Saving Old Seagulls

Hi there, I’m a new member and I’ve recently acquired a very small flock of seagulls. Don’t have a seaworthy boat yet but that’ll come. As a boy my father was always messing about on boats, building boats or converting inshore trawlers and army pontoons into cabin cruisers, I grew up seeing boats all being pushed along by seagulls and whilst we never had one, every magazine of the day seemed to have their adverts.
Now, much much older, I wanted to own one. Nostalgia maybe, and I started looking around. They seem easy to pick up on the south coast but not so available up north of the border. I looked at the SOS website and surfed the web, drooled and recently was lucky enough to purchase two 40+’s. Both more or less complete and a third seized incomplete ‘gull was thrown in for nowt as I wanted something that I could strip and learn from.
My aim is to learn as much as I can by deconstructing and cleaning up so that I will be able to service and maintain the other two. Its my winter project and I want to put one or both 40+’s into action next spring/summer.
They are Dec ’69 and Oct ’75 models. The seized motor is a revelation though and great fun. It started as a Apr ’70 40- and has a 40+ bottom end. The piston was seized and the gearbox was seized. The flywheel appears to have warped as it spins slightly off axis. I have spent blood sweat and damned near tears getting the screw headed bolts out of the gearbox and water pump housing but got there. The block and piston have been freed but show signs of earlier attempts to free and are damaged, The chrome driveshaft tube is off and pristine and so is the galvanised exhaust. Carb looks to be fine and I’ll end up with some great spares from this exercise.
Strange thing is, that it looks as if it has been put together from a collection of duff parts rather than being at all original, perhaps with the intention of appearing better than it is. Doesn’t worry me, I’ve learned a lot and got some very good extra bits.
And in terms of learning a lot, I’ve drawn heavily on the good advice in this forum to help me get so far. So this introduction is also a thank you to you guys.
Ken
Scotland

Welcome to the craze man. Were bouts in scotland ya from? I too find it hard to get seagulls so far north.

Paul

-- infinitely more rewarding to get old dead motors back to life than just buying them ready to run ain't it? ( but hopeless cases can drive you crazy!)

blackdoggie wrote:Hi there, I’m a new member and I’ve recently acquired a very small flock of seagulls.

Welcome aboard, Sir! Be careful, this is habit-forming.


- Ted

Thanks guys, I think I've already come to realise that its a bug that bites!

I've been having a look through old threads for some posts on the black paint or varnish used on cylinder blocks. One of my 40+'s has a bit of white salt, some rust and a couple of chips. In order to improve its looks I thought that when I clean her up (I say her as boats are normally feminine gender are they not - seagulls not sure! ) I'd like to touch up these bits. What would be recommended given the temperatures it operates at but would still be fairly chip resistant?

Spun the other 40+ this evening and was pleased and reassured to see a lovely blue spark so hope I can get that one in good running order quite easily (famous last words). Very encouraging though since the other one was as dead as a doornail! Not to worry, I'd planned to have a good look inside that one anyway.

Ken

Hi Ken

Like yourself I'm from the South West and the old birds are not too freely had unlike our friends south of the border they seem to be hoarding them.
I hope you enjoy your projects, I too have two 40+ on the workbench, and like you I get great help from this forum and the guys.
Keep us up to date on how things are going, you'll soon have the bug badly.

Happy seagulling.

Gerard

With regard to block painting, I've used automotive engine paint with good results. Here in the American colonies it's sold under the common Rust-Oleum brand and said to be good to 500 f. I've also been caught using paint from those little scratch touch-up bottles.

In either case, if your block gets hot enough to hurt the paint, you're going to have mich more serious issues to work on at that time. One good thing about auto engine paint is that it claims to be fuel-resistant. That's not a bad thing at all.

- Ted