TOPIC: 1959 Herters rebuild

cal,thats a good idea,my bow piece is hinged for ventalation,do you have the door piece?john

What's left of the door piece is more like it. It is broken on the port side hinge. I still have both pieces if you need something you're welcome to them. Also have the push pull cable with the little black knob. The spotlight is in pieces but all the parts are there, couldn't get it back together. I took that apart because the cable was rusted tight, it also has the matchiing black knob. They're all yours for the asking I'm not going to use either of them.
Cal

cal,i was going to take a good pic of the nose piece hatch, for you,but see you already have one.
how bad is the spot light ,i like restoring things like that,and thank you for the offer.john
p.s. todd from pa,should be here soon,i cant wait to meet the guy,he seems like a really nice fella.

The spotlight is good, good chrome, no dents. The bulb is broken but it is a standard GE thing, I wrote the bulb number inside the chrome housing so I would know what was needed if I ever got around to it. All the parts are there but the control cable is rusted so bad and loose from it's mounting. It is repairable if you have the resources and time. It would be like putting a jigsaw puzzle back together I'll take a pic for ya. I will send you the light and cable for the bow piece with the matching dash attachments/knobs and stuff that I took off it.
Mail me with your address and I will pack it up.
Cal

I'll have to find the cable for the vent, I know I put it in a "special" place where I wouldn't loose it. You can see what's left of the vent portion also.

thank you cal i love restoring jigsaw puzzles,lol,let me know the costs.ill catch up with you soon on it.if i get it working and restored ill send it back to you,john

John, There is no cost! It's yours to do with what you want, I do not want it back. I need an address. Free mailing. It's good to know that someone will give it the TLC it needs. If you can get it working with a new cable, stick it on your fish, it is a legal accessory (?).
Sitting in a box in my basement is not proper for a piece of equipment like that.
It should be sitting in a box in your workshop.

Here's a rough up of how the fuel filler will be under the prow ornament. Just stuck everything together this afternoon to see if it's feasable. It works, just have to buff it out.

The bow with the piece in place and a hinge mounted under the port side.

You can see a small chain hanging down, that's to keep it from overextending on the open position.

Used aluminum pop rivets to attach the piano hinge to the piece, just put drywall screws into the hull for a temporary hold. Now to clean up the edges of the fiberglass, round off the corners, fabricate an insert for the hole, install the filler hardware and put bolt/nuts in place of the screws. Then...find a long enought fuel filler hose to reach to the 12 gallon plastic tank. Oh Ya, also figure out how to mount the tank in the bow area.

cal,i treid to send you an email,but its not working,can you send one to me?john

Sent you a mail from this site, nothing says if it was sent at all so I guess it's a by guess, by golly type thing. If you don't get it let me know, I'll give you an alternative address to get in touch.

John, the mail isn't working from my end either, must be a bug

Cal

It's working now.... !

Thank You Ken. Always the man.

Cal,
Just catching up, great idea with the flipping hood ornament!

Bob

Did some puttering on the fuel filler setup for underneath the prow piece. Here's what I came up with.

Plugged the opening with 3/4" stock, glued screwed and tatooed into place.

Have to do some final buffing on the project and putting the finishing touches on the aluminum cover to match.

I rattle canned the yellow on to show up the areas that need work and sanding. The primer just will not show up the areas like a "final" finish will. Now back to work!

Coming along great, that's going to be a slick setup and none will be the wiser until you flip the cover.

Bob

Last few day were tied up with the steering system. Pardon my French, I am a k-nuk, the steering install was a SOB. Crawling under the bow area is not the most fun part for us antiques who predate the boat we're working on. Got it put in and working properly though. Also picked up a new lock for the glovebox, just have to cut the slot that it locks into on the dash. My son came over to borrow an 8' table and chairs for turkey day so I hyjacked him into helping me place the windshield on for a test fit. Not bad but needs some "buffing". Glass, flipping, and it flips perfect onto the back of the seat when you want the wind in your face feeling.
Where can I get some of the rubber strip that fits between the window and the deck? The stuff that's on there is pretty well hard and brittle.

Windshield setting in place.

That is the glass that came from a '63 Dorsett (Rick). It fits and carries the memories of it's former use.

The steering wheel mounted, got the ride guide center piece replaced with the mahogany.

Below the deck you can see the 12 gallon fuel tank that needs to be installed further forward.

The glovebox cover installed, need to cut the slot for the new lock and put limiters and cork pads on. Blue tape holding it in place until that's tackled.

Take my word, the panel is glossy varnished and smooth, just really scuffed, dusty and bad looking during "construction".

Looking good Cal ! Same windshield as my 1962 San Juan - really heavy duty auto glass. Never figured out the purpose of the hinge on mine because there is nothing to swing it back onto and if it were to make room to get it into a garage I would have to remove the mast - does not make sense but it's a nice windshield.

Thanks for sharing that picture. Maybe it can be flipped for easier cleaning
It is heavy glass alright. If it were plastic I could bend it slightly to form to the topside. Right now there is about 3/8" gap under both curvy corners that I have to figure out a solution for. I'm going to post another query as to where I can get the rubber stuff or whatever is used to fit the curve.
Here's a picture of my Sabre windshield with the stuff I'm talking about under the glass.

Cal : Like Classicfins says- contact Wefco rubber they have it all you can send a picture of it to
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Pete Stigers is the main guy and if you tell him what you need and how much, he can give you a price and they will ship it out with the C.C. #
Their phone # is 818-886-8872
I usually take a small piece of what I need and mail it to them with my E-mail address and he contacts me with the specifics.
21000 Osborne St. Unit # 2
Canoga Park, Cal
91304

Real nice people to work with .

Cal
Great idea with the gas filler.

Cal and bham-rick
Was this windshield made by the same manufacturer? It also hinges up and it has the two latches with slots for different heights. It is on a Pacific Mariner I found. It is heavy glass also. Don't mean to hijack here, I thought the windshield was similiar.
These are my only pics.

I think this thread just broke into my all time top five favorites list! The shots of the original subject were great, but now the Sabre and Rick's San Juan, Neil's PM thrown it as icing on the cake. Over the top, gang.

The Herters is coming along great Cal, love the awesome craftsmanship on the "personalized touches".

Mark, Neil, Rick. Looks like the same window to me also, like the idea of the positions for opening. Thanks for the links I'll check them out today. Going to take a break from the boat the next few days and pull the mag off the Mark 58 for a cleaning and point setting and see if it sparks and fires. If that works it can be hung on the transom for temp measurements to set up the business end of the steering.

I posted this on another thread but these are pictures of the windshield bottom seal that I am looking for. Before it was all cracked up it looks like just a round rubber with the thingy to slip into the groove on the frame.

Spent the past few days off and on, mostly off, working of fitting the aluminum transom cap, pulling wires through the pvc conduit and generally doing odd and end cleanup. Today went shopping for solid core ignition wire for the Mark 58. After numerous stops in desperation I went to a Merc dealer, who woulda thunk they had the stuff??? Got 7 feet @ 1.49 per.
Now to the honey do list of Christmas decorations inside and outside. The Herters is taking a back seat for awhile.

Finally did SOMETHING last evening. Finished cutting the groove for the lock on the glovebox so now that is finished. Set the windshield, measured and re-measured and took the plunge, drilled the holes for the swivel anchor bolts, just need the rubber for under it now. Set up the Morse single lever shifter from my donor boat for the Mark 58, was set up for a Evinrude Starflyte. Cut the hole in the side of the interior for the shifter and crawled under the bow area again, ARUUGGG, to set it in. Sure glad you guys talked me out of painting the topside finish coat last fall. Would have been a disaster trying not to scratch and gouge.

Set the windshield...

Adjusted and set up the Morse control...

Installed, another step forward...

Lookin' good Cal, nice progress!

I posted this on the Merc threads but I'll repeat it here to cover all you wonderful helpers.
I'm going to put a different key switch on the dash. There are six wires in the harness going to the shifter/ignition. I traced them with an ohm meter and here's what I came up with.
Blue-choke (thank you madprops)
Green-hot from battery
Red-to solenoid
White and yellow both ground to the motor and the Mag.
Black- I cannot find anywhere it terminates and get no reading on the meter.

My key switch is labeled B-G-M-S-Blank

B would be Green wire?
S would be red wire?
M would be either white or yellow? (shut down)
G would be either white or yellow?
Blank could be the Acc lead?

Here is where the ignition and choke are going since I now have a single lever shifter.

These are the wires I'm working with from the Merc Mark 58 key switch and choke button.

Here's the back of the key switch. I epoxy the back of the switches I do because over the years too many of the little tabs have broken off. When the connectors on I coat them with liquid tape.

Pretty sure the black wire is a ground Cal, but I don't have a Merc manual anymore to verify that. I couldn't get the Merc manual to open in the FG library, but Andgott has them posted on his site as well;
www.agott.com/glassboat/manuals.html
There's also a wiring diagram for Merc's there;
www.agott.com/glassboat/Manuals/Merc5m.pdf
Gotta get ready for work, I know you'll figure this out!

Mark, thanks for the links, I can make those usefull. Don't work too hard.
Had to make a round trip to Rockford ILL today, a nine hour drive so I'm kinda beat tonight. Went right past the guys house who used to own the Herters, should have stopped in to say hello but I was on a mission. He still has the old white Merc for sale, think I'll write him a snail and see how much he wants for it. He's not a computer guy.

Did some more little stuff Saturday. Had to make the area larger on the transom under the fin area so the new lights would fit. The back rubber gromets needed room. Not easy cutting through 2" of heavy resin soaked plywood. Dogone hole saw kept jumping all over the place. Picked up all the color coded primary wire I need to rewire the Mark 58 ignition to the harness. Still need to replace the battery cables which are completely corroded. I can buy welding cable at Fleet Boutique by the foot. Ordered a new water impeller yesterday so that should be installed by next week. The Mark 58 is confusing me on color, the top is a dull black, original which has all the worn decals, the lower unit is/was white, and the bullet portion is black. I'm thinking of going either solid white or black. Which was appropriate for that '58/59 Mark 58AE??

The holes for the new fin lights.

These bitter end wires are for the lighting only, anchor and tail lights plus two 10 gauge red and black to run up to the dash from the battery for future additions. The colored primary ignition Merc wires are still in packaging.

Not much time on the boat, been putting some short hours in on the Mark 58. Still waiting for the water pump impeller which is on backorder. Finished up the ignition switch wires and installed a rectifier.

Cool, any work is better than no work right?

Bob

I'll start snappin some more pictures soon. Holidays slowed down the boat progress. Been doin' some work on the motor, got the new water pump impeller installed and the lower unit back on. In the process of setting up the shifting and steering. Drilled holes in the motorwell sides for the cables. That hurt after all the work I put in filling holes
Strange setup for the single lever shift and speed cables at the motor end. The shifter and cables were donors from an Evinrude so I'm doing some field engineering. Preliminary setup seems to work and are easily adjustable.

The steering cable setup ready for mounting hole drilling.

Mockup of shift/throttle cable mounts. Cast aluminum to be smoothed and polished.
This setup makes sure the shifting is positive engaged both forward and reverse and the throttle functions full open and closed.

Drilled the mounting holes for the steering cable and then put the setup on the shelf with the rest of the parts. Started stripping the paint from the Mark 58AE. Started asking myself what did I get in to?? When do all the pieces of this puzzle start coming together.


Stripping the paint.

Sabre, got to agree with MarkS. What a thread and some amazing work you are doing on the Herters. She's going to look really nice.

What did you use to strip the paint off the motor? That cleaned up nicely.

You bet I'll be following the progress. Thanks.

Eduardo

Cal,
Great progress so far, hang in there. My 800FGS is going to have to look like that at some point, when I get back to it.

Bob

Eduardo, I'm switching between the motor and the boat to keep what little sanity I have left. Right now the motor looks like I dredged it up from Davy Jones locker but it runs really great just needs lots of cosmetic work. I'm using Klean Strip strip X. Pretty harsh chemical stripper but the Merc paint is some tough stuff and it's laid on really thick. I get as much cleaned up as possible with the stripper and brass brush and then use a scotch pad, the kind that goes on the electric drill to finish up the details. It's a messy job with goggles and dust masks. Will still need to do the picky corners and crevices by hand with Q tips or swabs. Still don't know what I'm going to do with the engine itself, hate the idea of tearing it apart for a cleaning and paint.
Did a video on the start up of the Mark 58 last week.


It was a gamble doing the video, as you can see I had to squirt ether in the cylinders, hook everything up and pretty much start from scratch. That thing was not run for many many years. The smoke is because I used fuel from my chain saw which is a heavy mix.

Great Work! I am redoing my 35a and ended up totaly taking the outboard apart, not the engine though, I figure that will get paint if it ends up needing a rebuild. Runs nice so far though. Look forward to seeing your progress! What paint wil you be using on the 58?

I'm open for suggestions on the motor paint. The lower will be white, the top looks like it was a charcoal gray or fuzzy black, don't know which. I would like to stick with that color if someone can point me in the right direction. Otherwise the whole motor will be gloss black since I have 3/4 gallon of two parter that's sitting on the shelf.

You might find this link helpful Cal, I believe the "old mercs.com" site is right more often than not...........
store.oldmercs.com/category_s/97.htm
then if you check their photo gallery for the Marks. there's one with the top hat close to the color you described;
store.oldmercs.com/category_s/3410.htm
Personally, I'm in the "whatever floats your boat" camp.........