1957 FeatherCraft Ranger III / Tee Nee Trailer / 1956 Johnson 30HP

Re: 1957 or so Feathercraft Ranger - model to be determined

Tim. Nice score. That motor is awsome. As for shatk hide. It is hard to find in Canada but it is the best at keeping corrosion off aluminium. Kiley uses it on bike parts and polishes once, thats it. I would see if he can send you some. I found it in NFLD and it was $125 to ship it to NB. No one here has heard of it.q

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Re: 1957 or so Feathercraft Ranger - model to be determined

yeah that motor rocks ;D
just remember if that thing has sat without the cover on all the dust and filth laying in there will go straight thru your engine as the vibration breaks it loose, being is how there is no air filter on outboards
if it was me i would clean thoroughly all inside the engine bay before running
sweet project !!
 
Re: 1957 or so Feathercraft Ranger - model to be determined

xb33bsa said:
yeah that motor rocks ;D
just remember if that thing has sat without the cover on all the dust and filth laying in there will go straight thru your engine as the vibration breaks it loose, being is how there is no air filter on outboards
if it was me i would clean thoroughly all inside the engine bay before running
sweet project !!

Already done - vacuumed and wiped down, and I opened up the air cleaner to ensure there was no debris in there. She's in nice shape.

Boat is off at the soda blasters for an estimate. With luck it won't be insane. Was an eventful trip - the bearings on the left trailer wheel let go. No drama - saw the dust cap pop off and immediately pulled over to inspect. Might have gone 200 yards on it. Called CAA and had them haul the trailer/boat to the blasters. Will go pick up new hubs/bearings/wheels before I go pick up the boat next week.
 

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Soooooooooooooo... that was your boat I saw on the highway LOL! You probably installed them after your bearing issue, but if you haven't, check out something for your trailer wheels called "Bearing Buddies".
Anyway, been wanting to congratulate you on the cottage ownership thing and the boat is an outstanding score. I love the motor - waterskied behind those things over 50 years ago LOL. I was going to email you but all of my antique outboards are a bit small for your needs and we got rid of the racing motor 2 years ago.
As far as I can (really, really dimly) remember, the maroon / red paint on the exterior was one of the factory colours way back when - some pals had a similar boat ...
Honestly, I'd just go for a scotchbrite patina on the bare aluminum - what wasn't painted was "mill finish" - as it came out of the rolling mills, on those old boats.
As far as leaks and welding and whatnot, on those old aluminum boats, the seams were sealed with some kind of putty and rivetted together. A lot of leaks occurred when the old sealants dried out and shrank and then...
You've not doubt researched it, but there are clubs for these old relics.
I know what you mean about wooden boats, too; I have all the expensive hobbies - wooden boats, airplanes, vintage motorcycles - just never figured out how to pay for them. Got rid of my last wooden boat ages ago but still have one to complete.
Now if we could just get rid of that damned Mini and have that boat dragged around by a '57 Chev wagon that'd be great.
Congrats again.
Pat
 
From the late 1950's Johnson Service Manual:

"A clean exterior engine appearance reflects this owner's pride in his unit. Keeping the interior well lubricated and properly adjusted will give him the enjoyment deserved for his investment".

Yup. Words to live by.
 
Re: 1957 or so Feathercraft Ranger - model to be determined

Tim said:
Need to post some updates. Got a 1956 Johnson 30HP for it :D

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Were you able to find a remote steering/ throttle kit to convert the engine from a tiller control to work on your boat?

If so let me know where you found it because that might be a help for my project too!
 
So - the way these old larger Johnsons (insert jokes here) work is both the throttle and gear change mechanisms already have the mounting points for cables. You can see the mounting point on the gear change lever on the leading edge of it where there's a flat section and a hole in it. A few inches in front of that, cast into the metal top engine housing, you see another flat mounting point. There are stainless steel brackets that mount there, to hold the cable housing.

Same deal on the throttle side. There is a little nub pointing straight up on the linkage that moves with the tiller throttle. The cable mounts onto that pin. The tiller handle remains on the boat.

For the steering there is a mounting point for a standard steering cable attachment. The pulleys/bracket were in the boat, and they clipped perfectly onto the motor - so they're clearly pretty universal given I have no idea what motor was on the boat previously.

Last pic is the 'WTF am I doing with this old piece of crap' thought we all get from time to time.
 

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This is awesome. I will be following this one.

My father restored a late 50's mahogany Chris Craft about 10 years ago. Took a long time, but that thing was epic.
 
Thankfully aluminum is a lot faster and easier :)

The nice thing about these old aluminum boats is they share a lot of the lines of the old wooden boats, but of course have way less upkeep involved.

This is a slightly different model of FeatherCraft, but is basically what mine will look like when I'm done. Same engine even, and I have a spot light coming for mine too. Won it for $15 on eBay the other day. According to the seller it came off an old firetruck, so I'm assuming it is stainless steel. Will mount to the bow easily, and pivots both horizontally and vertically so I can light up the shoreline on those late night cruises.
 

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There are some - sounds like there has been some efforts to re-establish the walley stock. There's a strong lake association and stewardship. I don't do a lot of fishing, but the more people there are taking care of the lake the better.

Of course I'll likely catch flak for my 60 year old 2-stroke motor ;) In the long term I might swap it out for a more modern engine, but no time soon.
 
You could always so the modern motor and try to hide it under the prettier, old Johnson cowl...
 
Well, that's way down the road anyhow. This motor should run well and I have a complete spare powerhead here (the motor itself - cylinders, intake, carb etc.) so I'll spend a lot of time keeping this one running before plunking down the $1,000's it would cost to buy a newer motor.

I'll likely end up with a smaller 10-12 foot runabout and slap a small newer motor on that and keep this boat around as the classic cruiser.
 
Boat has been soda blasted and is now at a shop for some aluminum repair work.
 

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Before and after

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More before and after - what a mess it was
 

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After looking at those polished aluminum boats, all I can think of is how hot that metal could get on a sunny day.
 
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