That alone is worth cheering about. I have made my final list and begun to check
off the operations as though it were the count down for an Apollo space mission.
I now have no doubt that I will finish this project. This week I had a visit from
Dennis Berry from Berry Performance Marine to start the gimbal housing rebuild.
Dennis brought along his nephew Matt and in short order got the steering forks
out and what was left of the seals. The gimbals are in rough but usable shape. It's
going to take some serious cleaning , sealing and painting to get these in the kind of
condition that will make them worth using.
This is shot of Dennis and Matt getting started
The setup for this was to open up an access point at the top of the gimbal housing
so they could get a wrench on the upper steering fork nut. This required the cutting
of roughly an inch and a half by 3 inch section at the top of the gimbal.
This is Matt working on the starboard housing
That access panel is pretty close to the same size as the Mercury sticker.
When we are done an aluminum cover and gasket are installed to cover the opening
and prevent water from getting in. Now it's my job to get all this cleaned and painted.
It will not be easy as there is alot of marine growth and general funk.
This is the jumping off point , WOW thats funky, But its very surprising how well
Toilet Bowl Cleaner works on this stuff, I'll post photos as I go. This week is going
to be crush week and I intend to get some loose ends finished up and in short order.
Yes I can most certainly say that the light at end of the tunnel is getting bigger and that
one single thing is a great motivator.
I'll also be looking for my pirate friend who has the other drive as I need to reel in
all the parts and complete my final list.
These final days have really been the best as they have went by quickly and the results
are on a bigger scale. Hopefully this will be the way it is to the very end, or at least
we hope it is.
Next up : Dash to the Finish
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