Winter Project '80 233
 

I have been working on my winter project for this year which is my 1980 formula 233 I bought this fall. I figured I would start a thread of the build to help me answer some questions along the way.

Right now I have everything stripped down and the motor out. I'm working on replacing the transom and engine mounts. Hopefully I can wrap this project up by spring....(famous last words).

Assuming I ever get past the transom and stringer work, what are some general "have to" items while I have the boat this far apart. I'm having all new bellows, water pump, etc put on and the outdrive pressure checked.

Couple thing I know I want to add are, cup holders, cooler space, move the porta-pottie, add hatch lift. Open to any suggestions. I'll have more specific questions once I get past the fiberglass.

Here are a couple pictures before the destruction started:
http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/i...g?t=1358137091

http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/i...g?t=1358137178

Also here is a link to the transom work I'm doing:
http://www.offshoreonly.com/forums/f...ork-233-a.html

Having had one... Good luck! Awesome dry ride, rock solid hull, and I swear she will hang with most newer 27ft'rs in big water. I remember having mine so high off a cruiser wake you could have driven a full size pickup under it. I was positive she was going to break in half when I landed, not only did she not, my friend next to me didn't spill his beer. Mind you the cruiser wake I jumped was the same height as my bow and we were doing maybe 40-42ish. Forever sold me on Formula as the ride of choice especially for us budget guys.

Haven't had much to update on this one in awhile but I'm starting to move along. Once I get the fiberglass behind me I should start making more progress. I'm looking for some opinions on a couple things.

1. Any "have to do" items in the bilge area while i have it all apart? I would love to route the gas and bilge hoses under the floor to clean it up but it would prob be more problems than its worth if they ever leaked.

2. I have done the general maintenance to the engine while its out, anything else to consider while its on the floor before it goes back in.

3. I'm looking into using some custom motor mounts i bought on a whim. Are these style mounts below really worth it? It looks like I would have to notch my stringers (which are being rebuilt anyways) and make some mods to the mount to make them fit. I really like the idea of through bolting as opposed to just the top lags.
http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/i...ps08e8c360.jpg
http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/i...ps90187e45.jpg

Here is my current progress if you haven't seen it in the FB section:
http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/i...ps9968c7c4.jpg

got the same boat as yours (mine's a '79.) had the fuel tank leak back in '07- pinhole on the side of the tank near the top. cut the cockpit floor out for acess- what a MESS. dug out the wet foam around the tank only to find rotten stringers and bulkheads (3.) took 2 years to finish (boat's stored outside at a marina 20 miles from my house.) probably should have pulled the engine and done the transom and engine bearers too, but had no way of storing, transporting the engine and trans (454 with trs.) i used the west system stuff- really liked the super- slow hardener. i know it costs more, but with something as labor- intensive as this, think it's well worth the expense.
had the same situation with the fuel filler- vent hoses as you- hated the way they were routed next to the engine (had problems filling the tank too due to the "belly" in the fill hose.) anyway, i relocated the fuel filler to the starbord side even with the rear seat bulkhead and supported the hose with cable ties screwed to the bulkhead. left the vent thru hull where it was and ran the hose parallel to the fill hose. got a pop-up pushbutton fuel fill thru hull, and put a garden hose fitting on the transom where the original fuel fill was, added a couple of stop valves and voila-fresh water engine flush! also, didn't have to fill any holes in the hull!

I'm also going to try to route the fill hose better as I had a lot of problems the one or two times I filled it up last year. I had to fill it super slow to keep it from splashing out.

Rer233, what kind of speed do you see out of your boat with that setup?

best i've seen is 67 on gps with a borrowed spinelli 4 blade. i'm running a .30 over 454 with world products oval ports, modified holley 750 3310 on a holley high rise with 1" spacer and crane 134551 cam. exhaust is stainless marine with long tailpipes. full MSD ignition (if they made spark plugs, i'd be running them too!) i figure the compression ratio is 10-10 and 1/4 to one and hp around 500- 525 @5400 ('tho i've seen 5600- kinda high for a cast crank and stock early truck rods.) not the fastest thing out there by any means but not too bad for a single-engined tank. sounds good and rides REAL good for a 23' boat. good luck with yours- keep up the good work!

Thanks for the info RER, your boat sounds sweet. That is moving for a heavy boat, nice work. I had thought about some engine mods, but figured I should just concentrate on making it float again.

What is everyone using for engine motor mounts, any thoughts on the ones pictured?

Little up date here. Pulled her out of the work shop for the week. I'm sending it in to get a snap cover made for the cockpit. I was undecided, but I think I'm going with the Sunbrella material and not the Aqualon. I'm going to see if I can do a double pole and extra snaps up front.

I have a couple small fiberglass spots to touch up, but hope to get the bilge painted and the transom assembly back on this weekend. I think I'm going with a gloss yellow for the engine bay color, but open to suggestions.

Couple pictures of the action. Bad lighting in the bilge again. Only good thing about snow on the ground, I have a couple more months to get this done...

http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/i...psdc1af0b6.jpg

http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/i...ps00d4f327.jpg

Looks good.

Edit - found the answer to my question with a quick search. :lolhit:

Got some work done on the project this weekend.

Had a snap on cover made and while it was at the shop rebuilt the outdrive rams, starter, water pump, and thermostat housing. Also painted the bilge and mounted the transom assembly.

Cover
http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/i...pseaab32cf.jpg

Bilge painted with Rustolium/valspar hardener
http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/i...psd7399c4d.jpg

Transom assembly
http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/i...pse9afb5be.jpg

Looks great, I spent 3 years redoing a 1973 wellcraft nova. Turned out beautiful. But was a lot of work. Best part though, you will know everything about that boat inside and out. Can work on them blind folded after this kind of rework......oh word of advice. When I did my nova I re worked my read seat so with just a a couple screws it would come right out and I could sit right next to the motor to work on.

Wow, I really like the color of your bilge for some reason. You have great taste! :thankyouthankyou:

And I agree on the rear seat, I did the same thing on my 272 and love it! Should have been made that way.

Keep up the good work,

Brian

Nice looking bilge! I picked up an 81 233I this past fall I'm pulling the engines in a week or two in order to convert to through hub exhaust and then paint the bilge as well. In the pictures it looks like you have a single piece y-pipe. Are you running a newer drive unit? Mine appears that it uses the 3 piece y-pipes. As for the engine mounts mine are lagged directly to the supports. I dont know how hard the boat had been run in its past, but the mounts seem to have held up fine so far. Through bolting seems like a pretty sturdy method though.

Thanks for the tips on the back seat, that is a great idea. I'm going to have to start thinking about that soon and I'll make sure I can get it out easy. Those are the little things that make working on it so much nicer.

Stiingray71 - I do have a single Y pipe which connects to silent choice. I'm powered with a 454 mag and bravo 1, so the drive is "newer" compared to the boat.

I'm about ready to put the motor back in. Got my new bilge pump setup so I wouldn't have to do it with the motor in the way. I have a smaller auto pump on the bottom and then a bigger pump 3" above it on a float switch. I'm going to wire the float switch to the buzzer/light so I know if i have 4" of water in there :poopoo: I think I'm also going to put in a removable plug in the cabin drain pipe and cap the drain in the cabin.

Also had glass cut and installed for the side windows. I converted it to one piece glass instead of the two that it was. I was missing one whole side and half of the other. I like the look better than the two piece.


http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/i...ps0465f335.jpg


http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/i...ps68091342.jpg

Man I really like the side window change! And she looks like she is coming along well. Keep it up, I have a special love for these 233's

You guys really impress me with all this fiberglass work. How do you learn to do that? Beautiful boat! I hope my 242 rides as well as those 233's!

shekmark - the fiberglass took a lot of time to read and ask a ton of questions to figure out what to do. I learned a lot just from doing it and trying different things as I went along. I also did some "tests" to see how the material acted and how I can work with it. Small steps at a time and taking your time to make sure it is right.

Got the motor in this weekend, bolted down and aligned. Aligning the motor is not that fun of a project, but not the worst thing I have done. I will let it settle and re check it before I put the out drive on in a couple months.

I didn't realize how low the motor sits in the boat...

http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/i...ps5036b726.jpg

http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/i...ps51f8c380.jpg

I have been working on re wiring a lot of the components and trying to clean up some old wiring. I can't figure out where this wire goes and was wondering if you guys could help.

The wire is tied into the key switch and has a fuse and a light bulb on it then a long wire. I had it tagged as coming from the bilge fire extinguisher when I took the motor out....which I don't understand. I'm wondering if this wire is supposed be used for the green light halon seen in the second pic. There is nothing in that spot right now.....

Any help would be appriciated...

Red wire connects to the black with the light on it then continues as a long piece of wire

http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/i...psc8009af0.jpg

http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/i...ps771869f4.jpg

Haven't updated here lately, but I have been working on it a lot. Got the outdrive on and the motor running this weekend. Still need to get the plane boards, exhaust etc. sealed up on the back before the water test. I hope to have it on the water this weekend to iron out some kinks. Also did a carb rebuild which it really needed, run so much smoother now and starts right away. Still tons of work to due on the interior, but at least I will be able to get on the water...

My mom and I have been working on the seats for a couple weeks now. We got our own material and did the sewing, wasn't as bad as I thought. I think the seats came out nice and will give it a fresh look. Before the bottom seat and engine cover were just white. When I pulled off the vinyl I found the pattern drawn on the foam, so I copied that for the new material!! Here are some pictures.


Most of the rigging/wiring done in the engine bay:
http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/i...ps16a2b16e.jpg

Engine cover in process:
http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/i...ps2891be20.jpg

http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/i...pse5bb0110.jpg

http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/i...psbdbb085f.jpg

http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/i...ps2b8f366a.jpg

All together, back rest and center bottom seat not streached yet:
http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/i...psf353bf6e.jpg

http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/i...ps7f4725ad.jpg

Engine cover on boat:
http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/i...ps12c38677.jpg