My Restoration Process

[muddywater]

The old engine did not have a lifting ring, so we rigged up some straps to unmount the old engine. I later found out you can buy a Mercury lifting ring off of ebay for less than $20 that threads onto the flywheel shaft and makes engine removal cake. I got one and used it to remount the engine on my other boat which gave me an additional 6 miles an hour top end just from raising the engine 1-bolt hole! Given, it was mounted too low by the dealer originally, but still...

I cut the inner liner as I intended to do my transom from the inside. I used a piece of flat steel bar to separate the liner from the transom. The problem was the live well which was attached to the hull by the invincible potter putty. I separated everything else from the transom and hull and when all else failed, rigged it up so I could use the hoist to pull on the live-well. I picked the ENTIRE boat off the trailer just by the live-well and it would not let go!!!!!!!! When that failed, I just cut the live-well in half with a Sawzall at which time the liner came out easily allowing me access to the bottom of the live-well with a couple crowbars and a sledge hammer.