suzook12

It's too wet for this year mate!! 🤣
Hasn't been too bad so far as it goes.....
Will help the boy learn about boats as well

Todays update......
Today we got the fibre glass floor panel out and started trimming the tab back to the sides ready for grinding.......
 
 
Just when you think things couldn'y have been any worse, you get that dawning realisation.......
 
None of the bearers are bonded to the hull!!, they are so flimsy it's ridiculous, and to add to that, the floor was about and inch above the supports!!! And the amount of GRP that was bone dry of resin............
 
To be honest, I'm kinda glad I never moved this on, just not fit for purpose, the hull basically had no bracing from the back forwards. Despite it havong been indoors for several weeks now, still finding little pockets of water, so along with everything else, not only does it leak, but doesn't drain either.....
Should be a big enough project I think
 

Todays update......
Today we got the fibre glass floor panel out and started trimming the tab back to the sides ready for grinding.......
 
 
Just when you think things couldn'y have been any worse, you get that dawning realisation.......
 
None of the bearers are bonded to the hull!!, they are so flimsy it's ridiculous, and to add to that, the floor was about and inch above the supports!!! And the amount of GRP that was bone dry of resin............
 
To be honest, I'm kinda glad I never moved this on, just not fit for purpose, the hull basically had no bracing from the back forwards. Despite it havong been indoors for several weeks now, still finding little pockets of water, so along with everything else, not only does it leak, but doesn't drain either.....
Should be a big enough project I think
 

Born and bred in the essex area (Rochford hospital, Shoeburyness, Southend, Leigh, Westcliffe and Rayleigh). Pier fishing was free so spent many hours on the pier, I never managed to catch anything, but still enjoyed it. I joined the Sea scouts at Leigh and the Sea cadets at Westcliffe. I always enjoyed the seaside and during the summer holidays had a job on one of the pleasure trip boats at Southend, great holiday job for a young lad. In the early sixties my parents bought a wooden speed boat with  a white 20 or 25hp Mercury and trailer. Their car was a two tone Vauxhall Cresta (cavern green over shark yellow), but had no towbar, so I removed the rear bumper and cut up an old bedframe for the angle iron (very twisty) drilled holes, fitted a tow ball and mounted the "towbar" directly onto the bumper brackets (home made number plate, but no lighting set) and we set off for Stone where they had a caravan (river Blackwater). Then came the embarrassing bit, but that's for another day. Anyway the following year they ordered a brand new Microplus at Earlscourt boat show, with a new mercury 35HP? outboard and trailer. I went with them to Mitchum? to collect the rig (a wheel came off the trailer in London - new trailer - wheel nuts just done by hand, but at slow speed in traffic, wheel nuts were found so no damage done). This boat was taken to Stone, water ski's and tow rope were bought and that is where I started to water ski. I married Joyce in 1965 and I managed to get a well paid job as a labour only sub contractor in Germany. Back to blighty and we visited the Earlscourt boat show in 1967 and bought a Loftus Bennet 19' hull and superstructure  for home completion with a Snipe trailer. Yes Neil - it did get finished - and we took that to Bavaria, Germany, using it as a caravan for eating and sleeping en route. That is how/why we got into boating. Geoff.☺️

Safe to say it wasn't Pete's!!

Got a bit further with it this evening. I have come to the conclusion that whoever laid the last floor, was in fact a plasterer. It seems that the top layers were stripped back then the boards were dot and dabbed on top!! Majority of the wood is now out, should have it all somewhere near stripped tomorrow if nothing else gets in the way......

 
There was one patch of half decent ply and that was at top right in the pic. It feels like the bearers etc under this floor skin are also shot until about a foot in front of the door. Am toying with putting this on a Pod as well, free up some more floor space. Wont be long before this needs to be off the trailer and some bracing putting in....

That explains Jon's lip piercings them

Welcome Jon D

So you fancy having a crack at valve clearances? It makes no odds as to whether its a 4 stroke outboard or diesel inboard, principals are the same...... It is always better to have clearances set at the top of their clearance
First of all there are 3 general types of tappet arrangement;
Hydraulic These are great as no scheduled maintenance. Should the lifter fail then its a replacement job. This style relies on oil pressure to operate, so if you start getting rattly tappets, turn it off, you are short of oil.... Personally, I've never had one fail, but I have had issues when they've all been replaced. Ended up towing vehicle about in gear to get enough oil pressure to expand them!!!
Bucket and shim These come in two styles, shim under bucket and shim over bucket. Over buckets are easier to do, as normally there is a valve tool to create enough gap between cam and bucket to remove shim. On some engines these have been known to spit shims out at extreme performance conditions. The under buckets have no such issues, but generally these are a cam out job! So this will mean new belt kit for the modern engines.
The trick is to measure all the gaps before removing shims, then hopefully the sizes are still readble, otherwise its micrometer time, or the very least, a good set of verniers. Normally shims come in 0.05mm increments.
Once measured you can then workout what size shim you need to replace with. If you cant find a shimming chart then basic maths is required.....
Locknut and Screw Ultimately the easiest type to deal with. Some screws have a square drive on the end and there are adjuster tools to make the job easier.....
 
Soooo, now we know about the different types, what is it we are trying to achieve? The basic idea is that as the engine warms up, parts expand, including the valves. So to get a nice seal when the valve is closed we need a gap between the valve and cam or rocker. If too tight, then when the engine warms, you will hear it drop a cylinder or more out... This is why it's important for engine to be stone cold
So next we need to know when to adjust each valve in turn. This is where some understanding of how the engine works comes in. You need the cylinder on firing stroke at TDC. So if you put the engine on its TDC marks, then either cylinder 1 or 4 will be on firing stroke. For an overhead cam engine, the cylinder with the cam lobes pointing away from the valve is on firing stroke. So once that cylinder is adjusted, turn the motor through 360 degrees and the other cylinder will be on firing stroke. If you turn the crank through 180 degrees, the cylinders 2/3 will come in to play, repeat process, turn through 360 again for the 2nd cylinder of that pairing.
For engines with rockers and pushrods, as you aproach TDC, watch the valves, you will have one cyinder where the exhaust is closing and the inlet is opening, this cylinder is "on the rocks" (rocking between valve open/valve closed), so the other cylinder is on firing stroke.
 
If you know the firing order, life gets a bit simpler to understand what the engine is doing. Cylinders 1 and 4 go up and down together and are 180 degrees to 2 and 3, so firing will either be 1,3,4,2 or 1,2,4,3. For all 4 cylinders to go through a firing stroke, the crank will turn through 720 degrees. With a 4 stroke, a piston goes up on compression stroke, down on power stroke, up on exhaust stroke  then down on induction stroke.... Easily remembr as Suck, squeeze, bang, blow..... Lust like a 2 bit hooker!!
You will also need to know the spec for clearances, and if a shim engine, a shim chart is useful....
Tools required Am going to assume you have access to the valves already, so you will need:
A socket/ratchet/spanner to fit the crank pulley to turn the crank
Feeler gauges
Spanner and driver/pliers or adjuster tool for locknut and screws
verniers or micrometer for bucket and shim engines
Chalk for marking pullies (makes it easier to see)
Head Torch
Obviously the list is not exhaustive as different engines an have skightly different requirements

Ahh but thats where a £25 non runner starts becoming a £125 non runner..... If its got compression, it's got a chance, if its got a spark, an even better chance, fresh fuel, its got a chance, theres always easy start...... Changing impellor etc at this point adds nothing. You wouldn't want to do all that and find the big end knocks.....

If he wants £25 fo the outboard, if you bung him another 25 for the plotter you're more than quids in

Sweet

Don't remember selling you a boat Andy 🤣

Thought shotgun was better option! 🤣

Welcome Scott
 

Will add pictures etc at a later point
 

So you fancy having a crack at valve clearances? It makes no odds as to whether its a 4 stroke outboard or diesel inboard, principals are the same...... It is always better to have clearances set at the top of their clearance
First of all there are 3 general types of tappet arrangement;
Hydraulic These are great as no scheduled maintenance. Should the lifter fail then its a replacement job. This style relies on oil pressure to operate, so if you start getting rattly tappets, turn it off, you are short of oil.... Personally, I've never had one fail, but I have had issues when they've all been replaced. Ended up towing vehicle about in gear to get enough oil pressure to expand them!!!
Bucket and shim These come in two styles, shim under bucket and shim over bucket. Over buckets are easier to do, as normally there is a valve tool to create enough gap between cam and bucket to remove shim. On some engines these have been known to spit shims out at extreme performance conditions. The under buckets have no such issues, but generally these are a cam out job! So this will mean new belt kit for the modern engines.
The trick is to measure all the gaps before removing shims, then hopefully the sizes are still readble, otherwise its micrometer time, or the very least, a good set of verniers. Normally shims come in 0.05mm increments.
Once measured you can then workout what size shim you need to replace with. If you cant find a shimming chart then basic maths is required.....
Locknut and Screw Ultimately the easiest type to deal with. Some screws have a square drive on the end and there are adjuster tools to make the job easier.....
 
Soooo, now we know about the different types, what is it we are trying to achieve? The basic idea is that as the engine warms up, parts expand, including the valves. So to get a nice seal when the valve is closed we need a gap between the valve and cam or rocker. If too tight, then when the engine warms, you will hear it drop a cylinder or more out... This is why it's important for engine to be stone cold
So next we need to know when to adjust each valve in turn. This is where some understanding of how the engine works comes in. You need the cylinder on firing stroke at TDC. So if you put the engine on its TDC marks, then either cylinder 1 or 4 will be on firing stroke. For an overhead cam engine, the cylinder with the cam lobes pointing away from the valve is on firing stroke. So once that cylinder is adjusted, turn the motor through 360 degrees and the other cylinder will be on firing stroke. If you turn the crank through 180 degrees, the cylinders 2/3 will come in to play, repeat process, turn through 360 again for the 2nd cylinder of that pairing.
For engines with rockers and pushrods, as you aproach TDC, watch the valves, you will have one cyinder where the exhaust is closing and the inlet is opening, this cylinder is "on the rocks" (rocking between valve open/valve closed), so the other cylinder is on firing stroke.
 
If you know the firing order, life gets a bit simpler to understand what the engine is doing. Cylinders 1 and 4 go up and down together and are 180 degrees to 2 and 3, so firing will either be 1,3,4,2 or 1,2,4,3. For all 4 cylinders to go through a firing stroke, the crank will turn through 720 degrees. With a 4 stroke, a piston goes up on compression stroke, down on power stroke, up on exhaust stroke  then down on induction stroke.... Easily remembr as Suck, squeeze, bang, blow..... Lust like a 2 bit hooker!!
You will also need to know the spec for clearances, and if a shim engine, a shim chart is useful....
Tools required Am going to assume you have access to the valves already, so you will need:
A socket/ratchet/spanner to fit the crank pulley to turn the crank
Feeler gauges
Spanner and driver/pliers or adjuster tool for locknut and screws
verniers or micrometer for bucket and shim engines
Chalk for marking pullies (makes it easier to see)
Head Torch
Obviously the list is not exhaustive as different engines an have skightly different requirements

Next to barb and custard I reckon!! 🤣

Next to barb and custard I reckon!! 🤣

Safe to say it wasn't Pete's!!

Nice looking boat..... Would look better with a 300 on the back 🤣

I was about 4 when I started fishing with my dad.  He built a small boat similar to the Poole Canoe which is a flat bottom boat.  There was a seagull 2or3hp outboard on it to start with he then upgraded to a seagull silver century 5hp with clutch and recoil starter OOOOH I here you say but in those day that was a major upgrade.  We generally only ever fished Poole Harbour but as a kid I had a blast. I have been fishing ever since and since the age of 18ish I have hardly ever been without a boat of some description as follows:
18' cornish sports boat, 10' With, 17 Pilot, 18' Poole Canoe, Hardy 17' Fisherman, Warrior 195, Karnic 2460 and now my current boat Rodman 870, it took me about 45 years to get through all those boats but apparently Neil got through that many in a month 

Welcome Patrick, be prepared for some stick on here as everyone is fair game, it's all well meant tho.......
Don't know much about Ramsgate other than being mud coloured and a bit salty.... But Shetlands have a good reputation, so enjoy

welcome aboard