You've done a great job on it, no doubt was stacks of work. The original deck hardware (pics below) is hard to find - I threw mine away as it was monkey metal and pitted, (I used mostly Perko and some local stainless cleats, as ebay / internet wasn't as it is now) but I suggest you look at boat jumbles (the association details are listed in the forum) or on
www.ebay.com which has a good selection, but sometimes high prices (beware of the shipping / duty&VAT and post office charges too). The other alternative is
http://www.timage.eu which do a nice range of generic deck hardware. Get chrome on brass / bronze if you use the boat in saltwater.
I put a 20/25hp Mercury on mine, top speed was early 30s (mph). The hull is very 1950s in design, flat bottomed and has the typical small tumble home (the reversed shape in the transom) kept from wood boats of that era and sharp chine, which means like all boats of that era it'll chine steer if you get caught in a wake/wave. Russ had a 1960s 18hp Evinrude Fastwin on his and it ran very well - they are cheap to buy and maintain yourself. About 30 old hp would be max. I heard they used to run 40hp Mercurys on them..I wouldn't given the limitations of the hull design and the fact these boats are 52 year old grp and have lived an often hard life. Regardless, you'd need to make sure that the transom is capable of handling bigger power. In the case of 50s / 60s and 70s grp boats most transoms have turned to mush, as they were wood encapsulated and rot is likely to have invaded the wood.
Fasten bra straps and remove dentures...
