New to me 215 Explorer

[ckumpel]

Just picked up a 99 215 explorer with 175 evinrude ficht.  The whole boat has about 430 hours on it.  Motor runs great considering it is a ficht.  Did some work on the boat already. 

Done to date:
-clean, buff, wax
-New vhf with antenna
-New hds9 chartplotter and transducer
-repaired the pitot tube speedometer
-stainless gas tank vent
-new vinyl upholstery
-led hard top light
-new parmax 4.0 washdown pump
-new kenwood stereo and alpine speakers

plans include all new thruhulls, remove old decals, new rubrail, reupholster cuddy, new eisenglass

picture of it when I bought it

 

[ckumpel]

more pictures of the work and after it was cleaned and buffed.

[ckumpel]

new upholstery

[RickK]

Looking really good  Getting her ready for some blood.

[ckumpel]

yes sir, had it out sunday and it ran well.  All my gauges went out though, so I think I have a bad ground on them.  Looking into it this week.

[wingtime]

Whjat year is the Ficht?  I woudln't worry about it.  If it has lasted this long you don't have anything to worry about.  I personally would only run the Evinrude XD100 in it.  At the Minimum the XD50.  See if you can find a local dealer who sells it in bulk.  I'd also run the Evinrude carbon guard in the fuel.  Don't baby the Ficht.. don't idle it for long periods of time.  They like to run and run hard.  Running them hard will prevent carbon build up.  Depending on the year chack and see if all the updates have been done to the motor.

Make sure the bolts securing the aft seat are sealed good.  Better yet.. take them out... seal the core with epoxy... then reinstall with 5200 or 4000UV.  If water can seep in thru those bolts you'll end up with a soft deck. 

What kinda WOT RPMS and speed are you getting?

[ckumpel]

1999, I am running the xd50 and I found local dealer that has it in bulk.  I am pretty sure xd50 has carbonguard as an additive.  The update has been done.  I planned on trolling with it, but then running the hell out of it after trolling.  Planned to decarbonize it every 50 hours, probably twice a year.  Good suggestion on that aft seat, I will remove the screws and seal with 5200.

Couldn't see WOT RPMS because the ground issue with the gauges but I will see next time I go out.  I got about 36 mph on the gps at WOT, but was still figuring out the trim.

[wingtime]

Your gauge issues could be your keyswitch. I've had it happen to me where it can turn off just enough to turn off the gauges yet not enough to ground out the ignition and shut off the engine. Remember your gauges and accessory circuit are part of the engine harness.

BTW if you want a new instrument panel I can CNC cut you one. I made one for my buddies 215.

[ckumpel]

Pretty sure that I'd exactly what it was, I checked them out tonight and they worked.  I'm going to put all new heat shrink connectors on them anyway to ensure it.  Also got the trim gauge working, the sender was crusted up so I had to free it up.  Thanks for the help! How much for the dash panel?

[wingtime]

Yeah the lever on the trim sender gets stuck over time. Just free it up with some penitrating spray and work the lever up and down. Then spray it with something like corrosion X now and then tobprotect it. (I spray my entire motor and powerheads with it)

[ckumpel]

I'll look into the corrosion x, thanks for the tip.  Mind sending me a picture of the cnc' d gauge panel? Curious on how it came out and costs.  Thank you!

[wingtime]

here is a night time pic:

[ckumpel]

Cleaned up the boat quite a bit more.  Installed a new fishbox pump and bilge float switch.  New ignition switch which fixed the gauge issue.  Put new lower motor mounts on, spark plugs, fuel filters, t stats.  Then i had an issue out on the water and wound up putting a new lift pump on it.  It runs good though.  5400 to 5500 rpms WOT.  37 mph.

Cosmetically, i fixed some rot in the bottom edge of the hard top by dremeling out the rot and filling with six10 epoxy. Then i painted the edge with some epoxycoat from pettit.  I removed all the old teal decals and installed a new sapphire blue aquasport decal.  Still need to do the boot stripe though.

Took my nephews out fluke fishing and caught a few shorts, no keepers.

[Capt. Bob]

Looking good. 
Don't be such a stranger.

[RickK]

Looks good!! Nice Flounder - bet he'll remember that for a long time.