95' Nautique Project ... expanded

Finally got the carpet installed and reinstalled the engine cradle.   Now for the grueling task of recovering all of the kick plates, covers, etc.









I took my exhaust manifolds and a few other things to a place to get them sandblasted and powder coated. Should be ready today, though I won't have the engine for several more weeks. Well, progress is progress.....

Well Tim, that's the way it came out and by the looks of the carpet it was the original, factory installation. Perhaps they didn't do it that way? IDK ... I wrestled over that decision for a while and even did a search on the forum, but as lacking as it seems I am with this forum when it comes to its search engine, I may have missed something.   Regardless, I wasn't really liking the idea of just having the carpet cut to the edge of the cradle as I figured it could easily start peeling up and fraying over time. I've seen that before with a couple of friends that had fairly new carpet and only a few years in it didn't look so good.

There are a lot of ways to search.

If you want to find something and you know who posted it you can type for example

correctcraftfan 8122pbrainard tube and read all about Pete's love for tubes but you still have to weed through a bunch of posts where he might have talked about fuel line tubing, muffler tubes dipstick tubes etc.

Or you can leave out the name

Just a few less words than what sport1999 used above.

So, Joe did you just buy a 50 dollar timing cover on Ebay. I was gonna post a link for you yesterday and it was just sold. There's still a 289 dollar new one from Michigan Motorz if you just gotta have one or you could check with Jody at Florida Inboards. He seems to have some every year when he's cleaning out and he doesn't charge much for them.

Your interior is looking fantastic. The boat will be better than new when completed.
Mark

You are doing a great job. Curious - was the engine cradle painted in your boat before you removed it? Mine was just raw aluminum color (1993). Everything you are doing is looking VERY familiar. While the boat is apart - I'd highly recommend purchasing and installing a new throttle cable, transmission cable and steering cable. There is no time in the future where it will be as easy to install those items as it is right now.

Just occurred to me Saturday I'd better get all the wiring for the amp and tower speakers done now, before the engine and interior get in my way.



Since I had to make new panels for the driver kick panel and side anyway I extended the side out to accommodate the long amp and extended both upward to move the bolt-ons higher to help avoid future damage.





Went ahead with the installation of the #2 battery - with the switch it can be isolated so it shouldn't interfere with the engine electronics installation. That way I could check out the new amp, make sure all is well. And all is well - sounds great with my 1 installed speaker! Can't wait to get the rest in ... but that'll have to wait till after the engine is in and running   

It looks great. Where did you order your carpet from and what Oz. is it?

Wisky Badger wrote: It looks great. Where did you order your carpet from and what Oz. is it?

Thanks ! I ordered carpet from Christine's. They have two oz options: 14 and 30(ish). I ordered the 14 because I was going to be cleaning up and reusing the carpet molding which on my era SN will only accept up to 16oz. And really, though it sounds good to have thick plushy carpet, in practical use it isn't a good idea because it stays damp much, much longer. My last boat had fairly thick carpet like that and it took forever to dry out. Didn't hurt anything really, but it was snap-out installed on a full fiberglass self bailing inner liner and it had rubber backing. But on a glue-down that's not very advisable even with my fiberglass floor - the excess moisture can breed mold and mildew in the right conditions

MrMcD wrote: ... this may be a good time to look at a higher amp alternator to handle your new amp draw

Yeah, I was seriously considering swapping to a higher amp alt now. If it weren't for already having a NIB Arco replacement that I bought last fall before I knew this whole process was going to take place as soon as it has.

Having said that, my last boat was quite a bit larger and had 8 component speakers and 2 large subs with over 2000 watts.   And 2 separate amps. I ran that system off of virtually the same set-up as I have now with the exception of the alternator, which was just the stock 8.1 Merc version, I think at 70 amps vs the 55 amp Arco I have. I never saw a fluctuation with that system because the real key is the batteries, not the alternator.

Amps, especially when powering high demand speakers like subs, require a very fast response from the power source. Alternators weren't designed to provide this. They get this power directly from the battery and if it isn't built to deliver this when called on you get drain from the rest of the system and a heavy load demand from the alternator (if the engine is running) which causes the lights, etc. to dim or pulse.

Most cranking batteries won't keep up with this either, and in fact if you try it can severely reduce the life expectancy of that battery. Cranking batteries were designed to be able to supply large amounts of power very quickly, yes - but only for a very short period of time. When you push them into continual high demand service, such as with a high demand audio system, they will fail very rapidly and you'll get the same pulsing and a very short usable charge. If/ when the charge drops below 10V you're damaging the battery and reducing it's life expectancy. Do that a dozen times over the course of a summer, even with a brand new battery, and it's likely going to be toast.

Deep cycle and dual purpose batteries for the most part will do the job and there are those that are purpose built for the task. And unlike cranking batteries, they can be nearly 100% discharged time after time and never reduce their life. They can also handle the riggers of high demand for long periods of time. Purpose built deep cycles can also provide the same, or near same performance right up to the very end of their charge, unlike typical batteries who's performance would slowly decline as the charge declines.

Just a bit of research from the old boat. It's actually come in very handy many times now.

Machine shop was back-logged 6 weeks or so at the time so it's just a waiting game now till then. I've got 85-90% of everything else done already so there's several weeks left to slowly get that to 100%. Engine bolt-ons are already back from the powdercoaters shop and half of the small brackets and such that I'm just cleaning up and painting are already done as well. I still need to apply the carpet on the kick and side areas of the observer seat and get the small interior piece around the controls to the upholstery shop. My office looks crazy ... new pieces and parts laying around everywhere and in the middle of it all is the engine cover    

After much consideration and some input from a couple of mechanic buddies and my machine shop the block is indeed far beyond a salvageable state. However, the internals seem to be in very good shape. They all agree it's strange because a lot of the key components don't appear to have any wear at all - almost like they were brand new.   
So I figure I'll just part out the internals and various other extra parts when I'm done. But the block? Definitely an anchor.

Love the RED.

KENO gives me a hard time about the red parts: distributor cap, valve covers, shirt, sunburn, bank account etc.

JQ

It's still "Team Red"

The knee is improving rapidly; Arthroscopic surgery is a modern medical miracle. My dad had the same injury in 1978. He ended up with a wicked 6 inch scar and a very looooong recovery period.

Kudos to Dr. Michael Holmstrom at Intermountain Health Care.

JQ

Also just noticed that the new pad around the shifter looks like it's a couple shades off of black in the pic I posted - must be the angle or the light. In person and from different angles it's almost a perfect match.




And, the original intake as well as the plenum were powder coated red, which again I love.
But then I found this and the ol' teen hot rodder in me came out and I just had to snatch it up.




Not sure how that's all going to blend with the color scheme, but there's no denying the 40 or 50 pounds of weight difference