Howdy fellas! I figured it was time to start a build thread on my (new to me) boat. It seems this 'ol girl has come full circle. It's a '75 Spectra18 that has been previously for sale here on the forums. See this thread:http://www.riverdavesplace.com/forums/showthread.php?35292-75-spectra-18-ex-race-boat-4600-obo
The boat is a full stringer 73 that was used as an Enduro boat before being registered in 1975. My buddy bought it last year, built a 454 for it, and then upgraded to an Eliminator 207. When he talked about selling this one, I talked it over with the wife, and we figured it'd be a great boat for us. Short enough to double tow behind a 5th wheel being a major reason. Plus I quite like the Spectra's.
After he bought the boat, he put together a mildly build 454 for it, comp extreme marine cam, ported oval port GM heads, 9.8:1 compression, 750cfm 4bbl etc etc. She's a solid boat, but is definitely in need of some love. The first thing we did was address the fuel tank. Currently, it has an 80 gallon fiberglass belly tank. Knowing the issues fiberglass tanks can cause, I decided to start hunting for some aluminum saddle tanks. I ended up sourcing a pair of 23 gallon IMCO's for a smokin' deal from another boater who lived out in Mesa, AZ. I forgot his name, but believe he's on here from time to time. He was super helpful and even threw me half the money back he was asking for the tanks for making such a long drive. I love boaters!
Once I got them home, I cleaned them up a bit, made sure the fuel pickups work, and got to work.
We pulled the motor out of the boat, and started checking it out, and found that the fiberglass tank had already done more damage than hoped in the few times it had been on the water. The intake runners on the heads were completely coated in resin, the cylinders had a light coating of resin on them, and the valve train all felt sticky. Diving deeper into it we found that the rocker arms had been badly gouged in the fulcrum and would need to be replaced. We cleaned up the motor as much as possible, will be replacing what absolutely needs it, and crossing our fingers when it goes back together. Hopefully I caught it early enough.
As for the tanks, I started by looking at my other buddies Eliminator and how his tanks were mounted, and more importantly how they were spaced off the hull of the boat. It seems they were installed with carpet between the tanks and the hull. I went looking for carpet but ended up finding something that, IMO, should work better. I picked up some anti-fatigue mats made of some pretty dense foam, and glued them to the backside of the tanks. This is to space them off the hull in case anything flexes it doesn't break anything. I also chopped off the existing "brackets" you can see in the photo's above and had a buddy TIG on some 3" aluminum angle at the tops of the tanks to make it easier to bolt them to the bulkheads.
I did a bunch of reading of guys who've done the saddle tanks, and everybody said build bulkheads and put the tanks as far back as possible. The tanks are about 6" off the transom in the back. Here you can see the start of the bulkheads. We did the first one, and fought it from moving the entire time. We cut them a bit short as to not have the wood directly on the hull, and had a hell of a time keeping them straight while the resin kicked. So the next 3 we used some 3m 4200 fast cure marine adhesive to set them, worked out perfectly so far.
Don't mind the mess, going to be cleaning that up as much as possible before we lay the glass in.
The most nerve racking part for me is the fact that I'm going to have to cut holes in the gunnel for the fuel fills. :yikes
I'll try to keep the thread updated as the work progresses. Once the tanks are in and plumbed, motor back in and running, we're going to enjoy it for the season and then come winter time, build a new floor and have the bench recovered.
The boat is a full stringer 73 that was used as an Enduro boat before being registered in 1975. My buddy bought it last year, built a 454 for it, and then upgraded to an Eliminator 207. When he talked about selling this one, I talked it over with the wife, and we figured it'd be a great boat for us. Short enough to double tow behind a 5th wheel being a major reason. Plus I quite like the Spectra's.
After he bought the boat, he put together a mildly build 454 for it, comp extreme marine cam, ported oval port GM heads, 9.8:1 compression, 750cfm 4bbl etc etc. She's a solid boat, but is definitely in need of some love. The first thing we did was address the fuel tank. Currently, it has an 80 gallon fiberglass belly tank. Knowing the issues fiberglass tanks can cause, I decided to start hunting for some aluminum saddle tanks. I ended up sourcing a pair of 23 gallon IMCO's for a smokin' deal from another boater who lived out in Mesa, AZ. I forgot his name, but believe he's on here from time to time. He was super helpful and even threw me half the money back he was asking for the tanks for making such a long drive. I love boaters!
Once I got them home, I cleaned them up a bit, made sure the fuel pickups work, and got to work.
We pulled the motor out of the boat, and started checking it out, and found that the fiberglass tank had already done more damage than hoped in the few times it had been on the water. The intake runners on the heads were completely coated in resin, the cylinders had a light coating of resin on them, and the valve train all felt sticky. Diving deeper into it we found that the rocker arms had been badly gouged in the fulcrum and would need to be replaced. We cleaned up the motor as much as possible, will be replacing what absolutely needs it, and crossing our fingers when it goes back together. Hopefully I caught it early enough.
As for the tanks, I started by looking at my other buddies Eliminator and how his tanks were mounted, and more importantly how they were spaced off the hull of the boat. It seems they were installed with carpet between the tanks and the hull. I went looking for carpet but ended up finding something that, IMO, should work better. I picked up some anti-fatigue mats made of some pretty dense foam, and glued them to the backside of the tanks. This is to space them off the hull in case anything flexes it doesn't break anything. I also chopped off the existing "brackets" you can see in the photo's above and had a buddy TIG on some 3" aluminum angle at the tops of the tanks to make it easier to bolt them to the bulkheads.
I did a bunch of reading of guys who've done the saddle tanks, and everybody said build bulkheads and put the tanks as far back as possible. The tanks are about 6" off the transom in the back. Here you can see the start of the bulkheads. We did the first one, and fought it from moving the entire time. We cut them a bit short as to not have the wood directly on the hull, and had a hell of a time keeping them straight while the resin kicked. So the next 3 we used some 3m 4200 fast cure marine adhesive to set them, worked out perfectly so far.
Don't mind the mess, going to be cleaning that up as much as possible before we lay the glass in.
The most nerve racking part for me is the fact that I'm going to have to cut holes in the gunnel for the fuel fills. :yikes
I'll try to keep the thread updated as the work progresses. Once the tanks are in and plumbed, motor back in and running, we're going to enjoy it for the season and then come winter time, build a new floor and have the bench recovered.
