The Motor

October 5, 2007

Ok, it was foolish enough that I bought a boat just because I liked it's looks, even though I know NOTHING about boating. Now I've gone and compounded that problem by buying a motor for it! And again, I know NOTHING about outboard motors. But I liked the look of it. I'm a girl, so sue me!

I saw an ad on CL for a guy selling an unfinished project boat, and a 1961 Evinrude Lark III motor. A week later he posted again, just for the motor. I called him up, and after a few days of phone tag, we finally set up a time to go look at it at his house in N. Portland. Please note, N Portland is a LONG way from Battle Ground.

We got there and no one answered the door. I called him on the cell and he said he got called into work and forgot we were coming over, but the motor was in the backyard, so we should go check it out and if we wanted it, just take it and slide the money in the mailslot. We were right across from a high school, and there was a cop car parked down the street. Did I mention we were in N Portland? Nothing good could come of this. I thought for sure we were about to end up in a cops episode. "Well, do you always take stuff out of people's backyard while they're not home?", "Yeah, sure he gave you permission", and "what's with all this cash in your pocket, drug money?" No officer, it's for the motor, really! But no, we loaded it up without incident (after backing the van up the neighbor's driveway to get access to his backyard), slid the money in the mailslot, and took off.

And here's my catch:

And the cowl, which is really what sold me on it. This is going to look so cooooool on the boat someday! I mean, look at it - it has fins for pete's sake!

One thing I've learned from doing the cars, if you want something, sometimes you have to just jump in and make it happen. You might not do it the right way the first time. You might look back and go, oh, why didn't I wait until I knew more. So I know that might happen. But I think I'm on the right track, because this motor LOOKS right, and that's what I want. Now I just need to learn about outboards, get it running, and make it all work together.

The motor itself looks pretty clean, no leaks I can see, not gunked up. That seemed like a good sign.

It looks like it was black with gold logos originally. The white and red paint is flaking off in many places. I'll be painting it to complement the boat - whatever color we end up going with there.

Oct 8

Finished the stand for it, now I can roll it around the garage