TOPIC: 1970 16' GlasPly

Hi all,

Nice to be here! Hope to use this thread to track my work on this boat.

This past spring I purchased a 1970 16' GlasPly with a 1971 Mercury 650 4 Cyl on the original Holsclaw trailer in nice original condition. I work at a boat shop that specializes in new, modern, expensive volvo powered stern drive boats and had a customer bring this boat in for new control cables, the customer didn't like the price because (we have the highest labor rate in the nation) and he was going to put the boat up for sale. I purchased the boat for $1100 then sold the 1980s Suzuki kicker motor for $550.

I bought new cables but couldn't get them adjusted correctly so in creeping on here I found Dr. Frankenmerc and made the drive (not far from me) to have him go though my Mercury.

Doc put in my cables, rebuilt my control box, did a water pump service, serviced the lower unit, run checked the motor - and with a clean bill of health we were ready to hit the water!

We went to a few small Washington lakes with lakeside camp grounds and then when I was confident in the boat we took it boat in camping at the north end of Washington's Beautiful Lake Chelan.

I'm lightly restoring/repairing broken or worn out things, but I really enjoy the "nice original" look.

Looking forward to many boat-in camping adventures next year! Thank you FG community and Dr. Frankenmerc!

Something I realized in the first few trips is that I purchased the boat with an incorrect prop on it. It had a 12.5"19"p prop that had no hole shot, maxed out at 3700rpms and SLOWLY reached 27-29mph. The boat also came with a 13"x17"p that I will try next, but I'm thinking it will need 12"x13"p or so to reach 4800-5300rpm and 30-35mph.

After I put it away for winter one of my first projects was to attempt to install the original enclosure. It needed a little stretching to fit as I'm sure it hasn't been installed in many years. The straps were rotted and broken so I made my own and it tensioned up great! The eisenglass is in good shape so I installed some stand off blocks so the bimini frame won't rub on the side windows.

Next step - someone had removed the steel below deck fuel tank and replaced it with 2 portable 6gal tanks. These were not offering enough range for my boat in camping trips so I designed a duel 10 gallon system using cheap aluminum ebay fuel cells that fit perfectly under the splashwell and the feed into each other and draw down both tanks from one fitting and are filled through the existing deck fill in the splashwell. (Not 100% done, waiting on my AN fittings to arrive)

In 1970 apparently this boat didn't come with a bilge pump, so I added one and a proper thru hull for it.

All electric items not tied to the engine/control box were run off one 14ga power and ground wire (not fused) from the battery to the helm. I am in the process of installing a fuse/ground box under the helm powered by 8 gauge wire to the battery. I have installed a fuel gauge for the new tanks and a volt meter, along with cleanly relocating the push pull switches and adding a cigarette lighter and soon interior courtesy lights.

The deck horn is a danforth falcon that had a compressed air bottle under the deck and a pull cord attached to a knob on the dash to actuate it. I couldn't for the life of me find a replacement air can with the proper size thread pitch so I modernize it and kept the vintage look. I removed the air can fitting under the deck and replaced it with a barbed fitting that is now fed by a 12v air horn compressor and horn switch. And it's LOUD!

The red dye on my bow light had faded away but I didn't want to replace it with a modern one. So I removed the red lens and wrapped the inside of it with a translucent red vinyl. Looks great now!

Nice Boat It's in a very good condition !

Great job, that works.

Bob