Hi All,
I was finally able to gather all the pictures I have taken on this project up until now. Here is a link to the album:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/cPjG8hFVWJQfEm9WA There is approx. 750 photos in there currently, some videos too.
For the power plant I decided to keep it period correct so I found 70's 888 parts boat (my dad has decided to restore that one, it was a slickcraft SS204). The guy I bought the parts boat from also happened to have a freshly rebuilt 302 (I'm a Ford guy anyway) that he threw in on the deal. So basically I got a whole 888 drive system with an extra rebuilt engine for $600.
It wasn't so easy though, this winter I wanted to get the spare engine all setup and run so I spent some time doing that and finding many disappointing things. Whoever rebuilt it must have just slapped it together because it was missing the oil pump driveshaft, the exhaust riser gaskets and block off plates, the fuel pump was bad, and they installed the thrust bearing in the wrong spot.
Anyways I fixed all those problems and re-torqued everything, broke it in, and it runs pretty great now.
As of right now the engine is in and resting on it's new mounts, I wanted to mach up the engine in there to make sure my new engine mounts were correct. I used 7 laminated layers of 3/4" plywood for the mounts.
The deck is installed and the foam has been poured underneath.
As of this week I replace the dash cross support, the original was broken in two
Today I glued in the port side stiffener, a piece of 1/2" plywood. The original one was about 60% rotted, but the remaining 40% was a pain to remove... I was concerned the new plywood pieces wouldn't form to the curve very well, but they did just fine.
Anyways, I'm excited to share the rest of the journey!