Love seeing boat projects. Looks like yours is pretty nice other than the engines. Best of luck! Jim

Basically the #1 piston was welded to the cylinder- which junked the block. It had so much rust on it I honestly thought the boat had been sunk. The weird thing is everything else is ok in the engine compartment( the transom, stringers, starboard engine). The starboard engine starts and runs fine- however it has a exhaust leak on the side that is impossible to get to, so I have pretty much decided to yank that one too-seems like it would be easier to work on outside. The other thought is to take it and have it media blasted, my friends tell me there is a place in town that does Corvettes so it is ok on fiberglass, and for the cost of labor and sandpaper vs. just starting over it's almost a wash. Anybody got any thoughts on this or have you done it? I am going to try and pull the lower unit off the port drive to send it out to weld- so I will shoot some more photos tomorrow. Thanks everyone for the input!!!

a few more pics-

That will be a great boat when your done! Lots of TLC, and get rid of all the cast iron you can. I had a 79 300, years ago and loved it. Are you gonna keep the arch?

Welcome to the board. Looks like you have one hell of a project going. I'm sure it will be awesome when complete and you will have the joy of knowing every piece on the boat. GOOD LUCK and keep OSO updated!

Scottie, I have a 79 300, my son and I have put alot of work into it. we have won our class at lotto 2 years in a row. We have just cut the inner linner out of it and found the bulkheads are gone. another big prodject i really dont want to do but will. Our boat is a TRS boat with huber trans. 540ci. chevys on pump gas and runs 90mph. I get tired of spening so much money on it but its better than boat payments. Its easy to drag around and launch. Youll like it rough water they do a super job. Good luck with it and if i can be of any help send mail. Brian Miller

Ya gotta love projects. Definately keep us posted on the progress. On the plus side, those drives don't look so bad, mine were a lot worse on our scarab when we bought it. Eventually we blew both and had to get them completely redone, so I would just run them until they blow...you have bigger fish to fry. The interior won't be too bad as long as the wood is not too rotted. If it was me, I would get the boat in good enough shape to run, then worry about major upgrades later. It all depends on how much money you have to play with, but we just did one thing at a time because thats all we could afford. But once you get to the end its a great feeling...and you've been running your boat for a year or two.

Well here is the latest update- I got a quote yesterday for soda blasting the upper deck and the hull $2200 ouch! I can buy a lot of sandpaper for that. I don't consider myself cheap but that seems like an awful lot for what I need done. I also got the exhaust manifolds back and repainted them, and sent the intake manifold and engine mounts out to be stripped. I took some photos but I probably won't get them up until tonight.

AZ Lineman- yes, I think I am going to keep the arch- I think it kind of updates the boat a little bit. I am also thinking about getting rid of the glass and teak and do something different.

OK- I really have been working on the boat- I swear. I have a ton of new photos that I will try to post in the next few days. Progress has been slower than expected, but we are making headway.

Thanks- Scott

Scottie ,

Welcome to the board! You'll love this place. Lots of helpful info and avenues on saving money. And YES!!! WE all like seeing restoration and projects of boats,,,basically if it floats,,,,we want to see it...man, wait till you see what me and some of the other idiots post on here!

Good luck and welcome!!