Stainless steel trim and Bow plate

Bow plate template , made from aluminium .

I welded the stainless trim so it is one continuous strip from front to back .

Completed windsheild

             I held the plexiglass in place with polished aluminium strip , once clamped  I drilled and fixed in place .            

                                         Through deck fittings were used to secure the bottom edge of the screen .                                                                                                                                                                           

Airguide Instruments

I have Installed three instruments onto the dashboard , from left to right we have an Airguide sea speed speedometer that is powered by an integral pitot in my mercury engine , then I have a large Airguide fuel gauge and an Airguide sea speed Tachometer . I have an Airguide compass to install aswell but as yet I am undecided as where I should fit it .

Stainless steel propeller

Picked up a bargain at the local car boot last week !  I bought a trophy plus 4 blade 19 pitch stainless steel propeller to replace my tired aluminium 3 blade prop. 

Trophy plus

The first task was to get the old aluminium propeller off of the spline .  I had an old flywheel puller that I used on motorbike engines but the arms were too short so I drilled some holes in the prop and then fitted the puller.

 With the old prop removed I was able to inspect the spline which turned out to be in very good condition.

This photo shows the Trophy plus prop and the flo-torque 11 hub kit that I bought from Ebay .

Boat Windshield

 Time to get the screen template underway! After a trip to Homebase i found a piece of polycarbonate 2mm sheet that was reduced because the corner  was knocked off .

I used a hotmelt  glue gun to glue on the offcuts to make up the length as the piece of polycarb was not large enough.

Carefully scribing the polycarb to fit the deck first and then cutting the top to match the frame. 











The  Jigsaw was fitted with a metal cutting blade and the fastest speed setting which almost melted the polycarb as it cut, then i cleaned up the cut edge with a low angle block plane.








                                                                                               I had to reshape the frame to get the right angle for the screen to fit nicely.

I left my windscreen frame out over winter and it developed a black mold that i i tried to shift by sanding but with no luck. I was strugling to find a solution to this problem when my Godfather Ron Brookes suggested that i try some Oxalic Acid , so have just sent off for some and will let you all know how i get on .

Boat Steering

I cut a hole in the dashboard with a hole saw and then used a wood rasp to get the desired angle.

The steering boss was sunk into the dash to get the steering wheel spacing correct, so it will need brackets to mount it to the back.

Here i have made some wooden blocks that i glued and screwed to the dashboard, then the metal brackets were screwed to this . The steering mount is now securely fastened.





                                                                                                
                                                                                                  

The steering rack was fixed to the pinion with bearings and then the rack was mounted to two wooden battens.










The steering wheel came from Lake Michigan and is an original 1950S Boat wheel. It was in need of some TLC so after using some paint stripper to get the old paint off i primed the wheel with grey Zinc primer then applied 4 coats of white primer to prepare for the top coats . I decided to go with the blue and white theme that used for the seats and sprayed the half the wheel with gloss white then masked off and used gloss blue , I layed 6 coats of each colour and then finished with anouther 6 coats of clear laquer .

Transom modification.

Decided not to have a jack plate but to add on to the height of the Transom instead. This addition will allow me to mount the 75hp Mercury outboard directly to the back and will mean the steering arm will operate within the Splashwell with some minor adjustments.:)

 I used a 35mm bulk of Mahogany that i found in the wood shed.  The template was made with 3mm mdf and then transfered to the Mahogany and cut out roughly with a jig saw, then i sanded with the belt sander to get the final fit. I cut a slot in the Transom and a corasponding slot in the new piece of wood and made a sapele tongue to fit, this meant that i could position the transom precisely . Both surfaces were smeared with a liberal helping of epoxy and clamped until set.

Photo on the right shows the outboard mount template taped to the back of the Transom in roughly the position it will sit.