Taking the plunge!

[ludacrous999b]

Hey all, new here. Just bought myself a brand spanking new (lol) old boat. This 1981 v20 CC (steplift?) was so low in cost I couldnt pass it up. I know it will be a project boat, and I KNOW I'll sink a bag of money or two into it, but that boat it pretty to me right now and I cant wait to get started on her.

Here she is!

I'm starting a restoration thread on iboats to get opinions on restoration and repair. Anything you all (as v20 owners) would have to imput on first impressions would be really helpful.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Destroyer]

Welcome to the site. Congratulations on your purchase. Like all V20 project boats you have a diamond in the rough. How much you are willing to spend in time and money will determine how brilliant your finished boat will be. You've certainly come to the right place for information on what to do and not to do on how to restore her. The people here have years of experience in these matters. So if you have questions, just ask away or better yet, do a search here for the answer to your questions. At the very least, you got a tandem axle trailer for under $500, and assuming it's not rusted out that's a good deal in itself. Please remember that one picture is worth a thousand words.. and we love boat porn here. So please post pictures of your restoration project.. it's the thing we love to see most..... well, almost most.. there are a few other things I can think of, but this is a family site.

 

[reelapeelin]

Hey all, new here. Just bought myself a brand spanking new (lol) old boat. This 1981 v20 CC (steplift?) was so low in cost I couldnt pass it up. I know it will be a project boat, and I KNOW I'll sink a bag of money or two into it, but that boat it pretty to me right now and I cant wait to get started on her.

Here she is!

I'm starting a restoration thread on iboats to get opinions on restoration and repair. Anything you all (as v20 owners) would have to imput on first impressions would be really helpful.

Thanks in advance!

Welcome to the site...are you the same Ludacrous as seen on THT for lo, these many years?

 

[step up here]

welcome to the site.
dont even think of touching the out drive and motor other then to remove it! the boat is just fine and still is truly one to finish with a bracket and outboard motor. butt! then again its your boat now and i wish you the best of luck with your project.

 

[ludacrous999b]

Welcome to the site...are you the same Ludacrous as seen on THT for lo, these many years?

I'm afraid not, couldn't even tell you what the THT forum? is. Bought new tie downs ratchet straps, light kit and high temp grease for the trip home. I'm really worried about those tires, located some shops down there that can replace the tire for me, hoping the bearings and hubs aren't ready to fall off.

As far as the I/O goes, I have an old friend who has done marine motor repairs, gone as far as breaking a seized motor and getting them running well. I'm about to invest in researching the dreaded OMC downsides. I won't ask here b/c I'm sure there will be plenty of previous posts to go by.


And BTW Reelapeel, I'm from Charlotte, NC. I'm in the military and was put in the lovely middle of nowhere Missouri, or Misery as I've taken to calling it ;-) At least there is a decent lake nearby to keep me motivated!

 

[spareparts]

If you got it for $275, you did pretty good. I have 26 years in the marine business, I held a Mercruiser Master, Mercury Certified, OMC sterdrive, Yamaha 5 Star, Volvo gas certified, and various other classes, schools and marine education. I can tell you with out a doubt, from my experiance, do not waste one dime on that motor and drive. Pull it out, glass up the transom, put a bracket on the back, bolt an outboard on and ride. There are very few parts available for those drives. I can't tell from the pic, but if its a hydromechanical drive(no anode above the antiventalation plate), the factory couldn't even make them work, if its a mechanical drive, they only work for a short amount of time before breaking again. IF you want to swap out for another type of I/O setup, you're still going to have to glass up the transom and start from scratch anyway. Unless you find a bad boat with a good drive, it will cost you far more than dong the outboard bracket idea.

PS, welcome to the site, feel free to ask any questions and good luck

 

[ludacrous999b]

Thanks for the advice on the motor. My main concerns start with the hull transom stringers and deck. I came into this one knowing the boat would have some problems but I love a project. I've heard a lot about Wellcrafts having leaky transoms, so it's the first place I'll look.

So I just went to marineengine.com and looked at my era engine, parts? unavailable, unavailable, unavailable, $14.44 for a water drain elbow adapter... out of stock...

 

[Road King Cole]

Welcome to the site. Definitely a diamond in the rough.

Another option would be to convert it to an outboard. MJ has a great thread on that for when he did it to his.

rkc

 

[ludacrous999b]

Got the boat picked up yesterday and got her home, haven't had time to get in her and give her a once over. (I did not pick the boat up personally) The boat was purchased from the first owner, amazingly! The original owners manual and the maintenance records were included. My agent tells me that the recent documents show thousands in work done. Then the owners just seemed to stop. The bboat sat for 4 years so who knows if they negated the work done by bad storage. I'm very interested in looking over the paperwork and the boat tonight. And YES I will post pictures.

 

[reelapeelin]

Got the boat picked up yesterday and got her home, haven't had time to get in her and give her a once over. (I did not pick the boat up personally) The boat was purchased from the first owner, amazingly! The original owners manual and the maintenance records were included. My agent tells me that the recent documents show thousands in work done. Then the owners just seemed to stop. The bboat sat for 4 years so who knows if they negated the work done by bad storage. I'm very interested in looking over the paperwork and the boat tonight. And YES I will post pictures.

Ludacrous...you really did a nice job buyin that boat for PENNIES...Hope you'll strongly consider following Spareparts advise on converting to outboard/bracket combo...he ain't BSing about it...knows what he's talking about...good luck either way and keep us posted...from out there in Misery...LOL!!...you comin back to Charlotte when sevice ends?...

 

[ludacrous999b]

Here are the pictures I promised. Unfortunatly mother nature has other plans than me cleaning out the interior of the boat. I was able to pull out all the old wood seating, engine cover and cabin uphulstry and spray it all down with the hose. I was able to unclog the rear drain plug and oh my lord how the water rolled out. Got to get this stuff cleaned up! Clean pictures to follow when the rain stops falling!

Need a new winch and stop for the bow, rust coming out on the bow ring.

This is the only hull damage on the boat I've spotted do far.

Some hull shots follow, the gel coat just seems gone, and the paint is powdering off on my hands.

More to follow.

 

[ludacrous999b]

The nessecary bow shot

A few of the metal parts look like this on the hull. The windshield and glass look good.

Shots of the Cuddy damage.

A view of my beautiful deck.

Thru deck pics

Fuel tank

 

[ludacrous999b]

Now the horrid horrid part of my purchase!

 

[reelapeelin]

The "horrid, horrid" part...remove it all and after that, you won't believe the relief you'll feel and how much easier it'll make your restoration...

You mention the gelcoat gone...not at all...just oxidized as expected of one neglected in the sun over time...3M makes an oxidation remover & hull restorer that'll have her lookin' like new...go ahead and pick up a buffer ($25 at Harbour Freight) and save a lot of elbow grease...thanks for all the great pics...just to prove it can be done, here's my previous 21 the day I bought it

And her's the same boat the next day...

Yeah...I's just kiddin' about the next day thing....LOL!!...Lookin forward to seein' the progression on yours...it'll all be worth it the 1st time you shove that throttle forward and yer cruisin' across the water...

 

[ludacrous999b]

Had the local shade tree mechanic come over. He used to work in Corpus Christi on marine engines, electrical and even did freelance upholstery. HAH! Well he saw my wife at the bar she works at and asked if we got the boat, and was downright excited to come over and look at the engine. He looked at it about 3 minutes on the outside, asked a few questions, played with the throttle, steering, looked inside the carb... "Oh yea, we'll get this thing unseized and working no problem, I've done lots like this before, I'll be back tomorrow when its warmer, WD-40 the entire engine outside and pour half a bottle of Marvell Mystery Oil into the carb. We will put the other half in the spark plug ports tomorrow."

Well I cant beat that with a stick, "So friend whats your rate?"

"Oh I cant make the lady that serves me beer hurt, how about we don't do a rate and every 4 hours I put in on a day or around that we call it $50, and some beers here and there"

Well I cant beat that with an automatic beating device!

Why are people so afraid of these engines? I's just and old GM. GM is GM right? Or are we talking about all the other parts that end up attached to the block? And couldnt the block be modified to accept these parts?

 

[ludacrous999b]

Well today I had the local shade tree mechanic come over. Yesterday per his instructions I put a full pint of Marvell Mystery Oil down into the carb. Today he came out with a pipe wrench and put it on the harmonic balancer. He stepped on it one way, stepped on it the other way. She broke loose. 5 minutes. WD-40 into the ports, and about 10 more minutes of turning and the girl turns freely. The starter is dead. Put a new battery in it, there is no key so we jumped across the solenoid. It clicks, we turned the engine by hand while jumping the starter and it started making a trying noise but it wont crank her over. Sprayed down the bilge and engine with engine degreaser, going to pressure wash out the inside of the boat and the below decks region so I can see what I'm working with and so we can work on the under part of the engine without living in 2 inches of grease.

I cleaned the boat exterior today.
Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

 

[RWilson2526]

Awesome progress... I knew that outside was gonna clean up big time....looked really pristine under that grime.....good luck with that motor for $50 bucks a day and some beer its worth some effort to at least see what you got.

Keep the pics coming

 

[ludacrous999b]

Looking inside the engine it looks brand new on the interior. From what I understand I need a marine grade starter. How will I know what starter to put on this boat? I cant take it to the auto parts store and we dont have a marine supplier around here. I know they sell starters on Ebay, does it have to be a specific starter or does it have to match the engine?

text says...

"c103
GM 6269132 N1
Firing Order
165432"

4.3L V6 OMC

 

[ludacrous999b]

Awesome progress... I knew that outside was gonna clean up big time....looked really pristine under that grime.....good luck with that motor for $50 bucks a day and some beer its worth some effort to at least see what you got.

Keep the pics coming

Thanks, I was amazed at how much of the oxidation came off. I plan on taking some 409 to it in a small spot to test how it'll work. I know it takes off soap scum so.... I've read about baking soda paste for the aluminum trim and around the windshield. Any other tips for polishing that up?

We worked the steering loose today too, really good start. The trim isnt seized up and like I said we broke the steering loose. Greased up the lower unit. The prop shaft turns easily, very easily, I put my ear to the lower unit while turning and I could hear the gears working. Smooth sounding. We were wondering why the steering was so hard to turn. After we did that we sat and pondered the next steps on the engine. While sitting my guy (Kevin) says to himself well I can go ahead and take that power steering pump off... DUHH, figured out why the steering was so tight!

If we can get her to turn over and run (points look good) we are planning on a new carb, alternator and starter. He says to price them off of a 79' Impala. Thoughts fellas?

 

[spareparts]

Its not the engine thats the problem, its the drive that theres nothing available for. On your starter, it will either have a long bolt/short bolt or it will have two long bolts holding it in place. I can't remeber which one gioes to which flywheel , but keep the same bolt pattern and you'll be OK. You can get a new starter from ebasicpower.com or boats.com . If it were me, I'd have a local starter shop look at teh starter to see if its worth saving. Not knowing teh conditon of the engine, I'd raterh not drop teh cash on a marine starter just to find out the motor is junk, expolain your situation to the guys at the starter shop, they may be able to help you out. From the pics I see, ther isn't an anode above hte antiventaltion plate. That means you have a hydromechanical drive. Do not try to shift it with out the motor running, it will mess up the shift cable. If it happens to actually shift, consider yourself lucky. Form what IO see on your boat, I'd be awlful temted to look or an outboard bracket and redo the transom, you'll be happier in the long run