Final Paint Coats

 

Not bad. Not bad at all.

BEFORE:

Porta bote water test after repair

 

So we got enough rain the last few days to dump a couple of gallons into the boat, which is perfect for testing the repair we made in the body. It had a tear in the transom sheet of heavy plastic at the fold. First we tried plastic welding, which was not satisfactory. We had left over aluminum-bitumen tape from another project and did this repair. We used a heatgun to help smush the bitumen around and make very good seals. So far so good.

Johnson 3 horsepower from 1963/1964

 

The new paint.

Severe dents in the gastank were leveled out with bondo. You can see the Mac 3 motor shroud in the background.

This little engine got picked up for 30 bucks. We have been working on it slowly as it needed a few parts. So far so good. We have been able to take most of it apart and put it back together again with new oils and lubricants. It needed a new recoil spring for the pully. It's been getting repainted in tactical grey.

Youngest Child's Mac 3 motor

 

This is a Mac 3 Siglan a.k.a. Tacumsec motor. It is an American Tacumsec design that was licensed to Ducato in Italy and was sold in many department stores in Europe. Ours was sold through the V&D department stores in the Netherlands.

Here you can see that the orange starter pull and shroud has been removed. I have blasted it with a pressure washer. It is currently getting new layers of white paint. Youngest child bought this little 3 horsepower for 50 bucks and will be building a mount for it to go onto his canoe.

Outboard Crazy

 

We bought three little 3 & 4 horse power outboards to repair. The one for the Portabote is this nice old 1977 4 horsepower Johnson two cyl.

The pullstarter spring was messed up, so we took it apart, repaired the area that held the spring in and put it all back together. The carburator has been taken apart and cleaned. The tail has been taken apart and cleaned and got new oil seals and fluids change. We have to find a few more screws to put the top back on and we will give her a test! Not bad for 75 bucks and 10 dollars in parts.

The shroud protector was broken in two places, so using the old resin left overs, it got fiberglassed. It was painted with left over spray can of gold paint, which almost matches the gold colored stripe next to the orange on the original stickers.

The top got the small chips in the paint touched up and a few sprays of clear spray can overcoat.

Installing an Anchor

I had a piece of old plywood that I cut with a jigzaw to fit in this neck.

From Aliexpress I ordered a cleat and a rope roller. The cleat will be installed above the last bench and some foam was cut out. I just stuck it here temporarily before I drill into the boat.

The roller was 14 euros plus shipping from China and attached easily to the wood piece. The wood piece itself was given a resin coating using resin I had left over from a canoe repair two years ago. For an anchor I'm using an exercize weight because it's free and makes a good substitute for a mushroom style anchor. I am only going on calm waters and canals, so I dont need a fancy anchor anyway.

 

Portabote Bench Repair

The benches got a layer of fiberglass on the bottom of them to make them a bit stronger. 

They then got pool noodles tied to the bottom of them using 550 cord and bicycle innertubes. 

They were brought upstairs the attic and given two coats of oil based white paint.

You can barely see the pool noodles underneath.

FINAL PRODUCT: three nice looking white benches. The original benches were black and there were a lot of complaints about them on the internet. The black would get hot in the summer sun and burn skin, so I think kthe white paint looks good. If it stays dry weather, I may slap another coat on. I like that the pool noodle flotation is barely noticeable.