1987 PS 190 gets a freshening up.

[Lumbergh]

Tower looks good too for a 190. Clean lines.

[catamount]

Originally Posted by LYNRDSKYNRD

Looks great I bought the same valve covers for mine and am putting them on soon. How much of a pain were the manifolds to remove? Mine could use sand blasting too.

My manifolds came off nicely! Your mileage may vary from what I've read.

I actually ran into the more trouble with one of the original valve cover studs. Some of them were REALLY in there. One wouldn't come out. I had to resort to extreme measures.

I also got the "manifold hardware kit" from skidim which included (a) new bolts (b) manifold gaskets (c) new nipples for the cooling hose and (d) new drain plugs. Although, I opted for copper plugs I picked up from Lowes.

Also, if you use these valve covers you're going to need longer studs. I found out that these are nearly impossible to source locally unless you want to cut your own from threaded rod. I found a nice set on eBay for something like $14 shipped. You need 12 so this comes out to be a pretty fair deal. The best part, though, is that they have an allen head so you can screw them right in with a t-handle. No double-nutting.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Aluminum-Val...6#ht_521wt_921

Originally Posted by Jerseydave

MAC or SNAP-ON box end crowfoot wrench, 3/8 drive.

Light tint looks nice to me!

Ditch the plastic spark arrestor cover.....looks fisher price-like to me anyway.
Plus all that does it for your engine to suck in hot engine air, something that cannot help performance anyway. Get a new spark arrestor for K & N (marine grade)

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll probably do that. crowfoot box end is definitely not something I have! But crowfoot is a good idea.

[orbeamlb]

I like the mild tint too. My 88 PS 200 has a different windshield than your PS 190 but you may want to consider tinting just the side windows and leaving the front stock. You'll get the updated look from the profile and still retain low light visibility. Here's a pic for reference.

[memphis23]

Great job Boat looks great!

[catamount]

Hey guys,

Latest update involves mostly riser mounting and hose replacement. Using all new hose clamps, gaskets and bolts along the way. Love those Trident hoses! I've actually got a lot leftover hose that I will probably be posting in the classifieds if anyone is thinking about doing the same.

Here was the top down view before.



And after.



Port side manifold & riser before.



And after.



From the front.



Starboard view.




Another issue I ran into was that the left panel containing the hour gauge and ignition switch had screws that wouldn't tighten up. Seems to be that the nuts in the back were lost, and the previous owner used wood screws. There is zero room to work back there so I came up with an alternative using drywall anchors. It works pretty well with these black #6 screws.



Push them into the existing holes...



...and fasten the screws. The previous owner told me that he thought the kill switch was an "option". I find that hard to believe. Thoughts?



Still waiting for my rails and pylon to come back from powdercoating.

Parts replaced parts so far.



It was 35 degrees up here in Vermont this morning so I'm not feeling too rushed to finish it up, but the end is in sight.

[catamount]

Today was the day to take apart my Morse MV-2 throttle control and give it a facelift. Okay, I don't think this is truly an MV-2 because it doesn't have the Neutral interlock, but it's darn close.

Mine was heavily chipped, pitted and even worse the control was sluggish and didn't move smoothly. Since I had some time on my hands, I decided to take it apart to re-lube the mechanism and powdercoat the cover.

Here was the cover before. Just... ugly.



Some gunked up interals shots, just in case someone needs them in the future. Pull the internals away from the plate SLOWLY so you do not lose the spring and the ball bearing on the end of it.







Then I removed all of the old grease with greased lightening and some commercial grade PPG wax & grease remover.



Next I put the faceplate into my sandblast cabinet and gave it a good cleaning. Every MC owner needs one of these! I found this one for $150 on Craigslist a couple of years ago while doing a motorcycle restoration.



You can't get to this kind of finish with sandpaper! It only took about 10 minutes and a 33 gallon Craftsman compressor to get here.



I'm using the Eastood $150 "Hot Coat" kit to powdercoat this. I got it a few years back to do that motorcycle restoration I spoke of and once you get setup to do this kind of thing... you start looking around your garage for anything else to coat. It's really fun and does a nice job.

Anyway, the first step is to clean the part with wax & grease remover and then ground the part and spray the powder.



Then into a 400 degree oven (not your kitchen oven! ) in your garage. You should not use your "eating" oven for the byproducts will ruin future baked foods. I found this oven on Craigslist for free because the top wasn't functional.

The powder starts to "flow" out, the pores of the metal open and up and when it's done baking the part has a very strong and resilient shell.



Once it cools, it's ready to assemble. You can't do that with paint!



It's best to pre-bake cast parts like this at a higher temperature than you will be powdercoating at to release any trapped gasses *before* you spray the coating.

I forgot to do that so there is some minor pitting in the surface. You can't really even tell from up close though, so I'm not going to worry about it.



From there I greased up my internals, put it back together and everything works like new. It feels like a new control, and looks great doing it.





On to the next project...

[jakethebt]

Nice work!

[RadarDad]

You guys are making me have second thoughts about selling my 1988 ProStar. Really nice work.

[Lumbergh]

Excellent pics and progress.

[catamount]

Tonight's project was replacing the broken stereo cover that came with the boat.

I knew I had to replace it but had a nearly impossible time finding a cover narrow enough to fit in that 2 1/2" tall spot where the stereo is located. I don't think there is an off the shelf cover that will fit without modifications.

Here is what I started with:



I thought about relocating the stereo and covering the hole with a plate, but decided to try modifying this small marine cover I found on ebay. It was about $10 shipped. Luckily, they included the dimensions in the ebay listing so I knew it would fit after some modifications.

Here is a link to the same item: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Boat-Radio-H...5a7f21&vxp=mtr









It arrived.



The first thing to do is measure the frame of the stereo. Mine was 7" x 2". They should all be relatively similar. I then covered the front with painters tape so it didn't get all scratched up while I had it face down on my workbench.



This cover was made for the old style 2-post stereos. This is where you take out your dremel and modify the back to fit. I cut out a 7" x 2" hole to accommodate the face of my stereo.



Eventually after some back-and-forth trimming I got a pretty tight fit. You have to be careful not to remove too much material as there will only be 1/4" of frame on each side when you're done.

It's not attached to the hull yet, and I'm not sure how I'm going to do that either. Some kind of adhesive? I would like to make this as waterproof as possible. Any suggestions?









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