Thats all Folks

Well the Glastron is done and we enjoyed her throughout the summer of 2010. Then in the Winter of 2010 and 2011 we bought the Sea Ray. We sold the Glastron in May of 2011 to a fellow boater, and she is living her live happily at a new lake. Thanks to everyone for the support and comments throughout the build.

I was very sad to see her go, but we needed to fund the rebuild of the Sea Ray.

Here are some parting pictures, and the Sale Video.

Memorial Day 2010

 Hello all. I thought I would post some pictures of the festivities from the lake, and give you an update. We have been enjoying the boat like you would not believe, and we have been at the lake as much as possible. We all have a tan, and looking forward to alot more fun. as you remember I purchased a 1995 polaris SL750 and rebuilt the engine. That thing has been so much fun, I got another one. This one is not as much of a basket case and runs pretty good, but I need to do some upgrades before we start pounding on it. Having two skis and a boat is alot of fun for the parties we have at the lake. It is alot of work though, and at teh end of the weekend I am beat. Hey that is what summer is for... right?

Here is a video of me Ruining my new Camera

Tinting the Windows

I decided to tint the Windows in the boat. In a past life this is what I did for a living.






My wife made me this for the Dash

More updates

After the great time on the lake with the family, I have been just doing little things around the boat.


This is my new Badge that I had made.



Sun Deck opener





Storage





Re-Coating my Deck with smooth durabak.

First Family outing

I finally had a chance to sit down an upload some pictures. We had our first family outing last Sunday and it went great. It was a little windy and all the video is trash. 

Here are some observations after about 5 hours on the water.

1. The durabak is great and I am so glad I went with it. It is very easy to clean and looks great. The only thing I miss is the sound deadening that the carpet gave. The boat is very "live". I have ordered some more durabak but this time I got some smooth. I dropped some foam and resin on the deck and made some spots, so I am going to recoat.

2. The Drive whines pretty bad under heavy acceleration. I attribute this to the added HP and torque that she has. If the drive goes I will get and SEI model.

3. I have a little vibration at around 2,000 rpm. I do not remember the old motor having that little shake. Under and over it is fine. If I did not know better I would say it was a miss. 

4. I cannot set the timing perfect due to the new Harmonic Balancer being marked wrong. The timing tab on the cover is on the port side but the engine is most happy with the mark around the 11 o'clock position. I did some reading and found that some HB were different in the early 80s and the timing tabs were on the starboard side. Has anyone else had this issue? I just set it where it was most happy and does not ping under load.

5. RPM at WOT is perfect at 4,600, and I am hitting around 58 GPS with the four of us in the boat on a stock prop. I wonder if I put the cleaver prop on there what it will do.

6. The foam made the boat much more rigid feeling.

So here are some pictures.





My daughter caught this crappie on her Barbie fishing pole!!!

Finishing touches

My wife and I spent all day doing all the finishing touches. To be honest, she and I were having such a good time, I forgot to take pictures or video. We really want to get out on the lake tomorrow, so we were just in a groove.


Here is what got done.

1. Capped off the Foam blocks and sealed them up
2. Painted the top of the foam blocks to match the bilge.
3. Installed a new pitot tube and pickup for the speedo 
4. Installed a new in dash depth finder
5. Installed the Sun deck
6. Detailed the entire interior
7. Re-mounted all the gear I moved to install the foam.
8. Fired off the engine after a two week slumber and she roared!

So as long as the wind is under control tomorrow, we will try to go out for a few hours and really stretch her legs.

I have to say, she is a sight to behold

Pouring the foam

Alright. I finally had some time tonight to get the foam poured. As you will see in the video the top of the bins are open and you can see the foam. I am thinking about cutting off the foam and gluing in some more pink stuff to finish it off. Tell me what you think.

Anyway, I called John at Aero Marine http://www.jgreer.com/boat-foam.htm (thanks for the referral arch) and he walked me through all of the steps and pitfalls to watch out for. I ask a ton of questions and he was patient and thorough with me. I decided to get the 2 gallon kit that yielded 8 cubic feet, and i think I got all but one cube in the boat. The stuff was really easy to work with and had no odor at all. 

Funny thing. Once I finished the pour my wife came outside and looked at it and said " ok now I am ready to go boating". She just wants to make sure we will not go to the bottom.

Building the foam compartments

Well I think I figured out how to add the flotation back in. I bought a bunch of the pink EPS foam from HD yesterday to make billets for flotation. That looked terrible, and I scrapped that idea. Then at 2:00 am this came to me in a dream. This is sort of like what I was going to do with the wood, but I did it with the foam instead. I basically used the pink foam to make a cavity that I can pour the 2 part stuff into. Once I do that I will paint the pink stuff the color of the engine bay.

Splash!!!!

Well I just got back from the after the first sea trials... and WOW!!!!!!! This boat scared me!!!!!!! It literally jumps out of the hole when you punch it and just hauls tail. We hit 53 GPS before I backed out due to my fear, and being a new engine. There is more there, but that is not what I was after, it was the low end torque. Boy did I get it.

Today was not the perfect day for a first launch. It was windy and overcast, but I needed to get this over with. we spent about 30 minutes on the lake going through different tests. From stopping to full throttle, and just cruising. Everything was perfect. One thing I never checked was the timing. I never heard and pinging (listen to the video and you guys can tell me) and it was plenty fast, so I just never messed with it.

I am very pleased with the outcome and I want to thank everyone here for the encouragement and advise.


I am sorry for all the wind noise, but it was really windy today.


First Time out in the sun in almost 6 months. sitting on the side of the in laws house.







My Father ins law and I getting ready. Pucker factor 10+



Me checking for water leaks.

Problem is fixed!

I found what the problem was with the idle. There was junk in the fuel line, and it was clogged.

Drive is on, but we have a problem

Well I finally got the drive on and gave her a start. She fired right up and ran like a top. I ran it in for 20 minutes to make sure the cam is seated, and brought the temperature up. She got to about 145 degrees.

The only problem is I think she is starving for fuel at idle. I can give it lots of gas and she will fire up and run but when you run at idle, after about 60 seconds she quits (see video). I then have to pump like crazy to get it started again. Other than that I am ready for a lake trial.

Oh, I put the new drive stickers on.

The interior is done

WHAT A DAY!!!!!! 

I made a mistake and did not wear my lucky cargo pants today. They have been with me for years and have gone through many, many home and auto projects. They are about 100 different colors and one of the knees is hard with resin. I just did not think I would need them. BIG MISTAKE!!!!! First off.

Here is the list of bad things.

1. This morning was cold and the wind was blowing about 20
2. When I was taking off the tarp one of the bungees snapped back and hit my cold hand
3. When I was aligning the engine the wrench clipped off and the back of my hand hit the manifold drain plug and I think may have really hurt my hand
4 When I was changing the little fuel line by the water separator, my hand slipped of again and I hit the very same spot on the water cutting it wide open this time.
5. I spent a very long time trying to get the compression fitting on the trim hose, only to find out that they are one time use. I should have known this.
6. Turns out that I did NOT have my drive aligned correctly, and the outdrive would not go on.
7. Broke a drill bit.
8. Stepped on my son's sand pail and broke it.
9. Got more of that #M 5200 crap on my hands
10. That is enough for now...

Ok now for the good things

1. The interior is DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 
2. Got the right fittings and the trim pump is installed, bled, and functioning correctly.
3. Enlarged the drain hole from the deck to the bilge and put down some resin to seal it up.
4. Installed the new bow light.
5. Got the outdrive halves put back together
6. Got an education on humility!

Aligning the engine

Here are a cupel of videos on aligning your engine.

Getting ready for the lake

This is the final preparation for the lake.





New Scupper installed



The drain to the bilge.

New Camera and goodies

I purchased a new camera today, but I do not think I am going to keep it. The JVC that I use is a pain in the rear to use and does not take the best quality video. So I went out a got one of those HD two in one cameras. it looks like a little camera but shoots HD also. Well... it really does not do that good either. It does not focus half the time when in video mode, and it takes forever to take a picture. There is a reason they have dedicated camcorders. I do like the higher quality video it outputs though. I might get the HD version of my panasonic (they fixed the file issue that mine has) and sell my old one on ebay.

The Snow!

Well last night was a long one. We got about 6.5 inches of snow and the wind was just blowing like crazy and kept drifting up on the boat cover. I woke up every couple of hours to brush off the cover and check the temperature inside the cover.

This has been a crazy year for snow. We broke lots of records.

1. The most amount of snow in one winter. Something like 20 inches.
2. Biggest snowfall in one day @ 12.5 inches
3. Most amount of snow storms @ 6

I know this is because I bought a boat last year. Now I am off to enjoy the snow with my kids!

Anyway here are some pictures. The heater inside the cover kept it at a toasty 41 degrees and I wrapped the engine with a blanket. You would think I have a newborn in the house.