It’s time
 

Original transom on my 83” has issues with water and rot. Same thing with the floor. I replaced the fuel tank and replaced the water logged wood on the fuel tank hatch 19 years ago. The fuel tank is not leaking, but it would be silly to not replace it while everything is apart. I’m going to a smaller tank, from 144 gallon to 100 gallon. It took this old man a couple of weeks to take things apart to get ready for the glass man. Hoping stringers and such are alright.

I used teak trim that was taken from transom door and such to screw into all those years ago and it appears to be in pretty good shape.

Nice Ron!! I'm with ya, if you're that far into it replace the tank! I've got a 144 gallon and would go down to a 100 in a second! I'm assuming you are keeping it mounted towards the front. Have fun! :)

Hatches were not that bad to get out. When I put them back in back then, I laid down some heavy monofilament before applying sealant. I found the line buried and was able to “unzip “ most of the sealant and lift hatch out.

Don’t know what we will find under tank. Going to leave that to someone else. Yes Don, basically going to be in the same place at the front of tank, going from 98” to 70” so 28” shorter on rear.

Hummm.....28" is quite a bit, I was thinking 24" would get me to about 100 gallons and get the back of the tank out of the rear hatch area! Plus with the heavier 4 stroke it would move about 300 pounds of fuel 24" away from the stern when the tank is full to 3/4 full (all the fuel runs to the back of the tank). That's the big deal for me, getting some of the 3/4" freeboard back I lost when I installed the heavier 4S engine.

Oh yeah, back in November of 2018 I was paying $2.91 for Rec90, same pump, same station was a smooth $4.89 the other day when I bought gas for my golf cart! I don't even want to think about gas $$$ for the boat!!! :(

I'm going to remember that monofilament trick. Thank you!

The back bulkhead inside of the forward deck hold, I cut in a watertight rectangle Armstrong hatch. Then installed a 15 gal Bladder style tank for fresh water washdown. Easy to install the pump, elect and the plumbing in the console.
Love to rinse off the Reels, Dive Equip & the Ladies!
Think about it Ron

Yeah, the old tank is 28” wide and now that I see the lip, I remember that I shaved a little glass to get old tank out. New tank is 27.5” w x 70”L x12”h. It works out to be 100 gallons. As far as that extra room, that’s interesting, have a hatch there already.


Moving right along, doing transom from inside. Good thing is saving all that glass. That piece of aluminum is 3/8” glass is close to that. Also the stringers were not connected very well to transom, had cracks.

Ditto!

Work on transom. Not as bad as I thought it would be.

Moving along

Progress

Removing wood. Old tank 19 years old. It was primed and the i painted resin on tank bottom and part way up the sides before foaming it in. Looking back, I don’t know why I didn’t go all the way up. The tank wasn’t leaking, but a few areas were getting close. The original tank lasted 20 years before leaking.

Well it started off real good. It has come to a hold. Ordered a fuel tank that was supposed to take over two weeks. It was done in 4 days. Waiting on resin to come in.to get boat done.

Woohoo. Resin delivered and making progress. Waiting on neoprene strips for tank. Floor pieces are about ready and found a motor.

Maybe I went a little overboard with the neoprene strips, but wanted to support bottom of tank as muck as I can . Tank shelf looks to be pretty straight and flat. It may dip as much as an eight of an inch in a couple places. A few inches of bad wood will be cut out on the rear of shelf.

TNT doesnt mess around! Good operation there..

I messed up. When I bought my tank 19 years ago from the original fab place, they had the old measurements already and I just replaced it with what they sent me. RDS was not making tanks for individuals when I called them recently , so I measured the tank as well as I could. I asked the glass man to get the depth measurement and he told me it was 12” and that is what I ordered and got from TNT. When the guys put the new tank in, it looked a little different, besides being shorter, it is also 1/2”taller than the old tank. It fits with the cover over it, but the mounting tabs need some modification. Looking back, I was too fixated with moving the cg forward. The new tank is 100 gallons. If I could, I would make it the same width, and inch or so less deep and four or five inches longer than the new tank.
Wish it was 75”x28”x11”= 100 gallons.

Been awhile since I posted pictures. Under deck looked solid and saw no reason to go further. Shortened up the shelf for the tank and I had a few half holes put in to aid in air flow and drainage of water, just in case. Still glasswork to be done, but back cap and splash well now in place.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, I’ve been filling in a couple holes dings and scratches and put a coat of primer on. Now some more sanding (hate sanding). Lining up some able body guys to get the console up on boat when I get it back.

Getting close
 

Can’t wait for the new Zuke that is waiting. Just a whole bunch of stuff to put together first.

Hey Ron-
It is starting to shape up nicely. Looking fwd to final pics. Congrats

Joys of getting a job done today. Only made plans to get transom and deck replaced. I wanted to get the rest painted as well. No, there are more boats waiting and scheduled until September. So, the deck and transom (outside) are whisper gray and the rest is the old (29 years) Imron. The deck hatches are just dropped into place. I will be screwing them down and sealing. Maybe years saving money for the rest of the paint, after the console is done I think I will retire from painting.

Looks Great Ron. Hang in there - It wouldn’t be long now.

Screwing/sealing tank cover.
 

Decided on red this time. One, had it available and two, if I or the next one to do this should be more apt finding it.

Memory dollars are cheap.

Memory thought is expensive.

Memories?

Hit the cut.

Well, the plan was to put the parts back together and clean them as I go. Got some of the caulking done. No time to caulk right now, so it’s duct tape time. They are calling for 6-8 inches of rain in the next couple of days, so had to hurry.

Ok,so now they’re teasing me.

Long trip (for me anyway) but we’re making progress. Most of the journey was on backroads and I’m glad I put the shock on the trailer.

Wow! An original “Posi-latch” I haven’t seen one of them in a while. Not since our 1977 Float-on trailer. Good ole days!

Yeah, I had to give instructions to tech that took it for test ride. I don’t think they ever saw one. It originally came with one threaded rod and a “pin”. I had the factory guy weld on a second rod and then weld the bow eye to bottom of latch.

So, most of the 18 years that my 225 Yamaha was on my boat, I ran one battery for the motor and one for the accessories. The accessories battery was charged by an isolated charge wire from the motor. Starting the motor had no effect on the electronics, unlike a friend’s boat that when he started his motor, it turned off his gps/ sonar unit. My cranking battery was hooked up directly to the motor and the accessories battery was wired to battery switch. I had a jumper cable to the switch as an emergency connect for both batteries. My cranking battery is rated at 1000 cca.
I got the boat back from dealer and noticed that the switch was on for both batteries. The only way to charge the second battery is to connect them, or start on the battery that really doesn’t provide enough for starting. I have been doing some research lately and from what I have read, the Suzuki 225 does not have an option for a separate charge wire. It seems as though the lowly 225 is the “plain Jane” model of the line. Maybe that explains how I was able to find a motor. I would really like to have a way to charge that battery without running the two batteries in parallel. It bothers me having two batteries that are different from each other hooked together.

[QUOTE= I would really like to have a way to charge that battery without running the two batteries in parallel. It bothers me having two batteries that are different from each other hooked together.[/QUOTE]

An ACR (Auto Charging Relay) will accomplish that. I had one on my 23', have one on the 17' Whaler, will have one on the 20' SeaCraft, and have a spare here for sale. All these on two batteries.

On my 20’ and 23’ used Blue Seas mini add-a- battery ACR. One battery for engine and one for the “house”. The relay switches over to charge house battery once the start battery is at 13v. Has worked well with no issues on both boats. If you go that route suggest installing the toggle switch they mention to isolate relay when boat is l stored / tied up as there is a small current for circuitry that , over extended time, can drain down the battery.

I was looking i at those ACRs. Seem pretty straight forward and probably wonÂ’t be an issue as long as the boat doesnÂ’t sit so long. The dealer put the switch to both batteries on and I show 12.3 volts, which seems a little low. I switched to measuring one battery at a time and one had 12.3 and the other had 12.2. My motorhome has a BIRD battery isolation relay delay? Connected to a solenoid for joining the battery banks.

Break in and run on 225
 

Got to finally put her in the water today. After break in period I ran motor to wot at 6000 rpm, 42 mph gauge reads 2.1 mpg. At 4400 rpm, 30 mph gauge says 3.2 mpg. The motor was mounted a couple of inches higher than my Yami. Cavitation plate a couple inches higher than the bottom of keel. While running, it appears to be submerged, but just a little bit of trim and it sounds like I’m pulling in air.

Still getting boat back together. It sure came apart a lot quicker, but then I am trying to clean and paint. Having an issue with the smg4, not reading fuel in tank. From what I have read and what the motor salesman told me that the gauge should come up when I put gas in. Motor guy put 10 gallons in and I added 40.

I told the salesman at the dealership to run the steering hoses and throttle/shift cables through the hole in the shelf. The rest goes up the corner of the console and I could do the rest. This is not exactly what I had in mind.

I couldn’t find a plastic platform that I liked, so I went back with teak. Parts for my trim tabs have been trickling in, but finally got them installed. The motor has been on for a while now and only have about 2 1/2 hours on it. Got to get out this week.

What platform is that? Teak is not near as slippery as the starboard.

My daughter bought it for me for Father’s Day. Amarine Made product bought through Amazon. Think it was about $110. It must weigh close to 20 pounds, I was impressed with the item for the price. I’ll have to wait to use it when in the water. Just looked online for it and it was unavailable. Think they had a three step one. I had to cut half of a hole in it to accommodate the tab actuator, hope I didn’t compromise anything.

So I cleaned up the nest of wires. I ran the steering hoses through the hole in the shelf along with the throttle and shift cables as they have been since I bought the boat almost 30 years ago.
My original plan was to put the gps puck (point 1) that came with my motor gauge on top of t top. I don’t think the cable is long enough to reach the top. It seems to work sitting under the console. I was thinking about mounting it to the top of the console. Any thoughts?