How close can you be?

Greg and I busted some more hump on the boat and pretty much got her done. Got the carpeting in, lights and guages and such done. Just gotta do the seats and windshield, a little touch up on the engine cover and she's history. My very good buddy Rene stopped by with her camera so I could take some quality pictures of it.

Lookin good!

Okay, It's painted. The trim is on. It's on the trailer. The fenders on the trailer are painted and installed. The wheels have been painted and trimmed with baby moons and trim rings. Greg stopped by this morning and helped me with the side moldings and installed the aft cleats and anchor light. All that is left is carpeting, reinstalling all the hardware, front seats and fabricating a rear seat. Greg and I also have to shape some Lexan for the windshield. Expensive hunk of plastic to screw up. Gotta be at our best that day! Of course there's the engine. That has already been degreased and cleaned and just awaits paint. I'll take care of that this week and probably hang it on Friday night. The engine cover does have some road rash I'll have to repair first, but it's not all that bad. Might take a couple hours max to repair. Here are some photo's with out all the hardware or interior work completed.
Moons and rings
Side moldings on
Great color combo
59 getting close!

Light at the end of the tunnel

The end is near! Me, Greg and James busted hump Friday afternoon to get the boat prepped, inside the shop and off the trailer by five. Couldn't have done it with out Greg and Jame's help. Thanks again guys. Try to run a business and have a project going at the same time! Jake came by at five thirty and painted the rest of the boat. We had a bitch of a time getting the boat to hang properly so he could get it done. Of course being from New England we knew we would figure out something that would work, which we did. Finished painting the bottom at about nine. It took two weeks to complete, but that was because of logistical problems. Jake did a great job of spraying the color, but it sure shows I didn't spend enough time on prep work! Our spray booth was the brain child of Greg. His own copy of the Eisenhower Tunnel! The boats got some spider cracks in the fiberglass showing through ( my fault, bad prep ) so I'll have to sand them out and kiss Jake's butt to have him shoot it again. I'm thinking of changing the name of the boat to " Ship for Brains ". What do you think? Here are some photo's.

Jake ordering four beers
In a cloud
Top color

In the beginning.....

This is how the 59 looked when I got her. I also forgot to mention Greg and I have been experimenting and believe we can form a new windshield ourselves. We found we can work 1/4 inch Plexiglas with a heat gun and a lot of patience! This should be interesting!

Progress update

Just a shell

Well we've been bustin butt on the 59 glass magic. She's all stripped, filled and sanded and ready for paint. We found two leaks in her, one on the keel and another on the starboard side of the bottom. ( See Photo's ) After a fair amount of fiberglass I'm pretty sure she'll be dry as a popcorn fart! We want to paint it in a nostalgic style with cream on the bottom, biege on the top and chocolate where it is red right now. Same sceme on the trailer. I picked up the trailer this afternoon from Greg's shop where we've been getting it ready for paint and dragged it to my shop where my buddy Jake got it all painted up nice and pretty. I'll put new carpeting on the boards tomorrow, then I can retrieve the boat from Gregs. We plan to start painting the boat Sunday. We'll paint the wheels and fenders at the same time. It'll be a two or three day process because of drying time. I almost forgot to thank Neil for all his help on this project. Besides helping with this project he's juggling work and school! How in the hell he finds time for Erin I'll never know! I love ya buddy!

Greg and the 59

Holes on the starboard side

Repaired keel

Here's some shots of the trailer with the fresh paint.

div>

A new project !

This boat is
the same year and model.

Well we finally completed Dock Holiday so I figured I'd need a new project for the Colorado winter. With no significant other anymore I have nothing to do to pass the time so this will be therapy for me. Something to keep my mind occupied and keep me out of trouble! I picked up a 1960 16ft glass magic with the original 75 hp Johnson outboard with trailer. It was loaded with gear such as four fish finders, two out riggers, two down riggers, six five gallon plastic fuel tanks, at least 10 life jackets and ski vests, two anchors, new fenders and brackets for the trailer and too much fishing gear to describe in detail! Man, it looked like a test platform for fishing gear! She also has a 1984 8 hp Johnson kicker motor. It even had a brand new ( never been used ) Cabellas boat cover! The older gent that owned it before was quite the Rube Goldberg. He had an old wiper motor hooked up to a pulley system that turned the 8 hp kicker motor! You should have seen the relay and button set up for this thing. SCARY! Well Greg and I stripped all the electronics and riggers off it today and what a chore! We then filled a plastic trash can with water and tried to fire up the motors. Unbelievably, they both fired right up, even with ten year old fuel! Then the truly amazing part, they both pumped water beautifully! Now the best part. I paid nothing for the boat! Just threw a set of head gaskets on a Chevy pickup. I gave one of the fish finders to Greg for his boat and one I'll put on the rear of Dock Holiday for trolling. I think I'll do the same with the out and down riggers. Put one of each on Dock Holiday, and one of each on Greg's boat. I'm going to pull the kicker motor off it and put it on Dock Holiday. It looks freaking ugly as sin on the glass magic and I'm sure it will push "the Dock " with very little effort. This will be great if Neil, Layton or anybody else wants to use a boat for the weekend or something. They can handle this one a lot easier than Dock Holiday. I'm sure it will haul a skier or tuber no problem. The boys and their friends are more into that then me or my buddies! I really want to restore this boat. It has really pretty lines for a 1960 craft. I especially like the fiberglass frame around the windshield. This thing would look great behind a 1960's classic car. I'll let you know how she does on the water. What do you think of the name " Trailered Trash" ? I will try to add some photo's tomorrow. They won't be of the best quality as someone wanted my camera more than I did. God I hate a thief.

Couple more photos

Let's go! I'm ready!


Updated the windshield and new
wheel.

Full instrumentation



302 V8 up and running




Cruising Eleven Mile Reservoir

Sea trials ( and tribulations. )

Me and Mijah


Searching for whale?



Mijah chasing waves at
Witches Cove




Beautiful Witches Cove




Well I got her in the water Monday, labor day. It started out poorly as I stopped at the shop to hook up the hose and check her out. she started right up no problem. Oil pressure good, water temp good, what can go wrong? I found out as soon as I put it in gear and absolutely nothing happened! To make a long story short the neutral safety switch ( which also shifts the out drive ) took a dump. After screwing with it for about two hours I finally jury rigged it so I could shift. About 1:30 in the afternoon I finally get her in the water. It runs good, although not as quick as I had hoped. Just gotta figure out the proper prop and that will be fine. It runs great all day until it's time to put her on the trailer. Damn tilt motor takes a shit. Anyway it's now Thursday and all the above problems have been taken care of. I'm adding a coupe photo's of her maiden cruise at Eleven Mile reservoir. Beautiful place.

Back to work.

If I want to take the old girl out this weekend I guess I'd better get my butt back out there and finish the wiring. All I have left is the fuel gauge and anchor light. Then of coarse I have to secure this rats nest up out of the way. That will take an act of congress! Lets see........ Install the seats, engine cover, fish finder, safety gear, ah shit. I think I may be up all night! Damn. I still gotta install the freakin outdrive! What the hell am I doin at this computer? Sometimes you just gotta get away from what your working on and clear your head. I think it's clear enough now. Back to work!

Can you imagine?

My brain is working in a stranger than normal way. I'm thinking about putting a thru the transom exhaust system on the boat. Man, she would sound and run so much better.

Oh so close

Engine Cover extended
5 inch's

New flooring

302 installed

As you can see a lot has been accomplished on ole Dock Holiday this week. Greg, Tad and Dee busted their chops today to get the engine bolted in, the engine harness's connected and some custom installs of switch plates etc. They also got the flooring glued, screwed and glassed! We had to extend the engine cover by 5 inch's due to the longer V8 and that is close to completed also. I have to tell ya, I am blessed to have good friends like Greg and Tad and everyone else that helped. Greg for sure has a place in heaven waiting on him. It's too bad he won't know anyone there but he makes friends pretty quickly! If it weren't for Greg this project would have taken me a month at least. Thanks to his unbelievable efforts we might just catch some fish after all! Once again thank you so much Greg. I'm honored to call you friend!

Spontaneous combustion

I've heard of it before but never experienced it. Till now. Spontaneous combustion. Ain't that the shits! Poor Greg was working on a rib for the boat when he smelled something. Turning around from his work bench he noticed a fire thru the windshield of the boat. After a second or two he realised the flames were on his side of the glass! He had the good sense to put out the flames by smothering them with a blanket. ( He's my hero ) The fire started in the vinyl bag the fish finder was in which was sitting on the dash by its self with nothing else around it. Now there is no battery in the boat, the fish finder doesn't take batteries, there was no ignition source for the fire, and neither one of us drinks or does drugs ( any more ). What could it be other than spontaneous combustion? I pulled the fish finder apart and repaired it so it works now ( although it ain't pretty anymore! ) but I had to call my buddy Robert Moriarty to make new windows for it. The heat raised a bit of hell with em! If any of you have a good explanation or theory on how the hell this happened, please, share it with us!

Time to empty the pockets

Empty feeling

Building new mounts

New ribs

New center board

302 V8 Power

Old 2.5 Iron Duke

Well I've finally come to the stage in the boats life where I've had to decide weather to keep the old girl or move up. I was leaning toward moving up until I found the deal of the century! Picked up a beautiful running 302 Ford marine engine, complete, for five large. That includes the complete lower unit which I've been looking for since last fall! In order to install the V8 we, Me and Greg Titus, but mostly Titus, had to fabricate front motor mount perch's. Well we decided since we were gonna be in there anyway, now was the time to replace the floor decking. When we removed the old flooring we found the centerboard and stringers were pretty well rotted. We have sistered a new centerboard and installed a pair of ribs to stiffen her up a bit. Greg's gonna wrap all that in fiberglass tomorrow then we can put down the new floatation foam and decking. Then we'll fiberglass over the decking, install the new carpet and install our new power. We've also replaced the complete wiring harness and added new gauges and windshield glass. Pretty much she's in better shape now than when she was new!