Well I think I've put this off for too long..
What sup all? The wife an I picked up our first boat a couple months ago. At the time we were nearing our wedding and didn't have a lot of money to spend, but wanted a boat for this season. We both grew up going to the river with her family (known each other a LOOONG time) its where we started dating, where we got engaged and where we spent our bachelor and bachelorette parties!
But enough about that. We picked up this 74' Southwind as a "runner" but in a little rough shape.
and here are some links to some old threads i found on the boat:
http://www.socaljetboats.com/projects/southwind-18/msg47959/#msg47959http://www.socaljetboats.com/project-boats/1974-southwind/She's got an 86' Chevy 5.0L with TPI Fuel Injection, Berkeley 12JC pump, blue paint over the black gel, and thats about it. The seller fired up the motor, took a little coaxing, but sounded healthy once running (minus some sputtering from 4 year old gas). I immediately took her to the car wash to clean her up before bringing her home. Thats when I really found out how bad the blue paint was... Oh well, our first trip was in 2 weeks and there were bigger fish to fry.
Some of the seats weren't mounted, none of the gauges worked, fuel selector valve needed to be wired, old fuel needed to be pumped out, wiring that needed lots of attention, alternator and brackets and wiring, and lots and lots of TLC.
So over the next couple weeks I removed the interior, gauges, wiring, etc. Cleaned out the tanks. Changed the oil, spark plugs, added an air filter, alternator, belt, etc. Re wired all the gauges, but a cheap volt meter to fill the one that was missing. scrubbed and mounted the seats. Added some Eyes to the Transom for trailering / mooring. Unfortunately my phone took a swim (first time ever doing this :banged:) at the river so I lost ALL of my pictures during this first stage. I also greased all the zirks and flushed the oil in the bowl. I must add, though I have good auto/offroading knowledge and have been around boats and watercraft (we also own a pair of jet skis) this is MY first boat and I learned SO MUCH from lurking this board and I thank all of you that as helped out, though you didn't even know it!
Went to Parker in early April for the Bachelor and Bachelorette parties. backed the boat in the water but left it on the trailer, fired her up and looked/listened for anything wrong. All seemed well so we launched her, then the rain started which forced us to dock for a bit till it cleared up enough for her maiden (with us) voyage. Once we finally were able to take her out, we hoped in fired her up and took it easy, again checking for anything "unusual" thats when I noticed only the Voltmeter was working, all other gauges were dead... no big deal, there was a temp gauge on the motor, that my buddy kept his eye on so we set off.
She ran very well, handled great and i was very happy. She did 50 mph with 2 full tanks and 5 people, she isn't a speed boat, but i felt that was "reasonable" for the little 305. The only other mishap was apparently some crap in one of the tanks. as soon as we ran out of gas and switched tanks, she started to loose power and stutter. I shut her down and we floated down river a bit, fired up and was running fine again for 30 seconds or so, then started to sputter and loose power again. so we repeated this game till we could get to the gas station at pirates, filled up the empty tank, switched the valves and we were off to the races again.
Since then I have emptied that tank and found some "tarnishing" on the tank. I was going to put a gallon of diesel and drive around a bit to loosen it all up then siphon out as mush as possible, fill up a few gallons of gas, drive around, siphon it out, then fill her up completely to dilute whatever diesel i couldnt get out to a point where it won't matter.
I have purchased a new tach, new sending units for the oil and water temp gauges, new fuel filters (again, just in case) and some speakers to go with an amp I've had laying around (why not?
)
The Check Engine Light was on so I finally tracked down the wires needed to read it, turned out to be the MAF circuit... Went to check the relays and thats when I found all of them are fried, melted plastic and everything... hoping thats all it is cause a new MAF is hard to find and expensive i hear. Plan to switch to speed density to get rid of the MAF anyway, but have to decide if Im keeping the TPI or not. the biggest motor I can go with TPI is a 383, not sure if that will be big enough for the long term, and Id hate to find out the hard way... Picked up some new relays and connectors and hopefully have the wired in this week.
Also picked up a used Place Diverter, just need to pick up a few odds and ends to get it mounted up..
I will also be making a small dash plate to add the switches, CEL, ALT lights, volume knob, etc. as I don't want to drill into the dash just yet.
But lastly the biggest transformation is removing ALL the blue paint and starting to restore the Gelcoat. I did a little test area and man is it a difference. Not a big fan of the "Raiders" boat, but she will do just fine till we repaint/reupholster.
Hoping to have the gel restored, electrical/gauge work and stereo installed for the Parker Float. Who's all going?
Sorry for the novel.. But if you read the whole thing and have any advice, suggestions, constructive criticism, Im all ears!
