Damn. Not sure how I missed this thread. Just skimmed through it. Amazing work hal....keep it up!

What ever happened to that motor you picked up for the advantage?

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Time to cut some holes. This is gonna hurt!
I contemplated, for a while, about where to locate the exhaust tips, above or below the swim steps. after much deliberation, i decided to put them just below the swim steps.
I wanted to cut the holes, so that they would work, with a possible, future, Bbc install. So I laid out the holes from the center line of the crank shaft and outdrive, and up as tight as i can to the steps. I had to buy a 4 1/8" hole saw and then went to town.
I first drilled a small pilot hole, just to make sure that I wasnt cutting int the floor, inside. Then I chucked up the hole saw and cut the hole.
I drilled the hole from the out side and because the transom is 2 1/2" thick, i had to drill from the inside ,also.

Gota find a used set of 4" ss angle cut tips, with internal flappers.




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Holy smokes, that's one thick ass transom!  So water test this weekend?   Come on down to Blythe for the 4th Hal, good place to test it out.

 
I put a mew water pump, in the drive, and stabbed the drive back on the gimbal.
You can see that the old impeller was shot! This drive is a replacement, from another boat, that had a pair of 302 fords in it. Still 1:50 gears.




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Nice work Hal !!!

More hatch pics.




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Hal,

You did such a great job on your engine hatch, I just might let you do mine for me.

Whaddaya say? 

Remember, i also said that the boat has a front bench seat, and that i hate it!
Well time to fix that!
The plan is to modify the bench and make two buckets, while using as much of the existing materials as possible, to save money.
I started tearing the bench apart. The plan was to only make two new arm rests , but after thinking ( and thinking is dangerous, for me!), about it, i decided to make four new armrests, so that they weren't so wide.
I used the old armrest as a template and made parts for the new ones. Then i glued an screwed them together.




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Next i took the one long back rest frame and cut it down to make two individual ones.
I had to make new ends, for the two halves and then wrap the vinyl back over and staple .
The last picture is the way it would gave looked, if i wouldn't have made them thinner.




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how much do your seats weigh?  those armrests are super solid.  mine are just 3/4" plywood and they weigh a ton.

Hal,

You did such a great job on your engine hatch, I just might let you do mine for me.

Whaddaya say? 

Brad, when you get ready, ill be glad to come give you a hand.
We  will geter done!


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looks great hal!