To ease the Cabin Fever.

BlewByYou88 said:
My ADD got the best of me today, and between dealing with the water in the engine mount issues, and preparing the water tank for install, I decided to tear into the dash.


I wanted to mount my GPS/Fishfinder into the dash so it wasn't sitting in my line of site, I also wanted to rewire the rats nest under the dash. SO here is a preliminary Design for the new dash usuing some 1/4" thick Lexan from home depot, and some rustolem paint. I think this will look pretty nice. ANy opinions?

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ALso, dropped the pans on the engines. Everything looks ok. Just waiting for the pumps.


I also took the starters apart for some inspection and cleaning, Brushes are about half worn, can't seem to find any places locally or on the internet that will just sell the brushes:huh:
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Dash looks great! Are you going to use a "backer" with the Lexan? Make sure to sand the cut marks from around all the holes and cut outs so cracks won't start running.
 
You just gave some great ideas! Thanks. I've been wondering what to do about the GPS and Fishfinder/radar screens. That is a fantastic way to reconfig the dash.
 
:smt101I WANNA GO HOME AND WORK ON MY BOAT!!!!!!!:smt089

Why does work always have to get in the way of my hobbies!?!?!:smt013

The g/f called and said a bunch of really big boxes arrived at the house. It's gonna be like christmas, if I ever get to go home!

It's not like I'm really working anyway, all I do is think about my boat, what needs to be done to my boat, and look at crap for my boat.....:smt101

This must be like how those of you that are snowed in are feeling like right now.
 
Big Island Lifer said:
Have you come to a resolution regarding your water intrusion issues?
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Well, I wasn't home long enough to get a surveyor out. I left a shop-vac on it for 3 days straight. Dug some of the foam out and it was dry. I tried to stick my camera up into the hole and takes some pics. The wood is browned a little, but nothing feels weak, and its not black, like it was rotted or anything. I can jump on everything and nothing is flexing.

I'm really temped to leave a hole down at the very bottom of the engine mount as a weaphole. Only down side, if there ever is an excessive amount of water, it could make it back up to the foam and saturate it again....:smt009 I'm going to install a 2000 GPM bilge pump down there when all is said and done.

I'm 90% certain that the STBD through-hull was leaking, I knocked both port and stbd out, and I will reseal them with 5200, they way I did it when I worked for a Navigation company down in FL. When we installed transducers, we had a very specific procedure that we followed, so I will do it here. I'll take pics when I reinstall them. I have just left everything open, and hope to get it as dry as possible. Then reseal everything. If something felt spongy, I would be tempted to rip out the engine mount, and the battery platform and re do it, but since everything is drying out so well...Nice thing about living in AZ....I think I will just press foward. :huh:
 
dash came out nice hard to believe twins and the gen with a 8' beam nice boat good luck
 
So...After being gone for a month, I finally made it home to continue with the modifications.

FYI: if anyone needs part numbers or want to know where I purchased items from just let me know.

Started off by working on the engines first. New oil pumps came in, along with new plug wires, oil filters, carb fuel filter, drive belts, and oil pan seal.

Inspected the cylinder walls, no scoring at all, I was very happy about that. Got the new oil pump in on the STBD engine for now. Pulled the starters apart, brushes still look good, though I did find a company that had new ones and ordered some anyway. I got 2 sets of brushes for $12.

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Replaced the Inline fuel filter that goes into the Rochester 4 barrel quadrajet carb.

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Installed the noew oil filter.... FYI: The amsoil EAO25 Filter works for the mercruiser remote oil filters. I went with amsoil on personal preferance. It is a little bigger, whic allows for more capacity, and it still fits.

IMG_1734.jpg


I did compression checks on the first engine...FLAWLESS, had 160PSI across all 6 cylinders I was stoked about that.

I will try to get some vids up later.

I installed some new SS through hulls, man they are sexy!
The G/F came out and was complaining about the one brass one for the genset...what do you guys think... SHould I do that one in SS as well?

All were sealed in with 5200

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Installed my battery switches, they aren't wired up yet or bolted in, I just installed them for visual effect. They will be sealed as to not allo engine funes to get into the midcabin. The switches will also have a backing plate to protect the wires. (Sorry the pics are sideways, photobucket is beng retarted)

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Did the test fit for the new holding tank. Everything fits...barely.

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Now on to the bad news:smt089...After some careful planning, I decided to cut a 4 inch hole in the cross section where the batteries sit. As you may recall, I had a thread going about some water intrusion. I decided I wanted to know more about what was going on, and after I cut the hole I will install a sealable access hatch in the hole I make.

Well here it is. First, there was hardly any foam in the void..idk if this is a blessing or a major fail on Sea Ray for not usuing enough expanding foam in the void. I dug all of the crap out, and while there was no water in the hole, and the foam was dry, the wood still reflects some pretty heavy saturation. The cross section is still rock solid, and I really...REALLY dont want to have to rip it out and redo it right now, especially with the boating season being so close. I like to think if I put the little access hatch over the hole, I could get in there at anytime to remove any water that finds its way in. Maybe even instal a second bildge pump....What do you guys think? :huh:

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[youtube]1gBtX3i8yFQ[/youtube]



[youtube]W8wpq1AUH54[/youtube]
 
BBY,
You did right by clearing out that foam and letting it dry out.

How do the engine stringers and transom look?

I purchased those 2"diameter dock box vents from West Marine and put them in the side supports to vent my new stringers. I also drilled drains in the back of the stringers and barrier coated the insides. Check out my pic below. You may want to let it dry out good and get in there and do that too. You may be ok if the engine stringers and transom is ok. My engine stringers were wet and separated from the main hull. The big block was floating around back there....

100_1435.jpg
 
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Getaway said:
BBY,
You did right by clearing out that foam and letting it dry out.

How do the engine stringers and transom look?

I purchased those 2"diameter dock box vents from West Marine and put them in the side supports to vent my new stringers. I also drilled drains in the back of the stringers and barrier coated the insides. Check out my pic below. You may want to let it dry out good and get in there and do that too. You may be ok if the engine stringers and transom is ok. My engine stringers were wet and separated from the main hull. The big block was floating around back there....
Click to expand...

In my other thread I cleared the transom and stringers as far as saturation went. Everything was completly dry. It appears what had happened was, one of my through hulls that went to the Genset had a leak between the hull and brass fittings (Silicone+Sea Ray = FAIL!) , this allowed the water to enter that void where the batteries sit, then proceeded to the center engine mount. The water managed to store in there with a very small leak coming from the aft side of the center engine mount, which is how I discovered I had a problem. I guess I owe one to MYSR58 who suggested to paint the bilge, I initially wasn't going to paint the bilge, and if I hadn't I probably wouldn't have thought much about the little bit of fluid that was seeping out of the engine mount.

So I will probably do like you suggested, let it really dry out and then coat it with epoxy, bilge kote, or something of that nature.
 
Here come some more updates:

I'm sure you guys are thinkin' I'm totally nuts by now...but let me add to that. I have redone the dash...again. I decided I really hate having the VHF radio down below in that stupid little cabinet below the helm...SO..I incorporated it into the dash with the GPS. Due to popular demand...an unbelieveable amount of popular demand, I went ahead with the ICOM 504. I got the model with the remote mic so I can mount it in a more convieneant spot. Notice the hour meters are no longer in th dash, I wil be moving them down to the below where the trim buttons are on that vinyl cover for the shifter cables. They are hour meters...I don't really care to seethem anyway. I also used king starboard this time for a backer instead of the lexan.

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I also ripped that god forsaken cabinet out from under the helm. AHHHHH More leg room, and a place to put my fet. I know the wiring looks bad right now, but that is because I have undone all the ty-raps and working on rewiring some things.
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Next...BOW RAIL STUDS! I had a few of them that were loose, so I thought I might as well go through and tighten all of them....Cuisosity killed the cat... DO you think they would have sealed them? WRONG!:smt013 In fact there wasn't any sealant at all. Well, why don't we just invite that water right on into the cabin and destroy the upholstry while were at it. Being the good little CSR member that I am, I went ahead and pulled all the studs and rebedded them with UV4000. I couldn't Bring myself to 5200 them in, somehow I fear I may have to remove them at some point down the road.

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FYI: Here is a dirty little secret. In order to get to the bolt for the stud over the galley, you must first loosen the screws on the exterior part of the lower side of the side window in order to release the trim piece to gain access to the stud bolt.

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This also applies to the cabinet that runs on the port side over the dinette. The screws that hold it inplace are actually out side the vessel.

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Nice work on the dash. I have been searching the archives here and elsewhere on ways to install the same size of chart plotter in/around my much smaller dash in my 210. I am beginning to think that the only solution for me may be some sort of telescoping/swinging mount.
 
Its cold and rainy out, so I thought I would go ahead and throw some starter pics in.

Pulld the back plate off, all in all, not to bad for 400hrs of service.

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The brushes still look quite good, I had ordered new, but I think I will hang on to them as the pics show, there wasn't much wear on the old ones.

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Now, this is where our mechanic makes a lot of money off of us. Starters rarely fail because the wiring on the rotor has gone bad, but more because either the slots on the commutator have become clogged, the brushes have worn out, or because corrosion has built up between the brushes and the commutator. Usually if you can whack the starter with a hammer, and it works again, its most likely due to one of the above mentioned items, or a sticking solenoid.


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So here is some " Cheap insurance" as everyone around here likes to say. Take a hacksaw blade with the teeth pointing away from the commutator and you can clean all of the slots.

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Then take a mild grit sand paper and polish up the commutator and brushes. Get a bottle of Electroclean and hose the entire rotor and stator (Starter housing) down to get all of the old copper shavings and other grit out of the starter components. Put a like coating of grease on the ends of the stator, where they spin within the endcaps and shazzam, you just saved yourself a couple hundred bucks!

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Here are some i took while working today,if you notice the cigarette lighter in the old dash i was wanting ideas where to put it now .Also left a lot of extra space i will put the led for the fire system somewhere on there also.My new radio is white i dont think it will look good there but a windless switch is a next year possibility. The new gagues were bought from a liquidator they are searay leftovers from 1996 i think mabey 97 the trim gagues are for sale ,so is the dash panel it is in excellent condition being new,i just dont know what boat it fits.By the way thats called seaboard from soroc plastics 1/2" thick it has a film on it now for protection that peels off after i am done, it cost me 12 bucks.
 
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1956olds said:
Here are some i took while working today,if you notice the cigarette lighter in the old dash i was wanting ideas where to put it now .Also left a lot of extra space i will put the led for the fire system somewhere on there also.My new radio is white i dont think it will look good there but a windless switch is a next year possibility. The new gagues were bought from a liquidator they are searay leftovers from 1996 i think mabey 97 the trim gagues are for sale ,so is the dash panel it is in excellent condition being new,i just dont know what boat it fits.By the way thats called seaboard from soroc plastics 1/2" thick it has a film on it now for protection that peels off after i am done, it cost me 12 bucks.
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That should look real nice when its done!:thumbsup:

I want to get new gauges, but for now its not necessary. I will be redoing the dash a few years down the road when I upgrade the charplotter/GPS, so I will most likely put new gauges in then.

I have to put my fire system indicator back up as well, may even put a remote for the stereo up on mine.

So, is that a matte finish or glossy finish that the film is protecting?
 
It is a bit shiny,but it is stipple (little bumps)finish.Where did you get those curtains?
 
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