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Here she is, just minutes after picking her up from storage. Actually it looks way cleaner in this pic than in real life.
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Here is a side view, notice me on the bottom right trying to get the trailer lights to work. It only took 2 hours in 110 degree heat.
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The break lights work, but the breaks do not! Its only a 4 hour drive home through the desert, hopefully we will make it. Oh yea, and the tires on the trailer look like they are about to blow out, they are only single ply and way under the weight limit. Btw I have no spare so they better hold up.
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No Breaks, incorrect tires, no spare .. a look of confidence.
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A last look at the interior before I grease the buddy bearings and we are off.
(Hoping this is not going to be one of those disaster stories you tell when your older, about what a stupid thing you did when you were young!)
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Well unbelievebly we made it home no problem. Here she is sitting in her new parking spot! The only thing imediatly wrong with the boat is that the outdrive will go up without assistance. I was planning on a simple tilt motor swap untill ... I ran across a share a project website featuring another OMC strendrive boat which had undergone a major restoration. The project inspired me, and hence my share a project story begins.
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Everything must go! There is dirt, oil, fishing line, beer tops, and misc. crap everywhere. the bidge area looks decent, I wish I took a picture prior to cleaning it so you could have seen the mess.
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Carpet is stripped and will be replaced.
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The Gas compartment is exposed, and low and behold the tank is floating in water. Water has seeped around and through the deck, this problem will have to be fixed.
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The gas tank is removed, surprizingly the damage to the stringers is minimal. A bit of sanding and CPES treatment and the stringers will be fine. A new channel system will be installed later to prevent this from reacurring when the tank is sealed back in.
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Moving on the the rest of the deck. Small holles were drilled to test differnt areas, I wanted to see if water had seeped into other compartments below the deck. Amazinly it had managed to stay water tight over its past 25 years.
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The holes are fiberglassed back into place, and sanded down.
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Looking now at the trailer, I wonder what the brakes look like?
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No explanation needed, new ones were ordered imediatly.
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I decided I wanted to re-paint the trailer and to do the job right I will need to get into every nook and crany. So off come the axle and fenders.
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All dents are repaired with bondo and sanded.
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I purchased a HVLP gun so the paint job looks proffesional.
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The brakes and a few other parts arrived, it is getting expensive already!
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Sanded and preped, the axle and fenders get a first coat of primer. I used rustoleum heavy duty to prevent rust so I wont ever have to hopfully do this again.
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Looks good! I decided I am going to paint the trailer white, imediatly this will look like a bad matching idea with the boats current colors. Have faith I have a plan in my head to pull it all together. I went again with rustoleum because it is easy to color match for any future touch ups.
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The axle is back on the frame and looks great. You be wondering "what about the frame?" well after alot of debate I decided I have 2 options. 1) lift the boat on stands and back out the trailer ..ro 2) leave the boat on the trailer and paint in steps... I decided option number one was to risky. So well see how the steps work out.
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