out?

I think I patched 50+ holes in the bow alone.

Painted some more and we?re back on the water?

 

[GlastronJohn]

Re: Project Greenie ? Making it mine.

I have been enjoying it in the most recent version for some time now. But, as usual I had a few issues to look after. Not pictured are a few cracks and such in the bottom that have occurred over the last 25+ years. Most importantly I wasn?t happy with the way the boat was balanced. It always seemed to squat in the stern and I always feared being swamped.

Not much freeboard at the transom.

Especially when the girls are climbing around on it. If it looks like this with them
on it, it can?t be any better when I am driving.

 

[GlastronJohn]

Re: Project Greenie ? Making it mine.

Compounding my fears was the fact that the water in the front two sections wouldn?t drain very quickly to the stern where the bilge pump lives.
So, I tore everything apart. I knew the benches had wet foam in them but I was amazed at how much it weighed. A one foot cube weighed around ten pounds ad it was all wet. So it came out.

So here?s what I?ve got now?

This picture was taken a while ago, I built decks front and rear and a slightly raised floor with two stringers and glassed everything in roughly. But, I didn?t like the way it turned out and I discovered some bad spots in the floor that I had to address before I covered it up permanently (ish)

So I stripped everything out again, flipped the boat and ground 5 or 6 colors worth of paint off.

Blue, Dark Green, Metallic Green, Latex Green, Olive Drab Green etc? you get the point.

Here?s what I?m after. I want a lighter weight and balanced boat with plenty of room for the kids. I need the flexibility to jam a bunch of camping gear in the boat as well as a comfortable fishing platform. No plans for a trolling motor. I?m not attached to the platform either, I like it but only used it to sit on.

I was thinking of putting the battery up front and / or the gas tank up there under a short deck along with the anchor and coast guard gear.

I want a flatter floor and some structure to stiffen the boat up where I cut out the benches. I hated having to step from bench to bench when docking or fishing etc? almost killed myself a few times.

 

[GlastronJohn]

Re: Project Greenie ? Making it mine.

Here?s what I am using for inspiration, I really like this boat and wish I had regular controls instead of a tiller, this would be it.

I really like this as well.

I think I am going to end up with something similar to these.

My budget will be the limiting factor. The more I need to spend, the longer it will take me to finish so I am trying not to get too ?creative? and incorporate a lot of features that will take forever to fabricate. Hopefully it won?t look too homegrown but after all is said and done, it will always be an ?80?s Gamefisher. Kiss principle all the way.

 

[GlastronJohn]

Re: Project Greenie ? Making it mine.

Ok so I said I wasn?t going to get too creative nor was I going to add a bunch of difficult to fabricate features. Well, I deviated from the plan slightly. Please revisit this picture and this quote:

I really like this boat and wish I had regular controls instead of a tiller, this would be it.

I figured out how to achieve this goal after all.

Sadly, my best friend passed away several months ago leaving his derelict boat in my yard. His family finally decided to let the boat go as it would not have been economical to rebuild it. The boat was a center console with a 50hp Honda 4 stroke on it.

I carefully disassembled the boat and saved several key pieces to assist me in rebuilding my boat. Before you call me a butcher please understand that as I cut open several sections of the boat including the floor were full of water to the point that I had to wait 10 minutes for it to drain before I could finish cutting. I was amazed at how heavy the chunks of foam were. They ?bled? water as I carried them to the curb.

 

[GlastronJohn]

Re: Project Greenie ? Making it mine.

I was left with a console, the rear deck and some miscellaneous chunks of fiberglass. And a 50hp Honda 4 stroke with built in trim and tilt, steering and all the controls.

 

[GlastronJohn]

Re: Project Greenie ? Making it mine.

With a little creative cutting and repositioning, I am left with this mock up. Rest assured the scraps of fiberglass in the bow will be replaced but I wanted to see how it looked and if the deck placement would work. I will be putting a center hatch in for the anchor locker and will probably plumb one compartment to be a live well/ cooler once I get it water tight.

Once I pick up some supplies I am going to start working on reinforcing the keel from the inside of the hull and adding the stringers and floor.

 

[c91x]

Re: Project Greenie ? Making it mine.

awesome little projet you got going... you'll be happy you went with what you wanted instead of settling for the tiller

 

[oops!]

Re: Project Greenie ? Making it mine.

that console is gonna be sweet.

check out hadrazas project in the compleated projects forum.......you might get some ideas....

and keep the pics coming....we will provide the encouragement!

 

[GlastronJohn]

Re: Project Greenie ? Making it mine.

Thanks Oops! I've been following your project since the beginning. I'm still using it for reference as I go along.

 

[ezmobee]

Re: Project Greenie ? Making it mine.

Great project, that console is great!

 

[GlastronJohn]

Re: Project Greenie ? Making it mine.

Wow! I've been slacking on the updates to this thread. So here's one huge update to catch everyone up...


We had lots of rain...

I have managed to glass in the stringers, install the foam and messed around with molding a small tray just for fun. I think the tray will get glassed into the bench seat or console somewhere.

Next step is to install the deck pieces, they are cut and glassed on one side.

One bulkhead and the deck installed

 

[GlastronJohn]

Re: Project Greenie ? Making it mine.

The bench seat isn't glassed in, I just screwed it in to get an idea of placement and make sure the sides were where I wanted them while attaching the floor etc.

Here's a reminder of what I'm going for...

Ok, I'm still making progress on this... I even brought in reinforcements. Dad has gotten in on the fun and he and I have done several things.

Since last update, I have added several layers of fiberglass cloth and resin to the decks and they are mostly done save for some cosmetic work. We made setback plates out of some aluminum I beam. The motor is hung for now so I can determine the location of controls wires etc. The console is coming together now, I need to decide where the gauges are going to live and finish the "pocket" where the controls are going to sit. Here's a few pictures, not much to see for all the work.

Console cut and paste

Setback brackets to get the engine out of the way a little...

I ?cut and pasted? the rest of the console together which I posted some pictures of. Dad and I took some aluminum ?I? beam and made a bracket to attach the 20? motor to the 15? transom. No worries there it seems plenty strong and nothing bends or deflects when I lean on the motor. There is 2 ?? of wood and aluminum in the transom.

 

[GlastronJohn]

Re: Project Greenie ? Making it mine.

I also spent some time fabricating supports for the bench seat and somewhere along the line my brother and I installed some rod tubes on the port side.

Then, I spent a lot of time attending to holidays and family needs. Turns out, having a project to divert your attention can be therapeutic. So I sanded and grinded and itched a lot. Then I repeated the same over and over until I was tired of sanding. I even got my dad and my brother in the fun a few times.

A couple of weeks ago I got motivated to do something besides sanding so I cleaned the carburetors and rigged up a temporary fuel supply. With a little coaxing and the motor fired up and idled nicely. I will do a full fluid change, plugs and impeller but it sounded good.

So that brings us to this past weekend. As I mentioned, I am sick of sanding.

 

[GlastronJohn]

Re: Project Greenie ? Making it mine.

More than that, I keep hearing all these reports of the great fishing I am missing. So, I quit sanding and painted the inside on Friday. I figured once I get out on the water I won?t notice the flaws as much.

Before:

To paint the boat, I used a gallon of Rustoleum thinned to the maximum according to their instructions. I have had decent luck in the past with it and it fits the project theme as well as my budget. I added some non slip additive to about a pint of it and rolled that on the decks. Then, I sprayed the boat using an automotive style spray gun. I think it turned out well. Once it cures for a while (a month?) I?ll throw a coat of wax on it to help keep it from chalking and staining.

After:

 

[GlastronJohn]

Re: Project Greenie ? Making it mine.

(headed into real time now....)

Between painting sessions I went to the Marine Connection Liquidators and blew my allowance on supplies to rig the boat. I was able to buy leftover stock wire harnesses for $2 a pound so I grabbed a suitable chunk out of the bin with enough different colors and the correct gauges for $12. All of it is tinned marine wire and a good bit of it was tagged and wrapped in plastic. Recycling at its best.
I?ve decided to put one battery under the console for now. If I end up wanting a trolling motor I?ll put two more up front.

Sunday after all the Easter festivities were done I found myself with some free time so I got started rigging and wiring. Gauges are tach, water pressure, voltmeter and trim angle (for now since I had it).

With any luck I should be able to get it fully rigged this week. I?m waiting for a replacement ignition switch so fingers crossed that will be here tomorrow? It won?t be long now.

 

[GlastronJohn]

Re: Project Greenie ? Making it mine.

Wiring...

Wiring is done! I had to make a switch panel as the top of the console was too thick to directly mount the switches. Once everything is squared away I'll pull the plate back off and polish it up. Switches are for Courtesy lights, Fish Finder, Bilge (on-off-auto) and Nav lights. I had some inline auto style fuse holders so I used those which saved some space.

 

[GlastronJohn]

Re: Project Greenie ? Making it mine.

I found some cool led courtesy lights at Wal-Mart and stuck them in the console.

Not much room left under there. Hope I can still squeeze the teleflex cable in there somewhere.

 

[GlastronJohn]

Re: Project Greenie ? Making it mine.

Now, we're caught up. Time to install the helm and control cables. Still waiting for the ignition switch.