First V20 and its a project.
 

So here is the deal, I found this V20 1988 20'6" for sale. I paid $400 for it. It is complete except trailer and the motor is obviously shot. I have a 1995 3.0 225 Mercury I will be putting on it. It is coming off of my 22' Hurricane deck boat. But the windshield is complete with no issues. The bimini is complete...well the hardware is there. the floor is completely solid, the very top of the transom has a little movement to it when you push hard on the lower unit of the outboard. I am thinking I will either add an aluminum angle bracket to it or two 2x6's fiber glassed in on the inside. The hull is in good condition, but I am going to completely sand it down and paint it then I think re gel coat it? I am not so up on the best way to make the hull look showroom. I love the hull design and it has all I am looking for. I just want to get it in almost show condition before I put it in the water. But there really isn't too much to do. Except some sanding and painting. Idea's or insight?

good looking starter hull i bet that old Johnson would run with little work.

HAHAHAHAAH!!!! Yeah, no. It's been sitting for two years with spark plugs out. The rings are probably rusted in place. Yes it might run....but not for long. I see you have a 225. About what kind of top end are you getting. I really am not looking at speed so much but I want to cruise decently and not be working the motor.

Hey Gill, Good luck on your project. BEWARE OF THE TRANSOM my had very little movement and when I tore it down she was rotted pretty bad. Looks like someone had her laid back in the bushes. I am a testimony that anything is possible to acheive on a v20 with the help of this website. All the guys on here are awesome. They have helped me do a complete conversion/ restoration on a 1974. Ask as many questions as you can beacause they will all be answered. Some advice I can give is take your time and do your research before diving in. And by the way if you trash that old OMC motor on that boat let me know because Im looking for a power trim and tilt assembly LOL!!!. Welcome to the coolest site on the web!!!!

48 to 52 depending on water condictions, as for your motor i'm sure i could get it running. if it's a Johnson / Evinrude I can usually get them running right. Finished up a pair of 200s last yr that had be sunk in salt and left then sat 2 yrs in the air and were stuck. very little work they run like new now.

Congratulations!!...if yer gonna do a complete restore like yer talkin' about, I would suggest pulling windshield and flipping the hull...the acces you'l gain to the bottom will make removing that bottom paint MUCH EASIER and believe me, removin' bottom paint is no walk in the park...and if you have the skills to fiberglass 2x4s into the transom,why not just redo the tranny right?...there is a ton of info on doing this, not only on this site, but elsewhere as well...a 3 litre Merc's weight will probably hold your deck drains under, so plan to deal w/that some way...check valves or other...welcome to the site and if you need anything, just holler...and thanks for the pics...we like pics around here...:clap:

If Skools says there's a shot of the motor running, believe him, he was able to revive mine after what looked like a trip through the 'hood.

The motor will be up for sale if anyone wants it. The lower unit looks good as far as I can tell. I have not drained the lower unit though. The trim and tilt is not looking so good. But the whole motor for $150 comes with the prop. But you have to pick it up. And I will give ya the controls too.

I do plan on flipping the boat, I learned that lesson on the last hull I did. As far as why not redo the transom...I can only imagine how much work it would be to pull the cap off to get to it.

I am not looking to do a complete restore on it as the floor is in great shape as is most of the boat. But I do want the hull to be nicely finished and I will see about the inside. I might get the urge to put it in the water sooner than I think.

Gill where are you located? I would like to get a shot at that motor if you are close to va beach.

Sorry, I am near Tampa FL. But I will pull the motor off as soon as possible and take pictures of the trim and see what you think. If it's just the trim you want we might be able to work something and I ship it to you.

gill you are the man!

That's my problem, too...:head:

Im with Reel, Id seriously consider redoining that transom. You dont want that part of the boat to give you trouble in rough seas. Thats one section of the boat you want to be solid and dependable. I redid a full transom on my I/O and it was'nt that bad. I had no previous experience with fiberglass and it was a breeze to work with.

I think what I am going to try is pouring that sealer into the transom. It is suppose to store its strength. Then use that marine patch stuff to seal it tight and use a piece of angle aluminum to keep it rigid. For now, I am thinking that will have to do until I have a better in flux of capitol to redo the transom.

Kracker, here are the pics I took yesterday. Let me know as I am going to list the motor soon.

Figured I would keep posting pics as I go. So far I am thinking I did pretty well. The two hatches in the floor are soft and will have to be replaced but the rest is looking pretty solid. The transom is not as bad as I thought, but I will be using the resin that is suppose to restrengthen it and add an angle bracket to be sure it does not move.

If by "sealer" you mean Git-Rot or equivalent, the wood must be DRY, DRY, DRY in order to work...and the patch stuff is not structural and will crack like crazy when you mount the motor back on the transom...I learned this hard lesson on this '84...if there's not much movement to the transom and you aren't gonna repair now, seal any openings w/3M 4200 and use same to seal down the alum cap you mention...the 4200 is strong stuff and will FLEX when the motor bracket gets TORQUED down...mine, on the orher hand went SNAP-CRACKLE-POP!!...:cen:

Thanks, I forgot that it did not have much give. The transom is completely dry, so that is one thing I am sure off. I will also follow your 3M suggestion.

For the hatches, you should consider recoring them. I just finished with my gas tank hatch and will post pictures of it on another thread. You're probably not going to "find" the ones you need in any better condition than the ones you have.

that Tilt trim looks good actually. just the motor is rusted which is command on those tt sections. nothing $60 won't fix. is that a 150 a 175 or a 235 motor?

It's a 150. I do have someone coming out today to look at it. I'll let you know if he is just a tire kicker.

Well, I was really hoping it was not going to be to bad, but the transom had some bugs in it and have made food out of about the first 4-6 inches of transom. After that though it is solid as a rock. I was thinking I could use the transom restore stuff but there is no way to dry it enough to make it work. I have never done a transom. Do you hollow out the shell and replace all the wood and seal it back together? Ideas?

Several ways to replace transom;

Hollow out and POUR

Remove skin from outside and replace wood

Remove skin from INSIDE and replace wood

We've seen all 3 here and depending on your skills, all are viable ways to go and fully expect a good result...search this forum for transom rebuilds and look here:

http://www.classicseacraft.com/

Lots of tranny replacements and rebuilds here...:clap:

It may be tempting to replace only the rotted part, unfortunately it needs to be ALL redone...

As I said in my first post, mine was strong and just barely flexed. But when I took it apart it was trashed. I was very surprised it felt that strong being so rotted mine had the bugs all in it also.

Ok, well....given a little time to think about this. I am really leaning toward replacing the transom. I think the easiest way for me is to remove the outside. This way I only have to prop the cap up a little in the rear instead of pulling the whole thing. I am going to do some exploratory work on the transom this weekend and see to what extent the damage is. But if it is as bad as I suspect I will be replacing the whole thing. If I am going to do this.... I have heard these hulls do not work well with out drives....true?

I know some people have a strong preference to outboards vs I/O's for space considerations and other reasons but I have never heard anybody complain about any kind of handling or performance issue because of an I/O.....somebody may chime in and contradict me of course.

Sorry, I meant a gil bracket.

Yep, it's bad. So much for wishful thinking. So now the cap I might as well take off as I will be rewiring the wreck too. How hard is this to do. I know there are about 300 screws holding the top to the bottom behind the rub rail, then I have the fuel tank line, so what all am I forgetting?

If your pulling the cap then I would replace the transom from the inside. If you replace from the you will still have the factory strength integrity of the outer skin. This opinion comes from others I've talked to. You might also find stringer rot towards the transom also

I pulled my cap about 3 weeks ago. Like you said, fuel lines (including vent line), wire going from tank to fill cap, bilge hoses, thru hulls in the transom.

I lodged a board in the front through one of my floor hatches (center console) rather than tie to that front cleat. Mine weighs around 400 pounds. I used an excavator, came right off. There is a putty they used to seat the cap to the stringers but there was no adhesion to speak of between the stringers and deck.

Project start to cap being off in the air took around 4 hours.

I started with a transom replacement after my "solid" transom leaked water when I installed a new GPS and found my stringers were shot.

Kracker Jack's RIGHT about recoring the tranny from the inside if yer pullin' the cap, structurally AND cosmetically...before you pull it, walk around on the foredeck ahead of the windshield to see if any soft spots up there...if so, that fix is much easier w/cap off and flipped over...

I posted some pics on a thread I started "Here she is" that has a couple of pictures pulling the cap off. Give you an idea of what you will see if you decide to go that route.