Break Out Another Thousand
 

about two months ago i picked up a not so new boat. the boat is a 84 223ls with a sbc 350. it's in pretty rough shape but for $1200 i dont think i did too bad. the interior is in very good shape other than some stains on the carpet is like new. the outside is a whole different story.
this was the day she came home
http://img259.imageshack.us/img259/8261/038vg.jpghttp://img191.imageshack.us/img191/7661/040dd.jpghttp://img526.imageshack.us/img526/6861/044yz.jpg
after a good washing with help from the wife and kids the work begins http://img853.imageshack.us/img853/9968/050hbc.jpg
the wife removing bottom paint and im pretending to know how to compound.http://img803.imageshack.us/img803/9819/060mc.jpg

How are you getting the bottom paint off?

Are you planning on doing your own vinyl? would be a good candidate for a DIY project.

Looks like a good project!

Brian

we are using aqua strip to remove the bottom paint than wet sanding followed by compounding and a coat of wax. it was a ton of work but well worth it.
http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/9596/064ds.jpg
my help http://img571.imageshack.us/img571/999/083ly.jpghttp://img526.imageshack.us/img526/3858/085d.jpgfinished product.
the vinyl is the next step ive got most of the rear redone with the help of my mother. this is the only pic. http://img513.imageshack.us/img513/2559/104xu.jpg

Looking good

Doing a great job, keep it up.

This weekend I got the boat together enough to take it for l ride and I have more work to do. The boat came with a 1.47 ratio alpha1 and a prop with m22 stamped on the inside lip of it is this too much prop for this setup I was thinking it should have maybe 19 pitch. The boat was a dog out of the hole and only hit 3000rpm at around 32mph. It is very possible it was running out of fuel because the small. Filter on the Carb was just about completely clogged. Any thoughts on what prop I should be running and what rpm/mph I should see. Thanks justin

Justin...welcome to OSO/Formula Forum. I am familiar with that model because my brother has one.

You are spot on with the prop pitch you suggest...19". What you have is a Michigan 22" which is way too tall for your boat with standard SBC power. With the 19" in proper tune you should see upper 40's at around 4800 RPM. You should be able to cruise at 30 at around 3500 RPM with 4 aboard.

Formula really builds a solid boat and you should be able to bring that 223 back to near new with out too much trouble.

Where are you guys located and where do you plan to do most of your boating?

Looks like its coming along nice. Does that bottom really look as good in person as it does in the pics? Did you strip, wet sand and polish it? Btw nice using the mohawk, we have the same lifts in our shop that i used to lift my boat in line with another lift we have to lift the boat off the trailer to service the trailer.

With how good the bottom looks it seems like there may be hope for one day stripping it and go naked when i get a lift.

Great work on that gel!

The bottom paint was removed with aqua strip ,cleaned,wet sanded, compounded than waxed it was a ton of work but will worth it . The lift definitely made it much easier I'm not sure how many hrs under it we did two weekends from around 10am to 7 or 8 pm plus a few hrs on the trailer.

Sprinks thanks for the info I'm hoping to pickup a prop for this weekend and give it another try but today I started it up to flush the motor and the oil psi gauge read 0 so I gotta straiten that out I'm hoping its just the sender
I live on aguidneck island about ten min. North of Newport Rhode Island.