RE: Project Sweet 16!: YAHOOOOOOO!!!

WAY TO GO!!!

Now the table's turned, so to speak. Hearing about YOUR success keeps me
fired up on my '64 OMC Johnson (Sweet 16? - Canadian model) project. I
haven't been able to do too much with my boat, but I have managed a few
important milestones:

- One of the factors that was going to determine if I was going to keep
this boat was the acrylic windshield. It looked so terrible when I bought
it that I actually thought it was cracked right through. As it turned out,
it was solid but very badly damaged deep into the surface from someone who
tried to use acetone or laquer thinner, or possibly even gasoline to clean
it. The acrylic must have actually dissolved in places and ended up
hardening leaving a chalky-white residue embedded in it. Because the
physical properties of the acrylic had changed I determined that no correct
type of cleaner could remove the damage.

I figured that I needed to replace the windshield. This was going to cost
a minimum of about CDN$400, which is about double what I was anticipating.
 Before I went any further I did some research and learned that acrylic is
very easy to polish and it can even be wet-sanded. Well, after that,
there's been no looking back. I've spent a few hours on each of the last
two weekends and a little bit in between carefully wet-sanding with
400-grit paper on my electric palm sander. I was a little concerned at
first about using an electric tool with water but it turned out to work
very well. the water is only dribbled over the acrylic and the sander
basically vibrates so much that the water never really gets into it at all.

I have been able to sand away all the horrible blemishes. Some parts were
deeply damaged so I had to remove so much material that there are now
definite noticeable depressions. However, the portion immediately in front
of the driver's seat is basically perfect. I'm just finishing it up this
week using rubbing compound and then finally brass polish applied with my
neighbor's orbital polisher (nice machine!). I'll get a picture pretty
soon to show the comparison to the original. By the way - total cost:
 about $3.00 worth of sandpaper. I had the rubbing compound and brass
polish sitting in my garage for more than 10 years.

- I have also managed to pick up new seats. I got 2 high-back and 4
low-back WISE brand folding fishing style seats from WAL-Mart. I had my
eye on them for a few months because even though they are made for fishing
they are nicely padded and will have a somewhat "retro" look when
installed. I got them for about 30% less than the regular price because
they were clearing them out (end of season clearance). Total cost:
CDN$252.00 including tax (US$161.00) I'm going to make some sort of
removable base for each seat so they can be taken out for easy cleaning and
for more room for fishing.

Anyway, I'm long-winded here :-) Next step is to get the motor fired up in
a test barrel. Stay tuned . . .

Regards,
Greg Van Vliet

-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Frenn [SMTP:semsc@...]
Sent: Monday, August 19, 2002 5:01 PM
To: omc-boats-digest@...
Subject: Project Sweet 16!: YAHOOOOOOO!!!

 . . . We did it! Project Sweet 16! went into the water and ran all
weekend!!

 . . . Michael Frenn, California
 . . . 1965 Sweet 16 75 HP Evinrude
Received on Tuesday, 20 August 2002