1975 Century Arabian - Total Restore

[marksa1458]

Side repair with guide coat

 

[Bayou Dave]

She's looking better and better! :joyous:

 

[CenturyLover]

Marksa--love your posts and am thoroughly enjoying your progress. As for relocating the exhaust, here's my two cents. I think these boats have great potential as collector boats in the not so distant future. They were the muscle cars of their day. And they may some day achieve the respect and demand they deserve. As a result, I would strive to keep your boat "bone stock" if you can. Even if it means retaining features some people might object to--like noisy exhaust. Think of all the '63 Vette owners who cut out their split window bits and installed '64 rear windows. It's the '63 split window everyone wants these days.

 

[CenturyLover]

Are you thinking all new gel-coat paint job? Before you do, can I make a suggestion? Take a small area anywhere on the boat--perhaps below the water line. Using a buffer and some compound, give it a good going over to remove the obvious oxidation. Then thoroughly, and I mean thoroughly, clean off any residue left by the buffing, and apply a coat of a product called Nyalic. For some reason, it brings back the color of faded fiberglass/paint/gel coat and leaves a very attractive gloss finish.. This might just save you a lot of time and/or money. If it doesn't work for you, let me know and I'll refund your money. I have NO financial relationship with them whatsoever. I just happen to know the people who run the company. Oh, you should know that gasoline removes Nyalic, so don't use it near your filler unless you are religious about not spilling any.

 

[marksa1458]

Update. With the stringers and deck substantially complete it is time to focus on the Chrysler 440. Since it is a reverse rotation engine, much advice has been to convert to a standard rotation. That really is out of my budget, so I really need to figure out what shape this engine is in. The hour meter says the engine has 274 hours which isn't much. I built an engine test stand, cleaned things up and amazingly the engine fired up immediately.

Here is a video



Only ran it for a minute as there was no water coming out of the exhaust. I pulled the hoses off the dual water pump and it looks like I need to replace the impellers. The oil cooler side was moving water, but the engine side isn't. The rubber is good on both but they are not springy anymore. Pulled the thermostat and it was bone dry.


http://vid234.photobucket.com/album...trim.89F05EEA-2463-4ECB-BE11-9FFBF0088996.mp4

 

[marksa1458]

With spring around the corner, started doing some work on the Arabian. I spent the last several months looking for a new v drive with little luck. Since the case was bad, I tried JB weld. Not something I would normally do - but it seems like it worked. I pressure tested the case with 25 psi of air and it held for over an hour. I will continue to look for a better v drive, but for now I can reinstall in the boat and move forward.

I also finished re-doing the steering wheel. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out!

 

[Kiloecho]

No Title

Wheel looks great! I thought you had sold the boat. Did you decide not to use the metal stitching? Remember, the unit will have lots of vibration and gets hot enough to require it be water cooled. We have a place here in Tyler that repairs castings. My V-drive is apart and I have the gaskets cut out and replacing 4 of the 6 bearings. Still hunting for one of them. Do you have a grease fitting in the lower cooling cap. It seems odd that it leads to the cooling chamber. One of my bearings has a hole in it for grease, yet I can't figure that out either since it appears to be lubed by splash transmission fluid. Do you have a service manual? I have nearly finished the re-assemble of the transmission and have used torque figures from other like sized fasteners in other manuals. I have a complete list of replacement seals for both units. I'll be posting soon if you need it. Kevin