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Recovery Day
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1958 Alumacraft Open C. Origional trailer is in back of pickup on the right side of photo. Trailer is 1961 Wards Sea King. Trailer is sound and will be restored in another project.
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My dad Andy purchased the boat new as an open boat. He had one thing in mind... fishing. He built the dashboard and bought the windhield and forward controls seperately. He bought the motor with electric start but when he took delivery it had the tiller handle. He must have seen the Deep C model and converted his to reflect that one.
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Forward Veiw
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MFG Tag.
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Alumacraft Open C. Transom wood is solid. Motor plate plywood on the outside needs to be replaced. The steering system will get stainless steel cable.
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Note damaged top rail and sheet metal above spray rail. Caused by tree that fell during wind storm in 1990. Boat saw continued use until 1997. This damage will be repaired during this project.
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Three quarter view port side
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Stripped
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Everything removed for restoration. This is how I remember the boat when dad brought it home in the fall of 1957. There is a bunch of random popped rivets to replace. I will seal the seam and paint the inside. The outside will remain bare and get polished.
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After debating whether to cut out bent rail then cut out bent sheet metal and welding in a new piece, I decided to cut out the top rail and straighten the bent sheet metal using the old fashioned body shop dolly and hammer method
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Fallen damage from 1990
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Rivets and spot welds
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Rivets and spot welds in the damage area ready to be drlled out.
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Small dents and creases came from botched attempt of straighten it in 1990. I have now begun drilling off the rivet heads and knocking them out with a punch. The little dark round spots between the rivets are spot welds. I used a spot weld drill to remove them.
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Drilled Rivets
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Top rail removed
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Used a sawzall to remove the four foot section of the top rail to facilitate straightening of the sheet aluminum. I'll use a hydraulic press to straighten the kink out of the section of top rail.
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I used this wood block/C clamp to iron out the large buckles and to put the edge vertical again. The dead blow hammer was used to wail on the clamped wood. This got thing roughly close.
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Bending Metal
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Hammer and dolly
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My son Nick with hammer and dolly. He really has an eye and the feel for metal. He is now working the origional crease line and the damaged spot is slowly disapearing.
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Creases removed and sheet metal again conforms to origional shape. (almost)
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Sheet Metal Vertical
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Straightened top rail
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Had planned to press top rail back into shop. Was able to do it with a couple blocks of wood and a big hammer. The repaired rail was a good fit and only needed light tapping to seat over the side sheet metal. Secured with aluminum rivits. I'll have the welder fill the spot weld holes when he welds up the two saw cuts in the rail.
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I said the corrosion was bad.
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Rear port side corner
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1958 Evinrude Bigtwin 35
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1958 Evinrude 35 is in great shape. Over the years it has had water pump changes reguarly. This motor has never overheated. Compression is an even 120 PSI in both cylinders. This motor will need only coils, points, plugwires, plugs, lower unit oil change and a water pump to wake from a 10 year snooze.
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Junction box. Evinrude optional equipment for 1958.
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Junction Box
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Throttle/Shifter
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Early style Simplex;. Well lubed over the years still works great;.
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The Bigtwin motor shill has the pressurized fuel system. Both the Evinrude Cruise A Day and Johnson Mile Master 6 gallon pressurized gas tanks have moderate rust inside. They were left ouside for quite a long time. I have a Evinrude 4 gallon Cruise A Day tank that is in good condition. I'll be replacing both six gallon tanks. It seems the cost of used E-Bay tanks is less than cleaning and rebuilding the pressure pumps on old tanks
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Pressurized Tank
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