TOPIC: Monkey Ward Sea King Project and Questions

Hey, folks! First post on the forums. We have a (year unknown) Montgomery Ward Sea King boat sitting in the back of one of our properties. I'm strongly considering restoring it - more out of sentiment and a love of vintage things than anything else. I found this forum while researching different topics so I thought I'd post and collect some thoughts from anyone willing to share.

I think the pictures tell most of the story so I'll keep the text brief. By way of background on me, I have nearly 30 years of experience rebuilding and restoring cars and motorcycles. I grew up on the water in both Florida and New Hampshire so boats in general are not new to me but some of the specifics of hull design and construction ARE new to me.

This boat has been sitting in this spot for about ten years. The hull appears to be solid except for one possible soft spot on the port side near the bow where the keel line sits on the rubber riders on the trailer (visible in the pictures). Outboard is junk without many hours and many $$$ of work so I'm not interested in doing anything with it right now. Maybe a project for a later time, we'll see....

The trailer is the original Sea King-branded trailer. A faded Sea King name plate can be seen on the left fender. I work far better with metal than I do with wood/fiberglass so I'm actually looking forward to restoring the trailer.

My biggest question at the moment is: Any guesses on the year? Can't find a build plate and, of all the boats I've looked at online, I have yet to find one with this identical flat deck AND specific hull form. I've seen several with the flat forward deck but their hulls are either lapstrake-style or have a chine that prominently curves and terminates about a foot back from the stem. This boat's single chine runs right TO the stem as you can see in the pics.

Thank you in advance for any opinions, insights, or other thoughts!

Jeremy

Cool should be a fun project. Can't hepl on the hull though, sorry. I'm sure it will need a new floor and probably stringers as well.

Bob

No worries - thanks for chiming in!

Still doing a ton of research and, although I have yet to find a Sea King in this hull design, I AM finding tons of pics of Arkansas Travelers that have nearly this exact hull design. Coming from the automotive world where everything is documented to a "t" for the past 100 years, I'm surprised to find such a lack of information on the web on older boats.

Here is what's in the library. Big store brands bought boats from all different manufacturers and branded them as Sea King. You can check the suppliers for Montgomery Ward description listed in the library
www.fiberglassics.com/library/index.php?title=Sea_King
Good hunting on your search ! And welcome to Fiberglassics !

Thanks, Chuck!

So, we were able to find the titles for both the boat and outboard yesterday thanks to some family file digging. Turns out, they're both model-year 1972 - MUCH newer than I'd originally anticipated based on the design features. We were able to confirm this after we located the capacity plate in the cockpit which shows the model number as "2724x" and the serial number as "28254". The "x" in the model number is because it looks to me very much like a 6 but the model ranges that I've found for that year only include a 0 or 9 at the end.

Anyways, this gives me a place to start....

Looks like an early "spirit" by Suzuki on the transom

Hi, Pappy. It's actually the original Sea King 35hp. Model# VWB27235. Just got the manual for it yesterday and brought it into the workshop today for disassembly and restoration.

We also spent the morning cleaning out the cockpit and inspecting the structure. Unfortunately, there's a large crack in the floor just forward of the sump so that'll need repairing. But everything else is still in good enough shape to work with. And so it begins!

Thought I'd give a little update on this project. Four weekends ago, the boat looked as it is in the pics in my first post, above. Pics attached here show where we're at so far....

She's cleaned, stripped, patched where needed, and has three coats on the topside. I will be busy with work all week so next weekend will be the final wet sanding of the color and then I'll shoot the clear. After that, she'll be flipped to start hull repairs and painting. The stem has bump damage from, presumably, a former owner hitting the forward rollers on the trailer too hard.

Meanwhile, the engine is in my basement being prepped for rebuild - IF I can find any parts, that is. And, right now, that's a pretty big "IF". I'm just not having any luck sourcing what I need and I may be forced to repower the boat which would be a shame.

Happy Labor Day, all!

Well, with a grand total of only 9 days of actual work being done on the boat, we're at the reassembly stage. Could not be more excited! In the attached pictures, all of the new brightwork has been affixed to the topside and a windshield is staged (but this particular screen has since been rejected in favor of a brand new one). The line cleats are secured via through-bolts that are mounted through steel plates to spread out the surface area for strength. At some point, I'll polish the clearcoat but I'm letting it cure a little longer first due to the cooler temps.

We're still in need of engine parts for the '72 Sea King (Chrysler) 35HP but I've come to accept that I'll probably have to junk the motor in favor of a complete unit, sadly.

It doesn't look like I'm going to make it to hull testing in the lake before winter this year so she'll go in the garage for the next six months. During that time, she'll receive new carpet, a pair of red/white back-to-back seats, new wood/aluminum steering wheel, and all the other trim that she needs. Updates to come as we get to them.

As an aside, the original speedometer was not salvageable so I sourced a complete unit from eBay. The replacement unit was very badly corroded and pitted so my intention was to swap bezels with the original unit. On a whim, though, I decided to break out the rubbing compound and buffing wheel on my bench grinder last night. What a difference! The replacement unit shined up beautifully and is now installed on the boat. A coat of wax to protect the finish and it should look great for years to come. (See pics.)

Excellent, she's coming right along! Did you go to marineengine.com for the engine parts. That's where I get all my evinrude parts. They carry a lot of parts for vintage engines including Chrysler.

Bob

Good morning, Bob! I did get a full, itemized quote workup from them, yes. Unfortunately, they were unable to source several of the key items that I can't rebuild without and that I just can't find anywhere else, either. Not their fault at all on that one - it's just a lesser engine that nobody seems to have really catered to over the past 49 years. I'm just going to keep hitting eBay and Marketplace and talking to the old-timers at the marinas around New England to see if I can find what I need. In the meantime, I'll pick up a complete unit if I find one that I think matches the look and style of the vessel.

Keep your eye out for a Johnson or Evinrude, they run great last forever ans should be easy to find.

Bob

This is kind of turning into a build thread which I know there's a section for but it just makes sense to keep this thread going, I guess....

I have been wanting to keep at least some of this boat original whenever possible. To that end, as you see in my previous post, I put a lot of effort into cleaning up the badly corroded speedo. This weekend, I did the same to the bimini sliding rails that mount to the gunwhales and the chrome end caps that finish them. I also polished the original base and mast for the stern light but I did go ahead and put a new LED pod on it. We then installed the new ignition along with the original light switch. See pics attached.

No pics yet but we also disassembled, cleaned, and repainted the original MORSE throttle controls. I'll get a pic up when that is reinstalled. Red and white to match the boat.

On the engine front, I have learned a lot over the past week about just how much cross-pollination there was with engine components back in the day. Using that knowledge and digging into the various catalogs for part numbers, I'm ecstatic to say that I now have ALL of the missing parts that I needed to rebuild the original 35HP Sea King that came with the boat. For now, I'm going to rebuild the original magneto ignition using all the NOS parts I was able to find but, if I do find major reliability issues, I will convert it to an aftermarket ignition setup.

Finally, I have been on the hunt for new nameplates for the side but I'm not having any luck. Guy on eBay made some but the font is wrong and they're only ~7" compared to the original 12" size (likely due to only having a small 3D printer). So, as a nice little project, I recreated the original logos in Photoshop using the closest font I could find and then compressing, squeezing, and tweaking until it looked as close to the original typeface as I could get it. I then output it to a .STL file which my son used to create a 3D model from which we will be 3D printing the nameplate. See pics attached of original nameplate and modeled plate ready for printing. Original was black and white but we're going to switch it up and use red and white to match the boat's paint scheme. We can also do the black, though, if we change our minds.

Having fun!

Nice work. Seeing that tag reminds me of being a kid walking into the side door of the Wards store so we could see the boats and motors first as we passed through the store. Can I ask where to buy that LED lamp? I guess I never looked into replacing the old lamps with LED. Keep up the good work. Nice seeing a boat saved from the weeds.

I ran across this and figured I would include this link in case it might help you. greenbay.craigslist.org/bpo/d/abrams-outboard-motor-manuals/7389186397.html

Dr.Go! wrote: Can I ask where to buy that LED lamp? I guess I never looked into replacing the old lamps with LED. Keep up the good work. Nice seeing a boat saved from the weeds.

This one is from Amazon. Link below. Just pulled the lamp off the mast that it came with and swapped it over to the original mast. Original mast is 24" long, by the way, which is another reason I wanted to keep it. Perfect for being able to retract it when covering the boat.

Probably the biggest reason I'm doing this is because I really do just hate seeing good things go to waste rotting in backyards. We're such a throw-away society so I like the idea of bringing things back to life.

LED Stern Light

Thanks for the led tip. I am the same… either try to salvage and save something from going to the dump or just caring for something old I own and pass it down to the next caretaker. My 1956 fishing boat is going on 5 generations. Good luck on saving the motor!

603photog wrote:
No pics yet but we also disassembled, cleaned, and repainted the original MORSE throttle controls. I'll get a pic up when that is reinstalled. Red and white to match the boat.

On the engine front, I have learned a lot over the past week about just how much cross-pollination there was with engine components back in the day. Using that knowledge and digging into the various catalogs for part numbers, I'm ecstatic to say that I now have ALL of the missing parts that I needed to rebuild the original 35HP Sea King that came with the boat. For now, I'm going to rebuild the original magneto ignition using all the NOS parts I was able to find but, if I do find major reliability issues, I will convert it to an aftermarket ignition setup.

Here's the pics of the Morse single lever throttle and shifter control as promised (see attached). I also did a complete teardown and rebuild tutorial video which I've now posted to YouTube: How To Rebuild Morse MV Single Lever Throttle and Shifter Boat Control

Same for the magneto ignition and starter (see attached). Next step is to rebuild the lower unit on the outboard while the wife installs the cockpit trim. Onward and upward!

Great job on your boat, and loved the tutorial video. Thank You for posting that ! I would have greased the crap out of everything. Thanks for the pointer. Was that White lithium grease in that tube ?

Chuck in Cincinnati wrote: Great job on your boat, and loved the tutorial video. Thank You for posting that ! I would have greased the crap out of everything. Thanks for the pointer. Was that White lithium grease in that tube ?

Hi, Chuck. Yes, white lithium. Great all-around, water-resistant lubricant which is why I like using it for these applications.

seeing the picture with plants growing out of the boat, I would find it hard to believe you don't have issues under the floor.

fatlenny wrote: seeing the picture with plants growing out of the boat, I would find it hard to believe you don't have issues under the floor.

Floor's solid. I had to cut away and fiberglass a small section aft but the rest of the floor is very solid. If there are any issues that arise at a later date, it'll get addressed but I'm not going to carve away the floor just for a "what if" exercise.

Haven't updated in a while but, for the sake of keeping this thread going....

The bitter cold of January in New Hampshire has pretty much stopped most major work on the hull and trailer so we're focusing on the detail stuff. Our workshop is unheated except when we feel like firing up the LP jet blaster heater. My wife is in the midst of the carpet install (as well as re-upholstering all the cabin cushions for our bigger boat!). We got the new steering wheel installed using a combination of the original (re-finished) mount and a new billet aluminum adapter from Forever Sharp in California. I'm VERY happy with how it looks although the picture colors don't do justice to the richness of the wood.

I've decided I'm not going to bother trying to de-haze either of the two windshields that I have. Just going to buy a new one before Spring. The rest of the boat is turning out so nice that I really don't want to put a less-than-perfect windshield on top of it.

And, finally, the original '72 Sea King (Chrysler) 35HP is officially ALIVE! Anyways...that's where we're at for now!

Having just returned from a three-week business trip to Latin America, I haven't had a lot of time to work on the old girl in February. BUT...I was very excited to score this vintage six-gallon fuel tank on eBay last week! I think it's gonna' look great tucked under the splashwell when the boat's in the water. I don't know enough to know just how rare these are in this condition but I'm thrilled to have it. I know it's not exactly the same vintage as the boat based on the logo but it's still pretty neat. I always felt that little things like this are what make a restoration/restomod so great....



On another note, here's the install video for the steering wheel shown in my previous post. Might help someone else looking to do their own install.

Looking forward to getting out of winter and into the warmer weather soon!

If you need parts for that Morse single lever I have one hanging on my shop wall.....for about 9 years now

Looks great! I did notice at the end that it looked like your steering cable may be a little stiff. Is that normal to have that much resistance when turning your wheel?

Fatlenny wrote: Looks great! I did notice at the end that it looked like your steering cable may be a little stiff. Is that normal to have that much resistance when turning your wheel?

I didn't really notice much stiffness, to be honest. Not sure which part of the video you're referring to but it might have just been how I was turning it? Although, I will say, the steering gear itself (pivot shaft coming through the splashwell to the motor) is the original unit and I do plan to replace it at some point. That might have been what you were noticing, now that I think about it. Those things are expensive, though! Sheesh. Finding prices around $160 - 180 for the shaft and mount assembly online.

So until this past weekend, the only electrical items on this runabout were the lights and outboard. We're adding several accessories that it wasn't originally equipped with AND re-wiring the lights fore and aft so I spent the day yesterday installing components and getting the preliminary wiring done.



New horn mounted to the port side deck:


Junction block with the first few connections made:


Wiring the horn button and light switch:


The cover for the junction block that will keep it looking tidy when it's all done:


New horn button installed (it has a blue LED backlight that will come on with the lights) :

Very nice. Did you find that horn button and terminal block with fusing at your local marine store or somewhere on-line? I need to buy a few items like that. I also need to find a good place to buy the crimp type wire connectors with shrink wrap sleeves with ring ends for a couple of projects… I already have the marine wire.

Dr.Go! wrote: Very nice. Did you find that horn button and terminal block with fusing at your local marine store or somewhere on-line? I need to buy a few items like that. I also need to find a good place to buy the crimp type wire connectors with shrink wrap sleeves with ring ends for a couple of projects… I already have the marine wire.

I believe everything shown in the video actually came from Amazon. One-stop shopping! If you click on the YouTube logo in the embedded video in my last post, it will take you directly to the same video but on YouTube's platform so that you can see the full video description. In that description, I have links to everything you're asking about. Hope that helps!

Thanks! I will give it a look and take some notes. Appreciate the help!

Here's a totally random find: scored this original Sea King compass on eBay last week. I realized as soon as I opened the box that it is entirely too much compass for our little runabout so I'm undecided at the moment what I'll ultimately do with it. BUT...I'm going to be doing a full restoration on it this weekend so...video to come!

Well, I haven't gotten around to the compass restoration like I'd planned...hopefully this weekend but we'll see.

Way back in my very first post on this boat, I suggested that I wouldn't be bothering with the motor due to the age and condition (see pics below of the as-found condition). But, alas!, the bug bit me hard and I decided I just had to keep the original motor with the boat. So, fast forward to today. The motor is finally about 98% back together and ready to be test-run on the stand. As you can see, I've ignored the cosmetics for the time being because I really just wanted to spend my time on the mechanical rebuild before I worry about the pretty stuff.

All the previous work on the powerhead is covered in the posts above. Last weekend, I flushed out the lower end, checked the condition of the gears, installed a new water pump, impeller, and back plate, installed new exhaust gasket and reinstalled original exhaust housing, and finally reinstalled (for the first time in nearly 12 years that I know of) the lower unit to the motor leg. Also put a new prop pin and cone nut on the gear shaft. Tomorrow, I'll be re-greasing the gear housing, installing new fuel line, replacing the butterfly valve on the carb, and turning the key. Fingers crossed!

Outboard As-Found:




Outboard Today:






Video:

On another note, we got all the carpet cut and prepped for install, as well. We just have to wait for this cool Spring weather to get consistently warmer so we can apply the adhesive. Still getting pretty cold up here in NH at night so I don't want to lay adhesive until it warms up a bit (hence why the two pieces are bunched up at the seam in the pic).

We're not really fishing enthusiasts and we don't have small kids anymore so this runabout is going to be a lake cruiser for us and will be kept pretty clean during and after each use which is why we wanted to go with the full cockpit carpet. The color we chose doesn't show up great here but it's a nice marine bluish-gray.

Nice progress and looking good. I did notice one thing I am curious about. The pin with ring you are using on the prop makes me wonder if rushing water past the hub might give enough pressure to flip that ring over and the centrifugal rotation force could throw they key out… you wouldn’t notice it under way at speed, but quick deceleration may back drag that prop right off and sink to the bottom of the lake… just curious your thoughts or others thoughts? Would an old fashioned bent over cotter key work better? Just don’t want to see you possibly lose a prop or get stranded. We had a boat dealer in the 70s put the drain plug in from the outside but it had the flip tab instead of tee handle… with them removing the tilt pin because of the new power trim, it allowed the motor to press close enough to rotate the plug and the water pressure popped it out. Wasn’t noticed until I looked into the beaches boat and found water to mid ship. After pulling the e boat out, the fiberglass had a radius scar scratch from where the motor pinched and rotated it. Keep the progress coming… I like the pictures.

You're correct, Dr! That's not how the prop is supposed to be secured. Where the cotter pin was installed, there must instead be a "shear pin" that handles the thrust of the engine, but if the prop should hit a submerged object, the pin will shear to protect the lower unit gears and the crankshaft splines from being shocked and potentially damaged.

So, you install that shear pin first, then you screw the nose cone down until it's snug, but you need to align the small holes in the nosecone with the holes at the end of the propshaft, then you insert the cotter pin into the nosecone and bend the ends over, one to one side and the other to the other side.

The shear pin should be identical to that of a 55hp Chrysler Twin. Marineengine.com doesn't have a lookup for older Chryslers, but a '74 55hp takes a "FK247" shear pin kit which consists of 6 shear pins, and a cotter pin. The shear pin P/N by itself is 17‑819834 and I didn't find any of those on eBay. Maybe available elsewhere. Lots of the FK247 kits on there, though, as cheap as $11.95 shipped.

BTW if you run the outboard and it won't pump water, you'll probably need to pull the lower unit down and seal all of the water pump surfaces with either Permatex Aviation-Type #3 gasket sealer, or an anaerobic-type sealer such as Permatex 518.

Even though Chrysler may not say anything about this, OMC does recommend that any water pumps not using gaskets, be sealed. So I think they do know something about that! That's the way I've been doing it for over 40 years and it's yet to fail me.

That's not to say that it definitely won't pump, just depends on how flat the raw metal surfaces are. Most outboards you'll find nowadays either use gaskets or O-rings to seal the pump assy.

Making a lot of progress, though!

Noted on the water pump install. We'll find out tomorrow but I've seen the debates over the years as mentioned in the video so I opted to go with what the manual said to do.

The shear pin issue was a cluster-you-know-what for a variety of reasons. I started with the cotter pin on the gear shaft in the wrong hole and realized it almost immediately but had already put up my filming gear for the night which is why the pic above is different than the video. I'll probably pull that video down and replace it with a new version later today.

On the shear pin, it's not physically possible for the retaining ring to pop over and allow the pin to pull out. For one, linch pin style rings are sprung so that there's a lot of tension holding the ring "closed" and, two, the prop nut doesn't allow the clearance for it to work it's way open.

I'll update tomorrow once it's running.

*cue Dr. Frankenstein voice...."It's ALIVE!!!"

Blew out the old - and original - flywheel/ignition cam key on the first try at starting the old girl. Had to wait a couple days for replacement key and cam to come in from eBay purchases. BUT...once installed, I got her hooked up to the gas can, battery, and ignition, and fired her up. Results in the video, below.

One thing I discovered pretty quickly is that I'm definitely going to need to rebuild the fuel pump. I had already rebuilt the carburetor but did not do the pump. While running, I had to continually squeeze the primer bulb on the fuel line to keep the carb fed so, yeah, fuel pump. Diaphragm and gasket set is on order as we speak. While running, I was getting really good water flow through the coolant line on the powerhead so it looks like that's all good for now. I checked the fresh oil in the lower unit and it did not show evidence of water contamination so, again, looks great so far. Also, yes, the motor is backwards on the stand. Didn't have enough room to squeeze the bucket in between the support rails on the other side so had to make do. Still super sturdy on the stand so not too worried.

Anyways, this one victory above all else gave me assurance that I am on the right path with restoring this ol' girl....

There are benchmark moments in any vehicle restoration that, when you finally hit them, make you realize, "Wow...this is actually happening!" One of those moments has come to pass in our little journey to restore this '72 Sea King....

First, there was this monstrosity:







And then...there was this!























Still need to install the new bunks and I somehow missed ordering one new keel roller so that'll be here tomorrow. Axles are freshly packed, lights are wired up, and all that'll be left after the bunks and rollers is to set all the heights to the boat. What an amazingly long way from the condition that we started with last August!

Looks fantastic!!

Paint or powder coat?

What did you do to prep it for finish?