June 21st, 2012 - First Launch, Really

Well, the day is here. The motor runs and we are ready. We headed back to the Rock River and put the GT-150 in the water. The motor started right up and we were off. The boat performed beautifully! 44mph on speedo and GPS and the 1979 Mercury 90HP Tower of Power sounded AWESOME!. With one prop I got 44mph at 5000RPM and the other prop was 41MPH at 5600RPM. I would like to get 5600RPM with the first prop. Can't wait to get out again!

Getting Ready

 Almost There

The Merc is Running!

Nice Speed.

Cool

Check Out the Video!

 Looks Great in the Water

Zoomin'

 And Turnin'

 And Turnin'

And Burnin'

Time For a Rest. Whew!

Successful Finish to a Great First Run

June 20th, 2012 - Custom Lettering

Today, our friend, Susan Edwards, who runs the Sycamore Art Attack, http://www.sycamoreartattack.org, came over and added our custom registration letters to the hull. Wow, looks great!

 Nice Touch

First Coat, Looking Good

June 15th, 2012 - First Outing - Fail

After adding some temporary registration numbers to the hull, we took the GT-150 to the Rock River north of Oregon, IL for it's first time. We put the boat in the water and couldn't get the motor started. It turned out that there wasn't any spark. Ugh! We returned home for troubleshooting to try another day. Turns out, a wire came disconnected from the deadman switch during the interior install. With that fixed, the old Merc fired right up.

 Temporary Lettering

 Splash Well Padding

 Getting Ready

Closer

 

We Had High Hopes

June 2nd, 2012 - Seats, Curtain and a Good Cleaning

Today I finished up the seats. I hard mounted them to the boat and added the bottom cushions. I also added the back curtain that covers the fuel area. After that, I took it out to wash it up. Wow! It looks great and I can't wait to get it in the water and test it out.

Rear Curtain

Port

Rear Starboard

Cockpit

Starboard

Mercury 90

June 1st, 2012 - Interior Padding and Seats

I finished up the interior padding around the interior and sewed up the seat covers.

 Back Wall

 Drivers Area

Overview

May 28th, 2012 - Vinyl and Interior Work

Today I recovered the motor control mounting plate, fabbed up the interior wall padding and added a few minor interior pieces.

 Control Plate

 Wood Backing for Interior Padding

 Old Capacity Plate

 Glastron Label

Glastron Label

May 1st, 2012 - Glastron Football

If you remember the footballs that were on the boat, These will look a little different. I cleaned up the originals and repainted them.

April 20th, 2012 - Horn and Clean-up

I added the horn to the boat today. It isn't a GT-150 horn, but it is a Glastron horn and it looks cool, so I thought I would put it on my boat. I also cleaned up the interior.

 The Horn

 The Horn, Again

Clean

April 19th, 2012 - Electronics

I had the motor running again today and it started and ran very well. The reason I started it up? I installed the tach and a kill switch and needed to make sure everything worked. The tach was easy. I read up on the forums and schematics and found that I can hook it up to the connector at the front of the control box. The Teleflex tach takes uses the 6P setting on the Mercury 90HP motor. The rest is pretty straight forward. The kill switch was a different story. I had checked on the web and was expecting to kill the motor by grounding the black/yellow or salmon colored wire and that would be that. WRONG. I grounded the salmon wire and nothing. I used a test light and grounder everything and still nothing. I even took the control box apart and went right to the ignition switch. Nothing. So back to the web I went. After checking on numerous posts on the www.iboats.com forums, I found out that I needed to cut the white wire to kill the motor. I put the kill switch inline, started it up and pulled the cord. It worked!! Yay! Later in the evening, I wired the stereo with amp, hooked up the subwoofer and installed the gauges in the dash. I also hooked up the gauge lights. 

Busy day!

 Wiring on the Teleflex Tach

Hooked to the Control Box

 Kill Switch, Installed and Taped Up. I Will Mount it After the Seats are Installed

 The Tach and Speedo, From the Back

 Amp

Sub

April 18th, 2012 - Carpet!!!

I installed the carpet today!! First, I glued the carpet around the back walls then glued down the back half. Next, I glued the carpet to the ski locker and finished by gluing down the front half. When the glue dries, I'll touch it up and trim the excess. I may add some to a few areas also.

 Port Side Back Wall

 Starboard Side Back Wall by Battery Tray

 The Back Half

 Ski Locker

Done!

April 13th, 2012 - Mercury 90 Water Pump, Speedo Pitot

Time to tackle the water pump on the Merc. I took off the lower unit and cleaned up some of the silt, then took the water pump apart. I see why it didn't pump any water!. After putting it together it was time to start the motor and check it out. It pumped water, ran very well and went through forward and reverse. Time to give it a try in the water! I also installed the speedometer pick-up and fastened down the tubing.

Dirty Water Pump Area

BAAAD Impeller

New Gasket, Ready to be Put Back Together

Motor Running, Pumping Water

Speedo Pick-up