Well the boat is on the back burner until I get back from Jamiaca, I'll continue cleaning and working on the engine, as long as its low cost stuff. The wife reminds me all inclusive resorts are great but if we leave the resort we have to pay for things
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Will be back on it hard core after the 18th of April. Will continue to post pictures of the progress.
Spoke with a guy from SEI Marine. They do outdrive conversion kits for many brands of outdrives. He informed me outright that I was basically screwed if I wanted a different outdrive. They make the holes too big so I'd have to refill the transom, cut a new hole and remake the hole for the outdrive... Well that confirms what you all have said. I'm going to try to get this all in working order, survive for a season or two then get ready for a transom rebuild project and do the outboard bracket. I love the idea of the outboard, more room on the deck, big live well :).
This break before the Jamiaca trip will give me time to research all the projects I wanna work on before getting it on the water (minus the outboard conversion) so I'm ready to hit the ground running when I return.
Current planned projects:
1. Check all wiring for continuity, replace worn or damaged cables.
2. Replace the Cuddy Cabins wood.
3. Clean the Cuddy cushions.
4. Continue cleaning the exterior hull to try to get down to gel coat.
5. Construct new seat bases for passengers, get a new captains chair (temporary, may construct our own)
6. Replace the ignition (no key with boat).
7. Replace Nav light and anchor lights, replace horn.
8. All the little things that randomly come up in the process of fixing all the other things you want to fix.