Taking the plunge!

[spareparts]

If you got it for $275, you did pretty good. I have 26 years in the marine business, I held a Mercruiser Master, Mercury Certified, OMC sterdrive, Yamaha 5 Star, Volvo gas certified, and various other classes, schools and marine education. I can tell you with out a doubt, from my experiance, do not waste one dime on that motor and drive. Pull it out, glass up the transom, put a bracket on the back, bolt an outboard on and ride. There are very few parts available for those drives. I can't tell from the pic, but if its a hydromechanical drive(no anode above the antiventalation plate), the factory couldn't even make them work, if its a mechanical drive, they only work for a short amount of time before breaking again. IF you want to swap out for another type of I/O setup, you're still going to have to glass up the transom and start from scratch anyway. Unless you find a bad boat with a good drive, it will cost you far more than dong the outboard bracket idea.

PS, welcome to the site, feel free to ask any questions and good luck

[ludacrous999b]

Thanks for the advice on the motor. My main concerns start with the hull transom stringers and deck. I came into this one knowing the boat would have some problems but I love a project. I've heard a lot about Wellcrafts having leaky transoms, so it's the first place I'll look.

So I just went to marineengine.com and looked at my era engine, parts? unavailable, unavailable, unavailable, $14.44 for a water drain elbow adapter... out of stock...

[Road King Cole]

Welcome to the site. Definitely a diamond in the rough.

Another option would be to convert it to an outboard. MJ has a great thread on that for when he did it to his.

rkc

[ludacrous999b]

Got the boat picked up yesterday and got her home, haven't had time to get in her and give her a once over. (I did not pick the boat up personally) The boat was purchased from the first owner, amazingly! The original owners manual and the maintenance records were included. My agent tells me that the recent documents show thousands in work done. Then the owners just seemed to stop. The bboat sat for 4 years so who knows if they negated the work done by bad storage. I'm very interested in looking over the paperwork and the boat tonight. And YES I will post pictures.

[reelapeelin]

Originally Posted by ludacrous999b

Got the boat picked up yesterday and got her home, haven't had time to get in her and give her a once over. (I did not pick the boat up personally) The boat was purchased from the first owner, amazingly! The original owners manual and the maintenance records were included. My agent tells me that the recent documents show thousands in work done. Then the owners just seemed to stop. The bboat sat for 4 years so who knows if they negated the work done by bad storage. I'm very interested in looking over the paperwork and the boat tonight. And YES I will post pictures.

Ludacrous...you really did a nice job buyin that boat for PENNIES...Hope you'll strongly consider following Spareparts advise on converting to outboard/bracket combo...he ain't BSing about it...knows what he's talking about...good luck either way and keep us posted...from out there in Misery...LOL!!...you comin back to Charlotte when sevice ends?...

[ludacrous999b]

Here are the pictures I promised. Unfortunatly mother nature has other plans than me cleaning out the interior of the boat. I was able to pull out all the old wood seating, engine cover and cabin uphulstry and spray it all down with the hose. I was able to unclog the rear drain plug and oh my lord how the water rolled out. Got to get this stuff cleaned up! Clean pictures to follow when the rain stops falling!

Need a new winch and stop for the bow, rust coming out on the bow ring.


This is the only hull damage on the boat I've spotted do far.


Some hull shots follow, the gel coat just seems gone, and the paint is powdering off on my hands.
















More to follow.

[ludacrous999b]

The nessecary bow shot


A few of the metal parts look like this on the hull. The windshield and glass look good.


Shots of the Cuddy damage.




A view of my beautiful deck.


Thru deck pics






Fuel tank

[ludacrous999b]

Well today I had the local shade tree mechanic come over. Yesterday per his instructions I put a full pint of Marvell Mystery Oil down into the carb. Today he came out with a pipe wrench and put it on the harmonic balancer. He stepped on it one way, stepped on it the other way. She broke loose. 5 minutes. WD-40 into the ports, and about 10 more minutes of turning and the girl turns freely. The starter is dead. Put a new battery in it, there is no key so we jumped across the solenoid. It clicks, we turned the engine by hand while jumping the starter and it started making a trying noise but it wont crank her over. Sprayed down the bilge and engine with engine degreaser, going to pressure wash out the inside of the boat and the below decks region so I can see what I'm working with and so we can work on the under part of the engine without living in 2 inches of grease.

I cleaned the boat exterior today.
Before


After


Before


After


Before


After