Cleaning the Mess

I didn't take very many pics of this boat when I bought it last August. It was dirty, weathered, and really needed a good cleaning. Electric wires that were laying and hanging everywhere had to be sorted out.Here are some of the issues I encountered:

• broken fish finder mount ( $40 Ebay)

• lightly oxidized fiberglass interior (lots of waxing)

• huge marine battery (nearly leaking) shoved up against engine on top of poor waterbox ($100)

• wouldn't shift between forward and Neutral when running (waterproof grease on the pump slide mechanism)

• steering and shift lever loose (tools)

• more and more as I dug into it...

I figured..So what, as long as the hull is not damaged I can deal with all the other issues. 10 to 15 hours of work and $200 later I managed to get the boat on the water to enjoy some late Summer sun on Lake Coeur d'Alene. I noticed immediately it handled something like a large version of my stand up jet ski - go figure :).

Here is a pic of the engine bay during the re-caulked process on the interior and seat platform. What a mess. About now I realized how great I am at tearing everything apart.

Getting cables hoses and venting routed properly and the interior cleaned up.

And now get the seat and platform back in.

I think its a good idea to clean up the engine bay. After all they are 20 years old by now. I found and old screwdriver and a terribly rusted pair of pliers hiding underneath the engine after removal.

This is what it looked like after cleaning up and reinforcing the mounting support for the waterbox as it supports the weight of the battery.