New stuff and things

9/14: The Spartan is almost ready for paint. The KG7 quicky parts aren't looking good though (sigh). I may have to stick with the service motor for now. I'll keep looking and hoping.
    I got to tag along with a friend  who found an old marina getting ready to close up. Not much as far as the older  merc parts, but I got some nice stuff anyway. There were a few Merc gear case  tools, a Mk25 recoil and face plate ('55 I think), a nice brand new set of remote controls that fit the Mk10/10A/15/15A/28/28Awith both ends, the cable, all hardware and even the "neutral" decal for the shifter! I also picked up a base for another cast iron Kiek motor stand, which worked out well because I had an extra tower that I got with one of my other stands. AND, I finally got a Merc-o-Tronic tester, seems to work just fine so far. Not a bad day at all!
    I'm heading up north again this weekend  for the antique races in Crystal Lake, Ny, should be a real good time and a  great opportunity to learn more about the race boats, motors, rules, etc. I'm  planning to start racing seriously in the next year or so, I've got to pick  up all the info I can (and hopefully a few parts along the way!). 

10/15: Long time away! I got married on Sept  30th, so a lot of my time went into getting everything ready for that, then  we went away for a week, then had to straighten everything out when we got  back. That said, let's see what's new! Hmmmmmm....
  1st off, I got a "B" quicky tower and foot for a wedding present from a friend! It's the longer "Q" tower(as opposed  to the more common, shorter "H" tower), and it's complete and ready to go!  I bolted the KG7   power head on one night, and that's where it's been ever since. I'll get another  head for it eventually and put the original KG7 back together (I picked up  a nice 2 blade speed prop for the service KG7 also).
    I've been working on the Spartan hydro  here-n-there over the last few weeks. I got the topside 1st coated, even though  the bottom still needs a little work, and rigged up a homemade steering assembly  out of a steering wheel from one of my old cars, the pulleys, hub and cable  from a box of parts I had around and a few pieces of aluminum and copper pipe.  The steering bar is only temporary so I could mount the pulleys where they  needed to be. I made it out of a piece of flattened copper pipe to get the  right angles and such, but it's nowhere near strong enough to actually use  in the water. Here's  where I'm at now. I'm working on setting up the throttle cable bracket on the  motor and converting one of my 2 handle Quicksilver controls ( one of the handles  is broken off anyway) into a spring return throttle for the hydro until I get  a "Dead Man" throttle.
    That's pretty much all for now. Winter's  coming soon, so I'm going to spend as much time as I can on the water and working  on the hydro. I'm still hoping to get the Spartan in the water for a few runs  this year!

11/2: Got the Spartan in the water!! The bottom  wasn't quite finished as smooth as I would have liked, but the weather was  cooperating for the day, so out it went.  The 1st time out it was FAST  (to me anyway), handled well and cornered great! On the 1st pass, I had the  motor tilted too far out, so back to the launch. A minor adjustment later got  the rig standing tall and planing quick. It's quite a feeling when you're spinning  water, trying to get the bow down, then all of a sudden, it hooks up and you  shoot forward! After 4-5 good passes, the carb got plugged up, so that ended  the day as I didn't have the tools with me to disassemble it. Unfortunately,  the battery in the camcorder was dead when we got to the lake so I don't have  any pics. That night, I pulled the carb and cleaned it out nice, I also changed  the gasket where the power head meets the tower as I noticed a small leak while  running it in the tank. The next day, back to the water! It ran great for the  1st pass, then starting starving for fuel again. I had put an in-line fuel filter on the night before and it was plugged up pretty good. I know the tank itself was clean when I started, so there must've been stuff in the gas can (ARRRGHHH!). So here's  a few pics of one of the good runs from the second day. I don't have a helmet on, stupidity on my part and I certainly wouldn't recommend it, it won't happen again.
    I was a bit nervous about my 1st time piloting  a hydro, not knowing how it handled and all, but after the 2nd or 3rd pass through the corners, I felt right at home. I was also worried that high speeds in a small boat might be a tad scary. Again, I felt very comfortable and secure in my ability to handle the boat. Before the end of the 1st day, I was already  planning the next, faster project! This is definitely something I want to do!

Just a note: I NEED A "D" TOWER AND FOOT!!! hehee

11/24: Finally got around to finishing the  Trojan resto story (took me long enough!). Other than that not much going on,  I've been working a lot, no time for boats (sigh). While burning some scrap  wood, I came across the old ribs from the Trojan and made patterns of everything.  Just about every time I take the boat out, someone asks about it, and more often than not, ask if it's for sale, so I decided to build another from the patterns I made. I'll change it a little so it's not exactly the same, but it'll be pretty close. I've also decided to start building boats to sell (besides the Trojan replica). I'm asked quite a bit if I sell boats as well as work on them, so here I go. If nothing else, maybe I can make my favorite hobby self supporting. I'll still have a hard time selling the motors, though, so it may be "find your own motor for it" (hehee).
    Besides a better hydro for the KG7Q, I'm hoping to build a bigger rig for D/FE racing next year (still have to get the motor built) and also starting on the catamaran project. It's gonna be a busy year! Happy Holidays to all!

  2/19/01: Long time since an update, so here's something. Over the last  3 months or so, I've picked up 2 more Mercs ('58 Mk28, another '59 Mk78A),  a '25 Johnson A25, a bunch of NOS Merc parts from a dealer that went out of  business in the early 60's, loads of Merc dealer literature, and various used  parts -n- pieces. I also got rid of one of my Mk7's and am getting ready to  thin out the collection some more. Pretty much everything that's not 4 or 6 cylinder merc is going, except for the KG7 with the quicky, the new Mk28, and perhaps the 10hp Scott Atwater Bail A Matic. Boat building plans for this spring keep changing still. I'm definitely building a smaller hydro for the KG7, that's for sure. The large catamaran cruiser may have to wait again, but if it gets put off, I'm doing a smaller cat (14') to run 2 Mk55E's on . I put the correct power head back on the '57 Mk55E and converted one of the '58 Mk55's to electric start. I've just about got the '57 Mk75 power head back together with new bearings, reeds, pistons and rings, now I need to start the cosmetic side of the resto. I need a hood for the new Mk28, but I've started taking it apart to get it ready for paint as I'd like to make it the new motor for the Trojan. The Mk55 is nice, but over the long run, a smaller motor would be better for the boat. I took the auto transmission apart on the Mk28 and it looks like someone recently rebuilt it (YIPPEE!!), same with the power head, so once i get the top cowl and paint it all, it should be ready to go. I've got a NOS remote throttle for this motor, but I'll miss the electric start on the Trojan.
  Hmmm, what else? The new Mk78A looks to be complete and in very good shape. Compression is great and there's lots of spark. I also got the controls with it.
  I disassembled, stripped and repainted the controls for the '57 Mk55E and one of the Mk75's. I also stripped and repainted the gas tank and recoil for the KG7 (that came out VERY nice), but I still need to buff the aluminum grab handle and tank ring before it goes back together.
   Oh yes, I'm building a scale model of the Trojan! Well, it started  out to be the Trojan, but a few wrong measurements made it into "something  like the Trojan". I built the whole thing from scratch using measurements  from the actual boat, but somewhere it ended up being too narrow in the bow,  so I had to shorten it to make it look in proportion. It'll still be neat  when it's done, but not a Trojan replica, maybe next time. I actually built  it just like building a real boat, separate ribs, keel, chine rails, etc.,  so it looks like a real boat inside and out. It's all mahogany (scraps from  the hydro project) and will get epoxied so it'll really float. I'm going to  shape the cleats, lights, controls, etc out of some 1/8" aluminum with a die  grinder. I haven't figured out how I'm going to make the steering wheel yet,  maybe the same way. So far I've got the whole boat framed, the bottom on and  epoxied, and one side on. Let me tell you, building a real boat is easier that working in a small scale! The wood for the bottom and sides is cut down to about 1/16" thick and although easy to bend, also easy to split. I made it 1 1/2" =1', so it's about 20" long.
  I don't have any pics of the new stuff yet, but I'll get to it soon and hopefully get back into the weekly update routine again now that there's stuff happening.

2/20/01: I got some pics of the model, the controls I painted, and the KG7 gas tank/ recoil that I'm working on up in the "Misc. Pics" section. I also started getting the Mk28 and '58 Mk55 (converted to ele. start) stripped and ready for paint, but I don't have the pics yet. If it ever gets a little warmer outside, I'll get a bunch of pics of the new motors and the projects I'm working on now.

5/7/01: Loooong time away, sorry . Lots of updates in "Motors in the Works" and "Boat Projects", as well as "The Jaws Boat Resto". No new pics yet, but I'm working on it. Got a new boat, but no new motors since last time. Look around and come back soon, I'll have the new pics posted.

  5/9/01: I added some pics of the KG7/ Quicky and moved it to the "My Motors" section now that it's done. There's pics of the new Berglund project boat in the "Boat Projects" section and new pics of the Jaws boat ('61 crestliner) in the "Jaws Boat Restoration" section in boat projects. I also added some pics of a motor I'm restoring for someone else in the "Misc. Pics" section.