TOPIC: 1959 Herters rebuild

63 Sabre wrote:

my back and knees are paying the price today. I'm getting the feeling this will be the final major "project" for me, can't do all the crawling around that's needed.

Hope you're feeling better today Cal, I know exactly what you are talking about. (One of the big reasons my project is taking so long!) I'm trying to learn to not push so hard, take longer breaks, etc.... (Still have a project in the back yard I'd really like to tackle, now that I have a small clue what I'm doing. )

Your boat is looking awesome my friend, didn't think I was gonna like the yellow but the Mahogany accents really set it off! Very nice work.

Fantastic.
Great color choice and accents. That is turning into a gem for sure.
Something to be proud of Cal.
Neil

cal,it is beautiful ,really stunning,i would love to see some pics of the whole boat from all around,you did an outstaning job,john

Should be able to wrap it up in a week or so, trailer and all. I want to let the paint harden up a week before I crawl around inside. I will be putting on the bumper trim with tempory drywall screws making sure the fit is good before drilling new holes for the through bolts. Need to wire the lights for the trailer, I'll be using John's schematic link for that project. For some reason the real yellow is not coming out on the pictures, I'll try a different camera. My neighbor is calling it a James Bond boat.

Well on the bright side of not doing anymore "major projects" it means you'll have all that time to enjoy your fantastic boat!

If this is the last one.....What a great finally!

Did some Christmas shopping yesterday, gifts included 125 screws, nuts, washers, lock washers, bolts for holding the motor and finally two sheets of mahogany veneer(sp)for the side trim.
Yes that is real wood. Using agressive contact cement. Bolt 'er down and varnish.

Did the final hookup of the motor controls, 5200 the mahogany trim rings on cable holes. Had to get a new female fuel line connector for the Merc, seals were bad on the old one.
As much as I cringed there were some touch up filling that needed to be done in the back seat area. Some sanding and the Preval sprayer should take care of that.

Finished the woodie part of the starboard side this afternoon, bolted down the motor. Forgot what it was like crawling under the back seat and motor well.

Absolutely outstanding Cal. I really like the Mahogany accent on the sides!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bob

Cal
Every time you touch that boat it just gets better and better.
Your details are inspiring.
Neil

Thanks guys, it's now in the fun stages where you can see the light at the end. Hard to believe it's been just about 10 months and 11 pages but everyone knows now how to make a silk purse - step by step screw and bolt by bolt with lots of help from my friends here.
Neil, all the Merc help from you guys sure makes for an easy time...still have lots of parts from the 78AEL left, mag, starter, coils etc.

Cal, that is turning out to be you beautiful boat you have there.The side trm really sets it off. I will be contacting you soon for more parts from the motor. Skip.

OK Skip.
Did some painful work today, This really hurts!

Another view.

And here's the reason why.

Ok two reasons. Under the forward deck is where the permanent 12 gallon fuel tank is mounted and I believe some type of regulations require the space to be vented. Second more sneaky reason is that the horn is mounted right under that hole.
Finished bolting down the starboard side forward trim, glued on the wood veneer port side.
The woodie sittin' on the trailer is itchin' for a cruizin' pretty soon.

Awesome job, Cal! Looks fantastic.

Just Fantastic. Really looks sharp.

Haven't done much the past few days. building up "points" doing honey-do things. The more points the less of an evil eye I get when I spend a day on the boat. Did get two aluminum chocks for the bow off of EBay. Hopefull to get the final stretch started this memorial day weekend, finish installing the cleats, anchor down the windshield, finish up the transom trim, paint the fins on the gator fenders, wire up the trailer, run the motor in a garbage can, and go to one of our local sign shops and have custom letter/numbers made up for the registration, maybe wood grain stick-ons.

The last two days were good, boat wise. Started winding down and have all the heavy things finished up. Dogone Mene-so-tah state birds have taken over the area. Heave rains, thunder and lightning kept me in the garage and away from the "do" list.
Gee, I really feel bad about that.
Don't wanna spend too much time looking at the boob tube, every two minutes there's a campaign ad...we have that recall election a week from Tuesday.

Let's see now, during the mosquito wars I managed to get the Gator fenders on, trailer lights installed and wired up correctly - thanks John for the schematics you posted last fall. Put on the trailer guides, sanded down and touched up some paint drips, painted the front air scoop, installed the cleats and chocks and finished up the aluminum transom cap.

As you can see by the pictures I managed to get it outside between raindrops for a few pictures.
Starboard side, trailer tailights and guides in place.

Port side, fenders just need the step pad installed. (Tomorrow)

Bow area, also tomorrow I will go to a local decal shop and have some fancy registration numbers cut out in a wood grain pattern if they have the material.

And of course the interior.

I used 5200 to anchor the windshield in place, besides the two end bolts. Have to wait until next Saturday to polish up the aluminum trim around it. Some serious general buffing and I think I can just about close the book on this sweetheart.

I think she looks fantastic Cal, very nice work sir! (We DO want to see some on the water shots though.)

Absolutely outstinding work Cal, she looks awesome. Mark's right, we need on the water shots!

Bob

Mark, will do. I can get one of my buddies out with me in the woodie and the Herters, not saying when it's going to happen though. Have to gas her up, fire up the Mark 58 to make sure she's pumping then I can give the final "before and after pictures".

Really nice looking rig you got there.Can't wait to see some pics of it on the water. My wife says that is really yellow. Keep up the good work. Skip.

cal,it looks absolutely fantastic,that my friend is a true show boat ,now i dont want to do mine,it will look so inadequate compared to that beauty.
i love it,i need to get done with my honey do list.
great job cal!!!!!!!!!!!!

Last Monday I went to one of our local sign shops and ordered the registration numbers. I've used them before for various projects and they came through again. I wanted a wood grain looking stick on type with a different font other than the 'off the shelf' stuff from the local hardware store. They didn't have "wood grain" but did come up with a brown that is close to the mahogany I have on the side trim. The numbers are printed (cut) out of stick-on material and evenly spaced on backing paper ready for application. All I have to do is mark the hull where to start the first letter and peel the backing off the whole set, stick it in place and peel off the front paper. All evenly spaced with nothing crooked or wrinkled. What could be easier.
Shameless plug
www.makisign.com/

here in WA i think the registration numbers on the boat have to be relatively reflective for visibility at night. is that the case there?

Nope. Just contrasting color for easy readability and at least 3" tall positioned in the bow area ahead of centerline with the state registration sticker in front.

Looks fantastic Cal.
All of those little choices in details coming together for a beautiful final product. You have set the bar high for sure. Well done my friend.
Neil

Most excellent, wished I'd have thought of the registration numbers from a sign shop. Mine are ok but would have been nice to just slap them on so to speak like you get too!

Bob

63 Sabre wrote:

Nope. Just contrasting color for easy readability and at least 3" tall positioned in the bow area ahead of centerline with the state registration sticker in front.

well that sure opens up your options! looks great too! can't wait to see 'em on!

A few setbacks the last two days. The letters and tags went on without a hitch and turned out great. Started wet sanding the top deck with 1500 w/d and did some polishing and buffing. That is a long boaring job but makes the Rustoleum look like a gelcoat finish. I took a break from the task at hand and went on to the next thing on the checklist which was actually running the Mark 58 in a garbage can. Hooked up the first battery - zero, nata. Another battery and it turned over but no spark! Ran that battery dry and robbed the battery out of the woodie. Smoked the starter motor, there was a short somewhere. I had a spare starter for the engine and put that on only to find out that it didn't work either. RATS! Took the first starter motor apart and more rust and crud fell out than I thought was possible to pack in there. Between the two bad motors I was able to rebuild a good one. The rubber gromet that keeps the (+) pole from touching the motor housing was rotted and shorting out the whole thing hence the smoking stinking rubber smell. Wound up going to the local Batteries Plus and turned in three old luggers and got a new dual purpose batt and then went to the local hardware store for a new ignition switch. One thing nice about lawn equipment, they run with magnitos so replacement starter switches for outboards are a snap to replace and fairly inexpensive.
Finally got everything put back together late Sunday night and going to try again Monday for a tank run. And then back to the sanding/polishing/buffing routine.

Cal, I was just looking at the great job you have done on your boat there and I was wondering where your fuel fill is? Sorry to hear you had a crappy starter. At least you were lucky enough to be able to build one good one.Been ther done that with these old merc starters. Hope it runs for you. Skip.

Hey Skip. The starter was a scare especially after I googled the part numbers and all I found was "obsolete". There are replacements but all in the $150-$200 range from Spider.
If you check out page 8 of this string it goes into detail for the fuel filler location. I did find one problem though and that's it has to be filled slowly since the filler tube is long and curvey getting to the tank.
PS. FYI The mark 78 crank shaft/mains and pistons are sold and the reed cages are on EBay as we speak.

Sorry to hear about the starter Cal. Hang in there buddy, she's looking GREAT!

Bob

Cal, I don't know how I missed page 8. I must have been sleeping. That is one trick idea for the fuel filler. Iam trying to put a tank in my boat this week but with the screwed up ribs it sure isn't easy. Great job your doing there, can't wait to see some pics of it on the water. Skip.

Cal;

Let me begin by saying how much I have enjoyed watching the progress until now. It was funny in the beginning when you got things to look so good, totally by accident.

But the I noticed a pattern in how well things began to turn out, perfect........ Maybe a little too PERFECT!

Now just between the two of us how much did it cost you to have all those professionals working on you'r boat. Don't be embarrassed. You almost had me believing you were actually that good for a little while. But when I saw the finished pics, I knew something was up.

Nobody is that good. That boat is so sweet, it's going to melt when it hits the water.

Great job!

Littlefin, one word "PHOTOSHOP".
I've been exposed, after all these months I got caught.
The real Herters "project" as it stands.

LMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bob

I knew it!! I knew it!! I knew it!!

If it ain't one thing it's two. Spent the last three days trying to get the virtual mark 58 running, it had a virtual photoshopped bad magnito. Finally got it running this evening only to have the shift cable jam up. Once I pretend that is free I can finish the sanding/buffing/polishing/cut and pasting on the top deck, and some bling chrome edging on the inside roughs and drop it in the water. Was thinking about cusions but that's another day.
Pictures to follow maybe tomorrow.

Cal : I forgot about this project thread down the page. I was wondering why I have not seen a post for awhile ? Your boat is looking great. I have had a big stall on my project with having to clean out the Mother in laws house and do all the punch list and get it on the Market. Had to do a lot of Honey do's and alot of disappointing looks when I turn my attentions away and get some boat work in! I lost about 2 months and now it's summer so I'm turning my attention on the running boat ( Dorsett San Juan ) and going to enjoy the season. I'll work on the Larson Part time but will probably shoot for the water next spring. Now that I see this thread I'll have to do a time lapse post for the Larson and show you where I'm at. Yours is looking great wish I was as far as you are with mine ! P.S. we got the house cleaned up and listed and had a full price offer in 4 hours Good news for the Mother in Law and now I'm a fairly free Man again

Rick, take a month off, you deserve it. Getting a house ready for market can be a pain. Glad the offer came in right away, someone must have been watching and waiting.
Hop in the San Juan with a picnic basket and a few cold ones and enjoy the summer.
Cal