Engine Box, Floors, and working on a 1903 Lozier Launch!

Well we are having variable temperatures so on day is just above freezing and others are really below freezing. I have been able to work on various things on the boat and have spent time with Jody Lapham and his Lozier Launch. Jody has been great with helping on my project. Recently I was at his shop and he helped me dress and cut my boards for my engine box, Thanks Jody! Here are some pictures of our efforts.





Jody had a piece of Mahogany that I can use for the engine box uprights as well as new engine blocks. I shifted gears to the floors after this because Maine Coast Lumber has a sale on Meranti which is what they use to sell as Philipine Mahagoney. It is a really good sale to the point that the plywood was cheaper than fir so I did the floors out of it as well.

The floors came with some Nautolex on them but I think this boat cam with painted floors. I am taking Myndy Wooddruff's suggection to cover the floor with the new Nautolex flooring, we chose natural. Right now I have cut out the floors with a jig saw, they came out pretty good but not perfect. I think they will look fine when they are covered.










I then took the floors and started applying Poly to the floors to get them ready to cover. I caught a great deal on Nautolex 72" bolts at $17.95 a yard. I have 2 coats on one side and am ready to flip them over to do the other side.





The next step after painting is covering and refitting the floor. I am hoping to have this done this weekend as long as I can finish the painting. I have been thinking of investing the money in a new gas tank but they are pricey as compared to the $100.00 you would spend on a tank kit. We will see, maybe if I can sell some Harley parts this would be easier to decide.

Making Headway

Things are starting to pick up! I have been putting more chrome on and working on the various wiring needs. I put the step boxes in and like the way they turned out. I reused everything including one top that was cracked all the way through. Here is a before and after photo.


Here are some more detail photo's, one you can see the repair to the lid. All in all it went pretty good and installation was pretty straight forward.




I am putting the chrome back on and will re-chrome pieces in the future as I can afford the plating cost. I cleaned the individual pieces as best as I could but some are missing plating and most pieces are not bright like new chrome.



I also have been working on the bilge pump wiring and hiding a switch under the gauge cluster. I got a rule swith and disassebled it so I could mount the switch through the bulkhead. The power light and inline fuse are on the other side of the bulk head. I installed in an existing hole a LED light wiht the switch so I can see if power is coming in.

I have also came across a sale on Meranti, which is basically what use to be sold as Phillipine Mahagoney. It is pretty regulated in how it is harvested and matches the existing wood perfectly. Maine Coast Lumber has it on sale for $52.50 a sheet for 3/8. It was cheaper than marine for plywood, so my floors will be made of Meranti and I am covering them with Nautolex Natural. I found the best price for the Nautolex at Defender $17.95 a yard. That price is for 72" material not 54". Most places are selling for $29.95 a yard.

More to come with the floors and motor box.

Plowing alot and It is starting to look like a boat!

Here on Button Bay ice fishing season is well under way. I have been out the ice is about a foot thick and have not caught a thing. My father in law caught a can! Really.

I have put in the wiring, oil line, and tach cable in my previous post and this time around I have started to put the boat back together and it looks pretty nice. I put the dash back in and the cover for the steering shaft.


After I got the dash in I thought I would tackle the front bench back, which proved to be a challenge. I put the back in place and I wanted to cross drill the screws from the back of the stringer that the seat back rested against. From the factory they screwed from the front of the seat back to the board I mentioned then put another stringer board in front of the seat back. Thi meant if you ever wanted to remove the front bench seat you would have to take up the floor remove the front stringer and then remove the seat back. If I drilled the screws from the back I would only have to remove the floor behind the seat back and remove the screws to remove the seat back. Even though the section of floor behind the seat is big it is easier to work out in the open than under the bench seat.



I ran into trouble while putting in the supports on one side and had not 1 but 3 screw bulges. I really tried to line the support up with th eexisting holes but my bit had to be off. I essentially redrilled the hole at a slightly different angle, but now I have ot fix the bulges! Rats


I had to put a ratchet strap around the boat to bring the sides in to have them meet up better for the side supports. My boat was not perfect and the side supports always showed but I thought I would try to pull it in and it came in a little. I had an alteration to my boat by a previous owner in that they drilled a hole through the hull and put a long screw through the hull and the side bench support then used a bracket to attach this all to the seat back, interesting and pretty solid!


All in all pretty productive and I have moved onto figuring out stainless screws for my brightwork. I think things will start to pick up and I am getting excited to see the boat take shape. More to come from the frozen north.

When it is 12 degrees F out, what do you do in an unheated garage?

Well you work on your boat! Button Bay appears to be frozen and Ice fishing season has started. We are having sub zero nights with little wind which means black ice on the lake and people fishing on the ice.

I have taken a little time off for Bird hunting but I hav been making a wiring harness and getting the next batch of materials for this job. I have fitted a new cooper oil pressure line, new tach cable, and wire harness to the skiff and it looks like good progress on a cold day huddled next to a milk house heater getting these pieces in place. The cooper line was hard and I have a couple of kinks but it still looks great! What do you want for gloves, never could work with them on, so my hands were a little purple.

I have made the wire harness out of Ancor and used split loom plastic instead of cloth like the original. I think it will be a little better lasting.

Next step is to make a template of John Paul's engine box I borowed.

Leaves are falling and so is the temp

Well the trees are in full color and it is the best year for foliage. I have been working on fitting up the boat for next year. I pretty much have finished all painting, just a few odd pieces that I will do in the spring. I have been trying ot mount my bilge pump and tried a failed idea. I want to be able to switch out a pump easy. My hull is the design that makes mounting my Lovlett pump difficult. Since the skiff is a lapstrake I have oak ribs pretty close to gether which makes mounting the pump on the keel impossible. So I thought I could use a Battery strap to hold the pump in place, see pics.


The problem I found is that when I strapped in the pump I still had movement, not much but I still had some. The reason I want an easy method to swap out a pump is that my backup pump is a Ruleamatic. I have removed this set up epoxied the holes and have come up with a different plan tha tI think will be better. I have Aluminum angle metal that I will cut 2, 1 1/4" pieces. There will be a single screw hole and a slot. For the slot I will take a large hose clamp and cut it in half. On ht ecut end I will make a curl for the slot on the aluminum bracket, like on our Autolite Distributors. I can screww the bracket to the keel then use the hose clamps as the binder. Sounds good, but I will use a piece of scrap wood to see how this will play out before I try an install on the boat.

The next thing I have been working on is the cooper exhaust. Mine was cut to make a v-8 fit where a 6 cyl use to be. I have found a 6 to put back in and cannot afford a new pipe. I recently won a section of exhasut on ebay that I believe will let me piece together the exhaust. It wont be perfect but is will be functional! It came with a slip fit iron coupler that I had to remove. Some PB Blaster and alot of heat it came right off. I kinda laid the sections together to see how it might look afer fitting.







So after all this work I was in the Basin Harbor Red Mill for last night drinking a beer when I run into the Paul brothers and in talking with one of they he said to his Brother I have one of those and you can have it.......Now I just need to see if he remembers, it was a good night had by all!