The big outdrive score

Hey guys, I have a little update for you all. I have been looking for a replacement outdrive for the Sea Ray for a while for two reasons. One is the fact that the lower shaft of my Bravo is twisted due to a impact at some point in its life, and second I wanted to see if I could rebuild one. I soon found out that even a decent used drive was bringing close to 1500 bucks. So when I saw a rebuilt bravo one on CL list for $500, I was intrigued. I called the guy expecting him to say it was 1500, not 500, but that was not the case. This guy owns a marine shop on Possum Kingdom Lake, which if anyone heard, most of the lake acreage burned last year. He lost his shop to the fire, and is now working from a trailer on his land trying to make ends meet. When I asked him why he is selling it so cheap, he just told me he needed to make it though the winter, and he found selling in volume works better for him right now. Who am I to argue. He gave me a receipt with the serial number on it, and a six month warranty. I know that probably means nothing, but I asked around that area, and he seams to be very well known, and liked. 

Anyway, I bought it from him and we headed home. On the way back we drove around the nice part of the lake where all the vacation homes were, and the devastation from the fires last year is stunning. There are entire neighborhoods of luxury homes gone, where only the foundation is left. There is a place called "Hells Gate" where some really nice homes were, and there is almost nothing there. My tender hearted daughter started checking back tears as we drove through the devastation. Guys, it looks like a bomb went off. 

So on we go. We got home and I had no time to mess with the drive, but yesterday I build a little pressure tester thanks to the post in the adult only section. She held 9.5 PSI for 20 plus hours. I turned the shaft a few times, and it did not drop a bit. So that checks out fine, and the great oil was not muddy, so I may have just lucked out. 

I do have a big question for you Merc guys. I have read differing opinions on pressure testing a dive. Some say you should vacuum test it also, and others say you only to that on Volvo drives, and Mercruiser will not hold a Vacuum. What is best practice?

Her are some pictures from the trip, and the outdrive

This is my artsy side. I thought this picture tells the story of the dependent relationship a car has with oil.

Almost every tree out there was burned

This once was a high end neighborhood

Add caption

The lakes level is way down

More of the devastation

However, they are rebuilding, and things are starting to get back to normal

I could not resist taking a picture of the boat.

So now some pictures of why I went out there. The new Outdrive

And here is my little pressure tester. I found it in the adult only section. I used a gear oil refill tube from sierra with the metal fitting that attaches to the drive, not the plastic one. I then cut the line in half, added a T fitting and then added the gauge. Once that was done I used a air fill nozzle for a car tire with the fat bulb end cut off. I then added clamps, and viola! 

And some video. I have upgraded to a MAC and Final Cut pro, so let me know what you think about the new videos quality.

Also help me out by clicking a few adds to help out me and my sponsors. It helps finance all these ventures.

Planning on a Swim Platfrom

Hey guys! Thanks for all the Christmas wishes. It has been a really tough Holiday season for me, as it is the first since Mom passed away. Luckily my business has been over the top busy since late October, and I have just jumped in head first. The bad thing is that I have not had much time for you guys, spending time making videos, and answering questions. Now that the Holidays are over, I hope to get back to things I love doing. 

However, I do not think it will be a boat at this time. The wife and I talked and we are most likely going to add a room to the house to give our family more space. Now I will doing most of the work myself and video taping it, but it will not be as much fun as the boat. She has been asking for this a long time, and I think it is time. 

Now that does not mean I will not doing boat stuff. I have started purchasing lots of stuff for the Sea Ray, and I have quite a bit more to aquire, and i will film all of that being installed.

Here is what I have purchased

Purchased
1. A full new set of Sea Ray Guages
2. New Stereo head unit 
3. 10" Sub and amp

Going to purchase soon

1. Swim platform
2. speakers for the Wake tower
3. Get the prop "cupped" to help with bow lift
4. New Hitch coupler
5. New Winch

So as you can see I have a very expensive purchase on that list... the swimplatform. I am very nervous about this, because I have to drill two holes below the water line to support the platform. I guess I need to get over it, and just do it so the wife will get off my back about installing one. 

I have shopped around, and I am not settled on a vendor just yet. Here are some pictures on a boat just like mine that has the swimplatforms.com model. The only difference is that the boat is a 1996 230 VS a 1995 220. They are the exact same boat, but since the boat is closer to 23' Sea ray renamed it in 1996 to make people think it was bigger. I am not sure that I like it not being flush. There is another company that really wants to build me a custom model for my boat, but they do not have pictures. What do you guys think?

Up to Date

As of this post this blog is up to date. Anything you read after this post will be real time. It will continue to grow with new projects and updates from time to time as I do new things on the boat.

Viewer Mail

This is a segment for mw to answer your emails on video.

Before and after

Before

After

Adding Snap in Carpet

Ok, guys, I am running out of things to do on this boat. I am sad that it is really coming to and end, but is ain't over yet!!!!!

I got the carpet in .... Whooooohooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This was a very long process. I had to order the template, cut out the template, and send it away and wait for a price. It was WAAAAAAAAYYYYY more expensive than I ever thought it would be (little over 800 shipped), but it was well worth it. It looks and fits perfectly, and I do not even have to use anything to hold it down. It is so heavy It just lays perfect.

Here is the story.

My Dad and I cutting the template. Just take your time with this, and it will lay out.

We left about an inch on the perimeter for water shedding. That will allow the water to find the bilge.

You need to cut relief slits so that they can bind the carpet, and allow you to lay it around the seat.

This is what I chose. It is Silver and Grey berber. We looked at some blue colors, but they just did not fit. And of course this choice was the most expensive.

I chose the Sunbrella Edging

This is the Auquamat backing that adds all the weight.

The carpet looks so nice in the boat.

The Video

Adding a Wake tower

 decided the boat need more bling, so I purchased a wake tower, and Dad and I installed it. I got it from bulletlines out of San Antonio and it went on ok, but I would change a few things if I had to do over again. These towers are made in china, and they have some fit and finish issues that you must work through. Not a huge deal, but over all a good tower. I like how the tower frames this wind shield. 

Today we took the boat to the local recycler place and had her weighed. We weighed the boat and trailer together, and then dropped her at the lake and drove back and weighted just the trailer. I have to get a title for the trailer, and here is Texas the require a weigh in. So drum roll please... The boat weighed 4440 lbs and the trailer is 1080 lbs for a grand total of 5520 lbs. All of our gear was out of the boat, and I have about half a tank of fuel sloshing around in there. That is less that I thought to be honest.

This is where I had to take the boat for the weigh in. They have large scales just for this purpose.

Water Pump Failure

Our first Oops

I had a little bit of time so I wanted to post some updates. We have been out on the boat every weekend, and we are having a blast. Dad and I have cut the template for the carpet and sent it off to get cut, and I hope to have it back in a couple of weeks. I have to say, cutting out that template was WAAAAAAAAY harder than I thought it would be. It was like wrestling a pig covered in salad oil. After about 4 hours, we finally had it done. Once that was done we had to come up with a color. That took hours and hours with the first mate out in the sun light comparing. We finally chose a grey/silver berber that will pick up the greys in the boat. We plan to eventually replace all the ugly blue carpet with grey soon anyway. So now we wait.

Last weekend we had a little indecent on the lake. As alot of you know, Texas is in a sever drought and our lake is about 4 feet low. I was going through a cut that I use every weekend, and there was a park ranger behind me, and a bunch of other boats in the same cut. Well I went too far to the starboard side and struck a rock at idle. It went from 10 feet to 3 feet in a flash. Once I was through the cut I jumped in to find out what I did, and All I found was two little nicks in the prop that can be fixed. I took off again and felt nothing out of the ordinary and we had fun the rest of the day. About 5 hours of skiing and tubing later the alarm went off... low gear oil. I panicked! I looked around the drive and I could not see any gear oil at all, and I was puzzled. I added more gear oil and we ran around to see if it would eat any more, and it seamed to be fine. Now the expansion tank was a little low already due to an air bubble from the rebuild, (Air gets trapped in the drive when you fill it and will burp for a while) and I had not refilled yet. It had been like that for weeks so all it dropped was about an ounce. I am just hoping that another air bubble popped up and dropped the tank down just enough to throw the alarm. Otherwise I am going to be out a lower unit.

Enjoying the fruits of my labor

I guess it is time for some updates. We had a great weekend on the boat, and have sunburn to prove it. I cleaned out the spark arestor and she ran even better, and used less fuel. It was pretty dirty. I have put a solid 6 hours on her since the splash, and things have been perfect. I still need to fix the gauges, and that has really got me perplexed. The Tach I think is just shot. I have messed with the dial on the back and it is set correctly, but still shows the RPMs to be way off. I will take a picture of the back of the gauge and see if the guys in the engine forum can help. I replaced the Lights last night, and added to guide on pipes to help when loading and backing up the trailer. I also got a new depth gauge, but have net installed that yet. So here are some pictures from the weekend

 Me trying to cool off in 106 degree heat.

I think they are ready to go

Mrs Friscoboater

Re-Naming the Boat!

We had another great day on the lake today, until my daughter hurt herself tubing. She is ok now, but you will see in the video that she hit pretty hard. We decided to come back a little early and then hit it again tomorrow. We did the naming ceremony today, and actualy had to do the de-naming all over again. When we put the paperwork in the glove box last week we did not take out the original interned add that had a picture of the boat with its old name. According to legend, you must do the ceremony again. So we did. Then we proceeded to re-name her, and that went perfect. She now has the new name on her stern. Also yesterday when I took the cover off I discovered that the sun pad had turned a awful shade of pinkish brown. I have no idea what would have caused this. It was pure white last weekend and now looked terrible. I went autozone and got some vinyl paint, and now everything is all good. That stuff is awesome.

Getting ready to re-name the boat

Dad and I

Zachary helping me pour the Champagne

The new Name

Its official

Even the Ducks came over for the party

It looks like I need a tan and to lose about 15 pounds