PDA

View Full Version : Project MINImax



AnthonySS
08-08-2002, 07:27 AM
OK here we go..

My 5-year-old son has expressed interest in restoring this old classic.

The boat was originally built in about 1968. I purchased it from the original owner in 1981. Had it re-glassed poorly in 1993. Used it a few times and now it has been sitting outside upside down since 1993.

Ezra (my son) and I started stripping the old glass off of it, as seen in the photos. Ezra is having fun using the orbital sander on the wood portions…. “dad feel how smooth”

So help me out guys!

I have very limited Glassing experience and we want to try to restore this thing. So far we have only found one spot of wood rot on the deck…but otherwise it is very good structurally and weighs a ton!!

So help me out with some glassing techniques, wood restoration and even products to use

Our plan is to:

Strip old glass
Repair rot,
Re-glass seams
Remove old coming and put higher ones on.

Also

We plan to power with a ‘73 7.5 Merc, however they do not seem friendly for installing a kill switch yet alone a dead man throttle. Any input on hooking this engine up safe would be appreciated too. Steering will be cable with steering bar.

As always your input is very appreciated. THANKS in advance as my son and I are having fun already!!

AnthonySS
08-08-2002, 07:28 AM
Showing some wood rot on port deck

AnthonySS
08-08-2002, 07:30 AM
Transom

vector mike
08-08-2002, 07:43 AM
I've done a few repairs on my boats so I"ll give you my .02 worth. Lot's of guys use the West System Epoxy but I have always used regular polyester resin and fiberglass matting. Use marine grade plywood because of the better gluing. Usually 1/2" is used for the floor. Glass in bothsides of the wood to keep it from possibly getting wet. As for the kill switch, how does it turn off now? You can use a tether switch to ground the ignition when unhooked.

Balzy
08-08-2002, 08:49 AM
Man that brings back some memories. I built my first on when I was a junior in high school. Drew my own plans from the sketches in a Popular Mechanics mag. I was too tight to spend the $20.00 they wanted for the real plans. The boat cost me $85.00 to build complete. Before I ever got it wet a classmate offered me $125.00 for it. SOLD, I AM RICH !!!!!! he asked if there were an guarantees. I said well, it guaranteed not to leak but I have no idea if it will float. :D :D :D I built another one later for a buddy and painted and striped it to match his show car Corvette. We won a pile of trophies with that rig. Then I found another on in a gravel pit. Started sanding it to reglass like you are doing. Got impatient and hung borrowed motor on it. No steering or deadman's throttle hooked up yet, no kill switch. I know, stupid. I was a kid then like most of us. Went out and ran it around, had more water in the hull than I thought and when I pitched it into a corner with the tiller steering the water sloshed to the starboard side and the boat hooked. Oh no, here I go, out the boat I flew. Wasn't even going more than 40 but I tumbled across the water like a rag doll. I did have a jacket and a helmet on. When my right arm dug into the water and my body kept going I dislocated my shoulder. Still have problems with that shoulder today. Anyway, I hear the boat coming. It's making a big circle by itself. I tried my damndest to swim underwater but the jacket kept me up. I looked like a turtle filled with air trying to submerge. The boat went by me about 10' away and kept going. After about the 5th round it was spraying enough water in itself that it started coming off plane. I swam to where I figured it would be soon and reached up and shut it off. (By now it's going really slow) Now I find out the back of the boat wants to sink. the water is just deep enough that I can stand on my tippy toes and keep my nose above water. Mouth is under. I kept splashing water out of it while I am holding it up until it floats on it's own. Palming water I get enough out that I can climb back in from the front and get her fired up again. I took off and most of the water rolled over the back. Drove her back to the trailer and never took it out again. I bought an A&H 10 1/2' hydro right after that and hung a 20 Hp Merc on it. Spent more getting the prop reworked than I paid for the mota. Anyway the A&H did 55 MPH. The Mini Max's we built did about 50 with a 20 Hp but we had to do some bottom changes to get it to go that fast. Anthony, give me a call and I can tell ya what we did to it. We got all the ideas from a old timer that used to work for Merc High Perf. After we followed all his instructions we got it from 35 MPH to 50 MPH. Those things are a blast !!!!!!!!! It will be a great little project for you and Ezra. Oh, BTW, my teacher in woods class gave me an "A" for the whole year because of that first project. That was the first boat I ever built and it's a great platform to start with. I'll see if I can find some pics of some of them and post them.

Balzy
08-08-2002, 09:24 AM
This is the one I built for my bud for the car shows. This is the one we took from 35 MPH to 50 MPH with bottom changes only. No mota mods.

Balzy
08-08-2002, 09:26 AM
This was in a parade in out lil home town........

Balzy
08-08-2002, 09:27 AM
This is on the same river I flew out of one of the Minimax's. BTW, A&H was Anderson and Hering.

Balzy
08-08-2002, 09:29 AM
We also painted and striped mine to match my Vette at the time. Vettes and boats, how much better could it have gotten?????????? :) :p ;) Man those were fun years !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D :D :D

Balzy
08-08-2002, 09:59 AM
This is on the same river I flew out of one of the Minimax's. BTW, A&H was Anderson and Hering.

Jimboat
08-08-2002, 11:34 AM
Probably every hot-boater started with a Mini-Max. Is this for your son that I met at Crystal lake?

For the wood replacement, I'd use 1/4" just like the original - you could use 4mm (1/8"), but with young kids, the deck will get a bit of abuse, so 1/4" is better.

Dead-man throttle can be installed by setting spark all the way full, and linking single trottle cable to the carb butterfly connection. You can usually put the cable through the hole in the tiller-arm after you take the tiller off.

Boat will go even better with a 9.8 Merc!

Have fun!

AnthonySS
08-12-2002, 07:48 AM
After removing some more of the old glass...looks like project MINI will need a new motor board assembly. It is totaly saturated!!!

Transom seem good tho!!

YES Jim this boat is for Ezra, the son you met a Crystal Lake!!

THANKS to BAlZY for his enthusiasm on this project. Looks like we will implement his bottom mods to make this run real swell.

We will be adding a pad and outer strakes!!

mercury
08-15-2002, 10:02 AM
Thats cool! I built one in high school shop class. Very easy to build. Its probably easier to build a new one than to fix that one.

baddjonny
08-16-2002, 09:31 AM
Do yourself and your son a favor don't do anthig with the miniturd too dangerous rides lousey no freeboard flat bottom/slides all over,just not a very nice boat for a small kid .Look around for a old or new flying fliver safe,unsinkable,basiclly unflippable and a much better 8 foot class boat .

I owned both

jon b

ps thats a 110 hp merc on it as a joke try that with a minimax