Hello all. I have been asking a lot of questions around here lately, so I thought it might be nice to share some of my progress. The album uploaded wrong - the newest photos are first, and the old ones are last. The album can be found here:
http://s286.photobucket.com/albums/ll117/acleme1/
I paid $1500 for the boat, motor, and trailer. This boat sat uncovered and exposed to the elements for over 7 years. No maintenance, no nothing. There's a lot of work that needs to be done though, so here goes...
Cosmetic:
 New carpet. I've already stripped all the old carpet out, and used a grinder to get all of the glue off my compartment doors. My arm still hurts... I'm planning on buying my carpet from bassboatcarpets.com. I have some samples in the mail.
 New Seats. I'm replacing the original bench seat with 2 chairs. I'll get them from Bass pro or Cabela's.
 New Clear Coat. I'm planning on sanding anything shiny from the rub rail up, and spraying an epoxy clear coat over the whole thing. I have a buddy that paints cars who suggested it and is going to help. I really considered Vertiglass, but think the Automotive Clear Coat will be better.
 Once the clear coat is on, I can carpet and install seats. I can't wait!
Mechanical:
 The Rack and Pinion Dual Cable steering was locked up. I tried to loosen for hours. Got them unstuck, but were VERY hard to turn. Decided to buy new cables, and found out that Detmar no longer makes cables. OUCH. Almost bought Teleflex NFB for $500, then found a Marina that had my cables NOS for $175 SHIPPED - TOTAL! I was thrilled. One minor catch - The cables are a foot longer than the originals. I think I can hide them in my wall. We'll see...
 Motor only fires on one side. Picked-up an after-market new switchbox off eBay for $50.01. Regular price on these is around $170. What a deal! Now I just have to pray the other one doesn't go out. Haven't changed out the switchboxes yet - I'm planning on doing all the motor work at once.
 New water pump kit.
 New oil lines.
 New fuel pump kit - Maybe? I bought it, but it all looks a little intimidating.
 New Lower Unit oil.
 New Prop - Maybe? I think this Quicksilver Laser 21" is wrong. Want to find a 19".
 Oil sending unit may be bad. Not getting a read on the guage. Hopefully a bad connection.
 Fuel level not reading on the guage. Hopefully another bad connection.
 New Fuel line.
 3 New batteries: Starting and 2 Deep Cycle. Who priced these damn batteries anyway?
And probably a lot of other crap that I'm missing. This is the first time I've ever attempted to restore a boat.
I'm definitely trying to do all of this on a budget. I don't know what the budget is, exactly...I'm trying to buy all of this stuff without the wife finding out. That's my budget - spend it 'til my wife figures it out.
SO, that's where I am today. Basically I've just started with the cosmetic stuff, and ordered the mechanical stuff.
I'm sure I'll have a lot more questions over the course of the next several weeks. Hopefully when you see my posts you'll say to yourself, "Hey, that's another post from that poor country kid in Kansas City. I should try to help him out."
If you have any tips, tricks, or corrections to this point, please let me know. I want to thank everyone in advance for all the help. You guys are awesome!
Modified by acleme1 at 6:05 PM 3/22/2008
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