What did you do to your boat today?

[zipper]

Polished and waxed the port hull yesterday. It is not perfect but neither is the gelcoat after 35 years. She can show some shine with a moderate amount of elbow grease. Gonna have to find the zerk to top off these 65yo elbows. Lol, that rotary gets heavy after a few hours.



Also drilled a hole in the bottom of the boat on the starboard hull for a bronze thruhull and seacock to supply water for a Dometic 16kbtu reverse cycle air conditioner. The discharge thruhull which is above the waterline will happen on another day. It was a long day, we splash Friday.

 

[qwikkotatx]

Nice job on the install.

 

[zipper]

Drilled another hole in the boat today for the discharge of the air conditioner. This one was about 9” above the waterline. Measure/mark thrice or more, drill once off all marks. Lol






Love the maralon seacock and thruhull.

 

[Emptytemples]

After many late nights after work, and some weekends I finally got what I wanted done for the year. The trim tabs are fairly straightforward to install but I would warn that there is one part that you should have two people for. If you are smarter than myself, making a cardboard cut out would be a great idea but I didn't think I would be accurate enough to do so and align the holes with the mount. So I just continued to struggle for a while

Installed and wired a fuse block under the helm.
Installed rocker switches on dash. Removed aux and usb power. Will Ultimately relocate usb power somewhere on helm. We have two or three elsewhere on the boat so not really worried about it and have never used to date.
Installed underwater lights on the transom.
Installed a new kicker amp. - Will install new speakers later this year or next. Just wanted to get amp in now. Also, has been a heavy expense year and wanted to stop the bleeding.
Installed Lectrotab trim tabs.
Installed fresh water pump in engine compartment.

Very excited to try out trim tabs and have the freshwater to rinse off beach chairs, tables mucky sand from swim deck etc. If the 7 gallon tank is too small, I can get a larger tank in the future. I used to use a portable camp shower before this and that was roughly 4-5 gallons and was good for a trip or two. Anyway, the boat is still dusty and dirty from sitting in my shop at work uncovered for the last month so will be spending the next chance I get cleaning and waxing or ceramic coating the hull and interior. What products are yall using now? My dad was always a fan of cullinite wax. I was using that interior and a ceramic on the hull.

 

[Babin Farms]

waxing or ceramic coating the hull and interior. What products are yall using now? My dad was always a fan of cullinite wax. I was using that interior and a ceramic on the hull.

I used to hand wax the hull, then I started using a spray wax and never looked back. In fresh water I would spray it on and wipe it down after every outing when it went back on the trailer. Now that I’m in salt water I bring it back home, wash the entire boat down and finish up by using spray wax. No water spots, stays looking good and way easier to do.

 

[Babin Farms]

Just finished taking the rear decals off the boat after the bottom ones on each side were peeling bad enough the wife just decided to rip them off a few weeks back. After that it was time to wash it down, inside & out, under the seats and engine compartment. Used spray wax to finish up, letting it all dry out and then the cover will go on and it’ll be backed under the carport.

 

[Babin Farms]

It’s been taking more effort to put the boat into forward & reverse this season and sometimes even getting stuck after it sits for a week or two so I did my homework on how to lube them. Thanks to all on this forum for posting how they’ve done it and how much it’s helped. I used my battery operated compressor and just bumped it on and it went straight to 30ish psi and that was enough to start pushing gear lube into the cable. I moved the levers back & forth to help loosen things up while it was under pressure and then let it sit 10-15min and then moved levers again to loosen things up. Both sides are a lot better than when I started and hopefully this lasts a while. The steering is still feeling good so I didn’t touch them yet but I’m sure that days coming.

 

[suke]

Well this was fun. Found out my winch strap was so bound up I could only get about a foot of it out. Ended up having to power load almost all the way up the winch post and then jammed on the brakes to get it to slide up all the way. Academy sports had the replacement strap. Tried taking the bolt out and it snapped it was so bound up. Ended up having to cut it free.


Then got the mats all cleaned up and interior cleaned and treated. Had not been cleaned since the end of last season.

 

[sbeassie]

Changed the oil yesterday. The 1.9L engines don't hold a lot of oil. I only extracted about 2.5 quarts per engine including the filter. I also replaced the OEM trailer lights with LEDs.

 

[Neutron]

Changed the oil yesterday. The 1.9L engines don't hold a lot of oil. I only extracted about 2.5 quarts per engine including the filter. I also replaced the OEM trailer lights with LEDs.



View attachment 246161

Its crazy that the 1.9l holds 4.5 qts , but an oil and filter change is only 2.75qts. Its like the old MR1 engines. So 1.5 qts of old nasty oil is left to mix with the new. Doesn't make much sense to me

 

[Babin Farms]

Its crazy that the 1.9l holds 4.5 qts , but an oil and filter change is only 2.75qts. Its like the old MR1 engines. So 1.5 qts of old nasty oil is left to mix with the new. Doesn't make much sense to me

That’s why I always do a complete oil change on my old MR1’s. I’ve never had much luck getting much more than 2-2.5qts out with an extractor.

 

[Babin Farms]

Installed a new LED bow navigation light from West Marine. The OE light crapped out while we were out on the lake last week and this one popped up on clearance. $21 total, shipped to the house. Lower profile and rated for 2NM.

 

[PopaG]

Put on new small round fenders for the rear cleats and used soft tie down straps with a stainless steel hooks so they sit just above the waterline and store nicely on the swim deck when not in use.

 

[biffdotorg]

It’s been taking more effort to put the boat into forward & reverse this season and sometimes even getting stuck after it sits for a week or two so I did my homework on how to lube them. Thanks to all on this forum for posting how they’ve done it and how much it’s helped. I used my battery operated compressor and just bumped it on and it went straight to 30ish psi and that was enough to start pushing gear lube into the cable. I moved the levers back & forth to help loosen things up while it was under pressure and then let it sit 10-15min and then moved levers again to loosen things up. Both sides are a lot better than when I started and hopefully this lasts a while. The steering is still feeling good so I didn’t touch them yet but I’m sure that days coming.
View attachment 246106View attachment 246107

Babin, I need to do this as well. Was gear lube the consensus for lubrication? I just finally got my boat in the water after a horrible spring. And shifting was quite stiff. Once shifted, it seemed fine. But I may try this trick as well. Thank you!

 

[Babin Farms]

Babin, I need to do this as well. Was gear lube the consensus for lubrication? I just finally got my boat in the water after a horrible spring. And shifting was quite stiff. Once shifted, it seemed fine. But I may try this trick as well. Thank you!

I used what I had, 80-90w synthetic gear lube. So far so good with it.