1972 Keel Up Restoration

I ran one on a Merc race motor too. I believe that the issue came up with an Evinrude, but it was years ago and I don't remember the details. It has probably been resolved by now.

But, it is worth some investigation. I also run automotive versions of these with adapters. I think the auto versions are superior.

jim

 

I did a little checking, and it looks like merc recommends agm for Verado. Is that what is going on this boat?

jim

 

No Verados - just the 150 4 strokers. I generally buy my marine batteries at Walmart and have had good luck with them. I am thinking about having the rise in the forward floor to allow water to drain to the stern but build a counter-rising platform for the batteries to keep them generally level. I have to go up and see the hull before I decide on this.

 

I finally got to go up and work on the boat this past week. 1st up was finishing the forward floor.

The stringers were not perfect so I used smaller pieces and had to custom fit each one - very time consuming and alot of trips between the boat and sander. I used core adhesive to glue the floor panels in. The stuff cost me $200 for a 5 gal bucket and since I have so much left I may as well use it somewhere. I realize a sectioned floor is not as strong as a 1 piece but the 17 oz biax skin should take care of that. Then I made a battery tray and glassed the bottom side. The lip on the aft end serves 2 purposes - an anti-acceleration stop and a place to mount the 2 battery cut-off switches.

Bulkheads up next.

You really need a big sander for this type of work and luckily I have one. I suppose a hand held belt sander or a 12" disk sander would work but that green baby tears thru the coosa. I also made a jig to ensure level bulkheads.

To shape the pieces in I roughcut to shape freehand on a tablesaw and then fine tuned on the big sander.

Time to lay some glass.

 

I tried to post in order but for some reason it did not come out that way. Perhaps in the future I will do a series of smaller posts. I ran out of both 17oz biax cloth and MEK and so could not quite finish the glassing but there is very little left and I did accomplish the goal of finishing enough to measure for the bow gas tank. I have enough room for a triangular 37 gal tank.

 

Nicely done.

Have you found someone to fabricate the tank?

jim

 

Yes. I did an online search and found a company on the East coast. It would be nice to find someone close to local to avoid shipping fees but so far I have not been able to. The East coast company does this for a living and judging by the last quote they gave me the tank should cost less than $500 + shipping.

 

Sounds good, what material?

jim

 

Aluminum. They put baffles in (needed for acceleration) and put a standard sender in. Most importantly they build the tank exactly how you want it. I want a fuel pickup line on
each back corner for fuel pick-up for each engine and the fill and vent line at the front. The sender will be at center rear. The tank will be 44" wide at the rear and 6" at the front and 7" tall, and 49" long. The sides will be vertical to save $. Those numbers give me 37 gallons. There will be a tab on the front that will hook under the floor and 2 tabs on the rear that will mount to those 2 small glassed in plywood pieces on the bulkhead in front of the battery mount. If you noticed there is a raised panel on that bulkhead that is for acceleration forces. The main purpose of the 3 mounts is to hold the empty tank in place when the deck is permanantly mounted and the hull flipped for gel-coating.

 

I like it.

jim