Jet boat Project

[River Rider]

I finally have crossed over from my old tin boat with a prop to my a new rig with a jet. The old boat was fine, but the worries of prop damage got to be too much. I came across what I see as my perfect boat. It is a 1452 Alumaweld with a 70/50 jet. It is a semi vee with a centerconsole, and is no way as nice as most on here but by golly she looks good to me. I already have plans for this, but ol lady won't let me sink any money in it yet as she was not happy as it was I traded up from my last boat. Anyways here is a picture after bringing it home. I plan to launch it on its maiden voyage tomorrow after work on the Colorado and see how she does.

 

[bulldog]

That boat is going to haul a$$. That is a big motor for a little boat. Congrats and best of luck!!

 

[georgiaken]

Congrats!

 

[River Rider]

Yeah i was a little nervous about it since it is not a true jet sled. It is a semi vee and the transom is not really beefed up like most jet sleds are. When I went out to look at it I crawled under the trailer and checked every seam there was to make sure the motor wasn't cracking the boat. But to my surprise there was not a crack one in the welds or any places in the aluminum transom that looked weak from torque. I am going to eventually get some aluminum and get to work on welding some gussets from the transom to the sides of the boat for extra support. I am hoping to get some more denero and the apprroval from the boss lady around winter to start the mods I have planned. I am going to take out the center console and plywood floor to clean up the controls and then go back with foam in the floors and aluminum on top. Then make a mount for the gas tank under the console, then we set the console. I am also thinking of adding float boxes, or pods. This boat seems a little sluggish getting up on plane. The guy I bought it from suggested them or trim tabs. I am new to jetting so I am not sure if this is a good idea or not. I need to measure if the jet would clear boxes if they were added anyways. Anyhow thanks for the comments, and I hope to one day catch up with the class of rides yall have. They are trully art.

 

[reedjj]

That boat is going to haul a$$. That is a big motor for a little boat. Congrats and best of luck!!

.

+1. What an awesome find

 

[River Rider]

Well the maiden voyage was short but only because of time restraints. Over all I would have to say it was.... Freaking awsome. Man I should have bought a jet a long time ago. I ran through riffles that I normally would have had to turn around from. I still need a little practice at the turning situation as well as figuring out my load capacity, but overall great. I do however have a couple things that will need to be taken care of before I get too carried away with fishing. First is fix the tilt and trim leak. I don't need it to run but it helps when cleaning out weeds. Second is an antenna for the radio. No point of having a cd player on water, and the guy I bought it from didn't install a antenna. After that I will start to clean out the boat of whatever junk is not needed as well as clean up the rats nest of wires on the console. This will keep me on the water and happy until season starts to wind down or if there is ever a rainy weekend in Texas to work on it in the garage. I will get some pictures of the layout of the boat and some design ideas I am kicking around if I ever do get a chance to really start modding my boat.

 

[semojetman]

looks great man. Yeah, reminds me of mine.

Big Motor+little boat=go go go

 

[fender66]

Nothing wrong with big motors on a little boat. It's good to have the umf when you need it.

Welcome aboard River Rider. Happy to have you here on TinBoats

 

[River Rider]

Well after a long wait and balancing the check book after christmas and an engagement ring I get to work on my boat. The first and foremost plan was to upgrade the motor. Not so much a bigger horse power, but a newer bigger block version. With advice from Lil' Blue Rude I searched around for a good used outboard, finally landing on a guy who traded out some work with me for it. It is an 1989 70 horse that ran perfectly when we tested it. The only down fall was when I checked the compression the top cylinder was a little week. So I have sinced pulled the head and found there was some light scarring and I will have to pull the cylinders and get them bored. I have never done this and have some help lined out to help but I will update as I go along. The motor is still attached to the bass boat it came with but that gave me the ability to not leave my boat out of comission while I work on this other motor. Pictures below are of the donor boat and some of the block and the initial tear down.

 

[River Rider]

Got a chance to dive into this motor yesterday. My brother came over and helped me pull the flywheel, as well as dismantle the block. It wasn't hard at all to get into, but like all projects putting it back together will be I am sure. I will try to get the cylinders dropped off today so the machine shop can determine if the scoring is real bad or not then I can prepare with which route to take. I have included some pictures of the tear down as well as me cleaning the motor up. Little brother thought it would be a good idea to go ahead and clean it then paint it. After hanging in the garage a bit cleaning up I tried some sanding and ended up with a sanded cowl and midsection so I will be re-painting the motor as well. I have the midsection primed and ready. Not quite sure of the color yet, but I hope to have an idea by this weekend. Let me know what yall think.

 

[fatherfire89]

I finally have crossed over from my old tin boat with a prop to my a new rig with a jet. The old boat was fine, but the worries of prop damage got to be too much. I came across what I see as my perfect boat. It is a 1452 Alumaweld with a 70/50 jet. It is a semi vee with a centerconsole, and is no way as nice as most on here but by golly she looks good to me. I already have plans for this, but ol lady won't let me sink any money in it yet as she was not happy as it was I traded up from my last boat. Anyways here is a picture after bringing it home. I plan to launch it on its maiden voyage tomorrow after work on the Colorado and see how she does.

Thats a sweet boat man. Lots of power and it looks badass too.

 

[River Rider]

Haven't gotten a word on my cylinders yet, so I am still waiting to see how far it needed to be bored out. Did get around to priming the engine cowling and picking out paint colors for the motor and cowl. Decdided to go witha flat back motor and I will buy some decals that will be white outlined with black inside. Kind of a gloss black writing on a flat black motor. Seen something similar before and it looked cool. I also found a dealon some old marine coolers that had cushions as well as one with an aluminum frame. I will probably clean the aluminum frame up and paint it black to go in the boat as well. The other cooler will just be for hunting or something. I have some honey dos this week but hopefully my next post will be of me picking up my block from the machine shop and putting it back together. I have a trip planned in February to fish grainger lake and thought that would be as good a place as any to try out the new motor.

 

[River Rider]

No word still on my block but I decided I should try to take advatage of the time I had to work before I have to do the honey dos. I pulled the bass boat out of the garage and put in my shed, and then backed in my aluminum boat. The first thing I wanted to do was remove the center console and start cleaning. There was alot of leaves and other debris from fishing under trees so I wanted to make sure it was gone before I try to spray it out. Next I removed all the old wiring and controls so that I could assess if they need replacing or if they are still good. Then I took out the old radio and cleaned off the console. I thought I had a good picture of the console but I didn't. I will get one later so I can show yall how I plan to redo some of it with some gauges as well as a switch panel and new radio. Tonight is the last night I can work on it till possibly later next week so I have some help lined up for the flooring install tonight. I am hoping I can have the boat washed down, and flooring cut to fit before to late. Then I can do the rest myself later next week. I will post some more pictures tomorrow. Until then here is what I have done.

 

[River Rider]

I got to get the floor done yesterday. Well I say done, more like got it cut out and dry fitted. Looks like I will be doing some welding for supports on the floor to beef it up some. Without it being attached it flexes pretty good with my heavy self, so I figured with a couple braces, and then being screwed down it shouldn't flex much at all. I made the floor stop at the last rib before the start of the front deck so I can spray water odwn it to clear any dirt that will get under the floor. Might not be the best idea but sounded good at the time. I have some pictures added of the floor and then a mock set up with my new cooler seat. I didn't put the console with it yet but I did get some pictures of it. The first one you can see how it was set up originally. The radio set flush on top with two cup holders, and the steering and throttle controls on the slant. The second picture is how I want to make it. I will make an aluminum box for the radio to sit on top of the console and then mount the fish finder on top of that. Then the other side will have at least one cup holder, and then just space to throw things up on. The slant will be the same except I will try to incorporate some gauges. Mainly a tach, gas, and water pressure gauge. Then lastly I still haven't found a for sure spot but there will be a small panel for my rocker switches. Let me know what you think so far. Hopefully the next time I post will because my block is finally finished.

 

[River Rider]

Well good news the machine shop just called and the block is ready to be fitted with the pistons. It was bored 20 over just to be safe, but not sure how mch it is going to cost just yet. Pistons are ordred so I guess when I get them I can drop them off to the shop and hopefully bring the block home the next day. I am a little nervous now being as I have actually spent the money that I might not get the motor back together. I will be going over the parts some until I get it just to stay fresh. Man I am excited and nervous at the same time.

 

[River Rider]

I got the pistons in today for my block, so tomorrow I will get them dropped off to the machine shop to be fitted. Hopefully everything is right and I can pick up the block Thursday or Friday. The rest of the rebuild kit should be in by then, and I should have the wood floors done in the house so the fiance will let me play with my boat again. I have this weekend to put the motor back together as well as play with my new toys I bought for the boat. I need to start mocking up how I want everything and I will get some pictures for yall's input. Some of my new toys include gauges, gas tank, and new stereo. I can't wait till it all arrives and I actually get to get down with this build this weekend.

 

[River Rider]

I got to work on my project some this past weekend. The machine shop I used is appearently backed up because they said it will be sometime this week before I can get my parts back. So instead of building my motor back I got to do some painting instead. Basically I wanted to go with a flat black motor and I have ordered some decals for it that will be outlined in white with black in the middle. Kind of a black on black, but with the decals having a gloss I thought it would make it look cool. I also painted the cooler rack black instead of leaving it the shiny aluminum. That way it matched the boat more. Yesterday I got in the rest of my goodies, so I started to dry fit them. I got a 18 gallon gas tank for under the console, a new radio with 2 extra speakers, and then my fuel, water pressure, and tach gauges. This way I can have a better idea of what my boat motor is doing. I plan on stripping down the console this evening and getting it ready for paint as well. I will paint it flat black as well so that it matches the rest of the boat better, as well as cover welds I will be making to fit the radio in and the fuel fill cap and vent. I will get pictures of the console work tonight but enjoy my ameture paint job till then.

 

[semojetman]

Looking awesome man. Black on black will look good.

 

[River Rider]

I called the machine shop yesterday to see the latest on my block. He told me he was getting to it that afternoon and I should be able to pick it up later today after I get off. So with that knowledge I decided to do some work on the console last night. I cut out the holes for my tach, water pressure, and gas gauges. Bent some aluminum for the new radio's location and a piece to cover old holes on the dash. Then bent a piece of aluminum for the fill cap and vent fitting that will be mounted to the side of the console for filling up with gas. Then I cut the hole along the right side of the console for my switch panel. Wish I could have put it in a place I could see what was on but it fits well there. I don't think I will leave anything on so we will see how it works out. All the bent pieces look pretty crude right now, but I will get them looking better once I get to weld them up some. I don't think I will weld them solid just a few beads to hold it together real strong and then paint it. After that I will come in with some clear caulk and seal eerything else up a little better. I added some pictures to give everyone an idea of my set up on the console. Hopefully I will be putting my motor back together tonight otherwise I will be welding up everything. Let me know what yall think.

 

[fender66]

Very nice.