'83 Bass Tracker Revival

[natestep]

Just a suggestion on the trailer paint. You could save some money on your budget price on trailer paint by useing Rustolem paint. Wal-Mart sells it by the quart and you just thin it with acetone and spray it. I have painted three trailers with this stuff and its as good as any paint you can buy. Its $8 a quart and about $7 for the acetone. The can says to thin to about 15% but I always just thin it till it runs off a paint padal pretty well. One Quart will paint a trailer.

 

[BYOB Fishing]

Just a suggestion on the trailer paint. You could save some money on your budget price on trailer paint by useing Rustolem paint. Wal-Mart sells it by the quart and you just thin it with acetone and spray it. I have painted three trailers with this stuff and its as good as any paint you can buy. Its $8 a quart and about $7 for the acetone. The can says to thin to about 15% but I always just thin it till it runs off a paint padal pretty well. One Quart will paint a trailer.

Great suggestion. What would be a good sprayer to use? I only have a 6 gallon air compressor; is that too small? It works great for the lures but I dont know how it would do with a bigger sprayer. Thanks!

Matt

 

[bassboy1]

There is a local guy that just opened a boat shop in town with a 75hp Johnson. He said he had been using it to steal parts from, but was going to work on it over the winter to get it back up and going, total rebuild. I'm not sure of the year, but it looks to be late 70's. He wanted $2k for it. I was hoping for something oil injected, so I didn't have to mix gas and oil. Not sure if that's something I wanted to go for....But I like the idea of 75hp. He estimated the boat might hit 50mph with that on it.

2 grand is too high for a late 70s 75 horse. I think you'll be much happier with something newer with oil injection (and power tilt/trim, if that doesn't have it).

I'd be leery of the 'total rebuild' of that motor too. I imagine it would be spruced up, but I'm betting it wouldn't be stripped, and the block sent to the machine shop for honing, etc. At least in my part of the woods, a 'total rebuild,' coming from someone who is trying to sell a motor (especially someone who works on them), can mean a whole bunch of things.

$80-4ga. Wire
$80-14ga. Wire

First off, where are you pricing your wire from? I've found the best prices on good quality marine wire to be from genuinedealz.com. Also, I'd run your numbers through the technical calculator that website has (top of the page). I'm thinking you might be more in the range of needing 6 gauge, and 16 gauge, depending on what your setup is. $160 just for wire (without accessories) seems a little high. I've spent as much as 170 bucks on marine wiring, but that was for an electric only rig with 3 24v trolling motors, with a very *difficult* battery arrangement (3 in the stern, 3 up front, with each TM needing pairs of 2), as well as having to to extend charger leads from a 3 bank charger (no, that couldn't be mounted near the batteries, either), and that included buying the major terminals and whatnot in the same order.

Just trying to save you a few pennies where possible (because you will need them later, boat mods tend to nickle and dime you to death, especially when going all out like you are).

 

[natestep]

I think your best bet would be to find a buddy that has a bigger compressor and use a gravity fed paint gun. A 6 gal. is just not big enough to paint with. I have painted with a 20 gal but it runs alot.

 

[BYOB Fishing]

2 grand is too high for a late 70s 75 horse. I think you'll be much happier with something newer with oil injection (and power tilt/trim, if that doesn't have it).

I'd be leery of the 'total rebuild' of that motor too. I imagine it would be spruced up, but I'm betting it wouldn't be stripped, and the block sent to the machine shop for honing, etc. At least in my part of the woods, a 'total rebuild,' coming from someone who is trying to sell a motor (especially someone who works on them), can mean a whole bunch of things.

$80-4ga. Wire
$80-14ga. Wire

First off, where are you pricing your wire from? I've found the best prices on good quality marine wire to be from genuinedealz.com. Also, I'd run your numbers through the technical calculator that website has (top of the page). I'm thinking you might be more in the range of needing 6 gauge, and 16 gauge, depending on what your setup is. $160 just for wire (without accessories) seems a little high. I've spent as much as 170 bucks on marine wiring, but that was for an electric only rig with 3 24v trolling motors, with a very *difficult* battery arrangement (3 in the stern, 3 up front, with each TM needing pairs of 2), as well as having to to extend charger leads from a 3 bank charger (no, that couldn't be mounted near the batteries, either), and that included buying the major terminals and whatnot in the same order.

Just trying to save you a few pennies where possible (because you will need them later, boat mods tend to nickle and dime you to death, especially when going all out like you are).

Thanks for the advise on the motor. I'll keep looking...What do you think about a '94 johnson with tilt/trim (No oil injection) for $2,600? I priced 18' of 4 gauge and 100' of 14 gauge to arrive at that total. I did look at genuinedealz and used their shopping cart to total it up. I priced the gauges I did based on advise from other mods on here...But if you think I only need 6/16 then that would save some $$ for sure.

Thanks again!

Matt

 

[bassboy1]

How big is the '94?

On the wire size, I'm just going by what I usually use. However, if you have a longer run than all of mine have (I don't know where your batteries are going to be), the additional size might be needed. On the Genuinedealz site, they have the calculator where you plug in the run distance, voltage, load amps, and wire size, and it shows what the voltage drop will be (should be under 3 percent). This will tell exactly what each run will need. May or may not end up saving you a bit of cash.

 

[BYOB Fishing]

How big is the '94?

Woops, it's an 88hp. It weighs in at 300lbs, so that might be too much weight for that boat.

 

[BYOB Fishing]

Well, if you were reading in the motor forum, you'll see that I bought a 2009 Fuel Injected Mercury 60hp four stroke yesterday. I paid $2170 for it. I originally said that it was $1500, but that was a mistake; that was opening bid and I was too excited to pay attention to the details of the reserve price when I posted that. The price includes shipping. It was sold by a boat shop in Kentucky on eBay. The big thing with this motor is that it was submerged in the Kentucky river for a few hours. It was taken off, dried out, all fluids replaced, and started/ran. From what I read online, most motors that are taken care of in this fashion are just fine. They preformed a compression check and it was 185psi on all cylinders. The lower unit and electronics are sealed, so no water issues there, just water in the power head. I am going to get it checked out by the local boat shop once I pick it up. I am expecting an injector cleanout/replacement and a couple of fluid changes right off the bat. I figured that for that price, it was worth the risk; I could sell some of the working parts to make up some of my expense if I couldn't get it to run strongly. I've updated the costs to show the new expense.

Here are some pictures






Matt

 

[jasper60103]

Well, if you were reading in the motor forum, you'll see that I bought a 2009 Fuel Injected Mercury 60hp four stroke yesterday. I paid $2170 for it. I originally said that it was $1500, but that was a mistake; that was opening bid and I was too excited to pay attention to the details of the reserve price when I posted that. The price includes shipping. It was sold by a boat shop in Kentucky on eBay. The big thing with this motor is that it was submerged in the Kentucky river for a few hours. It was taken off, dried out, all fluids replaced, and started/ran. From what I read online, most motors that are taken care of in this fashion are just fine. They preformed a compression check and it was 185psi on all cylinders. The lower unit and electronics are sealed, so no water issues there, just water in the power head. I am going to get it checked out by the local boat shop once I pick it up. I am expecting an injector cleanout/replacement and a couple of fluid changes right off the bat. I figured that for that price, it was worth the risk; I could sell some of the working parts to make up some of my expense if I couldn't get it to run strongly. I've updated the costs to show the new expense.

Matt

Well, hopefully it all works out, and you end up with a great deal and motor. Like you said, worst case scenario is you part it out and recover your money.

 

[basstender10.6]

you have got a nice motor there it is most likely worth what you paid just in parts

 

[BYOB Fishing]

Thanks guys. Reading your comments made my wife feel better about the purchase! :LOL2:

 

[BYOB Fishing]

Make sure to get that garage up to temp, I made that mistake when applying my steelflex. The boat looks great so far by the way.

Well, I couldn't get the garage much about 50...So I'm holding off for now. Usually sometime in feb. we get a few 60 degree days before turning cold again. Maybe higher temps combined with the heater will get it up to 75 long enough to apply the steelflex.

Matt

 

[BYOB Fishing]

Motor arrived today! It looked huge in the box! UPS freight brought it right to my front door. I figured I had to make a trip to the terminal and pick it up with a trailer. Unfortunatly it's just too cold and cramped in the garage to mess with it right now. Plus, it weighs in at about 265, so there isn't much of a chance moving it on my own. I just need to get the bottom steelflexed and the back end welded up in order to hang the motor.

 

[BYOB Fishing]

Oh, BTW, in the pictures the motor looks like it has some oxidation or deposits on the lower unit...that's just dust/dirt. This motor is going to clean up really nice...the prop doesn't even have a rub or wear mark on it. There are a couple of small scratches on the cowl, but other than that it looks great.

I took the cowl off, and it looks like the motor was tilted up when the boat went down. There is a water mark towards the front of the engine at about a 30-degree angle, going about 1/3 of the way up motor. I took the oil plug out and shined a flashlight down into the motor, and everything looked pristine inside. I'm hopeful it will turn out OK...

I'll try and get a picture of the water mark tomorrow.

 

[BYOB Fishing]

I ran the garage heaters all night, and was able to spend some time out with the boat today. I worked with the wire brush and prepped the bottom, then cleaned it with acetone. I sanded the sides a bit more, and then ran over them with a course grade of steel wool. I'm going to run over the sides again with the fine grade of steel wool before I paint them.

I really hope I don't have to work with Steelflex again...and I hope that it works as advertised. I purchased the teflon version. Trying to get the resin out of the container was pretty difficult. I hope it turns out OK.

Here are the pics...

 

[hsiftac]

great work so far cant wait to see more

 

[Troutman3000]

Looking good man.

 

[mangelcc]

Great job so far!!!! Looking forward to seeing the rest!!!!!

 

[BYOB Fishing]

Thanks guys! Purchasing the motor really got my interest going again. I want to get the boat flipped over and the transom bolted back together so I can hang the motor and see how it runs. I bought the gas tank today; it's starting to become more fun and interesting as I get into the installation of stuff. The steelflex really gave me a feeling of progress.

 

[tinboatlover]

Looks great. You have done a really nice job cleaning up the boat and aluminum. I'm impressed. I hope the steelflex works for you. Keep it up!