1978 Viking rebuild

[tnelsmn]

Thanks, Blake! I'm lucky to have down time at work where I'm able to write to forums posts and do the editing on the videos. Otherwise it probably wouldn't be nearly as detailed.

[tnelsmn]

More wiring. I may have got a bit overboard with all of it, but can't think of circuits I would want to go without. The passenger side is wrapped in loom and finalized. The relays for the trim, jack plate, and future fuel pump are in and mostly wired. Just have to get the wires out to the trim and plate and I will tie all that off. Trim and jack plate paddle switches are wired in. That plate holding them in is temporary, I will get one laser cut soon.

I ran the wires for the paddles through the dash just below the helm. I cut a piece of 3/8" stainless steel tube and flared it in with some 5200 just like a brass drain tube. I figured thats the cleanest way I get the wires behind the dash.

The switch panel was finally drawn in solid works so I can have the machining done once I get it back from being anodized. Since I had a computer drawing a friend laser cut me a temp one from plywood so I'm able to finish the wiring before having the permeate plate. This turned out to be a good thing because I needed to change the hole spacing to fit the hole in the dash.

I bought the blue wheel on sale from Livorsi but don't plant to run it since it has hydraulic steering. I will be using the wood wheel I found from Grant. It looks almost the same as the original wheel but is a 13" instead of 15". I'm going to cut the spokes out and weld them in so they are evenly spaced.

Threw in a picture of it at work with me. The snow has been holding off in my area so I was able to bring it in on a Sunday and work on wiring all day between calls.

I should start looking into interiors soon...

[DanUmbarger]

You've done a great job on your boat...I forgot to ask you a while back...what size flake did you use and what tip did you use to spray the flake? I tried to look back in your thread but maybe I just missed it. I used .025 flake and sprayed it with a dump gun...LOTS of orange peel. I'm restoring a Hustler tunnel boat for my newly purchased Johnson GT115 and was contemplating spraying it with a different gun for less orange peel.

[tnelsmn]

Dan, the silver is .025, .015, and .008. I used a HVLP gun with a 2.5mm tip. It was sprayed full thickness, no thinner. I had a ton of orange peel as well. There was a lot of sanding after spraying.

[DanUmbarger]

Do you have any idea how many pounds of flake you used? Trying to get a handle on the possible difference between you using a HVLP and me using the dump gun. I used about 5 lbs of .025 flake. I might just try the HVLP on my current one.

[tnelsmn]

Do you have any idea how many pounds of flake you used? Trying to get a handle on the possible difference between you using a HVLP and me using the dump gun. I used about 5 lbs of .025 flake. I might just try the HVLP on my current one.

I would guess we used 2lbs max. I ordered 5lbs after reading a few guys saying it takes that much and I have a LOT left over. If you get close to surface you can see through the flakes to the black base in a few spots. I would've liked to get a bit more down to be honest. We were mixing about 4oz to 1 quart of gel. When we started on the deck we tried 6oz flake to a quart but were having issues with air temps and the gel curing in the gun. We assumed it was the extra flake causing the issue so we dropped back to 4oz. Turned out dropping the catalyst .5% solved it for us. We should've stuck with 6oz and I think we would've ended up with a better end product.

I've never used a dump gun so I can't speak to that.

[tnelsmn]

Harness is about 95% completed. I need to mount the controls to finish it with the natural safety override, throttle handle trim, tether kill, etc.

The fuse panel is completely finished, I just can't seem to find where I put the little label stickers for the cover. Not that those are really needed.

The switch panel is wired up other than the LED indicators for when circuits are on. Those would be too much work to install and remove and reinstall when the permeant switch panel is completed.

At this point everything in the boat works and powers up from the battery through the harness. No more dragging my jump pack around connecting leads to each item making sure things work.

Pretty cool to throw a switch and have lights come on, this boat never even had lights.

I had to use a few diodes to get the three position switches to work as I wanted. They were listed as SPDT switches as Off/On/Both, so the anchor light could be on without the bow lights, etc. But they are actually On/Off/On so I got creative.

Switch panel and functions are as follows;
Main battery switch, in the rear near the battery, kills everything. That powers the large buss bar in the rear. From that buss bar a wire runs to the "Master" switch at the panel. On the hot side of the Master the trim/jack plate switches pull power so those work when ever the battery is turned on, as well as the "Auto Bilge".

Master: sends power to the fuse panel.
(Everything following pulls power from the fuse panel)
Acc: powers the gauge functions, and will power the GPS once that is installed.
Fuel: closes the relay in the rear that will be used for a boat mounted fuel pump when I repower to EFI.
Anchor/Nav: Anchor side only powers the stern light, Nav side lights the bow lights, gauge light, and stern light(through diode).
Radio/Interior: Radio side powers the radio and USB charge port, Interior side powers the blue LED strip lights in the gunnels and through a diode the radio and USB.
Auto Bilge/Bilge: (DPDT switch) Auto side(Pole one) powers the auto feature of the bilge pump, Bilge side(Pole two) powers manual bilge operation.
Horn: self explanatory hahaha.

[XstreamVking]

One thing I do different. I run a seperate power wire from the batt to the dash for the bilge and radio standby power. That way, when the batt sw is off, the power sw to the bilge on / auto still works and the radio keeps the time and presets. I also have the bilge float sw. power run right to the batt with a seperate fuse if the boat lives in the water. You can tap into the one at the dash for an indicator light for pump running.

[tnelsmn]

I really debated how to wire up the bilge in relation to the auto function. This one doesn't have a float switch, but instead it runs the pump for about half a second every 2:30 and if it senses an amp draw it runs it until there is no more draw. The book said to run that function directly to the battery around the battery switch, but I gotta believe that would drain the battery in no time when its sitting on the trailer. This boat won't live in the water. Thats why I ended up running the auto switch off the power in side of the master on the dash.

My thought process was whenever the boat is in the water the battery switch is on and the bilge to auto. Nothing else has power until the master at the dash is turned on.

Luckily the radio I have doesn't need a constant power to save the time or presets.

[XstreamVking]

That computer pump will wait 2 mins till it tries to pump. A LOT can happen in 2 mins. I use the computer pumps as a maint pump. It pumps water and I have a problem. My real pump is a sure bail float sw and 1100 pump wired direct to the batt. But, if you are with the boat it's ok. Just trying to cover all the bases. I'm a little cray-cray about bilge pumps and such.

[tnelsmn]

I'd be a little crazy about pumps too if I went though your experience on the 42' Viking.

[tnelsmn]

With the wiring 95% completed and as far as I can take it without more parts I turned attention back to the lower.

The putty work was finished with a few more coats of the Bobs putty that came with the kit. The skeg was straightened out, about .090" was removed from the leading edge at the widest point to get it back to a straight line, and .125" was taken off the bottom to true it to the prop shaft and remove the radius.

The mid was also sanded down to be repainted. It wasn't bad but had a lot of small chips. I figured if I was spraying the lower doing the mid wouldn't be much more work.

I went with PPG's Omni line of paints. I used an epoxy primer followed by acrylic enamel single stage paint. I noticed right away that I left way too deep of sanding scratches on the lower so I sprayed on some high build primer and sanded it out agin. Theres still a lot of sanding scratches that can be seen. But I'm leaving it for now. Paint is far less forgiving to spray than gelcoat haha. The mid has some serious orange peel, but that can be wet sanded and buffed later if it really bugs me. I picked up a "paint booth" from Amazon, more like a 3 sided tent. It did a decent job of containing most the overspray.

With the parts painted work on the interior began.

I picked up some 1/2" Cloosa to rebuild the factory style back to back seats. These are direct replicas of the original seats, with the only change being making the base 1" shorter. 3/8" PVC board was used for the side panels on the gunnels, and the rear panel. I hope to get all this dropped off with the upholstery lady in the next few weeks. The interior will resemble the original style and shape with a few changes.

I can really start to see the light at the end of the tunnel now!

[Baker343]

Nice job on the lower. 2 to 1 or 1.87. I would test with the orange peel/slight scratches. Some slight aeration can help acceleration Lu and bottom. It can always be sanded it out for looks

[rjdubiel]

2.1 on that vintage 175. I think if he does not get too heavy, I bet 80 mph or very very close with that 2.0 power. I have a 1.87 he can try this summer if he wants.

[tnelsmn]

This one is a 2:1. I'll run it as is for now, if I do decide to buff it out I was planning to leave the bottom half sanded with 400grit paper the same as I did with the pad.