TOPIC: 1973 Century Resorter 16 Restore

It's always good to take a step back for some quality time. Gives you breathing room to ponder your next moves.
Now that load of BS is said.....get back to work. Time waits for no one and boating season is upon you.

63 Sabre wrote: It's always good to take a step back for some quality time. Gives you breathing room to ponder your next moves.
Now that load of BS is said.....get back to work. Time waits for no one and boating season is upon you.

Shoot, MY boating season down here in SE Texas is during the fall & winter.. It's no fun being out on the lake with temps in the high 90's and jumping in the lake doesn't cool ya off because the water temp is in the low 90's..

I LOVE ripping across the lake on a crisp 60 degree winter day!!

CC-John wrote:

63 Sabre wrote: It's always good to take a step back for some quality time. Gives you breathing room to ponder your next moves.
Now that load of BS is said.....get back to work. Time waits for no one and boating season is upon you.

Shoot, MY boating season down here in SE Texas is during the fall & winter.. It's no fun being out on the lake with temps in the high 90's and jumping in the lake doesn't cool ya off because the water temp is in the low 90's..

I LOVE ripping across the lake on a crisp 60 degree winter day!!

63 Sabre wrote:

CC-John wrote:

63 Sabre wrote: It's always good to take a step back for some quality time. Gives you breathing room to ponder your next moves.
Now that load of BS is said.....get back to work. Time waits for no one and boating season is upon you.

Shoot, MY boating season down here in SE Texas is during the fall & winter.. It's no fun being out on the lake with temps in the high 90's and jumping in the lake doesn't cool ya off because the water temp is in the low 90's..

I LOVE ripping across the lake on a crisp 60 degree winter day!!

Sorry Cal,

I've lived in Houston all my life, I don't think I could live anyplace that actually had four seasons.. I've come to love the two weeks of "winter" (temps actually dropping below 40 degrees) we usually get every January..

CC-John wrote:

63 Sabre wrote: It's always good to take a step back for some quality time. Gives you breathing room to ponder your next moves.
Now that load of BS is said.....get back to work. Time waits for no one and boating season is upon you.

Shoot, MY boating season down here in SE Texas is during the fall & winter.. It's no fun being out on the lake with temps in the high 90's and jumping in the lake doesn't cool ya off because the water temp is in the low 90's..

I LOVE ripping across the lake on a crisp 60 degree winter day!!

Central Georgia is kind of the same way. Last winter it was really cold though. I remember it was on a Tuesday this year.

Still no progress to report, between work and now a pinched nerve in my neck that has limited my range of motion in my left arm, the boat has been kinda pushed to the back burner for now.. Going to see the Doc Monday morning to see if he can do or give me something to relieve the pressure on the nerve and get rid of this literal "pain in the neck"..

As if I don't have enough to do.... Thanks to Photobucket's unannounced change in terms, I have to move all my pics to another host.. I refuse to pay their $400 a year "ransom" to restore the pics in my thread.. As I get all my pics moved and set up in albums, I'll go back and fix all the broken picture links..

Bear with me the pics WILL return, and Photobucket can KISS MY ASS!!

Well, its been a marathon effort, but I managed to get all the Resorter's pic albums moved to a new host site.. Worked on this thread all day and got a good portion of the pics restored.. I'm still waiting to hear back from admin to see if the link limit can be increased so I can repair all the links in some of the posts made before the forum update..

You've been busy with this one. Any updates?

DrickDebruin wrote: You've been busy with this one. Any updates?

Haven't been doing much with the boat over the last few weeks.. I've been dealing with a pinched nerve in my neck that has limited my range of motion in my left arm, and work has been keeping me tied to the whipping post.. This past weekend got spent trying to clean up the massive mess Photobucket created in all the "build" threads I have on a few other forums.. Now with our normal 95+ degree summer temps settling in, I'll probably take a short hiatus from this project until temps cool down a bit.. It's no fun trying to do fiberglass work when you're dripping more sweat than resin on to the fresh glass..

I went through the same thing with Dropbox hosting a while back. I may try to fix the links in my thread here because there aren't that many, but I've used that account for years on other sites. It sucks because there's no way I have tome to track down and relink all that crap.

It's funny that people who aren't in the south think that summer's great because you can get all this stuff done. In reality we all just hide from the heat all day. Winter is a much better project window. I have a 24x35 shop with 2 old janky window AC units that will keep it cool enough to be tolerable in the heat of summer, but it has no heat at all for the winter. It makes life so much easier.

ultraclyde wrote: I went through the same thing with Dropbox hosting a while back. I may try to fix the links in my thread here because there aren't that many, but I've used that account for years on other sites. It sucks because there's no way I have tome to track down and relink all that crap.

It's funny that people who aren't in the south think that summer's great because you can get all this stuff done. In reality we all just hide from the heat all day. Winter is a much better project window. I have a 24x35 shop with 2 old janky window AC units that will keep it cool enough to be tolerable in the heat of summer, but it has no heat at all for the winter. It makes life so much easier.

Yeah, Photobucket just shot themselves in the foot with a load of 12ga. 00 buckshot with their latest move.. I was a paying subscriber and got their little "valentine" when my subscription came up for renewal..

Being in the pool service business here in Houston all my life, I've grown used to working out in the heat six days a week in the summer.. My one day a week off during the summer months is usually spent soaking up the A/C in the office doing paperwork, getting ready for the next work week.. The boat is safely locked away in front of my old Chris Craft Catalina cruiser inside my 24x60 enclosed storage unit I have for my business, so it will be ready to pick up where I left off when the temps moderate a bit..

No progress on the boat to report, the pool business has had me tied to the whipping post for the last few weeks.. Now that all the bookcases I had to repair for my GF are out of my way in the garage and back in her classroom where they belong, I'm hoping to be able to get back to work on painting all the interior parts for the boat that I rebuilt.. Replacing the floor in the boat will have to wait until the weather cools off a little.. In the meantime, I have a lot of little restoration projects on the boat that can be knocked out before I HAVE to get after replacing the floor..

Hope to have some progress to report in a couple of weeks..

I've got a dumb newbie question to hijack your thread for a while until you get back in the shop. I noticed in one of your wiring work photos that your main fuse panel appears to be under the dash. Is this a common placement? I add one to the rats nest in my trihull because there wasn't one at all, but I put it near the battery in the rear. After seeing yours I started thinking that there were some advantages to having it up front (cleaner wiring, less chance of submersion.) Is it normally done that way for those reasons?

ultraclyde wrote: I've got a dumb newbie question to hijack your thread for a while until you get back in the shop. I noticed in one of your wiring work photos that your main fuse panel appears to be under the dash. Is this a common placement? I add one to the rats nest in my trihull because there wasn't one at all, but I put it near the battery in the rear. After seeing yours I started thinking that there were some advantages to having it up front (cleaner wiring, less chance of submersion.) Is it normally done that way for those reasons?

Most every small boat I've ever worked on that had a factory installed fuse panel, the panels were located under the dash or steering console.. When I updated the panel in the little Century, I just installed the new panel where the original OEM panel was located.. Having the main fuse panel located as high in the boat as you can get it is a good thing.. It also simplifies wiring the various circuits since all the control switches are generally located on the dashboard..

I upgraded the Century to a larger panel with a "built-in" ground bus bar so I could bring it's electrical system up to modern standards, and so I would have some room to add some extra circuits for interior courtesy lights, stereo, depth sounder, and a large (2000 GPH) auxiliary bilge pump to supplement the original 800 GPH pump.. The new panel will also be powered directly from the battery thru a main battery disconnect switch instead of being powered from the instrument panel feed in the engine wire harness.. The new fuse panel feeds will be a pair of 10ga. wires with the positive feed protected by a 30 amp fuse located at the main battery switch..

That makes a lot of sense. Running both pos and neg around the boat from the back got a little ridiculous, especially since I'm used to working on metal cars with a negative body ground. I've got a six circuit panel but only use one for lights, depth finder, and bilge right now. I'd like to add some other things - a usb charge port, maybe a radio - so it would make sense to run one heavy gauge run to the dash binnacle for the panel and then distribute shorter runs from there. The bilge also has a float activated side that's battery-tied with an inline fuse, but that could stay in the back.

I'll add moving the panel to my winter to-do list, lol.

Just a quick update...


Things are finally getting back to normal after Harvey kinda rained on our parade.. Work has had me tied to the whipping post getting flooded pools cleaned back up and flooded pumps & heaters repaired or replaced.. Last weekend was the first weekend that I got to actually get some boat work done.. I brought the boat home from storage, removed the windshield and replaced all the old rotted weatherstriping and gaskets, and mounted it back on the boat.. I also managed to get some of the new parts painted, and reassembled the backrest for the front seat along with putting the upholstery back on the new base for the rear seat..


Yeah... Yeah.... Pics or it didn't happen, I know the drill....


Here's all the rebuilt engine beds with a fresh coat of mahogany bilge paint, ready to be installed in the boat as soon as I get the old lag bolt holes filled and redrilled in the stringers..

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The new rear seat base with a coat of paint and the original upholstery reinstalled on the kick plate..

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The backrest for the front seat after reinstalling the original upholstery and foam on the new plywood frame..

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I need to hit a trim shop and pick up some fresh "hydem" to finish trimming out the back of the backrest.. The original hydem that trimmed out the edges of the vinyl side panels had deteriorated to the point of being unusable after being removed from the old rotted frame..

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A buddy of mine just sent me a link to a YouTube video of a twin to my boat located in Indiana.. Listening to that little Mopar bellowing across the water has got me itchin' to get my boat finished!!

I'll save that clip for next February when there's 2 feet of ice on the bay up here in tundraland.

This is exactly what I was looking for! We've got a '65 Silverline Rambler and my wife and I are learning boat maintenance and repair as we go along. She's focusing on engine and I'm leaning 12 volt electrical system. There's a lot of cleaning of of old wiring to do so I've been hunting in vain for info for a simple, old boat like ours. A couple of questions:

1) What's that knob on the dash that gets pulled out? There's a "Hot" button next to it (on our's anyway)
2) I've got a similar blade bus to your's that I'm going to move the instrument panel wires over to. What kind of wire did you run from the battery to get here? Also, our bus has positive terminals on one side and negative on the other: it looks like your's is set up differently. Is there an advantage to either one? This is our's Blade Bushttps://www.bluesea.com/products/5032/ST_Blade_Split_Bus_Fuse_Block

808Litt wrote: This is exactly what I was looking for! We've got a '65 Silverline Rambler and my wife and I are learning boat maintenance and repair as we go along. She's focusing on engine and I'm leaning 12 volt electrical system. There's a lot of cleaning of of old wiring to do so I've been hunting in vain for info for a simple, old boat like ours. A couple of questions:

1) What's that knob on the dash that gets pulled out? There's a "Hot" button next to it (on our's anyway)
2) I've got a similar blade bus to your's that I'm going to move the instrument panel wires over to. What kind of wire did you run from the battery to get here? Also, our bus has positive terminals on one side and negative on the other: it looks like your's is set up differently. Is there an advantage to either one? This is our's Blade Bushttps://www.bluesea.com/products/5032/ST_Blade_Split_Bus_Fuse_Block

Not sure which knob you're talking about?? Including the knob for the Vernier engine throttle cable, there five knobs on the dash of my Resorter, the other knobs are for the "push/pull" switches that control navigation lights, instrument lights, bilge pump, and bilge blower..

It looks like your fuse panel is set up for separate "hot" feeds for having circuits that need to stay "live" when the battery switch is turned off.. I just used the simple single hot feed panel that will be fed from the 8ga. "hot" & ground that is built into the existing engine wire harness, as I don't have a need for any "live" circuits when I turn off the battery switch when the boat is in storage.. The panel's ground is connected by a short 10ga. jumper to the common "ground" terminal on the back of the tachometer, the "hot" feed is connected by a short 10ga. jumper to the "Bat+" terminal on the back of the ignition switch.. The engine harness instrument panel feed is protected by a 20 amp. circuit breaker mounted on the engine..

Sorry about the lack of updates, work has been keeping me tied to the whipping post.. Been busy beating the bushes for new service accounts to replace all the ones I lost to sellouts from the flooding of Hurricane Harvey.. I'm back to within 2 accounts of where I was before all the floods hit, hope to have those slots filled by next spring..

Now for the update most have been waiting for...

I've also been slowly pecking away at a few small projects on the boat over the last several months..

Here's a few shots after getting the floor peeled up on the port side.. Also filled in the old lag bolt holes for the engine mounts with hardwood dowels epoxied into the stringers before remounting the rebuilt engine beds.. This will allow the engine mounting bolts to have fresh wood to bite into.. I had a buddy bring over a moisture meter to probe the foam under the floor and it passed with flying colors!! That will save me a ton of time and expense by not having to dig out and replace all the factory poured in foam under the floors..

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The rebuilt engine beds reinstalled..

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Spent a weekend restoring the transom step and reinstalling it on the boat.. Used some 0000 brass wool with kerosene to polish out the chrome plated brass railing before a final buff with some Never Dull.. The teak step tread got cleaned, bleached and several coats of teak oil brushed on before being reinstalled with new matching stainless fasteners..

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Had some nice weather one weekend and hauled the table saw out in the driveway to rip up some plywood for a set of new floor panels.. Brought the boat home this weekend to start fitting them before they get fiberglassed in for good..

Here's the new panels for the port side on their first trial fitting.. I still need to do a bit more grinder work in the boat for the rear panel to fit in place, but everything is looking good so far..

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A few more nice weekends and I might have a new floor on the port side then I get to do the same thing on the starboard side before I can start reinstalling the engine and interior..

Excellent progress. Unfortunately I know the feeling about tied to the whipping post. Haven't been able to get back to the Resorter since the move. Still trying to get the garage arranged to make it useable. Still have to post pics of that.

Your making great progress keep it up.

Bob

Waterwings wrote: Excellent progress. Unfortunately I know the feeling about tied to the whipping post. Haven't been able to get back to the Resorter since the move. Still trying to get the garage arranged to make it useable. Still have to post pics of that.

Your making great progress keep it up.

Bob

Thanks Bob!!

I'm hoping I can get my momentum back that I had before I had to stop to rebuild my business after Harvey.. Most of the work I posted was done over the past few weekends, we've actually been having some nice fall weather on the weekends between cool fronts..

During my forced hiatus from the boat I did manage to ferret out and procure a period correct closed cooling system for the little Chrysler.. Now I won't have to sweat running it in the salt & brackish waters around Galveston.. I'll post up some pics as soon as I get all the parts cleaned up and repainted, the heat exchanger is currently at a radiator shop being pressure tested and cleaned..

As I noted in my previous post, I managed to procure a period correct FWC (closed cooling) system for the little 318 so I can run it in the salt & brackish waters around Galveston without exposing the engine's cooling passages to salt water.. A buddy tipped me off to an old sunken houseboat that was being cut up at a storage yard and that it had a pair of early 70's FWC Chrysler 318's in it.. I almost couldn't get down there fast enough when he told me that I could have anything I wanted off the engines.. I stripped all the necessary conversion parts from both engines and managed to assemble a pristine set of parts to go on the engine along with a set of spares..

I just picked up the heat exchangers from the radiator shop this week, unfortunately one of the heat exchangers had a bad tube bundle and is scrap but the other passed a pressure test with flying colors.. I need to prime and paint the good heat exchanger before it gets mounted on the engine.. Here's a few pics of all the parts needed to convert a raw water cooled 1972 Chrysler LM318 to a closed fresh water cooling system..

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Here's the parts as they'll be assembled on the engine.. The heat exchanger will be mounted below the port side exhaust manifold..

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Outstanding John!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bob

Just a quick update.... Still alive & kickin', work and home issues have been running me thru the wringer for the past few months but I'm starting to see a light at the end of this tunnel.. As soon as I can get the engine & genset reinstalled in my big Chris Craft cruiser to get it ready to sell, I'll be jumping back into the little Century's floor replacement with both feet.. All the plywood floor panels are cut and sealed with penetrating epoxy, all the new floor frames are cut & sealed also, I just need a few good weather weekends to get it all installed and glassed in..

Still alive and kicking!! After life and work getting in the way I've finally been able to make some headway on my little Resorter. I managed to get the closed cooling system installed on the engine along with upgrading the ignition to the Chrysler factory electronic ignition I scavenged from the Chrysler 318 in a 1975 Resorter 16 I bought for a parts boat back in January 2020. I just finished the floor replacement last weekend and have started reinstalling all the engine controls, steering, and engine support systems..

Now for a few pics..

Here's a couple of the engine after installing the factory closed cooling system and reconditioned electronic ignition system from the parts boat.

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Some pics of the floor replacement and installing various equipment and systems..

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Hope to be able to set the engine back in within the next couple of weeks or so..

Excellent! I know the feeling, still working on my Resorter, coming aloing too slowly though.

Bob

Very nice looking results! Progress of any kind is rewarding. I keep joking to myself that the NEXT owner of my boat is really going to be happy I took so much time on my restoration so they can enjoy it about 4 times as long as I will end up using it. I know I still appreciate my boat’s previous owner… without their efforts, I wouldn’t have it now. Your boat is looking amazing!

Thanks for the comps guys!! I'm just happy to finally be on the downhill side of this project.. Not being able to keep the boat under cover here at the house was a contributing factor to taking so long on the floor replacement. The storage unit I keep the boat in is about 30 minutes away from the house and doesn't allow any type of major repair work like this to be done on premises. Trying to do fiberglass work during the summer here in Houston is next to impossible, you end up pouring as much sweat into the glass as resin. And, that's if you can even get the resin down before it "kicks" in the pot.. LOL!

Hopefully, I'll be making some more frequent updates from this point moving forward. I'm itching to get this ol' girl out on the water and take her for a rip!!

Slowly pecking away at things.. Got both bilge pumps plumbed and bilge vent hoses cut and fitted. Also got the fuel tank platform mounted along with the primary fuel filter/water separator. Still waiting on a call from the repair shop to pick up the fuel tank..

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Starting to contact a few fiberglass shops in the area to find one that can match the original gelcoat in order to fix some old trailer damage on the bottom of the hull. It has a couple of deep scratches down to the laminate from a bunk bracket and a 2' long section of the keel near the bow that was ground into the fiberglass from an uncarpeted keel board on it's old trailer. I'd like to get these repairs done before I set the engine back in as it will be a lot easier for the boat to be removed from the trailer to do the repairs..

Great progress!

Bob

Waterwings wrote: Great progress!

Bob

Thanks Bob!

Making headway a little at a time, got all my materials rounded up to make all the battery cables. The old fuel tank was beyond repair. Not only did it have several porous welds and was made out of too thin aluminum, it also had several broken welds on the internal baffles that allowed the tank to balloon under 3PSI when pressure tested. Had a new tank made from 1/8" thick aluminum sheet to current USCG regulations. Slightly altered the shape and size of the tank to give me easier bilge vent hose routing between the tank and rear seat back. Also had heavy aluminum angle added to each end to allow thru bolting to the tank platform. Waiting on a roll of neoprene rubber to make some isolation pads before mounting it in the boat.

Battery cable, lugs, solder slugs, and shrink wrap for making battery cables.

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New fuel tank...

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A peek inside the old tank after cutting one end off..

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Spent this afternoon installing the MariDeck non-skid vinyl deck covering. Still have to finish trimming and cleaning up the edges and covering the two removable floor panels along with the toe board under the dash. Gotta get some more glue before I can finish the rest of the floor panels.

100_3190 by cc_john67 , on Flickr

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Spent today finishing up trimming out the edges of the vinyl flooring, and covering the toe board and two removable floor panels. Also finished the last of the stereo wiring and speaker installation. The speakers are mounted to the toe board and are hidden up under the dash, also installed a "hidden" antenna underneath the front deck. The stereo and iPod dock are hidden inside the glove compartment.

You can just see the bottoms of the speakers at the upper corners of the toe board.

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Stereo hidden in the back of the glove compartment.

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And, the floor is FINALLY finished!!

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Now if my roll of neoprene will ever get here I can make the isolation pads for the new fuel tank and get it installed. After wrestling with this floor vinyl for over two days, I think I'm gonna have an upholstery shop install the pleated vinyl I have for the inner hullsides.

Just a quick update.... Been busy hauling the boat around to various shops over the past several weeks. It spent a couple of weeks at Cosmetic Boat Repair in Kemah getting some old battle scars from a previous trailer fixed. They did an amazing job with the repairs and perfectly matched the old gelcoat! The boat is currently over at a upholstery shop getting the pleated vinyl hull liner installed on each side of the hull from the floor up to underneath the gunnels. Brought the gantry home from the storage unit this afternoon so I can be ready to set the engine when I get the boat back here at home. Hopefully things will start coming together quickly and maybe I can splash this rascal in a few weeks.

Finally got my roll of neoprene in and got the fuel tank mounted and hooked up. Will post some pics after I get the boat back home.

Picked up the boat from the upholstery shop early this afternoon after having them install the padded vinyl on the inside of the hull. Got it home and began installing all the interior components before I try to set the engine back in this weekend.

Got the base for the front seat cushion mounted and installed the onboard battery charger and charge relay in the seat base.

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Got the new fuel tank mounted and all the hoses and sending unit connected, along with routing the new bilge vent hoses.

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Reinstalled the upholstered boards that make the shallow storage trays along each side of the boat. Both of these had to have new wood cores made as the original ones were rotten in spots. The new ones were cut from a pair of 10', 1"x 6" Douglas Fir boards that were soaked in CPES and painted with Century mahogany bilge paint like the originals were before wrapping them in the original upholstery.

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Then moved on to the rear seat and got the backrest mounted along with the new base for the seat cushion.

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Finally set the motor box in and installed the rear seat cushion.

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Hoping for some good weather this weekend so I can try to set the engine in the boat so I can measure and make the new battery cables. Then lift the engine back out to secure the cables alongside the stringer beneath the engine before setting it back in for the final time. Once the engine is in for good, it's just a matter of connecting control cables, fuel line, plug in the wire harness, and connect the raw water intake and engine flush system.

Excellent!!!!!!!!!!! You're doing much better than I am with my '53......7 years in and still only half way done. LOL

Bob

Waterwings wrote: Excellent!!!!!!!!!!! You're doing much better than I am with my '53......7 years in and still only half way done. LOL

Bob

Thanks Bob!

Don't fret, you'll get there! Projects like this seem to just plod along at times with seemingly no visible progress, then you eventually turn that corner and it seems like everything starts falling into place..

Sweet and beautiful.
Can I make a suggestion? I found out the hard way. Before you do the final install of the engine. Make an ingenious setup to drain the oil from the pan. Others here might have some ideas. I didn't do this with my Saber but have done it with others. Install a swing ball valve on the oil pan drain where you can attach a garden hose or similar. Make the hose long enough to reach your bilge drain plug. When it comes time to change oil you can attach the hose to the engine and poke the other end through the drain hole. Sure saves a oily/stinky bilge mess. I had to use a suction gun and that never gets all the oil out.