Disassembly

I started tackling the motor today. I needed to get it inside before it started freezing. There is water throughout the motor so it wouldn't have done any good to drain it out of the normal drain plugs. I didn't want it to freeze and break something. I took pictures of every step as I pulled the motor apart. This is a picture after I pulled off all the water lines and the water pump. I also wanted to get a picture of the fuel line so I knew how it was routed. I took the engine down to the block.

Now I have a whole bunch of pieces of engine!

It was a little dark by time I took the pictures so they are kind of hard to see. Right after this I dragged all the parts down to the basement. I used a hand truck to get the block down the steps.

I think I am going to be able to get away with just taking it apart and checking everything over. I haven't found anything that would make me think that I need to rebuild the thing.

I also found a windshield. When I was at work I was in Tulsa. I went to visit Kerry's parents and visited a boat junkyard. They had a windshield that I thought might fit so I used newspaper to make a template. I brought the newspaper home and cut out cardboard the same shape. I tried it on the boat and I am pretty sure it is going to work. My father-in-law is going to go buy it and bring it up when they come for Thanksgiving. It was a pretty good price at 30 bucks.

Project boat

I took a trip to Harbor Freight Tools in Louisville and picked up a shop crane. I had never been to HFTs so I picked up quite a few other things while I was there. I like that place.

The first thing I had to do was put the thing together. It is a pretty big crane and the box says it weighs 250 pounds.

Kerry got home from school just in time to help me. She did the jacking while I guided the engine out of the boat. I know it doesn't look like I am helping much in this picture though.

The engine has to come up enough to get over the back end of the boat. It is the same engine as a 305 Chevy V8. There are a few differences but not much.

Kerry is 5'6" and this is how high the engine had to go up to clear the boat. I also had to jack the tongue up as high as it would go to lower the back end.


Here is the motor on another of my new toys. I have always wanted an engine stand. Now I have a project that allowed me to get an engine stand AND and engine hoist. I love projects! I have no idea how to get the engine and stand somewhere that I can work on it though. I covered it up where it is on the back carport pad and will tackle that when I get back in 2 weeks.

Project boat

I got the engine pulled on the project boat today but I don't have time to post pictures. We are headed down to the houseboat to winterize it. It has been getting colder faster than I thought it would. I guess I am going to have to talk to AlGore about his global warming plan.

Will post pictures and whatever else we do tomorrow.

Just stuff

I got most of the carport cleaned up. The weather warmed up a little today so I was able to get some of it done. I wasn't in a hurry since I only get to fill the dumpster up once a week anyway and it doesn't get emptied until Monday. I have been trying to only put a certain amount of shingles in the dumpster at one time because I don't want them to complain it is too heavy to dump.

This pile is all the aluminum that was on the carport. I give all my metal stuff to a guy from church. He makes trips to the salvage yard all the time. I would probably spend as much on gas as it would bring for scrap.

This is all that is left of the carport. I was right about it taking three dumpster loads. I still need to cut up all the lumber in the back. Everything has to be six feet or less or it won't fit. You can see the dumpster in the top left corner of the picture. I moved everything off of the cement slab so I could start on my project boat.

I started by pulling the prop and pulling the outdrive. I was pretty sure there was going to be water in the housing behind the upper unit. I was right. It was pretty easy to pull off. I watched some videos on youtube while I was sitting in the hotel in Atlanta so I knew what I was doing.


I pulled the boat off the concrete so the tires of the trailer were well below the surface of the slab. I am hoping that will give me enough clearance to get the engine out. I am going to rent an engine hoist tomorrow and hopefully the boat is low enough now. It is pretty easy so far to work on. The engine is just a Chevy 305. There are a few things that are different that make it a marine engine but most is pretty straight forward.

Cleanup

I got quite a bit of the trash cleaned up. Unfortunately the dumpster is full and there is no point in cleaning any more up until they empty the dumpster on Monday. I am still trying to decide if I want to build a garage here and a new roof over the whole back addition... or if I should just go back with a carport. The main problem making it a garage is the brick wall you see in the picture. The cement slab doesn't go under the bricks. I would have to figure out how to make the concrete go level over where I take off the brick or I will have to build on top of the brick. Decisions.... decisions.
I put my boat out in the front yard with a sign "Project boat, 700 firm". If I can sell it for 500 I will make a quick 150 bucks and be very happy. If I actually sell it for 700 it would be fantastic! If I keep it... that is great too.

Tear down

My back carport was in pretty bad shape. When we bought the house this roof was home to many pigeons. Sometime before that termites had climbed up a tree and ate quite a bit of the supporting wood. I have been wanting to tear it down for about five years now. Today I finally got around to it.
I put a scrap 2x8 under the corner of the roof to take the place of the aluminum column. After I removed the column I pounded on the 2x8 until it fell out and "poof" down came half the roof.
To get the other side down I went up on the roof and broke each rafter in succession so it would fall down toward the pile of junk instead of on my boat. I called the family out so they could watch it fall down.
Now the fun part starts. I have to break all this up and put it in a 4 cubic foot dumpster. I think I can get it in 3 loads. I am going to sort out the aluminum to give to a guy from church that I give all my scrap metal to. What a MESS!!

Another boat

I was surfing craigslist again and found this boat advertised for 450 dollars. I went and bought it for 350. It is a 20 foot Bayliner. The main problem with the boat is that it spent some time under water. I need the spare tire and holder for my other boat trailer. A new spare and holder is about 150 bucks.
The boat is still worth 350 bucks though. I am sure that the trailer alone is worth that. I got it as a parts boat to strip. I am considering seeing what it would take to fix it up though.
If these seats fit my other boat I will probably use them. They are better than the ones I have and new ones are 189 dollars apiece.
The gauges are filled with mud. I am certain that they are not usable.
The motor is a Chevy 305 V8. The marine name is a Mercruiser 898. I think they are pretty much toast after they have been drowned.

I will research how much it would cost to fix it and then see if I could get a used one for a better price.

Last day

Kerry thought that we needed a family photo on the last day. Aren't we so cute! We don't look too bad for spending four days out in the wild roughing it.
I saw a bass when I was snorkeling in this cove yesterday and I decided to try to see if I could catch it. I cast about 5 times and lo and behold.....
I caught it! I am not sure what kind of bass it is but it was fun to catch it. Once again we didn't measure it since we were going to throw it right back in. I guess we figured out the best way to catch fish. First find them while snorkeling and then go get them.

We had an enjoyable 4 days. I am sure there will be many more. It isn't a big boat but if someone wants to come and share it I am sure that we can figure out how to accommodate you. Kerry did a great job of cooking every day and we certainly didn't go hungry. We made it the whole time on two marine batteries and one propane tank. I am sure we will be able to do it for a week at a time during the summer.

Day three

Here is a good picture of the ski boat tied up next to the houseboat. On the second night Taylor and I were playing with our underwater light at the back of the boat. We threw out a minnow net and caught a minnow. I put the minnow on a hook and we watched it drag the sinker around. We got tired of watching the minnow and went to bed.

That night we kept hearing something thump the boat. We couldn't figure out what the noise was. In the morning Kerry and I got up and went to investigate what would make the thumping noise every once in a while.
This is what was on the end of the line. I am glad that I put the pole through the railing. It was the pole catching the reel on the railing that was making the thumping noise. I almost lost my rod and reel to this catfish! I really didn't expect to catch anything this size.
I didn't think to measure it. We weren't planning on doing anything with it so we released it as quickly as possible so as not to harm the poor thing. The fishing gloves came in handy.
We have a surface supplied air system so we can dive without scuba tanks. We spent a little time cleaning up the bottom of the cove that we were parked in. We didn't even scratch the surface on the cans and bottles at the bottom. Kerry spotted the anchor with 4 feet of chain attached. It is worth about 40 dollars. Taylor cleaned up two pair of the sunglasses we found and was wearing a pair around. Only other thing in the bunch of trash was two golf balls. I forgot to bring the metal detector so we only found things that were obvious.

Day two

Kerry thought the mist through the trees was very pretty.
Taylor liked going on the roof and jumping off. The water was about 15 feet deep at the back of the boat where she was jumping.
Kerry thought it was fun too. You have to jump out just a little bit so you can clear the railing.
Erin was the toughest to get to jump. She finally did but only did it once.
Taylor was the first one to catch a fish. She caught a small bluegill near the shore. She was really excited. We released it.

Day one

Kerry and the girls were off for fall break so we took out the houseboat to find out what it was like to spend time on it. It took me a little time to get ready because I had to fix the plumbing for the 60 gallon fresh water tank. It had some galvanized fittings and patched up copper tubing running from the tank to the pump. I replaced the the fittings under the tank with some ABS plastic fittings and a drain valve and ran PEX tubing between the tank and the pump. After I got the water tank working we headed out to find a cove.This is the cove we tied up in. You just run the boat up on the shore and then tie the long ropes from the back corners to some trees. It is a little harder to drive a 40 foot pontoon boat than it is to drive a 17 foot ski boat. The GPS in the ski boat said that we were going 6 mph though.
The fall leaves were very pretty.
This is a shot across part of the lake. It is a pretty big lake on the Kentucky Tennessee line.

Kerry's birthday!

It was my beautiful wife Kerry's birthday today! We had an angel food cake with strawberries to put on top. We only put one candle on top to represent her secret age.
Kerry was able to blow out the representative candle on the first breath! It was nice to have an angel food cake for an angel. We also had the strawberries which were sweet just like her.
This is the booty that she hauled for her birthday. She got a new watch, an emergency crank weather radio, the book "Brisingr", and a 5.0 cubic foot chest type freezer. Of course, the best present of all was the fact that I was home to share it with her!

Houseboat II

A shot of the front of the boat. I think this area is plenty big enough to put something up to sleep more people if they want to come and stay.
This is the back of the boat. There is a ladder to the roof. There are two swim platforms on each side of the motor. The boat is 14 feet wide and 40 feet long. It sits on two steel pontoons.
This is a picture from the back door. Kerry was trying to get out of the way. I took another picture without her in it but it was too dark.
This picture Kerry took from the front door. I think they are leaving almost everything you see in the picture. They said they were just going to take their personal items with them.
Here is the picture of the sofa that folds out into a double bed. There are drawers everywhere. Every place is a place for storage.

We couldn't decide if we should buy it or not. It finally came down to a matter of "rock, paper, scissors". I told Kerry that we had to play the game and if I won we would buy the boat and if she won that we wouldn't. I did paper and she did rock. We decided to buy the boat.

I called and told them that we would buy it if they fixed a couple things. I think it is in pretty good shape for a 1969 boat. We will be open for visitors as soon as we make the purchase.

Houseboat

We went to look at a houseboat this weekend. It is down on Dale Hollow Lake on the Kentucky/Tennessee border. The lake is really clear and we plan on using the boat as a scuba diving platform.
It has a bathroom with a sink, toilet and shower pan. There is no plumbing to the sink or the shower but I am going to be able to fix that pretty easily. I have some pex plumbing line that will work very well.
This is the kitchen sink and the range. It is a propane 4 burner with a gas oven. Kerry fixed us scrambled eggs on it for breakfast on Saturday morning.
This is the captains console. Of course this is where I will be sitting. The people that are selling the boat said that they usually put the chair outside when they were not moving so there was more room.
This is the dining area. The air conditioner is in the lower left corner and there is a microwave and toaster oven on the storage area. The two bunk beds in the back are like super singles.
This picture is of the refrigerator. It is a propane/electric. In the background there is the back door and the door to the bathroom.