1956 Johnson Seahorse 10hp Tips please!

I just bought a '56 seahorse, and my plan is to restore it over the winter. Where can I find a manual, paper or digital? Also what was the original color red and white used on the motor? My brother does auto body, and he can shoot it and do all the body work on the cowl to make it look perfect, but I don't know what color was used. Or at least a modern equivalent.
here are some pics

Seems to be several variations of red and white on Google pics.

If nobody on here can help there's several guys at iboats.com that are into vintage omc motors

I just posted on your trailer thread about this little motor. I have the same one. The actual color is called Holiday Bronze. Try this website for paint and decals...

https://www.nymarine.ca/

His paint prices are rediculous but I'm sure your brother could match it. I'm not sure what the white color is called but its probably listed on that site as well.

Not to steer you away from this site at all but iboats boating forum was a huge help when I fixed mine up. You can also click my motor thread in my sig as I got a lot of help here as well. iboats also had the best prices on parts. I rebuilt the entire ignition system, water pump and carb for around 100 bucks if I remember correctly.

Did you get a tank with it or are you converting it to a fuel pump? Mine came with a tank so I was able to keep it original. You can still find the tanks but they are very pricey!!

Good luck with it and keep us posted. Shoot me a message and I can try and help if you have questions. I learned quite a bit. Also if you need any pics for your restore, I can help as mine is 100% original from 1956 with the exception of the ignition and what not.

I'm on iboats as well, same username. But with a question like this one I figured It would be best to post on both, you'll find a twin to this post on their johnson forum. I've found iboats has good information, but a slow forum, here there are more responses, and faster responses. I've heard iboats is good on parts pricing. No unfortunately the guy selling this motor also has a '56 7.5 from his grandfather and he kept the tank for that project. It's ok my grandfather-in-law has a bunch of old '50's era gas tanks laying around his barn, I'm thinking of taking one and striping it down and painting it like the original johnson tanks and making it look like the Siamese fuel system but it actually be a fuel pump system. Then I can also use a larger plastic tank for when I don't care about looks, and I'm just using the boat. I plan on this being a regularly used boat, but with it all being 50's I'd like to be able to enter it in a show or 2 if I wanted to.

Go to https://www.aomci.org for any antique outboard information. They are the absolute Gurus on the vintage engines. Start at the "ask a member" section once you get in there. There is no benefit to changing it over to a fuel pump over the pressure tank. Those tanks are bulletproof and do their job well. You can purchase vinyl decal kits for the tank after you refinish it on Ebay, they are always in there. Remember to always run that engine on nothing less than 24:1 fuel/oil ratio no matter what your buddies say.

Pappy said:

Go to https://www.aomci.org for any antique outboard information. They are the absolute Gurus on the vintage engines. Start at the "ask a member" section once you get in there. There is no benefit to changing it over to a fuel pump over the pressure tank. Those tanks are bulletproof and do their job well. You can purchase vinyl decal kits for the tank after you refinish it on Ebay, they are always in there. Remember to always run that engine on nothing less than 24:1 fuel/oil ratio no matter what your buddies say.

Click to expand...

I don't have any pressure tanks, I have access to some really old gas cans that look exactly like the original tank, and I'm going to make it look like an original tank but function with a fuel pump because it won't actually be a pressurized tank.

As far as the decals, I run a sign shop, and when I have the cowl painted, I'm going to cut paint masking for it and have the logo painted on. It'll hold up better than a decal.

Thanks for the link, I'll get a hold of them on this motor soon.

I recently picked up an old 64 seahorse 18hp and will be a winter project as well. iboats was a great resource for links and step by step, but the big help was getting the service manuals. I sent a PM to the site moderator Jim, and he was kind enough to send along a link to digital manuals. =D> It was a big download but very nice to have in hand!! Good luck!!