Chrome.

[broompisces]

I put my new windscreen on tonight. It needs a little bit of adjusting, but it's a great fit.

[broompisces]

My Mercontrol box decals arrived today; thanks again to Alacrtiy for the Canadian source!

[Alacrity]

Good are they not?

[broompisces]

They are exceptional!

[broompisces]

I'd tried everywhere over the past three months to get a replacement steering cable for my 1970's Mercury "Ride Guide" rack and pinion system; with no joy. I've called technical departments of cable manufacturers in the US, dealers in the UK and sent countless e-mails. Everyone told me then same thing; there are no modern replacement cables, so just buy a new rotary system with a modern steering wheel, cut a big hole on your dash for the plastic bezel, bolt the nice wheel on, and you're up and running.That wasn't for me.

The other route was to try and free up my old seized cable - I've had it suspended from my drain pipe with the high end through the corner of a thick polythene bag jubilee clipped to the end of the cable with the bag full of paraffin in the hope that the seeping paraffin would aid freeing the cable; to no avail. The next step was connecting a pressurised air hose to a reservioir of paraffin and driving that through the cable - again no joy.

During this time this time, I had a search saved on e-bay for a 14' Mercury Ride Guide rack and pinion cable, knowing there was very little hope of a serviceable one appearing, if at all. Two weeks ago, "bingo" - one appeared on e-bay and I nabbed it.

It arrived a week ago and it's exactly the right item. It was in it's original "Quicksilver" box dated 1988. It's as smooth as silk and I'm fitting it over the next few days. It looks like my boat may be ready for the last day of the season; I should've started this refurbishment a bit earlier in the year!

[broompisces]

The boat's almost finished - just some final tuning to be done and some last items to be bolted on.

Please note - nothing has been touched on this boat on the outside below the rubbing strake - that's a job for this winter! I never completed the project in time for the last days of our official season on Loch lomond - but i'll be wetting the boat over the next few weeks. It will be the first on the water next year since I have missed this entire season.

Linking back to one of my earlier posts - I'm glad I took the pulpit off.

[broompisces]

Some more images.

[Mr Kenny]

A lot of hard work has gone in to that boat it now looks great and fit for water. Its great to see peeps getting them back to how they looked when they first floated out the factory doors

[broompisces]

Thank you for your kind words Mr. Kenny. Here are a couple of images of my first day on Loch Lomond this season - in mid October! There are still some small items to be attended to on the boat.

[broompisces]

I never thought i'd be able to source some original "powered by mercruiser" metal emblems. After a year of searching e-bay; I found some. They just need some gentle cleaning and then they'll be applied to the engine bay cover(after a hi res scan to secure the artwork!).