After lots of swearing, the engine finally came out of the boat. Despite looking like there's loads of access, it's virtually impossible to get to the bolts to undo the connection to the jet drive because the bell housing is in the way. And the bell housing won't come out because the jet drive in in the way! Oh the joys!
And we pulled about 80 litres of stinking bilge water out of it. Nice.
Not pretty, but this is what the hull looks like now. Note period seats ready for retrimming - if anyone has opinions on what they might be out of, I'd be glad to hear them :
So, I'm going to crack on with a basic engine rebuilt and minor mods (sump repair, new big end and main bearings, carb rebuild, electronic ignition conversion, starter refurb, new leads, plugs, filters etc). Fibreglass man is coming next week for some other bits, so will do a couple of minor repairs on the floor while he's here. Might fill the hull with 2-part foam while the engine's out too, but still deciding on that one. Seats will go off for retrimming in marine vinyl once I source a suitable rear bench.
I've also decided that engine mods can wait for a bit - firstly, on taking advice, I want to see what the current power level feels like (ones with 115bhp outboards look scary fast!), secondly, the top priority now is to get a reliable, working water-based support vehicle for hovercraft R&D, and thirdly, I've got a million jobs on at the moment and just want to have a go in it ASAP!
love it!
