Duck boat overhaul

[Eagle19]

Update: jack71 was gracious enough to hook me up with an 85hp motor. Today is my birthday so I convinced my wife to buy me an engine lift for my birthday. I got her hoisted it and got her started! Took some time but it runs pretty good. The motor is a 1976 so the tilt and trim is kinda bulky so I'm going to try to convert the tilt and trim from my 1990 to make it work. Have no clue if the trim on either one really works but I'll find out soon enough.

Also I'm thinking about switching the lower units of the two. Some of the metal on the lower on the 1976 are broken off. But that maybe something further down the line!

Two of the things that I'll have to fix on this motor are the fuel pump and impeller. They look like they work but as old as the motor is and as long as it's been sitting I would rather put a new one in now rather than later!

If anybody knows the swapping won't work PLEASE LET ME KNOW!!!! Pictures to come!

[RascalArms]

Tagged

[Eagle19]

Alright so I worked on the motors today. My plan is to try and swap the steering arm assemblies allowing me to use the better tilt and trim of the two units. I pulled the two lower units off and took the steering assembly off the 85hp. Of course I did it the hard way not realizing the shifts cable runs up the middle of the arm assymbly. So trying to pull the lower unit after pulling all the bolts from the arm assembly is a bad idea. I got it off though and will try to pull the blown 90hp off the boat tomorrow.

Here is a picture of the 76 85hp.

[Eagle19]

I removed these bolts for the steering arm assembly. It's pretty much the same on both motor.

[Eagle19]

Other bolt

[Eagle19]

An hour and a two hours later I got the lower unit out and the assembly off. Done for the night more to come tomorrow.

[1shot]

Tagged for later

[Eagle19]

So today I took the rest of the blown 90hp motor off the boat. After taking the lower unit off I realized they aren't swappable, not a huge deal. The 85 lower unit just has a chunk missing off the fin, nothing I can't fix by buying plastic fins. After removing the blown motor I measured the brackets of the 90 steering arm assembly to see if it would fit the 85. The top mount will fit but the bottom won't, but good news is all it takes to swap the bottom brackets are just removing a nut and swapping it out.

Here is the tilt trim and steering assembly. After I took the pic I power washed it all to get the grease off since I'll be painting it soon.

I'll work on it more tomorrow as long as it doesn't rain. But it seems like it shouldn't take long! My big obsticle now is wiring the trim under the motor's hood. I have to do that in order to get it to tilt up some more so I can get the lower unit on.

I also decided to buy an aluminum spool gun and some argon, so I'll be doing the welding myself next week.

[Eagle19]

No pictures on today's update, but I want to swap the bottom bracket and of course the old bracket had teeth on it. So I took off the "new" bracket and crossed my fingers that it would fit the teeth...and of course it didn't. So I had to swap the whole arm which took all of 30 seconds to do. I noticed the shafts were two different sizes so I had a feeling this was about to get worse. Sure enough the "new" shaft was too skinny and there is some good amount of play. If I really wanted to I could put the motor on and pump the bracket full of grease. But I'm going the safe route and having some spacers machined. Several tbh'rs have already offered to help. So hopefully I can get it figured out and make it work. It just goes to show that this boat build would've never happened if it weren't for y'all!

In the mean time my spool gun showed up. I just need to find some scrap aluminum to practice with!

[Eagle19]

So my wife has been complaining about how bad our garage is, so I've been trying to clean it before I go further into the boat. It's a hard task for somebody like me because I always find "new" tools that I forgot I had. So tonight's distraction was camo practice for the boat and cleaning in between layers.

I was going to try a version on green and brown but I just don't see it working. So but I really like the greys and black. I like the white section too but it's almost too busy. I'm thinking about trying a drab color for a base color, then the dark grey and black. Then use the light grey where the white is. Any thoughts?

[Eagle19]

This is the one I like the most.

[Carpe_diem]

looks good, not one of the usual camo patterns.

[Eagle19]

So I've been playing around and going down to the coast to go fishing on the weekends. But now it's crunch time and getting serious, real season is getting close so I need to get this thing on the water! Hopefully tomorrow I'll finish transferring the motor over and get the tilt and trim re-wired up. I have got a delima though, I ordered some seats but I couldn't find any that matched my original color scheme I wanted to do. So I can't decide if I want to match the seats (same pattern different color). Some people have given me grief saying it's just a duck boat. I agree but I want this thing to look custom and not so much like it was pieced together. Thoughts?

[Eagle19]

Got the motor all mounted up this weekend. My biggest issue was there was too much play in the mount because the arm was off the old motor and not a prefect fit for the newer mount. Thanks to Sean he made me some brass collars to use as spacers! They worked perfectly. My next obstacle was the motor was off by about an 1/8th when I went to put it on the steering arm brackets. But I was able to drill out the holes to make it work. Next I started to add trim buttons to the outside of the motor and transfer over the tilt and trim wiring. It seems like small progress but big steps in the right direction. Waiting on wiring to come as well as a new impeller. Cracks have been welded, I'm going to water test it Friday night just by floating it. I'm thinking about buying some plywood for now just to do the decking and do aluminum in the spring. I can't decide.

[Texas Grown]

So many options, so little time. I know the feel-n.

Get the basics down, float worthy, and legal. You can do the little things as you go along till the season is over. Then focus on the major changes or things that will take more time after the season. But don't put it off till last second once the season is ove. Or you may miss a season. Teal is just a few weeks away now. No matter the color, it can always be covered with camo fabric.

Personally, with your choice of pattern, I'd use the light brown for background, olive, splotches/patches, and with the black like it is. That would sit great next to an old deadfall or brush in the water. Along with sand or mud. Or a combo of all.