1989 16' Lowe 150 Mod V (helping a friend)

[baseball_guy_99]

So my buddy calls me the other day and tells me he wants to sell his boat...or maybe fix it up.

It's a 1989 16' Lowe 150 with a modified v, side console steering, and a 20" transom. The motor is a matching '89 25hp Johnson with a long shaft. The trailer is a Galvanized 1989 Haul Rite.

So today I met him at his uncles where he stores the boat. Well i thought he kept it covered behind the garage but nope, it has sat uncovered for almost 4 years. The jack was sunk in the ground over the wheel, the back tires were flat and sunk about 4 inches into the ground. There were wasps nests everywhere! I got stung once on the arm. The carpeting in the bottom is dry rotted and the seats are rotten.

We thought the steering was locked up. But a little PB blaster and some grease and it works just fine.

So we put air into the tires (they surprisingly were not dry rotted and held air). I squirted some grease into the bearings and we hooked it up to the truck. The lights still work too!

Pulled it about 10miles to my house and felt the hubs...not hot at all so we don't have to replace the bearings.

My first project is to tear into the motor and give it a good thorough cleaning...wasps nest everywhere. Then replace the guides on the side of the trailer and then we will just go from there.

I will try to take as many pictures as possible.

 

[baseball_guy_99]

So after working on the motor and getting it running and pumping water, I moved on to the interior of the boat.

I started off on the back deck replacing the carpet. I'll tell you 22 year old marine carpeting is nasty!! I got all the old carpeting ripped off and got the deck scraped and cleaned off. Applied the new carpeting using 3m high strength spray adhesive. I'm still working on re-carpeting the back hatch...it's being a pain in the butt.


I also found out that I like using rivets more than screws now. Just drill the hold and squeeze the handle a few times!

I got all the carpeting to do this job for $15!! I work at Lowe's and they tore down a few old displays that had this carpeting on them. They were going to throw it away so I asked my store manager how much he wanted for the pieces. It was 2-6'x8' pieces. He said $1 a piece! Then we had a guy return a remnant piece. 4'x12'. It sat on the shelf for approximately 2 weeks and nobody bought it. So they marked it down 1/2 price and I picked it up for $12.

 

[Jay D]

so ........did ya steal er a buy it from your buddy :lol: nice job so far. Sad to see such a nice boat fall into disrepair. :roll:

 

[baseball_guy_99]

Nope, just being a good friend and helpin a buddy out. I enjoy doing this kind of thing so it keeps me out of trouble . He said when the job is done he would give me some kind of compensation for the work I have done.


Got the front deck carpeted and put back on. I'll snap a few pics and get them up.

 

[baseball_guy_99]

Here are a few pics I snapped along the way.


I still have to recarpet and reattach the lids on the front and back deck.

 

[fender66]

That's a nice project. Looking good.

 

[mmf]

Better check your transom, I'll bet it's rotten. Nice boat!

 

[baseball_guy_99]

mmf...I checked the transom. I had to take the corners off for the back deck. I unscrewed the transom cap.

The tops and sides were still solid. I figured those would be the 1st to go if water got in. So I am going to assume that the center is still good.


Will be pretty busy this weekend so I won't have time to work on it. But will get right back down to business next week.

 

[mmf]

mmf...I checked the transom. I had to take the corners off for the back deck. I unscrewed the transom cap.

The tops and sides were still solid. I figured those would be the 1st to go if water got in. So I am going to assume that the center is still good.


Will be pretty busy this weekend so I won't have time to work on it. But will get right back down to business next week.

my transom was deceiving, the top and sides were good but the mid and lower portion was as rotten as can be (see pic) I did not find this until I drilled into the lower portion. The middle portion of the transom is the most bearing part from the pressure from the motor. Don't mean to be so intense on my suggestions but I see a l ot of other tinboaters working on projects that just bypass the transom! :roll:

I have rebuilt a lot of aluminum boats and my general findings have been, if you find rotten flooring 90% of the time you find a rotten transom too and also on fiberglass boats, If I found a rotten floor, I found rotten stringers and transom as well.

 

[baseball_guy_99]

Okie Dokie...I will look into the transom