KathyD19
Petty Officer 1st Class
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2012
- Messages
- 352
Hi everyone..so glad I found this site! Here's a little bit about my boat situation: I'm the "last of the litter" of 6 kids and when I was small my dad would take the whole family out on a 14 foot boat for Sundays at the lake (actually he bought the boat the day my mom went into labor with me, so it has a lot of sentimental meaning). The old boat sat at our family store warehouse for years after 1972, as the older kids grew up and we couldn't all fit on it anymore. All these years later, I'm 47 years old and I wanted to see if I could get her going again for old times sake. Dad passed away in 2004 and my mom is i her 80's so it would mean SO much to be able to get it running again and take mom out in it before her health worsens much more. I sanded the peeling paint down to the bare aluminum but I'm not sure how to get it to a mirror-shine like I've seen others do for restorations...any advice on that would be appreciated. It had some leaks at the rivets and I sealed them for the outside with a great product I found from West industries and I also used truck bed liner on the entire inside and it is now water proof. I need to re-wire the lights and horn since the old wires were rotted & cracked but that should be rather easy to figure out. My big problem was that after sitting so long, I knew the motor would need to be tended to and I couldn't find a mechanic around here willing to work on such an old motor. Finally was referred to a man that would work on old motors and took it there last Spring. He would never call me, I always had to call him to ask about it and he would tell me it was too hot to work on it, or he got it started but it kept dying, he wasn't going to give up on it, he was frustrated with it and needed a break from it, etc. This continued all summer into the Fall and I called him again, he said he'd make it his "winter project" and get it going for sure. So this Spring I called again, he was very unfriendly, said he couldn't fix it, it was too old and he couldn't get parts. He said it was in his way and he wanted to just take it to the junk yard. I was surprised and saddened, totally didn't expect the change of attitude and after quickly trying to think where I'd keep a broken motor with no one who could work on it, I told him he could keep it. The next day I thought better of that and figured I could at least tinker with it myself and learn from it so I called him back but he said it was too late, he'd hauled it to the junk yard. I have since found out that was a lie and that he actually parted it out and made a lot of money off of it. I am kicking myself now, just furious that I let this happen. So I had no motor and only a budget of $500 to spend, not realizing until I began searching, how expensive motors are, even the older ones. I was going to buy one locally that I found and the guy said he needed to clean the carb. first then would call me back when he was done. Didn't call so I waited 10 days and called him; he said he'd decided to sell it to someone else the next day who didn't care about the carb. Wow, didn't even call me or anything! So I finally put it out there on faith on Craigslist that I was looking for a motor under $600 and what had happened before to my motors. A woman contacted me and said she had a 1964 Mariner with a vintage Johnson Javelin 30 hp (not sure if it was a 1956 or 1959) motor that ran fine. Said I could have the boat/trailer/motor for $500. I told her I really only need the motor and she said it was still $500 but I could take the boat and trailer, sell them and make a profit. She was getting divorced and moving and had nowhere to keep it. She'd had it out on the water 4 times already this year and when I went to see it, it ran fine and I kind of fell in love with the vintage look of the boat so I took the whole deal! Here's my situation now: the motor is being used as a tiller style but she said I can redo it to fit a control box. I have the Mercury motor control box still on my Dad's boat...will a Johnson motor work with a Mercury control box? I have the original Merc cables & power cord, will I need to get something different? Is there a link or video somewhere that will show me how to hook up the steering and control box? The previous owner had modified the front of the motor bar with a control bar for the starter button, the on/off switch and another toggle switch for a fuel pump that had been installed into a gas can (I don't use that though, I attached it to an old original gas can from my old boat and that works fine). If I am able to attach it to the control box from the Merc, it had a choke button and a key start with a single handle throttle on it, will I be able to use the key start and choke from it so I can remove that added on control panel? I've tried adding pictures of all this but it keeps saying "upload failed". I'll try again later though.
My original plan was to sell the boat and trailer I just bought but I'm kind of thinking of keeping and restoring it too now! It is fiberglass and I know nothing about that though. The original top part of the fiberglass is an oxidized brownish color and the hull of the boat was painted over (poorly) with a yellow paint that is peeling. If I keep this boat to restore, what do recommend to use to remove that paint without damaging the underlying fiberglass gel coat? What product do you recommend to remove oxidation and restore the gel coat color? Whew! Lots of info there and lots of questions. I am a dental hygienist, I'm not a mechanic BUT I love to learn, have no problem with doing hard, hard work and have the tenacity of a pit bull with a steak! LOL. With the help of YouTube, I've rebuilt my garden tiller carb., repaired a vintage Lawn Boy mower and recently fixed the broken touch screen and LCD screen on my sons iphone! So I'm willing to try anything and I am so determined to get Dads old boat back on our lake again...I've named her the S.S. Minnow (from Gilligans Island which I loved growing up..just hope it doesn't suffer the same fate!).
Also I'm going to sand down and repaint the motor..the other owner had painted it "camo" but I am going to refinish it a deep red with a white strip and redo the chrome! Thanks in advance for any advice or help!!!
My original plan was to sell the boat and trailer I just bought but I'm kind of thinking of keeping and restoring it too now! It is fiberglass and I know nothing about that though. The original top part of the fiberglass is an oxidized brownish color and the hull of the boat was painted over (poorly) with a yellow paint that is peeling. If I keep this boat to restore, what do recommend to use to remove that paint without damaging the underlying fiberglass gel coat? What product do you recommend to remove oxidation and restore the gel coat color? Whew! Lots of info there and lots of questions. I am a dental hygienist, I'm not a mechanic BUT I love to learn, have no problem with doing hard, hard work and have the tenacity of a pit bull with a steak! LOL. With the help of YouTube, I've rebuilt my garden tiller carb., repaired a vintage Lawn Boy mower and recently fixed the broken touch screen and LCD screen on my sons iphone! So I'm willing to try anything and I am so determined to get Dads old boat back on our lake again...I've named her the S.S. Minnow (from Gilligans Island which I loved growing up..just hope it doesn't suffer the same fate!).
Also I'm going to sand down and repaint the motor..the other owner had painted it "camo" but I am going to refinish it a deep red with a white strip and redo the chrome! Thanks in advance for any advice or help!!!
