3Squids '79 Center Console thread

bradford said:
I've learned that fiberglass shops are good places to get free boat storage, often times multiple years worth. Be careful of the hatch in the splash well, potential sinking hazard. A foam roller at least would have been nice of him. I like the transom knees.
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Sinking hazard?!?! Well now you gotta explain that or I'll be freaking out every time I take her out. It had one there from the factory I just updated it to a nicer hatch cover.
 
Hate to be the guy Squid...

.... but a splash well is designed for when you take green water over the transom it stays out of the boat and bilge and drains quickly away through the scuppers. A hatch than isn't absolutely water tight will allow water into the bilge, which when on board and underway is a manageable situation. The problem is when the scuppers allow water into the splash well due to the aft end sitting low in the water and water seeping (or pouring depending) into the hatch, overwhelming the batteries with the bilge pump constantly running, she gets low enough in the water, and the water just comes across the top of the transom and she eventually sinks at the dock. Other people have had them before, but it's a screaming red flag to me, so I thought I'd mention it.

It would be an easy fix glass wise. I don't mean to freak you out or anything, just something to think about.

Somewhere on here someone posted a go pro video of a guy spear fishing and coming back up to the boat with it listing hard and slowly going down, likely attributed to a low transom and a leaky hatch. Maybe they'll chime in and re post it.
 
Like I said it had a hatch there from the factory which was not waterproof at all. It was just a fiberglass top sitting on top of a hole with a elastic cord underneath keeping it down. Boat made it 38 years like that so i guess I'll just have to go with it. The well has 2 scuppers with the ping pong ball stopper contraption and drains water pretty rapidly.
 
Motor is finally hung back on the boat, just about ready to go get the rebuilt powerhead installed.




Also after discovering that the nuts on the 2 eyes in the transom were basically non existent anymore I decided to check the bow eye as well. Well sure enough the nuts were just balls of rust. I can't believe it hasn't pulled out getting it on the trailer. So I bought a new bow eye and my plan is to reglass a core inside the hull as I believe the existing wood core is rotten. For now I just put a piece of wood back there to get it trailered to the motor man. The gel coat around the eye was chipped up pretty badly so I fabricated a little stainless cosmetic plate to cover as much of the mess as I can. I'll also bed it with LifeCaulk once I finish the backing plate.

 
Well got some bad news today. My lower unit was shot, I knew that already. Apparently the lower unit on the parts motor is also shot. Been searching all afternoon for one and have come up empty handed. I asked the motor man if rebuilding them was a good option and he suggest finding a good used one over rebuilding. Not real sure why but for now I guess I'll take his advice.

So if any of you got any laying around a brother could really use some help right now!!

Also he asked me if I was aware the motor wasn't seated to the transom properly. I asked him what he meant and he said he noticed a gap at the bottom of the mounting bracket. He tried to tighten it and couldn't. He said he loosened the top bolts and tightened the bottom and there was a gap at the top. So pretty much my motor is teeter-tottering top to bottom. Not a real happy camper right now. I have been without my boat for the past 2 months to get a transom put it and it's not done right. I feel with YouTube and advice I could of gotten here or any other forum I could of tackled this project myself and saved a lot of time and headache.

It appears to be about a 1/16" or less gap so I'm thinking maybe I can use a long block to true it up??? What are your thought? I have a photo but seem to be having issues with Photobucket so I'll try to get that up ASAP.
 


Think I could possibly true it up with a long block sander??



Had to post a bow pic. Dat flare dough!!!
 
Mike, my motor is a 25" shaft. Thanks though

Bradford, I'll take a look at them. I talked to my local Mercury shop and he has one that he replaced a year ago then the owner of the boat repowered. He said he'd sell it to me for $1000 and buying it from him will give me a guarantee on it. Right now that's my best option. Just waiting to get it back from the motor guy.
 
Looked into SEI a little. $845 for a whole new lower unit. Seems like a deal to me. Comes with a 3 year warranty that covers anything. They even claim running with no oil or hitting a stump as covered. May be the route I go depending on shipping. I'm sure that can be expensive.
 
A lower has some weight to it, but is a relatively small compact package. I'll bet shipping isn't a deal breaker.

Might ask Spareparts, he might have some experience with them.
 
When I bought a lower for my 200hp Mercury 2.5L to convert it from a 20" to a 25" I think the total cost for shipping was less than $50... and that included the lower and the mid extension unit. Shipping shouldn't be that much. :head:
 
Destroyer said:
When I bought a lower for my 200hp Mercury 2.5L to convert it from a 20" to a 25" I think the total cost for shipping was less than $50... and that included the lower and the mid extension unit. Shipping shouldn't be that much. :head:
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Nice. Did you go with SEI? If so how has it performed?
 
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So I got the boat back today with a running motor!! Motor sounds great. I was talking to the motor guy and he believed the lower unit will be fine. He said it appears someone used the wrong type of nut on the prop shaft and the threads have minor damage to them. He told me to bolt the prop on if it torqued down properly and didn't strip any thread I'd most likely be fine. He also suggested using a cotter nut and drilling a small hole through the shaft for a cotter pin. But mechanically all seems well the the lower unit.

So for now the motor will probably rest for the winter until I figure out what I'm going to do about the transom. Even the motor guy agreed it was done completely shoddy. Everyone I talked to said the guy was slow but incredible at glass work. I'm not sure what happened but now I'm now sure what I'm going to do with it. I feel no matter what the structural integrity has been compromised due to him cutting the whole back of the boat out and apparently I'm not the only one as everyone that's seen it can't believe it was done that way.

Part of me just wants to rip it all back out and start over with an empty shell but
1- it still bothers me the back had been cut out and it will always be a weak link
2- getting out what he did is probably going to be a nightmare.

Any inspiration would be greatly appreciated. This boat definitely has me down in the dumps about it.
 
3 Squids said:
So I got the boat back today with a running motor!! Motor sounds great. I was talking to the motor guy and he believed the lower unit will be fine. He said it appears someone used the wrong type of nut on the prop shaft and the threads have minor damage to them. He told me to bolt the prop on if it torqued down properly and didn't strip any thread I'd most likely be fine. He also suggested using a cotter nut and drilling a small hole through the shaft for a cotter pin. But mechanically all seems well the the lower unit.
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Before you go and start drilling holes do like a professional machinist would do. Get yourself a couple of thread files. They come two different ways.. one is just a single "V" shape that you place in the grove of the good threads and work backwards towards the damaged threads (useful for a quick touch-up where one thread goes over the next). The other is a long square bar about 9" in length. Each end has 4 different thread sizes ground into it, one ground into each side, for a total of 8 different thread sizes per bar. Buy the bar that has the threads you need on it, lay the correct side of the bar in the good groves like the previous file and work your way from good threads to the bad threads, filing away the damaged parts of the thread as you go. The advantage of this type of file is that since you always have a few teeth ( VVVVVVV) in the good threads your chances of success with restoring your shaft are greatly increased. Most places that sell industrial and machine shop tools will carry them. Harbor Freight even has some, that, although not the best quality, should do the trick as long as the threads marked on the bar match the ones on your shaft. Be aware that they come in both SAE and Metric, so choose carefully. You'll need to know the diameter and how many threads per inch (TPI) your shaft has.
 
Destroyer said:
Before you go and start drilling holes do like a professional machinist would do. Get yourself a couple of thread files. They come two different ways.. one is just a single "V" shape that you place in the grove of the good threads and work backwards towards the damaged threads (useful for a quick touch-up where one thread goes over the next). The other is a long square bar about 9" in length. Each end has 4 different thread sizes ground into it, one ground into each side, for a total of 8 different thread sizes per bar. Buy the bar that has the threads you need on it, lay the correct side of the bar in the good groves like the previous file and work your way from good threads to the bad threads, filing away the damaged parts of the thread as you go. The advantage of this type of file is that since you always have a few teeth ( VVVVVVV) in the good threads your chances of success with restoring your shaft are greatly increased. Most places that sell industrial and machine shop tools will carry them. Harbor Freight even has some, that, although not the best quality, should do the trick as long as the threads marked on the bar match the ones on your shaft. Be aware that they come in both SAE and Metric, so choose carefully. You'll need to know the diameter and how many threads per inch (TPI) your shaft has.
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Definitely going to look into that first. Thanks a bunch. I never knew such a tool existed.
 
sorry to see the problem with the transom. I was worried when I first saw your pic of the outside skin cut off. Not the best way to do it. People think its faster and easier than cutting the cap and going from the inside but then its all on you to shape it.

Question. Could it be that the holes are drilled in the wrong place or angled incorrectly? If you remove the bottom bolts and snug the top, can it sit flush?

Second.
Rather than shave it, consider adding to it to make a flat surface. Way easier. Use some EPOXY hard filler.
 
SkunkBoat said:
sorry to see the problem with the transom. I was worried when I first saw your pic of the outside skin cut off. Not the best way to do it. People think its faster and easier than cutting the cap and going from the inside but then its all on you to shape it.

Question. Could it be that the holes are drilled in the wrong place or angled incorrectly? If you remove the bottom bolts and snug the top, can it sit flush?

Second.
Rather than shave it, consider adding to it to make a flat surface. Way easier. Use some EPOXY hard filler.
Click to expand...

No. it's definitely bowed. I put a straight edge along the transom and it teeter-totters like a playground toy. After thinking about it I agree adding material would be better than shaving it down. Guess I'll pull the motor off yet again and see what I can do with it. That's really the least of my worries right now as I gotta reconstruct the splashwell as well. He's got all sorts of 2x4's everywhere I guess bracing things up. Seemed a bit excessive to me. And as you said it had to be shaped back and it was not shaped back at all the way it was. Everything is kind of radiused now and looks terrible. I'm not sure at all how I'm going to get a somewhat sharp edge there without it being weak and breaking off easily.

Destroyer said:
One picture is worth a thousand words, etc. I'm not endorsing this particular brand or dealer, but this is what a thread file looks like, as shown in the picture. They (the files) come in several different types, to cover all the different thread sizes that are on the market.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/8-IN-1-THRE...:g:m3sAAOSwPCVX~Sr3&item=162235656516&vxp=mtr
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I have seen those before. My dad alsways had a few in his toolbox but I never knew what they were. I'm going to get info on the threads and order one. Worth a shot.
 
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