Thread: Whats taking up my time? A boat of course!

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It never failed ... when we would get a little slow in the Auto Upholstery shop we'd take on one of those " Boats" you know the one's ... please do my boat ... please ... well we'd just get started and bang here come's a whole fleet of cars to do... never failed don't get me wrong I like boats but they are a whole new bucket of headaches when working on them... wood and water together along with metal nuts and bolts ..stainless or not .. argggg bring on the HOTRODS !!!

OK, A quick update.

I have been thrashing like crazy and I finally got to splash the boat on Tuesday and hear both engines run! AND we actually got to take a quick cruise on the river
Thankfully pops was there to assist and despite a flooding carb on the port engine (a small piece of plastic lodged under the needle in the carb) all went well. I played hookie from work a few days to make it happen but it was all worth it. I will post pictures of the first splash really soon. Thanks to taylor and dad for all of the help getting her on the water!

Don Jr.

cool

Yep, we got to take her on the maiden voyage. Ran great except for that little piece of plastic we found under the port engine needle. It looks like it came from the little filter that goes in the side of the Rochester carb. We had to grind it a little around the edges originally to get it to go in there and a small piece seems to have been overlooked. Once we got that out it ran fine.

I wanted to break a bottle of champagne over the bow but all I had was a Miller Lite and Don was having no parts of that...........something about wasting good beer.

Dan and I STILL have our fishing rods ready.

Don

Alright after that "shakedown" quicky cruise we were able to actually take an overnight trip on "Tupelo Honey'

New years day was a rainy mess here but that was not stopping us. we packed up the coolers, board games and every warm piece of clothing we own and headed to the marina. We did not care if we just spent the night at the dock we were going to be on the boat to meet our goal of boating by jan 1. After we loaded the boat in the rain I worked on a few things. Suddenly the rain cleared a bit and we decided to go for it. I am so glad we did. I put the side curtains in and we headed out. the hardtop and windshield wipers did a great job and the boat ran perfect. We went and fueled up (100 gallons, ouch!!!!!) had the head pumped and headed up river for the night anchoring and seeing a spectacular sunset! (See pics)We had some cocktails and went below for a nap. Woke up to a full super full moon over the water and perfect still. i was in awe and I was not thinking about all the work. The night went down to 42 degrees and I spent every minute of it on the back deck with a bloody mary in one hand and a beer in the other. I have attached some pics of the second engine going in (thanks again Taylor,Dan and Dad!) and of our 1st trip!

A few shots

What a nice boat!! That has to be a great place to sit around and talk about how fast your cars are
Seriously, that had to be a lot of work, It sure turned out nice.
Ken

I forgot how beautifull the Florida sunsets are! Nothing quite as nice as viewed off the back deck of your boat! Nice work, Don.

Thanks Ken and Stovens! I feel like a weight has been lifted off me with this project on the water..................................Now off to a rum and coke..................

You deserve it. Have a rum runner for me!