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.

I would suspect that you have a loose or disconnected wire on the oil pressure sending unit. Check it out...it's behind the distributor connected to a fitting threaded into the engine block.

Where on the island are you? Portsmouth? I'm in fall river right up the river. If you need anything I always have plenty of parts and tools.

Hey neighbor. yeah I live in Portsmouth. Thanks for the invite for tools and such. The wire to the sending unit is clean and tight so that should be fine if I remove the wire and ground it to the block will that tell me if its the gauge??

Ground it, gauge should peg, if not do the same at the gauge to rule out a broken wire.

The oil pressure issue is fixed it was a bad sender. So tomorrow im going looking for a new prop I know I need a 19pitch but what about the diameter does that matter??

Excellent Job..I have a project Formula of my own that has some very bad oxidization on the top deck as well as the sides..red boat with clouds isnt what I wanted..what did you use to compound yours out or did you make multiple passes? I buffed mine out with a compound I got from an auto painters supply designed for gel coat that did a nice job.. waxed it..and did a quick job on the top deck..had to ship out for work for a month and when I came home it looked like I hadnt touched her..

Welcome to OSO and congrats on the Formula.
Great work and thanks for the post and pics.
I think all your work will be very enjoyable for your boating pleasure.

So I picked up a new prop a 4 blade 19 pitch and gave it another try with the same results no power and wouldn't go above 3000 rpm . Last night a friend and I pulled the motor out again to find out what's going on we pulled the oil pan and found metal shavings in the oil pump screen so we started removing the mains and found 3 spun bearings. :eekdrop:

If you can get to SE Florida or have a shipping source I have a solid low hour 260 long block for you....Edelbrock intake to oil pan. Swap over your externals and you are good to go.

I was saving it for a future project but you might need it more than I do...I'm not greedy...reasonably priced for a fellow Formula "Bro".

Let me know.

[email protected].

It's been awhile since I've posted anything so here's a little update
I 've been working on the vinyl for a while and this is what I have so far.
This is one of the cushions for the captains chairs.[IMG]http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/f...-38-50_962.jpg[/IMG][IMG]http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/f...-34-06_629.jpg[/IMG][IMG]http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/f...-46-03_990.jpg[/IMG]
Finished chair [IMG]http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/f...-10-37_598.jpg[/IMG][IMG]http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/f...-11-38_750.jpg[/IMG]
And the rear seats and sun pad.[IMG]http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/f...16-21-38_0.jpg[/IMG][IMG]http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/f...-23-30_680.jpg[/IMG]

Great Job!!! You saved a bunch and could make $$$ doing on the side!!!

did you fix the motor
 

just wondering if there is an update on the motor?

No I haven't done anything with the motor. Now that Christmas is over I hope to start saving for one. Im up in the air with what I want my goal is to get the boat to hit 60mph but coming up with the funds is the hard part. My understanding is that roughly 350hp should do it but not sure.

Looks great... Are you using comercial grade vinyl?

I'm not sure if its commercial grade vinyl I get it from a local fabric store it seems pretty decent. The good part is if it doesn't hold up well I know how to fix it.

Look for a decent used 350 from a 96 to 2000 chevy truck. I have bought four for $200 to $300. If you get lucky and the bearings did not spin tearing up the block, they are cheap to fix. new crank, bearings, rings, gaskets. Hone the cylinders to open them up 0.001" and will let the new rings seat and rework the heads. Add a good cam and aftermarket vortec intake manifold. gets you at or north of 300HP depending on cam choice. Engines I got had about 100k on them and looked really good actually.

Or spend a few hundred more and buy a running motor from a wrecked truck. Go through it and replace bearings and rings, new cam..... etc.

Then you end up like me, six motors sitting around. Two redone in the boat, a spare being built, an extra block for who knows what and the original two 86 short blocks that I do not need as they are not roller motors and the stock heads stink for anything other than anchors.

It looks real nice.... Best peace of advice I can give you is. Use good materials .... The best you can get your hands on.. From my experience the cost difference shouldn't be much more than %30..... For the time it takes to get your interior looking nice it's not worth it.

So I've made some pretty good progress on the boat. I picked up my motor last Friday I decide to go with the SD power pack from crusader so the in stall began.[IMG]http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/f...161538_488.jpg[/IMG]
Setting the motor in for the first time. I had to remove it the next day because we used the wrong coupler and bell housing and cracked the housing.[IMG]http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/f...193020_249.jpg[/IMG]
fast forward through a weeks worth of late nights we have my ten year old daughters first time driving the DIRTY BIRD.[IMG]http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/f...153456_823.jpg[/IMG]
And a drive by.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n80v...e_gdata_player

Sounds really nice on the bird fly by!

Awesome, bad news on the housing though.

WOW!!! very nice...and tell your daughter she does a great job of handling that "Dirty Bird".:evilb:

thanks guys we still have some issues to work out I had a leak in the outdrive so we fixed that last night and found out the the bearings in the upper drive need to be replaced.I have a pair or 4in exhaust tips to install and some vinyl trim pieces to make. The biggest issue is the motors only turning 4300rpms wot. That's with a aluminum 19 pitch 4blade prop so I think I need to find a 17pitch.

I'm not quite sure why I'd need a smaller prop all of the info I have found is that boat with a 260hp SBC should turn a 19 I have a little more HP and can't turn it with just me in the boat.

Try a 19 pitch 3 blade mirage or mirage plus I was able to spin that on my 242 with a stock small block alpha combo to 5100. The 4 blade is what's hurting you...

I'll try to find one of those and give it a try. The 4blade really takes that much more power to turn than a 3blade?

Our hulls really don't like a 4 blade prop. The 4 blade tends to lift the stern more and we need bow lift to expose less hull to the water. Formulas run deep as a rule... that's why we get the better ride..to get the speed and RPM up we need to get some of that hull out of the water and the 3 blade does a better job of that.

My brother has your boat and a 19" Mirage Plus 3 blade puts him at 50 at 4900 RPM with a 300 horse SBC.

It sounds like the mirage plus is what I need I'm not sure why the 4blade was recommended to me but hopefully I can exchange it for the M.plus and pick up some rpms and maybe some mphs :-) thanks for the info.