My First Aluminum Boat Project

[squeak12]

I'm moving to the Savannah, GA area this fall for school and decided that I needed a boat. Luckily for me, my dad had an aluminum boat that he no longer uses. It has been sitting under a garage with an open front since around '97. It was made by Fisher Marine, and according to my measurements, it is a 16'x42". The top width is 66", and the bottom width on the outside of the boat is 43". The motor on the back is a Mercury 500. My dad said that he thought it was the 4 cylinder and it shouldn't need anything more than a good cleaning and tune up.

I haven't gotten much done other than removing some trim so far. I plan to extend the decks towards the middle more, redo the flooring, redo the console, and restore the trailer. Hopefully in the next week or two I can get pretty deep into the project.

 

[wasilvers]

Looks very nice. I'd start on the motor first myself - be sure to change the water impeller, it will be brittle if not used for that long.

See how it rides with the current setup, then go to changing it all. Mine needed more weight up front, so I extended front decks and limited how much weight went in the rear. She rides real nice now!

 

[bear7625]

Lookin good! Has a lot of potential. Your going to have a lot of fun. =D>

 

[Froggy]

Your Dad just happen to have that around! nice. Good luck with it!

 

[squeak12]

My dad just happens to have a lot around. He's not real big on selling much. Besides daily drivers, we have three cars around the house. Only one runs, but it needs a little work to be reliable. There's a 70's ski boat next to one of the trucks and a 90's Stratos in the garage. There is also another 90's Strato's that belongs to a friend in the yard. Of course he claims that he is going to fix or restore all of these at some time or another.

 

[squeak12]

I did a rough scale sketch of what I'm planning to do. I'm trying to work out a little weight distribution before I decide where I want compartments, etc. Any idea on roughly what a 70's-80's Mercury 500 (50hp) weighs? At them moment, I'm looking at having a ~8 gallon tank, ~50 lbs full (estimate, as I'm not sure how big it is until I pull it out for cleaning) and of course the motor in the back. Which do ya'll think would be better? Both batteries in the front deck or one in the front and one in the back. Either way, I plan to have a battery for electronics/trolling and one battery solely for the motor with a switch between them to parallel them. The batteries are right around 70lbs a piece.

 

[Nevillizer]

Well, thats a good start. I can tel you from experience that a good you should always mind the 5 P's
Prior Planning Prevents Poor Project outcomes. It's already been said, but fish in as is and see how you would improve it. Then get your ideas down on paper. Then let her rip. Good luck.

 

[Codeman]

Any idea on roughly what a 70's-80's Mercury 500 (50hp) weighs?

I've got one with a jet pump on it and I found a listing online thats says around 175lbs. I'd say that is about right I lifted mine by myself once, and only once, my back was not happy.

 

[squeak12]

Thanks for the weight estimate. Should be fun pulling it off if I decide to go that route to work on it and the transom. On another note, I got the trolling motor and foot pedal working, so hopefully I'll get to take it out for a test fishing soon. All I need now for a test run is a couple of drain plugs and make sure I have a working bilge on board just in case. I'm not sure when I will have the outboard fully operational, but at least I will get an idea for the weight on the water.

Is there any way to find out how big my trolling motor is? All the labels say are Mercury Thruster, but there is no rating anywhere on it. All it has is a serial number.

 

[Rat]

One of the guys on the X-Treme hunt this year had a Fisher Marine boat. It seemed like a very solid hull. Lots of potential with yours, just like starting with a clean slate, except you hafta clean the slate first! :LOL2: Can't wait to watch the build.

 

[squeak12]

I have been slacking off lately, but hopefully I will have the outboard ready in a week or so. Any ideas on where to find a water pump for it? It's a 1978 Mercury 500, 4 cylinder, 2 stroke. I considered doing just an impeller but I might as well do anything else down there while I have it out.

 

[bigbasshunter]

Looks good with a lot of potential. Post some picts when you finish it.

 

[squeak12]

Well, a year later and I am finally making some progress. It got put on the back burner for a while. I picked up a set of 155/80/13 tires from WalMart today for $40 a piece. I couldn't justify paying $75 a piece for new wheels and trailer tires. On a trailer/boat this light, I feel confident putting car tires on there.

Pulled the hubs, repacked the bearings, and replaced the end seals. They looked pretty good in there, but I wanted to get new grease in there before pulling it 200 miles back to my place from my parents.

I'll get some pictures tomorrow in the light. I'm planning on working on the trailer and motor first thing after the holidays. I'm going to pretty much completely restore the trailer. New bunks with UHMW on the boat mating surfaces, new lights, new wires, paint the wheels and trailer, maybe a new winch or at least a new front bracket system.

Also, I got a good deal on a depth finder. I got a Lowrance Mark 5x Pro BNIB for $100 on craigslist.

 

[squeak12]

Man, am I in for a world of hurt when I clean this aluminum up. I spent about 15 minutes on the rear gusset. It looks great, but I'm predicted a good day's worth of work to get rest of the boat looking like that. Probably a whole weekend if I do the sides as well. I think I might make it to the outboard shop this week coming up, but probably not until next week. I have three tests, so I will be pretty busy from now until Friday.

I didn't think to take a before picture until I saw how well it cleaned up but here are some comparison pictures

Other side untouched

After sanding with wire wheel

After a light polish

After a little more polishing and sanding

 

[squeak12]

Does anyone know where to find parts for this motor? Under the front cover it says that it is a 1978 Mercury M-500. Some other identifying characteristics are that it is a 4 cylinder, two stroke, coil packs not distributor, electric start, thunderbolt ignition, two carbs. I'm pretty sure I will need at least a new wiring harness and motor to throttle wiring. Also, does anyone know where I can find more information on the MerControl throttle?

 

[mightymite45]

Try lmmarine.net, they may have what you need.

 

[squeak12]

Alright, I know I have been off and on this project, but I am finally done with school for the summer and about to start back work until December. So not only will I have time to make progress, but I will have some money to spend to do this right. After venturing into my Mercury 50, it looked like too much at the moment to dive into, so I pulled a 80's Mercury 35 off of one of my dad's old boats. It hasn't been cranked in at least 10 years, but a fresh battery, fresh gas, and 5 cranks later and it was running. I carried it down here, and I am going to swap the lower units and put the 35 on my boat. The plan is to work on it later today after it cools off and try to have it 100% functional by bedtime.

Is it worth trying to sell the 50hp? It will need a new interior and exterior harness, lower unit will need servicing. The power head should be good, but I haven't seen it run personally, and with the harness dry rotted it isn't going to run. What would be a reasonable price, or should I just drop the $300-500 into and put it back on my boat at a later date?My plan is run the 35 on there for a couple of weeks or so, depending on what the fishing is like. This will give me a chance to figure out what kind of layout I want in the boat. After that, I am going to gut the boat to redo the transom, floors, decks, console, etc. and get it looking good.

50hp on the stand

Transom Condition

35hp mounted

 

[jigngrub]

From the pics, that transom looks real bad right now! You should really fix it now instead of later.

Even if it wasn't bowed out like it is now, the extra reenforcing that whomever did to it is a dead giveaway.

 

[Aaron Lariscy]

Looking good man where are you at in Savannah and where do you fish? I live in Sylvania GA and am restoring a bass tracker that is roughly the same size with the intentions of using it to fish the intercostal water ways around Savannah. Maybe we could get together one day and work on a boat or even go fishing... Keep us updated on how it goes.

 

[squeak12]

From the pics, that transom looks real bad right now! You should really fix it now instead of later.

Even if it wasn't bowed out like it is now, the extra reenforcing that whomever did to it is a dead giveaway.

Yeah, it looks pretty bad, but I want to get it in the water to check for leaks first. I'm not planning on running it hard. I just want to check for leaks. That way, I can take the boat to a fab shop to get leaks and the transom fixed at the same time. While boat is off of the trailer I can restore the trailer. I think the main reason the transom is so bad is because this boat has never had a motor toter on it. That 50hp that has been on there isn't too light either.

Looking good man where are you at in Savannah and where do you fish? I live in Sylvania GA and am restoring a bass tracker that is roughly the same size with the intentions of using it to fish the intercostal water ways around Savannah. Maybe we could get together one day and work on a boat or even go fishing... Keep us updated on how it goes.

I'm in Pooler right now, but I will be moving to Port Wentworth later this month. I haven't gotten any fishing done down here yet, but I plan on fishing the Savannah River from Houlihan Ramp which is right off of Hwy 25. I plan to mainly target Striper, but I'll fish for LM if they aren't biting. I wanted to fish the Ogeechee either from Morgan's Bridge or King's Ferry, but with the fish kill in May, I'm not getting my hopes up.

I got the new impeller put in the better lower unit today and swapped the lower units. So now the 35 has the lower unit from the 50 on it. I now have the 35 fully functioning and running on the boat. Idle darn good for sitting for so long. I'm planning on running around tomorrow to get a gasket kit for the water pump. I reused what was in there, but I don't think that it is sealing good enough which is understood. Besides now is no time to cut corners, I was just excited to get the motor running and figured reusing the gaskets was worth a shot.

The more I think about it, I think I am going to strip the boat out sooner than later. I want to take a bare hull to the fab shop so they can fix anything at one time. I know there are two spots at the front that scrubbed the trailer when the bunks were too low.

Just to add a picture since everyone loves pictures. The shredded impeller is from the 35. I suspect that happened when we started the motor a couple of weeks ago so I could decide if I wanted to try it and use it or not. The better shape impeller is from the 50, but only two of the fins weren't broken.

Here is a better shot of the transom just to show the damage.