My seacraft overhaul-

[Miles Offshore]

"contingent as long as the money holds out" (then she goes catchin) I said back in the spring that i would post some before and after pix of my refit so here are my phase one motor restoration before and afters- right much other work to be done on the boat both cosmetic and mechanical- I rewired the boat completely two years ago so that is done. Hopefully I will get another 10 years or so out of the 350 PCM/Mercruiser Hybrid The compression on all the cylinders was fine , total cost for me so far is ~3500$. I paid a friend to do my motor work for me this time around cause I really just didnt feel up to it. 3 back surgeries and a host of other medical problems and mama said go ahead and let someone else take care of my motor so I jumped on that. Not an easy decision for me though as I dont like anyone tinkering, messing with my boat/ motor, anything- but me- But Danny is the man though and I do trust ed him to do my work and you can tell the kind of work he did. the pix dont do it justice either.The remainder of the work I will probably do on my own. Recoring two hatches and some awlgrip, we will see. . first the way my boat looked right before I pulled her out of the creek-old pix , the bilge and out of sight hoses that could have caused big problems- remember this motor was running sweet when I removed her. There is another thread talking about Holly carbs pros/cons etc. The flat top marine holly on this motor took about 7 years to dial in. I refuse to touch it at this time so it was not pulled/reworked etc. anyways- next i will be doing some deck work/ maybe new fuel tanks depending on how the current ones look, they are around 10 years old, and putting her all back together so I can at least get some meat time this year- pretty self explanatory- PS- my boat looks discusting minus everything and all tore up . So much so it is a little embarressing, so the end product will be much better- (slimed and bloodied up).

Prior to hauling my ride....








After two years since last wax job and boat sitting in a slip the shine from Collonite fleetwax still shines on- its great wax






Broken motor mount-












My muffler had some cracking in the pieces shown so some glass repair was done. After wrapping with glass cloth and resin the sheetmetal was waxed and staystrapped around the partially set up resin- when the resin repair cured the metal piece peeled right off and left a nice flange for the exhaust to clamp to.




All sanded down , parts being reinstalled including the tranny- tranny got new rear seal, flushed etc. borg warner - velvet drive 1.52-1



Heads sanded and painted BEFORE exhaust manifolds installed- its pretty tough to paint them after. the exhaust /mating surfaces were all milled for a perfect fit as were all the new parts- water pumps risers etc.


Motor is all reassembled , painted and ready to go back to her home!!!






That pretty new powerplant cant go back in the boat without cleaning and repainting the bilge- 2 part epoxy paint I have always thought my stainless keel under my running gear was aftermarket stuff bought by the police (former police boat in its early life). However if you look closely you can see where the keel is bolted through and it appears that pads were made in the hull for this purpose and maybe it was a seacraft factory option.







And here are a couple of shots with her set in, lined up and bolted back in place. The motor mounts use stainless lag bolts that screw directly into the huge seacraft- foam filled stringers- They are epoxied in so as they will need to be heated in order to remove them.










I hope this post isnt too boring and will maybe help someone else along the way- i had to go back and delete 10 pictures for the file to accept it- more to come-craig

[74Formula233]

Looks good....I love pics of boat projects/restos.....especially the old classics!

Keep 'em coming, they are far from boring!

[Capt. Brian Daley]

Miles that pretty boat of yours just got sweeter (like that word) sweeter
I love that boat great work love seeing what you do to her

[Murph]

Looking good, I am sure you will be happy to have it all behind you. Like the step by step pics.

[Buddyb]

post some more pics of that classic...

what year is it?

[Miles Offshore]

hey thanx guys- bait master- im sure some members get tired of seeing my boat- i just love showing it off (although not really right now,lol) heres a couple other pix though and i will update as i make progress- thanx again guyz- craig

[Admin]

Kickass miles !!!
I truelly love to see these posts. Its neat to see what can be done !

Thanks for the post and good luck with her

[HOLWACHAGOT]

Miles, I need to help you get it bloody. Awesome job fixin her up. Wish I had the talent to do that. I truly am impressed. Holwachagot.

[Miles Offshore]

as Jawz so grasiously puts it!l- well its on to phases 2 and 3 now- since the summer is screaming by and the friggen billfish bite is insane i thought i might just pull and paint the rear hatch, inspect the fuel tanks and take care of the normal bottom/hull haulout stuff-zincs/paint-etc. anyways after getting that big -heavy ass rear hatch removed i inspected the bottom of it expecting just laminated plywood on the backside like I have seen on some other "well known" boats. Much to my pleasant surprise there is laminated plywood ,along with laminated ribs spaced every 20 inches or so. no water intrusion whatsoever-(see pics). So looking at my tanks and bilge they didnt "appear" to be too awful bad so I poked and prodded the "dreaded foam" around 2 sides of the tanks and it seemed dry. (seemed is the key word here). I was doing some repairs on the deck piece and pondering paint and such when curiosity got the better of me. There was an area with a slight amount of corrosion on the filler tube of the starboard tank that just on a whim I sprayed with wd-40 and an area immediately turned black. Damn I didnt like the llooks of that so i said the hell with this , i am going to prod this foam a little more and then started seeing some moisture. Now flashback to february when striper season was winding down- one day i noticed my stbd fuel gage on "E". didnt think much of it but thought i had fuel in it so maybe the sending unit wqent bad which seems to happen occasionally. Well to make a long story short and two days of diggen out nasty water soaked foam, I found a hole about 3/8" wide by 1/2" long in the forward end of the tank. I guess Im lucky me and my buds werent the next shuttle test pilots. Never smelled any fumes at all though so go figure. Now its replacing both tanks , hoses etc and then Ill worry about the decks and cosmetic stuff,lol. Heres some boat **** for you guys that like it. More to come- craig

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v4...rhaul-%202006/

[Finesse]

Wow Craig ... Glad you found out now rather than later !!!

What were the tanks sitting on ... a ply deck or the hull ?? maybe I missed that photo .... The tanks look like they sit where the outboard model has the big old box stringers ?

Look at it this way ... at least you know what you've got under the decks now ... your in good shape after this is done