Transom assemblies and engine room makeover

reneechris14

Funny looks like all kinds of space tell the motors show up. Looks awesome @LaRea nice an organized.

davidbrooks

That first smudge is gonna hurt. .  It really does look great. Now you have to redraw your wiring diagrams.

LaRea

To even things out, the rest of the boat looks like a train wreck.  The bottom paint is gone, the gelcoat is chalky, and there are tools and crap laying everywhere. 

The cockpit cushions were literally coming apart at the seams, so I took them out to have them recovered.  (Got a local guy that did nice work for one of my dockmates ... he's doing my entire cockpit for only $2k.)  

aero3113

@LaRea , $2K for the entire cockpit is a great deal!

Willhound

Better than factory fresh!

SimcoeRinker400

Update on my boat moved things the way they are supposed to be with my waste tank which I was concerned it maybe leaking.  Come back the next day and the remaining fluids I will call it were coming out the drain plug and messed up my buddies shop floor thank god it was a slow leak and only drained one way out the boat.  Well after removing the tank look at this crack from moving it just a little bit.  So I think from it not being braced properly and moving around all its life wore it thin enough to cause this crack.  Also, have a new bigger custom-made tank coming Friday and gains around 5 gallons more as these Rinker tanks are small, to begin with.  Then everything is going back together finally.

LaRea

Well, at least it happened during the off-season.  Who is making the tank?

rasbury

Yes, seal for sure...mine also looks like a bad caulk job but I do not care..that mf'er is not going to leak again!

SimcoeRinker400

Local Company here in the GTA area in Whitby, Ontario Canada only company to answer their phone during our COVID lock down was not cheap either since I needed it asap to stick the boat back together.  Nice thing this tank will have thicker walls and the baffle in the center so it will be a nice tank.  With my engines out makes things way easier but I think the tank could come out with the engines in there.

SimcoeRinker400

I even tried the company who made the tank Ameri-Kart for RInker as I have a part number on my tank and they still have not gotten back to me even through facebook which the marketing person on facebook said they be in contact last week still no answer.

LaRea

Yesterday I officially ran out of things to do until the transom assemblies get here.  

I replaced the thermostats based on age.  Had to also replace the gaskets at the bottom of the heat exchanger too, because they started leaking when I refilled the coolant.  

Also replaced the starter batteries (4.5 years old and not holding a charge).  

I guess I could start on the gelcoat, but I might get somebody to do it for me this year.

YYZRC

Is the paint on your arch flaking due to the aluminum oxidizing?

LaRea

No, but man my blue gelcoat looks rough.  

SimcoeRinker400

Mines black so I have to wait until late April to do the hull ... 40 ft wall to do 😁 got the bottom done looks great 👍

Liberty44140

Simcoe that black hull looks pretty darn good for a Rinker black hull that hasn’t had its spring maintenance yet! Someone took really good care of that. 

SimcoeRinker400

It's kind of funny one side of my boat was painted.  I did not do it I think someone had a mishap and had it painted the other side is gelcoat and faded pretty bad as where it was docked only had sun on the port side.  I may get it wrapped not this year but in the future or look at getting the hull repainted as well as the hardtop to black.  I think that would look really good other than you could cook eggs on it during the summer.  

Dream_Inn

Yeah, that would really drawl in some heat for sure. 

Liberty44140

My 342 was black. Sure I could tell that things were warmer on the side that the sun beat on vs the shaded side (mainly in the engine room) but it wasn’t a problem, sun heat never made me wish I didn’t have black. 

LaRea

A black hardtop down here in Virginia would be unbearable.  Maybe you can get away with it up there in Ontario.  

SimcoeRinker400

I don't think the hardtop would let to much heat through as it is hollow with about three inches of a gap.  You just would not want to lay on it or anything  and Ontario gets pretty hot in the summer...

SimcoeRinker400

Well got the new tank yesterday really nice build compared to the factory tank twice as strong as well.  I know it's not much bigger but it does gain 5 gallons.  

LaRea

After two months, I finally got the call yesterday that Merc is shipping my transom assemblies from Fond du Lac this week.  

I think the reason they were delayed so long is that I ordered them with the optional Warm Weather Package (melts all snow, and causes sun to shine).  It's a high-demand option this time of year.  

SimcoeRinker400

I was going to ask how long ago did you order.  Mine took 3.5 weeks.  My boat has the motors back in and everything is aligned perfectly now as one was out of alignment when we took it apart.  Will send pictures once all together again with before and afters

SimcoeRinker400

Well she is done finally took a few months but here are some pictures of the boat all back together again now I have to wait for spring to get it back in the water.  Here are some before and afters.  


Before 


Before Cleaned




After Paint and new Transom Plates



New Waste Tank installed.



All covered back up to put outside again into the snow 

Aqua_Aura

That looks really nice. Makes me want to pull my engine just to clean and paint. 

aero3113

Looks great @SimcoeRinker342 ! What product did you use to clean the bilge paint? Did you spray down the engines or hand wipe them, did you use the same cleaner as you did on the bilge?

davidbrooks

@SimcoeRinker342 that really looks great.  Did you relocate the waste tank to the engine compartment or was it there previously?  My 342 has it under the port seats.  I hope the new tank will keep the smell contained.  Mine is so old that the plastic is infused with 18yrs of it and no matter what i did to it i couldn't fully remove the odor when close to it.

SimcoeRinker400

I like to use which works great to get rid of Oil in the bilge Super Purple seems to clean the best then in this case since the engines were out I wiped it down with acetone to really clean the bilge before paint.  Now the engines were amazingly pretty clean and needed only a quick wipe down but I used a product I use on my cars its a spray wax/cleaner from Chemical Guys V07 which works great all over the boat. Here is a picture of the bilge after cleaning the oil and power washing the bilge in the summer after I just got the boat.  Now to clean the walls I did use acetone which removed all the black crap residue stuff only thing that would work but had to be masked and gloved up to do that.  Cleaned the blower tubes with Spray 9. 



https://superclean.com/products/superclean-cleaner-degreaser/

 https://www.amazon.ca/Chemical-Optical-Select-High-Sealant-Detailer/dp/B004UPZXI0/ref=sr_1_38?dchild=1&keywords=chemical+guys+07&qid=1613655451&sr=8-38

SimcoeRinker400

This is the factory location for the Rinker 400 tank I just made a bigger one as my old 342 had a bigger tank and I wanted the same capacity I had on that boat plus the tank was cracked.   The smell on my 342 was a cracked vent elbow which I fixed by laying down in the locker and painting the vent elbow with 2 part epoxy couple layers. Then the smell was only out the vent to the outside.  Took two years to find that issue then I sold the boat a month later and got the 400 last summer.

Handymans342

Well now we all know what a new boat looks like. Can’t wait to see @LaRea finished job.