FloodCityKid
Member
So I got my first boat. My dad's old 1979 Bass Tracker, complete with the vintage brown on orange color scheme. It has been sitting in the garage unused for about 7 years now. He finally said I could have it if I took him out fishing when he comes down to Florida. I agreed to the offer. Anyway, up to Pennsylvania for the boat. I was surprised how good of shape it was in for being that old and sitting for so long. I posted earlier this week asking some advise from you guys on getting this bad boy on the water. One member said I should post it on here and update my progress.
What I've done so far:
* New tail lights for the trailer
* Got a battery, tested the electronics. All wires are in good shape and the bilge pump still works.
* Started the engine (couldn't wait). I had a buddy who used to work at John Deere on small engines look at it, said it was fine to start, said it looked brand new. It idled and reved fine. Didn't put it in gear though. The muffs are right against the prop. I'm going to replace the gear oil then try to put it in gear this weekend and see what happens.
* Cleaned the gas tank and fuel line.
* There are two cracks above the water line. You can kinda see them in the picture. I'm going to scrape out the old silicone and fill them with JD weld marine epoxy.
For this I may try to find a piece of aluminum and silicone the crap out of it and use stainless screws to try to patch it up. Or leave it as is. Its been siliconed like that as long as I can remember.
Got some tips from Dave and fixed the trailer wiring. I luckily, or unluckily, forgot to pull the plug from the back of the boat and with all the rain last week it filled up with water. The good part about it was that I saw a huge bondo glob dripping under the boat when I was taking the cover off. Me and a buddy chipped it off and it was covering a rivet. Epoxied the rivet. None of the other rivets seemed to be dripping or leaking. No other bondo repair jobs down there either. Off to Harbor Freight for a Tarp!
What I've done so far:
* New tail lights for the trailer
* Got a battery, tested the electronics. All wires are in good shape and the bilge pump still works.
* Started the engine (couldn't wait). I had a buddy who used to work at John Deere on small engines look at it, said it was fine to start, said it looked brand new. It idled and reved fine. Didn't put it in gear though. The muffs are right against the prop. I'm going to replace the gear oil then try to put it in gear this weekend and see what happens.
* Cleaned the gas tank and fuel line.
* There are two cracks above the water line. You can kinda see them in the picture. I'm going to scrape out the old silicone and fill them with JD weld marine epoxy.
For this I may try to find a piece of aluminum and silicone the crap out of it and use stainless screws to try to patch it up. Or leave it as is. Its been siliconed like that as long as I can remember.
Got some tips from Dave and fixed the trailer wiring. I luckily, or unluckily, forgot to pull the plug from the back of the boat and with all the rain last week it filled up with water. The good part about it was that I saw a huge bondo glob dripping under the boat when I was taking the cover off. Me and a buddy chipped it off and it was covering a rivet. Epoxied the rivet. None of the other rivets seemed to be dripping or leaking. No other bondo repair jobs down there either. Off to Harbor Freight for a Tarp!
that looks like a yamaha on that back? what outboard do you have on there? pictures are always welcome here!!!
