Fun Lil Project.....
 

Bought this to play on the islands and tiki bars in our area in and hopefully make a couple bucks off of.
It's a 1990 15' Javelin bass boat. Bought it less power but rigged and in excellent condition other than a rotted transom/motor board which the owner did not know about. Paid accordingly.
Boat was built during the hey day of the conglomerates owning multi brands and OMC owned this one. Rigged really nice for a little boat and rated for a 70hp.
OMC's 3 bangers are one of the best engines ever designed so I found a ratty looking '85 version (bought a complete rig and will off load boat/trailer and have 0$ in motor and boat is all goes well) that I am finishing a cosmetic restoration of. Was all white in '85 (including p.head) which really dates it and since I'm going to try and make a couple bucks off it I decided to paint it in the more modern colors. Huge improvement and looks great. Still an '85 but now looks like a new motor.
Here's some pix's of the process that I thought y'all might enjoy.

Before.
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...velinbow-1.jpg

http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...avelinside.jpg

The transom (really just an easy to do motor board on this boat) was a bit damp.

http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...s/javelin7.jpg

http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l.../javelin11.jpg

http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l.../javelin13.jpg
Transom, "after". Would have spent more time/effort matching color schemes on a real boat but this things new owner is not going to care.

http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...ansomafter.jpg

Only have a before of the motor. This motor is another sample of how good things can look in picture and why we should NEVER buy boats/motors w/o seeing them in person. This motor has been beat hard, put away wet and worked on by every hack in Fla for the last 20 yrs.

http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l.../70johnson.jpg

cool, transom looks good

man you have your hands in everything i just started doing the fiberglass fixing i put a full transom an floor in my 79 baja but i split it cut it out from the inside i am unsure how you do glass work and get it so smooth to paint gues expierence pays off good job with it

i also really like the sonic if you were to sell that i would be all over it lol

Thanks guys. If you can get the deck cap off w/o destroying it, thats the best way to replace a transom/motor board but many boats (like this one) aren't worth the time/expense and many are built in a manner that you have to all but destroy the rear of the boat to get to the transom. Also, it's only rated for a 70 hp motor too.
As to knowing how to do it....., I spent 20+ yrs as a red neck hill billy like most of us but then spent a yr working for a very high end custom boat builder that taught me the rest.
Like everything else on the net, plenty of experts but few that really know and even fewer that will tell.
Some of the tricks you pick up make the difference between gorgeous and garbage.
Here's a couple pix's of some other projects I did.
Had a 19' STV tunnel outboard w/a 20" transom but built a 16" motor for it. Set up sucked on the 20" transom so I cut it down. Most said I could not do it in the method I chose. Most make it like a step/shelg and come in from underneath to reinforce. The lines of the boat are gorgeous though and I wanted to retain them in my modification.
Looked factory when complete and after many hrs of abuse of a 350 HP hot rod O/B, no signs of movement or cracking.

This used to be on top of the hole in the next picture. This was the 4" of height that I removed.

http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...s/DSCF1832.jpg

Where it came from.

http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...s/DSCF1836.jpg

Finished product.
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...s/DSCF1930.jpg

http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...s/DSCF1929.jpg

http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...s/DSCF1946.jpg

Another fun project. Needed a tiki bar taxi cab while I was finishing the Sonic. Got a 1969 13' Whaler for cheap. Had a 28hp 15" motor on it which I replaced w/a 20" 50 with trim/tilt. Neat part was showing pix's to all the "no wood in boats" advocates of the rock solid and dry, 39 yr old plywood transom core. Made the 15" transom a 20" transom in my drive way in 2days days.

http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...s/DSCF2126.jpg

http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...s/DSCF2135.jpg

http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...s/DSCF2154.jpg

Orig. mahogany interior, before:

http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...s/DSCF2164.jpg

http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...s/DSCF2161.jpg

Interior, after:
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...s/DSCF2166.jpg

http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...s/DSCF2165.jpg

Best part, driving it ;) After building a jack plate from 4" alum. angle and beating on all the props I could find (my hammered aluminum one was faster than all the stainless I could find) it ran 48.6 GPS and was an absolute blast to drive! You could do a hole shot w/the trim part way up and the boat would clear the water. Passed and scared the pee out of a bunch of fish boats down here.

http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...ing3-09012.jpg

Thing was an absolute blast. Been to the Keys (100 mls on it one trip) as well as all over up here. Used to load it w/crap and the head to the neighboring islands in the I.C. for a weekend of camping. Here we are on our way out on a Friday w/the kids and all our camping gear. Tough to beat for a 13' boat.
Learned to do a deep water start on a slalom behind one w/an 18 HP motor!
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...ing3-09053.jpg

Cool Projects, nice job :) Getting colder up here ..........................

Yeah, I've been....
 

watching. We have a trip to Ohio (where we're from) in a month and toyed w/pulling the Sonic up. Been watching the weather though and not sure I can handle crap weather after a 1300 mile tow.
One thing down here for sure , I miss the off season to fix/pay for all my broke stuff. :helmet: Gas too. One thing going through a 100gls per wknd when it's April to October but when it's April to April......:whistle:

Are you thinking PIB for Halloween ? In Michigan just wait a day and it can be a whole different season, then mysteriously different the day after :):)

Not specifically.....
 

Just the boat on Erie and our favorite central Ohio inland lake, Buckeye.
We moved down here almost 6 yrs ago and haven't had a boat on Erie on any of our Ohio visits. Been to and stayed on the islands but when you're used to having your own boat there you don't realize how spoiled you are until you go w/o.
My favorite island is Pelee which is Canadian water and a pain in the ass to get to (from the Ohio side) w/o your own boat. Had plans for that trip several times but the tow is just far enough to be pushing a non stop trip so now you're at 2 days each way and 4 days out of your vacation for travel time. I figure 2 wks min to make it worth while and the timing and funds just haven't been right yet.
On top of that the Sonic has only been worthy of a trip like for the last 6 mnths or so.
Point was shoved home during one wk long stay on Kelly's when we decided to hop a ferry to go check out Middle Bass Island which we hadn't been to in yrs. (another favorite)
To get there from Kelly's, you first take a ferry to PIB then a different one from there to Middle Bass. What we didn't know was it was late enough season the the ferry to MB wasn't running.
I think between the three of us it was nearly $100. for that little adventure and still didn't get where we wanted.
Would have been cake if we had our/a boat along.