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                            RESTORATION OF A 1953 25 HP JOHNSON BY CHIP RATHBUN

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 These Pictures were sent by Howard Sandoz to show us his latest WG7 Wizard Restoration Project that took about a month.  The motor was royal blue and was bought from Dennis Schmitt at David's Coffee's birthday party. All powerhead gaskets have been replaced and all ignition parts changed. 

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Owen,

Thought I would give everyone a progress report on my 16' project. I have started fitting the sub-deck at this time. I am hoping to have it in the water by late spring ? It won't make it to Lake Catherine, but should be at LBJ in October.
Regards,
Jerry Lindamood

Here are a few pictures of my just completed 1937 Evinrude Sportsman. I picked it up from a guy in Richardson, TX last fall. He told me that he goes to Wisconsin each summer for a family reunion, and he picked up the motor then at a garage sale. He had every intention on restoring it, but he had "too many irons in the fire" so he decided to sell the little motor.

 The motor was in great shape, plenty of compression and no damage other than some small dents in the gas tank. I cleaned out the tank, fixed the dents, cleaned and adjusted the points and cleaned the carb. It has spark and I plan on running it when the weather gets a little warmer.

  
Chip

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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I have attached some restoration photos of my Hydro that my dad is working on that maybe you can add to the PROJECTS section of the website.  I am looking forward to getting it back out on the water.  It has been over 2 years since I had it out.  It has needed to be refinished and I’ve told myself I would not use it until then to prevent damage to it.

The boat is coming along great.  First the bottom, then the top and inside was  sanded, 2 part epoxy sealed, primed and the final coat of paint on the top surface should be going on sometime next week.   I have a friend lined up to reproduce the TOPKICK name, flag and military symbol on the top deck as it originally had.  George Jacobs would be proud to know it is still being taken care of and used!  The only other thing that would make him any prouder would be to see it continue to kick some OMC butt!   Can’t wait until I set her back in the water and pull that starter rope.  I am in process of building a new powerhead for my dad’s hydro.  Last May, he torched his due to a broken reed valve.

Doug Samstag

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Here are pictures of my latest Wizard Powermatic 12 restoration .I purchased it from a guy up near Dallas for $ 150.00.The motor itself was in sound condition but the paint job was very bad. I replaced all of the power head gaskets, all of the lower unit seals including a new water pump impeller , I also replaced both ignition coils ,points & condensers  .  You can add this latest restoration to  the other 2 Powermatic 12s that are already on the website so now I have 3 Powermatic 12s in my collection.

              Yours Truly
                      H.L. Sandoz


                                                                                            BEFORE RESTORATION

                                                                                              AFTER RESTORATION

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I bought this 1954 Johnson 25 below from a guy in Benbrook, TX last fall after the meet at Brownwood. I ran a compression check and the top cylinder has 65lbs and the lower cylinder had 85 lbs. Performed a spark check, no spark on either cylinder. The capitation plate on the lower unit was broken off and the paint was so faded that the decals were non-existent. I was mainly interested in the motor because it was an electric start model. As far as I know, 1954 was the first year for Johnson to offer an electric start option.
 
The motor was completely disassembled. The lower unit was replaced with a factory new one I found on E-Bay. The cylinders were badly scored, so I rebuilt the power head, installed new .040 oversize pistons and rings. Replaced all seals and gaskets. Rebuilt the ignition system and carburetor. Installed a new water pump and replaced the propeller rubber hub.  The electric starter motor checked out OK. The electrical wiring harness was replaced with new. All worn parts were replaced with new.
 
I completely stripped all of the metal parts and primed and painted with Johnson Seahorse Green and installed new decals. The motor was test run in a barrel and it started right up and idled well. Now I will but it on my Century and hopefully have it at the Kingsland meet, where I can break in the motor and make final adjustments.
 
Chip Rathbun                                          

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Thought I might send you some pictures of my latest build. It is a 16' Glenn-L design that I have been working on the last 12 months. The frames are white oak, the plywood is Douglas fir, the planking is African Mahogany. It is fasted with bronze screws and epoxy.                Thanks, Jerry Lindamood  

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Here are a couple of pics of my new rig. That's a 1965 Dodge A100 with a slant six pulling a1961 (Austin made)              Glastron Fireflite that I went to Tennessee to pick up. The motor is a 1958 Mark 58 that I bought from                      Sam Combs.         Still much work to do but it's coming along.    by Jack Hardesty

       

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                                 Thompson Restoration by Ed Slominski    

Farther down on this page you will see pictures of when Ed bought the Thompson he has now resorted.    This is the type activity our club needs where someone obtains something and works on it for the enjoyment of all members.   Pictures of the restored Thompson below:       

                 

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                                                                         By Dion Johnson

This spring I put in some hours getting my 1957 Feathercraft and Mark 58 spiffed up.  I must have done okay with my efforts because I won Best in Class of 14’ (and under) classic outboard runabouts at the May 2 & 3 2009 Keels and Wheels Concours car and boat show at the Lakewood Yacht Club in Seabrook.  Here are some pix for the website if you think that is appropriate.   There is also a shot of “before” taken at the Houston Reliant boat show in January ’09. 

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                          Two Wizard Powermatic 12s Restored by Howard Sandoz

                        L.  Pictures of motor Before from Owen Meredith  R.  Pictures of motor Before from John Slator

    Before From Owen Meredith                                     After Howard Restored the two Wizard Powermatic 12s

      More Pictures of the Restored Wizards

                                                                                         Great Job Howard !

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                                             By Chip Rathbun

 

Attached are some before and after pictures of a 1918 Evinrude RBM that I found. The motor was in a pile of 4 old motors that a local outboard motor repair shop was going to toss out. I happened to be by the shop about 2 months ago, looking for some fuel tank parts, when the owners son said; "you collect and fix up old outboard motors don't you" I said; "Yes." He told me to follow him to the back of the shop, as he had been clearing out some of junk and had piled 4 old motors on a pallet and he wanted to know if I wanted them. He told me I had to take all or none and that the scrap metal guy was coming by that afternoon to haul the junk away.  Well I went home, got my truck and picked up all four motors. 2 were 1946 3.3hp motors made by Mercury for Montgomery Wards and Western Auto, one was a 1929 Johnson K-45 and the other was a 1918 Evinrude RBM which was locked up. The RBM was missing the prop, exhaust manifold, muffler, sparkplug, magneto, rubber hoses, fuel tank shutoff needle valve, and the fuel tank was badly dented and had holes rusted through. If that was not bad enough, the piston was seized in the cylinder. I was able to free up the piston using Kroil (penetrating oil) and a little heat.
 
I had a local sheet metal shop (Western Sheet Metal) make a new tank using the old one as a pattern. I called Doug Penn and he sold me the propeller assembly, exhaust manifold and muffler, and replacement piston ring. I got a spark plug from Brillman Co. and made a new fuel tank shutoff needle valve out of a length of 8-32 threaded rod and a brass sparkplug wire nut. I cut the rod to length and chucked it up in my drill press and using a fine tooth file, filed down one end to a point. I then soldered the sparkplug wire nut to the other end. I also found a replacement flywheel knob to replace the non-factory knob someone had installed. It works great. I bead blasted all of the cast iron parts and polished up the brass. I was able to free up the piston and rings, and replaced the missing water pump spring (it had totally rusted away). Now I need to rig up a battery ignition system similar to the one used on the ELTO Rudder Twins to get it running.
 
Chip

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are some pix of a 1955 Wizard Super 10 I just finished. I bought it from Jack Hardesty awhile back. The tiller handle was broken, but Jack had a spare. I cleaned up the motor, and executed my 5 point plan. I rebuilt the carb and fuel pump. Cleaned the points and reset. Cleaned and gapped the spark plugs, replaced the spark plug wires and replaced the water pump impeller. Compression was checked and found to be 120psi in both cylinders, which is real good for a motor that is 59 years old. I stripped the cowling and cleaned and sanded down the exhaust housing and lower unit.

 
I repainted the cowling with Wizard Green from nymarine.ca and painted the lower unit with Mercury Mark 20H gold, also from nymarine. Installed new decals and installed the "trick" chrome Wizard name plates that Jack had given me when I bought the motor. I will be bringing the motor to the meet at Kingsland in hopes of running it in a test tank.
 
Best regards,
 
Chip

 

 

 

From Ed Slominski- His project on a Recently Acquired 1948 Thompson-  Pictures are Before Ed has Started his Restoration.  He will send us his progress when he starts to work on it.

I bought the 48' Thompson from the Coffey's awhile back and am working on the restoration.  I've got the inside and decks stripped, and ready to do repairs to hull.  Next step is to strip the outer hull, and stain decks, transom, etc...them coat with CPES....coming along.  Hope to be done at the end of March.  Hope to bring it to Lake Catherine......Here's a few pictures of my progress.    Editor's Note:  I am very glad to see someone take an interest in this boat and to restore it.  Keep up the good work on all restorations of boats and motors .                                      

 

 

I just completed a 1954 Johnson 3hp. I bought it from a guy in Arizona. He said that the starter handle would not pull. It arrived via UPS. I tried to pull the starter rope and I found both pistons seized. I split the crankcase and freed the pistons using Kroil and an aluminum drift. Replaced the rings, rebuilt the ignition and carburetor. Resealed the lower unit, stripped, primed and painted. Installed new decals from nymarine.ca.
                                                                                                                        Chip

 

                                                Pictures and Story Below by Chip Rathburn

  

Here are some pictures of my latest project, a  4hp 1935 Evinrude Fisherman. I traded John Slator an ELTO Pal for this motor at our last Lake LBJ meet. It sat in my shed until about a month ago.  I went to the shed looking for a mouse who had taken up residence, and noticed this motor that I had put in the back corner behind some other junk.  I dug it out and decided to go to work on it. 
Once in the shop the first order of business was to disassemble the motor and inspect the piece parts.  I found that the motor was complete, with very little problems.  The ignition had no spark (normal for an old motor like this), so a little trouble shooting revealed the condenser was bad and the points needed cleaning.  The lower unit was disassembled and it was in great shape. The grease in the unit was old but clean. The water pump is interesting. It is a small piston that is driven off the end of the prop shaft via a crankpin. It pumps water from the screen protected water pickup just forward of the prop and up through a check valve to the cylinders and the top half of the muffler.
I removed the cylinder castings from the crankcase and found that the cylinder walls were in great shape as were the pistons, but the piston rings were stuck in the ring lands.  I was able to free up the rings on the right piston using Kroil, but the rings on the left piston were a different story.  They were really stuck and no amount of Kroil was going to free them up.  The only thing I could do was to pry them out, which immediately caused them to break. Now the hunt was on for a new set of rings.  I got on line and found a company here in Dallas, D & H Distributing, who had the exact size. Best of all, the rings were of a new design where the ring end gaps are tapered and don't require filing to get the correct end gap for the particular cylinder.
Next on the agenda was hours of careful buffing and polishing. I disassembled the carburetor and found the float to be shot, but the rest of the carburetor was in pretty good shape, with only minor corrosion. I went through my spare parts box and found an old Mercury carb float which fit perfect. Next was to clean the fuel tank (which was pretty clean anyway) and make a new fuel cap gasket. I ordered a new decal from American Outboard and a new tiller grip from Foxgrips. I found a great clear coat for the decal that won't damage the decal at all. It is a water based clear acryl made by Model Master I found a Hobby Depot. I brushed it on and let it dry overnight. I had purchased 2 new-in-the-box Champion D-7 spark plugs off of E-Bay about 4 years ago (paid a small fortune), just waiting for a worthy motor to put them in. Looks like now it the time.
 
I pulled the motor over, and it has great compression and the spark is hot. Now if I can just get the nerve to put some gas in it.........
 
Chip Rathbun