I ran across some old pictures of my first boat. A 1984 Sea Nymph with a 1955 Evinrude 25 Big Twin. When I got it, it had been sitting 2/3 submerged for almost 5 years. It had been painted on the outside with red barn paint, and white latex inside. The floor was totally rotted, with sparse remnants of carpet that turned to dust when you touched it. The paint had peeled from sitting in the water. There was no wiring, and an old busted bilge pump. The floatation had been cut out by the previous owner, and retro fitted with chunks of old, used styrafoam, which was totally wtaer logged.
I sanded the whole hull, primed and paint. Rewired, switches, floor, carpet, seats, bases, fixed the cracked livewell, pumps, troller, electronics, stripped, primed and painted the cowling, new pin stripes and all new bunks/rollers on the trailer. I also poured new foam into the hull (talk about an experience)!
The motor was laying in a guys garage when I bought it, and I got it for $250. Surprisingly, this thing still had factory spec compression, even after all these years, and you could see that the power head had never been apart! If they only made motors like that nowadays!!!
Monetarily, was it worth it? It actually cost me more than I got for it when I sold it. But I learned how to rebuild a tin boat from a bare hull. I have never been afraid to work on something on my boats from that point on, and you cannot measure that value.
We enjoyed almost 4 years in this boat, and never had anything break that I had installed or worked on.
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