Speed boat.
This is the boat as we bought it from a kind gentlman for £50! At this point none of our parents knew we had it! We were storing it at a friends farm and to get it there we had to make our own tow bar for my mums corsa! obviously she wasnt told anything untill it was all fitted and she was allowed in the garage again! :-) it still took her 2 days to realise hehe!
The boat was half painted very badly, mouldy, smelly, rotten pannels and horrid car seats!
Below: As you can tell from the expression on my face, the boat at this point was a wreck.
Below: After evaluating all the damage to the boat and with a very long list of jobs to do we set about starting the boat restoration. We started by removing everything that was rotten, broken, seized, ugly or useless. In the end we ended up with just an empty hull :-) We realised at this point that almost all the parts we took off would have to be fabricated by us at home.
With the boat stripped out we turned our attention to the trailer. I think the trailer was actually worse than the boat! The trailer was only small but weighed loads. It was made from two great big heavy scaffolding bars very badly welded together with another huge steel girder welded across as an axle. The suspension was seized causing the boat to bounce on the trailer, the tyres were almost bold with cracks, the wheel bearings had huge play in them (The wheel could tip about 3cm either way!) it was very rusty and didn't support the boat enough at all. Obviously there was nothing worth saving and so we made it as safe as we could and then started to think about how we could get a new trailer.
After browsing the paper and Ebay it was clear that we could not even afford a second hand trailer. For a boat this size we were getting prices around the 1k mark. We then looked at getting something like an old car trailer or large flatbed trailer and modifying it but again they cost an absolute bomb. Then we had a brain wave! on my way to sixth form I have to drive down a small country road, off to one of the sides there was this very old caravan that I can remember being there for years. It was vandalised, had taped up windows and was sunken into the ground. Later that day we went to see the owner, she agreed to let us have the trailer and demolish it there on her land! Obviously we were over the moon. The plan was to take the caravan part off the base and then use the chassis for a trailer.
Later that day she rang my house to confirm that everything was going to plan and that I would be there the next day to start demolishing it, unfortunately my mum answered :-( She shouted my name out and as I came into the kitchen she shouted "Andrew you are NOT having a caravan!!!!! You have a Boat, Go-Karts, Several Cars and a Racing Lawnmower you are not to get a caravan!" This of course I found very funny and after I stopped laughing and she stopped shouting I explained what I was going to do. She was not happy but I knew she would see sense later on :-)
Below: Making the trailer safer
Below: We start work on the caravan!
Below: With the interior stripped all the windows and door removed we could start taking down the frame.
Below: Dismantling the frame was very easy. Most of the panels were taken off complete by bashing the join all the way along. Any difficult parts were cut with metal scissors.
Below: The floor was very rotten and so were the walls in places.
Below: The roof was taken off in one lift.
Below: Its a messy job! cleaning up took almost as long as demolishing. Im sure we could have done it neater though :-)
Below: The frame at last out of the ditch and looking good. It was still a long way from being a boat trailer. It now needed a bit of welding to the A frame, new lighting, rollers and sliders put on to hold the boat, winches, tie-points, and a good paint. Amazingly the tyres were brand new! they still had the little spikes on them and were not craked or square at all.
Below: Allot of the wood etc was burnt on site and all the insulation glass etc was taken to the tip.
Below; DISASTER! our home made tow-bar had broken! This time we decided to buy a genuine one!
Below: This is the trailer almost complete with the boat on. All the rollers are on, two main sliders and new lights. We still need to fit the new mudguards, paint, add more tie-down points and add a storage compartment.
The suspension seems perfect. The boat does not bounce at all, the ride is very smooth and has towing is a delight!
