TOPIC: BIG update posting with a lot of questions

Forgive me Fiberglassics for I have not posted,

Its been a couple months since my last visit. I'll do my penance with some hail Mercurys and stations of the lake later...

Quick updates and a massive list of questions and to-do's
(advice welcome!):

- Wife's blown knee is healing up so well, she will not need knee surgery, despite torn ACL, MCL, SOL, etc.. No water skiing but she is having fun driving the boat, dragging me around on the tube and cracking the whip, sending me airborne.

- The wood in my boat's seats are all shedding chips like... hmm. Can't think of a good analogy. Suffice to say, they will need replacing. Some minor cracks are appearing on the tops of the bench seats, but the bottoms will be good at least another season, especially if I replace the wood they are mounted to.

- Hydralic trim failed. Its getting repaired.

- Fuel pump diaphram was replaced, but some additional fuel lines had to be replaced.

- Need to find a new Mercury mechanic. Apparently you have to tell someone

- Need to weld a winch on the trailer

- plan to replace and completely rewire trailer with LED lights.

- Trailer needs sandblasting/repainting.

- Probably need to replace the wood pads on trailer with new carpeting. Not worn through but not as nice as it should be.

- Need to mount spare tire on trailer. (boat sits too low, I think, to put it on the tongue, but maybe...)

- Steering wheel feels loose. Need to climb in and under and figure out why.

- Pulling out the non-working electric trim gauge, replaceing with a water pressure guage in that same size hole. Bought the gauge, trying to decide if I can handle the task of installing it myself.

- Need to get a grease gun and pull/repack the wheel bearings. (I think I can do this myself... messy but not a technically hard one).

- Just saw a posting for an identical motor for sale in Indianna. I wonder how expensive it is to freight ship a boat motor. At $850, it would be worth it for a spare, and if I am already going to pay someone to do a full overhaul on one motor, maybe I could get a discount for 2 identical ones.

- Still want to install lights. We have stayed with the nearest reservoir which is only a few miles from our house, but at some point it would be good to have. Probably will be on the winter to-do list.

- Tachometer still does not work. Going to get Valentines to fix it while they have the boat. Otherwise I'm pulling it and sticking in a new one that matches the water pressure gauge.

- on the subject of winter projects, the boat has dual 15 gallon rectangular tanks with some sort of float gauge in the tanks. One works, sorta, and the other one is dead. have not started working on this, but I wondered if someone has had to replace aftermarket fuel level sensors before. There is a 3 position toggle that was mounted in the dash. Center is off, L/R are for the tanks.

- So far I have been running it great with Premium Gas, and name-brand 2 stroke oil at a smidge richer than 50:1 ratio and its done well. At some point I am thinking about installing a gas-water separator, but if I hand-fill the tanks myself with premix, and keep the fuel filter clean and swapped, is the water separator a "gotta-have" or a "nice-to-have"

Looking for local recommendations for upholsterer along with a engine guy. And I remember someone somewhere writing about a plastic board with properties that made it a good replacement for marine plywood. If I pull out the seats to reupholster them I need to pull the plywood frames out that they sit on. Maybe next year I'll go back in and replace the interior carpet. It will do fine after a good deep cleaning.

If I can keep it out of the shop long enough to afford to (and have time to) work on some of these projects... I'm a computer geek and an electrician, not a engine mechanic.

The boat has been the focal point of half a dozen beach parties, despite all the problems I have been able to surgically finesse the throttle to speed so that the kids have fun with their friends getting towed on the tube. Its been a lot of hard work keeping it running but my wife loves the boat and my sons love having an excuse to hang out with girls in bikinis.

Wow. My eyeballs are burning!!! Post more often, PLEASE!!!!

Partial responses while I heal. Water separator is very nice to have, fuel system insurance is always good. Tank sending units can be found with adjustable floats to fit tank shapes. Just gotta find one with the proper flange. Looks like quite a list you've got. Keep us updated.

I had my boat sink at lake Powell several years ago and the fuel tank ended up with water in it. I then installed a water separator. So not needed but really easy to install and useful when the unexpected happens.

i forgot to tighten the air vent in my gas cap,and found out in the middle of the lake that rain water had gotten in,and the tank was under the splashwell.thank goodness i had a trolling motor i always take along ,just in case.