R15 project

Bernie

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I normally don't create a new thread about my projects until they are begun. I am pretty excited to get this boat and motor to work on. They are still in Florida but I will be traveling down there on the 22nd to bring them home. The boat has no trailer, so meanwhile I will be working on a derelict trailer to bring it home on. The boat need a transom but the gel looks good in the pics, hope I can save it. My previous projects have all needed paint and all the wood replaced. Here are the "before" pics.






This motor won't require any attention from me, fully restored. Usually I am fixing old junk.






 

nort

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Get to work man!!
I'm working on a 15R with my son to get him on the water by the time the ice goes out in the spring.
You planning to do string steering?
 

Bernie

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Get to work man!!
I'm working on a 15R with my son to get him on the water by the time the ice goes out in the spring.
You planning to do string steering?
Funny you mention it, I spent some time looking for a helm for a rope/pulley system today. I'm going to look closely at it. If I do it, it will likely be a stock type system connected at the tiller arm (no wing plates) and hopefully hidden behind the gunnels. I will research it some, I know all the racer guys would be aghast if I did this. Not going racing and not crazy about having wires exposed in the cockpit. I had a 14' Glastron with an OMC 3 cyl with that type system decades ago and still remember how smooth the steering was.
 
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nort

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The parts are readily available.
Allison has all the parts available that they use for the XR01.
Nydahl & Geiger Tech also make a pile of parts.
The big thing on the 15R is the cable routing options.
Mike Winstone (aka TalonKid) had all his cables hidden when he did the steering on his 15R / 12" 2.5 setup.
 

Bernie

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The parts are readily available.
Allison has all the parts available that they use for the XR01.
Nydahl & Geiger Tech also make a pile of parts.
The big thing on the 15R is the cable routing options.
Mike Winstone (aka TalonKid) had all his cables hidden when he did the steering on his 15R / 12" 2.5 setup.
Nort, Thanks. I saw that Wintech has some of the Nydahl plans/prints. I wish there was a helm available on line. The pulleys and springs are available. I need to get the transom replaced before I worry about that though.
 

nort

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Contact Bill @ Allison.
Tell him what you need.
The parts used in the XR01 will work fine.
You may need a longer steering shaft and the forward bearing carrier will likely need to be modified (or you could fabricate your own) to fit the 15R.
 

Bernie

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Well I am one step further. Made the 1400 mile round trip and got the boat home (literally, it was built just over 100 miles from here) safe and sound, motor tucked away on a stand in the garage. Next step, adding two more sets of bunks to the trailer to support the hull while I work on it. Gettin ready to ITCH.

 

Bernie

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Oh BTW, the previous owner turns out to be a very knowledgeable and gracious old boat racer and he donated a cable and pulley (behind the dash) helm to the project! WooHoo!
 

Jed

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Nice looking R15 Bernie, and welcome. That will be a nice ride with that old 150 TOP. Have fun with the project, and keep the pics coming.
 

Bernie

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Got the boat supported on the trailer with bunks under each strake (six total) and finally got started with teardown. I cut out the splashwell and began removing the ends of the stringers to get at the rotten transom. The boat has five stringers, the center one of course was rotted. Interesting, the port outside stringer was just a fiberglass shell with almost no wood in it. The starboard outside was not rotted or even wet. The port inside was in good shape and the starboard inside was rotted. Anyway, under the floor was the best part so far. The core sounds solid under there. I was expecting it to be rotted but the tap test sounds excellent. I will be drilling to check for water once I have something to seal it up with afterward, don't have anything to fill holes in the core with right now,and if it is as good as it sounds, once I drill it I want to seal it immediately. Some pics.

20180107_151535.jpg

20180107_151620.jpg

20180110_133030.jpg

20180110_133101.jpg

Now, assuming the core is good, on to transom removal, remaining floor and stringer removal and then start going the other way. Its been 3 years since my last project boat and it feels good to be working on one again.

Bernie
 

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Freebird

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I normally don't create a new thread about my projects until they are begun. I am pretty excited to get this boat and motor to work on. They are still in Florida but I will be traveling down there on the 22nd to bring them home. The boat has no trailer, so meanwhile I will be working on a derelict trailer to bring it home on. The boat need a transom but the gel looks good in the pics, hope I can save it. My previous projects have all needed paint and all the wood replaced. Here are the "before" pics.






This motor won't require any attention from me, fully restored. Usually I am fixing old junk.






Man, that motor looks great! I'm in the very early stages of putting together a 1500XS that I plan to put on my XST18 that I had restored last year. As it stands, I have a complete 150 J block motor, a complete (rough) 1500XS, and enough pieces parts to build two more 1500XS's. What can I say?... I was just looking for one, slick 1500XS and ended up with a friggin museum! It's hard to find anybody to work on these old motors, so maybe I can pick your brain a little.
 

Bernie

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Man, that motor looks great! I'm in the very early stages of putting together a 1500XS that I plan to put on my XST18 that I had restored last year. As it stands, I have a complete 150 J block motor, a complete (rough) 1500XS, and enough pieces parts to build two more 1500XS's. What can I say?... I was just looking for one, slick 1500XS and ended up with a friggin museum! It's hard to find anybody to work on these old motors, so maybe I can pick your brain a little.
Freebird, I wish I could help, but my experience with these is limited to external stuff, I have never been inside one. This engine was restored by a gentleman in Florida named Tom Smyth. May I suggest you access the "Scream and Fly" hot boat website and join their "Inline Six Merc Owners" group. There are ex racers, ex Merc mechanics, ex Mercury employees and even some of the guys who designed the inline six. These guys are the authority on these engines. Mine as you can see is not an XS, but should be plenty strong for this little boat. I bough another 1500 (long shaft) just to get the trim pump, and hope that eventually I will get inside that one (low compression on 1 and 2) and find my way around. I have spun a few wrenches on engines, just not outboards. I may fix it or may sell off for parts, depending on how bad it is. Good luck on your projects, and if you need to get rid of an XS powerhead or two, drop 'em off at my place!
 

Freebird

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Freebird, I wish I could help, but my experience with these is limited to external stuff, I have never been inside one. This engine was restored by a gentleman in Florida named Tom Smyth. May I suggest you access the "Scream and Fly" hot boat website and join their "Inline Six Merc Owners" group. There are ex racers, ex Merc mechanics, ex Mercury employees and even some of the guys who designed the inline six. These guys are the authority on these engines. Mine as you can see is not an XS, but should be plenty strong for this little boat. I bough another 1500 (long shaft) just to get the trim pump, and hope that eventually I will get inside that one (low compression on 1 and 2) and find my way around. I have spun a few wrenches on engines, just not outboards. I may fix it or may sell off for parts, depending on how bad it is. Good luck on your projects, and if you need to get rid of an XS powerhead or two, drop 'em off at my place!
I've swapped texts with Tom and was even considering buying the 115 he has for sale, but I found something else. There is a Facebook group that all those guys belong to, and they are a good source of information. I'm going to have a spare, original XS 15" lower and a complete, 15" 150 J block motor I'll be selling. Is supposedly a runner, but I haven't done anything with it. I also have a ton of parts I haven't even gone through yet including electrical. Bought a guy out who gave up his inline addiction.
 

Bernie

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Freebird, Tom seems like a great guy. You are in good company, I am also a member of the FB group.

Update:
I created and installed the transom, I have a pretty good pic of that but I am at work and can't post it here. The major update is, as much as I hoped the core was good, there was this one section....of course I started uncovering it and found more.
Turns out it only had about 20% bad core within about 3 feet of the transom. This boat had been repaired before and the core in the last 1 ft. of the port side was removed entirely and replaced with solid fiberglass. Looks like many layers of CSM. The center stringer (keel?) was rotted to black paste, the port side of the core in the pad was rotten, the starboard side is good....
Long story short, I am in the partial recore business. Compared to removing a nearly completely rotten balsa core in a Hydrostream, this is (even more) miserable. Not to mention the weather....Hoping that with DST, I will be able to work a little in the afternoons now, but it is going to be slow.
 
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