1971 Tom Sawyer (The newest to the family)

[NetMatrix]

Re: 1971 Tom Sawyer (The newest to the family)

Well got the boat back form the boat shop. The great news is that the boat runs pretty good now. I can only get it to do about 20 mph. If I throttle it anymore than that it will start to stall out. I have no idea where the problem there is located at, but I can live with 20mph for now. It is now time to start getting all the measurements taken care of and start getting the new seats built. It will take some time, and won't be put into the boat till next year after the floor is replaced, but it's going to take a while to rebuild the seats anyhow.

 

[NetMatrix]

Re: 1971 Tom Sawyer (The newest to the family)

Ok here is a new problem with the boat. Yesterday on May 1, 2010 it ran just perfect, and then today when I went to take it out to the lake it started ran for about 4 minutes then it just died. Haven't been able to get it started ever since. Now when I put gas in the tank it shot some out the vent hose line out the side of the hull. Could that be a problem with it being over filled or what ideas could we get for the cause of it not starting at all.

 

[NetMatrix]

Re: 1971 Tom Sawyer (The newest to the family)

Well I was able to take the boat out for one day of fun, and sadly it does have some problems with the motor that are going to have to get fixed. The floor also decided that it was time for it to give away so the rebuild of this boat starts now. It is going to be a slow rebuild process due to money issues, but as I rebuild this boat the updates will be posted as well as pictures will be posted on here. I'll probably need a lot of tips on how to make things better, and give this old classic a modern/classic appeal.

 

[NetMatrix]

Re: 1971 Tom Sawyer (The newest to the family)

Well I bought a inline fuel pressure gauge that I have already installed on the motor, and I got the fuel/water separator which should be getting installed son I hope. Just a quick update on the boat.

 

[Greg Mrozinski]

Re: 1971 Tom Sawyer (The newest to the family)

Cool. Glad to hear you are making some progress. Keep us posted.

 

[NetMatrix]

Re: 1971 Tom Sawyer (The newest to the family)

I'm planning on doing a daily update on here with the restoration that is being done to the boat. Sadly there is no promise cause I have to do the work outside with no garage so weather plays a huge part in restoring the boat. I'm actually planning on next weekend getting started on the rebuilding process. We are expecting rain the rest of the week, and I really don't want to start tearing apart the boat till it is dry. Below is a list and the order that I'm going to do things when restoring this boat.

• Pull out seats
• Pull floor
• Multi test spots on stringers for rotted wood
• Pull stringers/replace if needed
• Pull foam/replace if needed
• Pull gas line/tank
• get tank cleaned out
• Install a new fuel line running back to motor
• Change what electrical needed replaced
• Install new floor
• Build and install sun deck
• Build and install bench seat
• Install port and starboard seats (single seats)
• Replace gauges
• When I think of more things will be added, and steps may be changed.

Below are a couple pictures of the seats I'm thinking about installing in the boat. Let me know what you think will work best with this boat.

I'm not really big on the white seat, but the interior of the boat will be a blue/white color, and the exterior will be white with some smaller colors on it from graphics that will be put in place. Now the gray seat does look to be more comfortable, but I can always change the interior color to work with the seat if the darker colored seat gets the vote. Which then it would be a dark gray/light gray color on the interior. The floor will NOT have carpet. It will be a non slick paint that will be put in there. The carpet just holds water for to long, and it will start to mold after a while. Paint can also add life to the floor as well, and easily patched up if needed. Now if the interior colors get changed to the gray then I will paint the outside of the boat a metallic black color, because I would want the boat to stay either dark colors or light colors. Now if anyone knows of some good seats that would work with my boat better than the one's I put on here please let me get a link. That style seat is what I'm wanting in the boat though. The back to back seats are being removed and not being put back in here.

Also to add in with the bench seat. One side will have a built in cooler built and installed with a drain, and the other side will just be a storage area for life vests and what not. The floor under the bench seat will also be sunk in about 3 inches deeper to give just a little bit more storage space in it which will mean the stringers right there will have to be cut some, and I'm going to add a little extra stability under the bench seating to help support the weight a little bit better.

 

[NetMatrix]

Re: 1971 Tom Sawyer (The newest to the family)

Well with not having to much time lately about the only thing I was able to get done on the boat was getting the fuel/water seperater installed to see how well it would work out. Sadly the boat still won't start up so now it is that time to tear into her. We are suppose to be getting rain for the next 3 or 4 days so there isn't much I can do at this point in time, but next week sometime I'm really going to start tearing into her, and get the seats and floor taken out. Then I will be able to give the stringers a good test, and see how good or bad they are. We shall see. Right now in between breaks of the rain I'm just going to do extremely small little work on it, and hope for the best. I'm going to start by removing the ladder, rails, horn, and a few other small parts on the boat that can be done in between the rain showers. We shall see where this goes, and how long it will take to get her finished up. I highly doubt I'll be putting her back on the water this year so it's going to be a full restoration.

Pictures will hopefully be posted within the next couple of weeks. I'm going to need to get a boat cover for it to for when it does rain so she doesn't get soaked on the inside.

 

[vegasphotoman]

Re: 1971 Tom Sawyer (The newest to the family)

Hi NetMatrix

just read your thread..... cool score on that old gal.....she looks like she could plow through some large waves with that high bow.....she looks a little bit like our 1978 Newman boat design (see my signature)

Bummer on the floor....don't kid yourself...its alot of work....hope your stringers are solid...that will cut your resto time in 1/2 .....crossing fingers for ya!

keep us update...great job!

ps isnt the interupter switch just a simple switch available from mebbe Radio Shack? hmm..... think outside the box Im sure you will find one (lots of old used boats out there with those switches on em...especially mercs like yours)

suscribed.........

 

[NetMatrix]

Re: 1971 Tom Sawyer (The newest to the family)

Well I found a switch that I will be putting in the boat. It is really hard to drive it without that switch in place. Still haven't done much work to the boat just yet. I'm currently waiting on a friend of mine to get done with his flatbed trailer so I can go pick up the lumber so I can start building the new inside. The inside of it will be getting gutted here in about a months time, but it will be headed to the boat shop next week to see what is going on with the motor. I know I've been sending it there quite a bit lately, but I have to get this thing fully running or at least find out what is wrong with it. Once I start rebuilding the inside of the boat I will be getting some pictures put up here. Until then things will be going slow with it as of right now so please bear with me cause I know it's going to be a bit of time before I get anything going on her.

 

[NetMatrix]

Re: 1971 Tom Sawyer (The newest to the family)

Well I've started to build the frame work for the sun deck. With what little lumbar I have right now I'm not getting very much done on it. Oh' I hate these slow weeks where work is difficult and not getting much of a pay check. Oh' well, it's better to get a very small of work done than to not get any done at all. When I get the new batteries for my digital camera I'll get some pictures up here on the frame work that I've done so far on the sun deck. This should be most more than likely tomorrow.

 

[vegasphotoman]

Re: 1971 Tom Sawyer (The newest to the family)

Hey Net....looking fwd to seeing your progress! rock on!

 

[NetMatrix]

Re: 1971 Tom Sawyer (The newest to the family)

Well sadly ran into some problems making the sundeck. I kinda made it 5 inches to wide, and cut the plywood 4 inches to narrow. I was getting in to much of a hurry to get this done. Well have to buy new lumbar and try it all over again. The boat will be going to the boat shop here in a week or so to have the motor gone over to see exactly what is wrong with it. I'm lost for words on why it won't start up for me, but who knows. I just hope I didn't do anything that broke parts on the inside of the motor. If anything is broke no telling when I can get a new motor for this boat.

 

[vegasphotoman]

Re: 1971 Tom Sawyer (The newest to the family)

DOH

thats ok a little extra dough......it will be worth it all when your in the water/fishing/swimming / BEER etc

 

[NetMatrix]

Re: 1971 Tom Sawyer (The newest to the family)

Oh' yeah it will be worth it. Well I've stopped the progress on the boat for right now. I was going to use 2x4's all the way around for the framing work, but then I discovered that after measuring all the lumber and plywood together it was going to add more weight to the boat than what I was wanting to add. I'm going to still use 2x4's for the main part of the outer frame, but the rest of it will be 1x6's that will greatly reduce some of the weight. I've also decided that I'm going to put a T-Tower on the boat for fishing purposes, as well for ski's, and a few other small items that would look nice on it. That part will come towards the end of the rebuilding process. I'm going to try to work a live well into the boat somewhere, but I'm undecided right now on where to put one at. i'm basically back to the drawing board now since I've changed a lot of what I was going to do to the boat. I will still have the sundeck on it, but changing some items around a little. It's going to be really hard to take a classic style boat make it a modern boat, but keep the classic look to her inside and out.

 

[NetMatrix]

Re: 1971 Tom Sawyer (The newest to the family)

I need to correct a mistake I made on my last reply on here. It's not a t-top I'm going to be putting on the boat it's a FISHING ARCH that I'm going to put on her. Now I got to looking at the prices of the fishing arches and I have also looked at how they are made. Well I decided to just go ahead and build my own instead of buying one pre-made. It isn't going to be all that expensive to make, and I'll just use conduit to make it. I'll need to get a new conduit bender since the one I had is pretty much shot.

 

[NetMatrix]

Re: 1971 Tom Sawyer (The newest to the family)

Well I finally got to looking over the boat at everything that needs to be done to it. Now it is going to take longer than I though to rebuild the boat since laid off again. But the plus side is my girlfriend is going to help me get some of the engine parts that are needed to get the boat at least running again. Below I will have a list of things that need to get done on the boat, and things that have been finished. It will be the standard red/green/black font color.

Replace floor
Build new seats/Bench Seat
Build sundeck
Tune up engine (parts will be listed at a later time when all information is gathered.)
Build ski tower/fishing tower
Strip/Paint trailer
Paint boat

This is just the short list right now, but more will be added to it just as soon as I do find out everything that will have to be done to the boat.

I'll also need some ideas on a good name for the boat, and please any ideas let me know what they are.

 

[NetMatrix]

Re: 1971 Tom Sawyer (The newest to the family)

Here is an up dated list.

Ignition Coil
Ignition Tune-Up Kit
Floor Replacement
Shift Interrupter Switch
Dual Batteries
Ski Tower
Sun Deck
Bench Seat
Build in cooler
Gauges (Replacing all of them)
Front Seats
Water/Fuel Seperator
Swim Platform on rear
Sand and Paint boat (Boat colors still undecided on)
New LED bow and stern light
On-board battery charger
Switch Panel
Fuse Block
Fuel Lines
Through Hull Fuel Vent Piece
Marine Stereo Mounting Hardware
Marine Stereo System
Finish Stripping and painting trailer
Steering Wheel
throttle Lever

Please note that more will be added to this list. This is just what I have been able to gather right now that is in need of being done. Some of this work has already been started, and pictures will be added when I can add them.

 

[NetMatrix]

Re: 1971 Tom Sawyer (The newest to the family)

Ok here is the list again. Red color is stuff not done yet, and green is done. I have started to work on the boat again since I have found a job finally.

Ignition Coil - Doesn't need a new one. The current one works perfectly
Ignition Tune-Up Kit
Floor Replacement
Shift Interrupter Switch
Dual Batteries
Ski Tower
Sun Deck
Bench Seat
Build in cooler
Gauges (Replacing all of them)
Front Seats
Water/Fuel Seperator
Swim Platform on rear
Sand and Paint boat (Boat colors still undecided on)
New LED bow and stern light
On-board battery charger
Switch Panel
Fuse Block
Fuel Lines
Through Hull Fuel Vent Piece
Marine Stereo Mounting Hardware
Marine Stereo System
Finish Stripping and painting trailer
Steering Wheel
throttle Lever

I have some new lumber so I'm going to be getting to work on the framing for the sun deck and bench seats this weekend. Right now I'm still in the process of drawing up how I am wanting it to look. Now nothing is going to be actually installed into the boat while the boating season is still open since the boat is running and I can take it out on the water again. I will of course do small things to the boat through the rest of the year, but not to much sadly. I will start putting everything together this winter, and I will have to get the measurements for the floor in there. I will try to get some pictures up on here this weekend or hopefully before then. I'll start cutting away at the sun deck/bench seating frame starting tomorrow. Sorry it took a while to update this thread.

 

[gozierdt]

Re: 1971 Tom Sawyer (The newest to the family)

Sorry to read about all of your problems with the boat, but at least you seem to have kept a GREAT attitude through all this. The really good part to think about is that you will have a great boat with all the problems fixed after you get through all this. This winter will be hard, since you won't have any good times to think back on, but it seems like you're through the worst of the new bad findings, so it's pretty much all uphill from here. Keep the good attitude!!!

 

[NetMatrix]

Re: 1971 Tom Sawyer (The newest to the family)

Sorry to read about all of your problems with the boat, but at least you seem to have kept a GREAT attitude through all this. The really good part to think about is that you will have a great boat with all the problems fixed after you get through all this. This winter will be hard, since you won't have any good times to think back on, but it seems like you're through the worst of the new bad findings, so it's pretty much all uphill from here. Keep the good attitude!!!

The previous owner's son didn't take to well care of the boat. He's very abusive to boats, and it's not very cool. All the bad parts were with the motor, and it's nice that I have it running again. I'm going to put the seats back in it this weekend, and probably take it out next weekend. In the mean time I will be getting the new interior built up, and it's going to be a while before I can get to far with it cause of the price of the fiber-glassing. I need to find a good place to buy all the fiberglass material from that is a good price then I can go from there. In the mean time at least I will be able to get everything cut and fitted together before I start the glassing process of this.

I also decided that when I do the new floor I'm going to install another fuel tank into the boat that way I'll have 2 tanks in there just in case of more gas needed when not close to a gas pump. It will still have the stock 18 gallon tank which I'm thinking about upgrading to a 25 gallon tank, and then it will have the space 12 gallon tank that will be in the stringer area of the boat in the middle of the floor area with a access cover over it for easy access. My 12-gallon tank is in good condition, and has been leak tested and passed. I will have it pressure tested sometime before the end of the year to see what the tank pressure is. So now that this project has a go we will now fully start the count down to the classic/modernized boat launch.

After talking to my girlfriend the boat's name has been decided. She will be called Sweet Dreams.