TOPIC: Two New White Mercs This Week

Yea I love the white Mercs(and the various other color versions pre all boring black.

Managed to find two lost white's this week.

First an early Merc 300 shorty sitting in a hay barn covered in swallow crap ...but all there...decent looking inside as far as rust/bad wiring etc., and a big two blade brass prop. Unfortunately no controls/harness etc. but I found an original tear drop set the same day on E-bay for $60 so now I have $260 into it.

Then two days later I found a little newer Merc 400 complete that ran last year and included controls and a tank for $300. Looks really good inside and out (but for someone painted the leg and foot with some serious black paint and the K emblem on the front cover is rough(moisture inside it). Has a really neat engineering feat on it though where a machinist configured a bigger tilt tube to accomodate newer teleflex steering connection.(check it out in the first picture)

In any case....double the fun with two new restores and I am looking forward to getting into them. Wish I had the 500 I resurrected and sold last fall. Be nice to see all three lined up. ****

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Nice set Tim. I do like the white faceplate. I had found a 300 last year and now it is on a co-workers Crestliner. He loves it.

Thanks Neil...I knew you would appreciate them. I'll keep ya'all posted on restore when I dive into them. I like the older white faceplate too. I foolishly gave one away with a wooden boat I sold cause the guy told me he had a Merc 300 he was gonna restore and pair with it but the emblem was busted....bad gift. I'd like to find a decent emblem for the 400 but am not gonna pay the $75 for repro's I found a guy selling online.

I'm pretty psyched. I was told that the 400 was well maintained and used up until a couple of years ago so I decided to play with it a bit today after work. Pulled the lower and was happy with the condition of the interior(drive shaft, water pump housing etc nice and clean. Impeller was intact etc and as the merc dealer was closed and have no patience when it comes to firing up a new find, decided to throw it back together and see if she'd run.

Hooked it up to fuel tank and battery and using an old harness and key I made up years ago to work on these old mercs, crossed my fingers and give it a couple cranks. Didn;t immediately fire so removed two plugs and sprayed pre-mix into them and she roared to life. Unfortunately it had slipped into fwd gear and immediately removed half the water from the bucket I had in it

Filled it back up and put it in neutral and she started right up and was idling nice. Previous owner's dad was a handy guy and had installed a tell-tale on it. It wasn't peeing right away so i killed it and cleaned out the mud dauber crap in the tiny tell tale line. Started her back up and it was peeing and cooling nicely.

Gonna get a new impeller and then spruce her up with some new makeup( wimbledon white duplicolor ) and she'll look as good as she is running.

Plan to put it on a little 1961 15' Lonestar Capri I picked up a while back and give it to my son to play and fish with this summer. That 45 should skoot that little boat right along.

Wish they were all this easy.... I'm betting the 300 won't be so.

Have a nice weekend all.

Tim

Sounds like a winner Tim. I looked at both of my 400 faceplates to see if I could help you out and they are both a little rougher than what you have. Bummer.
Neil

Thanks for the thought Neil.

Have a great weekend.

Hey Tim, I thaught I had a faceplate emblem that would work for you on my ( Practice ) Face plate. I used it to practice painting before I did my 35A.. It came out better.. But the emblem has a chunk out of it.. and I think is the wrong color for a 400?

Hey that looks like a darn fine paint job to me. What's the trick to black in all the grooves? Paint it all black and then roll the flat raised face with white?

I think that they are all the same decal. Mine let go at the top and actually has some water caught it in now.

Let me get a pic of the 400 and get back to you. I don't mind the chip.

Thanks,
Tim

Time, I painted it totaly white first, then masked off .. took forever! Madprops sugested a brush on liquid masking that I have yet to try but would be easier.

Update... I had a couple hours free on Sunday and it wasn't raining so I decided to see what I had with the older Merc 300.

Pulled the cowl and dug out the mouse nest under the #4 plug etc. Noticed right off that the starter solenoid was just dangling but all connected. Found a couple of screws that fit and re-attached. Checked everything else out and decided to hook up the harness, fill the barrel, connect the battery and give it a quick turn.
First pulled the plugs out and squirted a mix of pre-mix with Marv's Mystery oil to lube up the cyls. Also while cranking checked compression on the top 3 cyls( left that PIA bottom 4th for now) and got 120 on all 3). Good initial sign.

Also connected a spark tester while cranking and found no spark...not that surprised.

So .... pulled the Mag. Looked good and clean. Filed and set teh points to .09 and put it back together. Replaced the #4 plug wire that the mice had been nibling on too much.

Hooked up the fuel tank and pumped. Fuel running out of the top carb. (float full or seat not seating). No worries...gonna pull and R&R anyways.

Hooked up battery and crossed fingers and turned the key. She started turning and awoke after a long sleep. Idling surprisingly nice while pouring fuel out that carb.

First check...no tell tale yet but water jacket and head was staying pretty cool so we got mud crap in the pee hole I suspect.

Shut her down after about 2 mins and very happy so far. I think I got a runner.

Now we tear down and get going on the restore.

This shorty is gonna go nicely with the little 1961 Lonestar Capri and will make a nice little boat for my 19 yr old son to use for fishing etc. ...can't wait to spend some quality time with him putting it all together and restoring the boat.

g'night.

Tim

Good to hear Tim! I ran my 35A over the weekend with the top carb doing the same after a carb rebuild... grr.