April 5, 2013.

In my haste to post an April First post I completely forgot to wish everyone a Happy Easter or as I like to call it Zombie Jesus Day.

The engine installation has gone reasonably well with the best part being that the engine didn't fall on me while I reworked the engine bed beneath it.

I used a Fein Saw to cut away the old engine bed to make room for a new, lower bed. For those unfamiliar with a Fein saw, its one of the most versatile cutting tools around. There are dozens of different cutting blades available and they can be mounted in any orientation so you can get the saw into some pretty difficult spaces. Its definitely my favorite hand held power tool. Once the old bed was cut away I was left with a few options.

The vertical stringers were still usable so I had a few choices. I could build wood beds and fiberglass them into place along the stringers or I could use aluminum or steel angle iron and through bolt it to the stringers. I passed on the wood and fiberglass option because its not the best way to accomplished what I wanted and it is a lot of work to do in the time I have available.

I've put aluminum angle into a boat before and it makes a really nice engine bed. The downside is that it seems that no matter how careful you are, after time they always end up looking like corroded pieces of shit. Its pretty much the same story with steel angle iron.

This left me with what turned out to be an excellent option. We use a lot of G-10 here in the yard where solid fiberglass is required. G-10 is hard as hell compressed fiberglass. When you handle it it seems as if it would shatter if you smacked it on something. Its cousin is G-7. Its another compressed fiberglass thats available in a variety of sizes and shapes. So I ordered a 5 foot long piece of 4” wide G-7. I cut it in half and bolted it into place and we're now the proud owners of a squeaky clean, brandy new engine bed.

And now the real fun begins....