subzero

Basically my mate only charged me for the paint, and a couple hours labour. $400 at mates rates. Gotta be happy with that. All up after we bought it for $2000, we probably have spent another $3000 in completing the restoration. Rob.

It was basically just a lot of really hard work in rubbing it back trying to get most of the old paintwork off. My father-in-law and I sprayed on the undercoat on with our compressor, but I got a mate of mine to spray the top coat on in a spray booth and oven. I've posted a couple more pics below. Spraying the undercoat on took a whole weekend. The finished product out of the booth was awesome. A real glassy finish.

More pics.... Got the windows in. I had to cut the windscreen down to get it to fit. Bought it off Ebay for $80. Had to modify the front windows because one frame was missing. So I put in 10mm tinted perspex. Workeda treat. Inside the boat I put new seats in, rewired everything, new switch panel and added an AM/FM stereo. Finally on the water at Nelson Bay in April 2008. It went really well. The motor is a 60HP Mariner and did not disappoint. Rides on the plain really well.

Hey Fishraiders, Its been a while since I've been on, have been putting on the finishing touches to the boat. Its finally finished after about 20 months of hard yakka. I've posted a few pics so tell us what u think. Bought it in July 2006. I replaced 2 pieces of plywood inthe transom. This took forever to get it looking right. Pulled the motor off and resprayed the whole thing. Time for undercoating. Geeez it was heavy.... Motor mounted and ready for testing.

Thanks guys. And that was on a number 2 size hook with a peeled prawn. It was hooked on the edge of the lip. Cheers.

Hey Raiders, Went out today in the father-in-law's boat at the Hawkesbury River. Arrived at the Parsley Bay boat ramp at 7.30am and it was packed out to the rafters, there were people parking their trailers anywhere they could fit. Once we got on the water we could really feel the heat even at that time of the morning. Soon after all the action started. My four year old son on his first trip out pulled in a 32cm jewfish. That was fantastic! Then a friend of ours christened her new pink fishing rod with a nice 37cm flathead. A few pinkies, a catfish and a couple of small tailor graced us with their presence. Then the BIG one. I pulled in a 77cm flathead on my Saratoga rod and Salterus 40 baitfeeder reel, with 6lb(2.7kg) mono line. It weighed in at 3.2kg. It was the BIGGEST flathead I have ever seen and a PB for me. That was all the action which lasted till about 11am. From then on the wind had picked up and water was getting quite choppy. All in all it was a great day out with the only sad thing being the skipper only caught the small catfish Here is a pic of me with the monster flathead which is going to hit the BBQ tomorrow night for New Year's Eve.

Yeah I followed the correct procedure out of the manual to change the oil. I was running it in gear to check that I had positioned the gear shift lever correctly when we refitted the gear box to the leg. This whole boat rebuild has been a learning experience, so I guess this is another.

G'day Raiders, I've been rebuilding a 4.4m Stejcraft fibreglass runabout for about 18 months now and I am/was looking forward to getting it out on the water for the first time at Xmas time. The motor on the back is a 1980 Mariner 60Hp. I've replaced the leg on the motor due to the main bracket being seized and corrosion on the bolts which secure the bracket and the motor to the leg. I picked up another complete motor off ebay for $150 which apparently the only problem with it is its letting water into on of the pistons. So I have a few spare parts. All the work has been done by myself and my father-in-law. Today I was running the motor just to give it a run because it hasn't been run for quite a while. I put it in gear for a couple of minutes when a really bad sounding screech was coming from the motor. I quickly killed the ignition. I could smell oil which was not a good sign. Further investigation revealed that a hole had been blown out the side of the gear box. I am at a loss to explain why it happened because we ran it a couple of months ago when we first put it back together. The only time we did anything to the gear box was when we changed the oil and replaced the impeller. So now we are going to have to use the spare gear box that I have. Any info as to why this could happen would be greatly appreciated. Can it be repaired? I've posted a pic so you can all see the damage. Cheers.

I'll be taking my 4yr old son out to Nepean river for his first ever fishing session. He is getting really excited about catching his first fish. Hopefully the weather will hold out for us on the weekend. I don't want to spend another weekend at home with the . She is 37 weeks pregnant with our third boy. Those hormones really do make her a little , and then when she starts cracking the to start doing things around the house........ it's time to go .

You've done a pretty good job there Shan77 and it looks really good. The false floor and carpet makes a huge difference. I've been working on my own project for about 18 months now. I'll be posting mine up aswell when its all complete. Only a few weeks to go now and we can go Although I have been slowed down with some health problems over the last couple of months. I hope you get some great use out of you're tinnie and the motor holds up. Cheers Rob.

Yeah I didn't think so. We've got another job up at Darwin. I'll have a bit of a fish up there. I guess I might go and climb that big rock.......

G'day Raiders, I am going over to Alice Srings and Uluru in a couple of weeks for work and was just wondering if any of our expert fishermen and women have been fishing out there. I'll have a couple of days free on the weekend in between work. I'd really love to catch a Barramundi at least once in my life.... Cheers

I caught a mullet, I think it was a mullet. i was a out 9 or 10 and we were fishing down at the Yass River, back when there was water in it........almost 20 years ago now.

This is my boat which is still under restoration. It is an old 4.4m Stejcraft has a 60HP Mariner 1980 model. I will post again when it is completed. it should look really nice......we hope! Finally it's FINISHED! Here it is below!

Nice work there Methodman, I'm currently two months into a rebuild myself, I'm sure you'll agree that it takes some determination to get it finished. it looks like you've done a great job though. You should get some good out of it.