TOPIC: 1972 17' Bellboy Runabout i/o

Just picked this up last Tuesday. I really don't know much about it, except what I found on here. I couldn't even find a similar boat on google. The archive unfortunately does not cover my year.I am the Second owner, the boat was kept up fairly well. Just has a bad scrape on the stern, and the trailer is a rusty mess, but all in all. No rot, and the engine runs like a Top.I am very excited about the boat, and can not wait until summer to starting wrenching away at her. I will post more pics soon. Thanks - Scott

Welcome aboard Scott, looks like you found a nice one. I've got a couple trailers to de-rust and paint too, just been putting it off. (Thinking about renting a sand-blasting setup and doing them both at once.) Looking forward to seeing some more pics of your Bellboy.

Thank you, Mark. I Just finished looking at your Tri-hull, looks great! I too need to rent myself a sand blaster too. I could use my carport with sides as a "ghetto booth" My wife would kill me if I used the garage. I skipped right over the painting as well, straight to new lights, safety chains, and tongue jack. I need to buy a new axle the existing one is cracked straight down the middle, and one of the roller arms is paper thin from rust. Pictures coming soon!

How does your tacoma do pulling that boat?

Does real well. Pulls as hard as ever on hills, and gas mileage is still hanging around the 17-18mpg while towing. My taco gets good gas mileage even with the 3' lift and 33" tires. Once the Boat trailer has a new axle, tires, wheels, bearings. Should tow even better! I will update soon, when we get some sun. Right now its 30 outside and about to snow..

Well today was my day off and I decided to make my way down to the Carpet dealer, just up the street. He sold me some kind of anti-stain, mold resistant stuff. I also re-carpeted the fillet table, kick panel and both stern panels. Pictures soon!

Gonefishin, thanks for the response on how your truck tows. I have a boat that is of similar size and need to find a new tow vehicle. I was debating at looking at the double cab tacoma over a full size. Looking forward to updates on your boat to see what you do with it.

Here is an update of what I have done lately. It has been either very cold or very rainy the last few weeks. No work will get done to her in the mean time, or until we see some sunshine. In a month or so we should start seeing the sun again, but in Portland, Oregon rain is abundant. Hope you guys like it. Also I used the staple gun on the corners, so the carpet wouldn't slide.

i dig it!

Delete. Double post.

Hello again! Finally got a chance to ork on the boat this summer and take her out on the water, here are some random picture of the Newer Caulkins trailer, and a few of it on the water.

Any suggestions on I/O to Outboard conversion? A few friends of mine suggested a GIL Transom bracket and a 150hp Merc. What do you knowledgeable folks think of doing this to my boat?

I Also plan on patching a hole on the bottom hull, previous owner must had beached it a lot? How should I go about doing this with the web-core design, if water got into the Web-core, what should I do? My brochure says that the design does not use wood in the stringers. Information for these boats seems to be as difficult as getting access to Area 51...I know the boat is old, but the design has me stuck with it, and the classic look. I could easily buy a Aluminum boat, but this is me, what I like, and what I want to do. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thank you.

What came out of the Bow gas tank, the tank has an Fuel/water separator, what should I do about the gas in the tank now? some one said drain it through a screen dump it back in with octane booster and buy a new water/fuel separator. I plan on cleaning the tank before hand. anyone ever heard about using rocks to clean the rust out of the inside too? Or should I just take it all out right now and run a plastic tank up there for now? I'll post pictures of the carburetor soon for you guys as well. The carb is off and being freshly rebuilt, so I don't want to harm it with bad gas. Guess I have some work to do.

Bad gas


New Caulkins Trailer. just painted it with Rustoleum Satin black.




Float Test: Pass



Painted the brown, red.

A few more pictures.

Painted the glove box.


Polishing parts and painting.

Lookin' good GoneFishin, keep up the good work. I would NOT even consider using that old gas, it just isn't worth it IMHO! That "turpentine" will wreak havoc with your fuel system, no straining and boosting in this world will bring it back.

Thanks Mark! So where does one get rid of old fuel? I am pulling the old steel tank out, and going to run 2- 5 gals up front for the time being. I really need help or information on the "Webcor" hull design, I have a brochure, but it is vague. I found one on Iboats and it is very blurry. Any help or information would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Old fuel. Here is what I did.
Got a good 55 gallon steel drum. Waited for a rainy drizzly day.
Got a nice hot fire with oak going in it, then started tossing 16 oz plastic cups in. If I were to do it again, I WOULD NOT use plastic. It burns forever.
I had 20 plus gallons to get rid of and no one takes it. It took all day to burn it.
If you have household hazardous waste days that is the other best option.

By the way the boat looks great!

Give us some pics of the damaged area.
Do you have access to the inside where it is damaged?

Thank you Jim! Waste Management here in Portland, Oregon wants an arm&Leg to get rid of the Gas....ugh I'll figure something out. Picture's I will get this weekend of the damaged area. Jim, I am afraid I do not have access to the inside stern area. Damn, I should have posted picture before asking I understand it is hard to give advice when you can't see it. Do you have any information on the WebCor design?

I must say it is the first time I have heard the term WebCor.
Are you sure that wasn't a marketing term?

Not sure, but the "webcor design" is supposed to predate Whaler's and close to the same design from what I have heard from a few people. I have a brochure that tells all about the "Webcor" using a continuous piece of glass from bow to stern using no wood for stringers and no wood to rot. I'll dig up the ad and post a picture. here is one from I boats, but you cannot read the print. I wish I had a copy of this ad. My ad is not as detailed, damn though I wish it was readable.

OK so now post some pics of your damage.
If it doesn't go all the way through, which I doubt since you didn't say your boat sank, then it is just cosmetic I hope.

True, True sir. Yes, I will get those pictures asap. Starting driver training @ Fedex freight. The hours been brutal lately...thanks again Jim.

Finally got some time to wrench on her. Picked up from my brothers after 5 months of sitting under his lean two...got her home and immediately gave her a bath!


5 months of dust and grime....






Washed






The bad...

Stern, previous owner put some kind of weird sealant crap over it. Gonna scrape it off tomorrow and get a better picture.



Here is a gouge that had some weird red mildew on the fibers. After soap & water you could only see clean fiberglass fibers and whatever made its way through the gel coat. Tomorrow I will take better pictures of the "Damaged" areas. Cleaned up and that crap off the stern.

A few pictures from the double page ad that came with my boat. Page on is the 18ft. Bellboy with sliding Hardtop, Page 2 Tri-Sonic Boat and Hull design by Roy Rogers.

CLICK the pictures for full size photos.

Bellboy




Tri-Sonic

Better Pictures of the Damaged, area/s..........





Now for the ugly...Gonna buy a Fiberglass and gel coat kit come payday and Jump right into my first fiberglass repair. I am a little nervous, so any words of advice? I figure, heck it comes with instructions so, as long as I stick to the guide I should be okay.

Here it is all cleaned up.

picture 1



# 2

Hey everyone! It has been such a long time! I still have the boat. Unfortunately when the boat was taken out this season, I found water in the #2 cylinder... So now the 120hp Mercruiser is done for and I am done with it. With the time and money I sank into the white anchor the last 2 years, to say the least is gut wrenching. I also found a ton of rot in the transom

After some major research I have decided I am ditching the I/O set-up and converting to outboard. I recently acquired a 1975 Evinrude 85HP outboard, here goes nothing. I also will be starting another build thread on Iboats, as i will be needing as much feedback as I can get. Hopefully all nice helpful information and constructive criticism.

Here is my progress so far, all my supplies are being purchased from US composites. Besides my 1708 and 1704 which I will be purchasing locally.

Pictures on not working on my phone right now, because the picture size is too large. I'll be posting pics very soon, sorry guys.

The Dead OMC Mercruiser, nothing but great things to say about these motors, it was just her time to go. And the amount of time and money to rebuild is the cost of my new project. Also I will be saving tons of room and weight. I drive semi-truck for a living for Fedex Freight so this build may take a few months to complete.

Here she was before I started to violate her

The Dead OMC Mercruiser






Bye Bye white anchor! Although they are said to be bulletproof. I disagree, I replaced nearly every part on the upper and lower drive and something always went wrong with this thing. It did however, teach me a whole lot on how simple yet completely complex this drive is. I probably can take the upper unit apart blindfolded. LOL

So this weekend I will be pulling the motor and intermediate housing. By the way, if anyone is looking for parts from either the OMC stringer 400 or the 2.5 120hp Mercruiser let me know. The Mercruiser has brand new plug wires and coil if anyone is in need. Stringer has newer water pump and I also have a brand new waterpump kit as well as a whole gasket kit for the engine.

Here is what I did today. Removed the outdrive boot, and the rear splash guard. As well started hacking away at the rotten transom, it was so bad! The PO didn't even glass the top of the plywood when he installed the new one..it was just a coat of epoxy and a little bit of Fiberglass mat.

Also how the Heck! Do you remove the steering cable/ shaft?? I could not figure it out, does it disconnect from the steering assembly upfront? Anyways..here are some more action photos.









The struggle continues...

So the transom is 1 1/2" A local Evinrude mechanic suggested I go 2-2.25" of transom for the 85HP. Is that overkill? In case anyone was wondering, the transom will be reinforced, as I will be installing a new floor in the boat too.

having some technical issues, triple posted.