I think I’ve maxed out how much I can neglect my house and cars and other responsibilities to work on this boat. I’m afraid I’m gonna have to table it for probably the rest of the year. I’m gonna clean out my garage and load all the parts into it this weekend, park it at my buddy’s ranch, put...
I don’t think I’ve gotten anything done in a month until today. I got my new engine mounts, replaced the wood build up with HDPE and set it on .090” 5052 covers laminated to the stringers with 5200. It was easy to get the wood in and out of the stringers to insect, they were very good and went...
I just noticed autocorrect changed “acid washing” to “watching” earlier.
Especially on a horizontal surface I like to just rewet it throughout the day with either starbrite aluminum cleaner (phosphoric acid I think) or acetic acid (good old white vinegar) to dissolve as much corrosion as possible.
Turns out getting the wood out of the stringers is very straightforward and it’s in good condition.
The wet area is where I was cleaning around the engine before I pulled these out.
I’ll tell you another thing: I don’t know the boat your looking at specifically and if it’s OB or I/O but if you replace your transom on an I/O you are probably already 1/2 the effort of an outboard conversion. I was tempted, it is still a big cost and no guarantee I would end up with a great...
If I have no problems, this looks nicer. If I have ongoing problems I should be able to see them showing through the outside. I’d rather see it bubble up and be able to dig it out and epoxy it than have it fester and not know.
New bases for the engine mounts. Still cleaning the stringers, I might give them an overlay, partly just to get another .090” of height, the pitting isn’t that heavy and doesn’t really demand it.
Gonna be some watching and wire brushing to see what’s going on with the stringers themselves, and interestingly the ply wood build up was two layers, 3/4”+1/4”. I’m also pretty sure they locate the engine in. The boat and then lag them down, the lags aren’t even close to vertical.
I haven’t done any real inspection on the wood backing. I’ll figure out how I want to do that. . . The lag bolts had good resistance coming out, held against the ratchet till they were down to 1/2” embedment.
Here is what else I found:
I think my hypothesis is holding water. It looks like the old mounts are collapsed, and dropped just enough that they won’t allow the engine to align and still get a nut on it. Look at the cup at the bottom of the stud- the old one is sitting down on the cast base and the new one is on the...
See my thread for a similar repair https://forums.iboats.com/threads/i-didnt-want-to-restore-this-1997-islander-this-summer.779054/
Work is in progress but I’ve laminated a patch over the entire inside of the transom of my islander and replaced the wood. I was tempted to try to form a new...
3^2+4^2=5^2, common dimensions of triangle we all use to square corners, 9/16/25 date written with exponents.
I didn’t know there was Pythagoras day, just Pi day in March.
I’m clear on the how’s. And “better than before” meant better than it was when I last removed the drive, it was really difficult to remove and reinstall. If the mounts are failed, it’d make sense that the alignment was once good and got way out.
The alignment bar goes in easy now and leaves...
