Better Days A27 FC Refit

[DougSea]

Looking pretty sweet! More nice work.

[eseyoung]

Great looking work Jay. I should have had you make an extra one of every thing. I have a plywood bulkhead where you put the draws. Great use of space.

[Jay Knoll]

Thanks Guys!

Tim, I left the space under the step open, the drop boards are there for access to the stuffing box/bilge pump. I guess we'll slide some shoes or a tool box or something small into there when we don't want to get at anything. The step is secured to the bulkhead with some hanger bolts, I remove two knobs and lift it out of the way if I really want to get in there to work. Eric, go for it, that's why they created jigsaws.

Merry Christmas!

Jay

[Nancy]

Jay, the cabinet front looks great painted white! An excellent solution for plywood that wasn't rotted, just water-stained.

[whwells]

This really high level craftman's work. Thanks for sharing.
whwells 'Howard:
2006 35te Sportfisher/Flybridge
2004 Osprey Pilothouse 22

[Jay Knoll]

Hi everyone

I'm usually a "one project at a time" guy, but I'm finding that there are advantages to starting and finding out what the problems are and thinking thru alternatives while I'm working on something else. So, I've got a bunch of things in the air right now the biggie is considering how I'm going to redo the electrical system --, but in spite of that I decided to start working on the galley redo.

The hull deck joint has been repaired by the PO, believe me he did a great job, we had tons of rain last week and not a drop. Unfortunately, those leaks did damage to the cover boards in the main cabin and the galley counter. As you will see, if you have leaks in the galley area, you probably have rot in the counter.

I got the counter out with a bit of work -- there are screws underneath attaching it to the fiberglass and a ton of caulk. This stuff was in good shape, it ripped the plywood apart when I pried the counter free.

Here are some "before" shots

This will be a great opportunity to replace the hose clamp on the sink drain, and clean up some of the mold that has been growing on the hull. Everything will be painted and I'm going to try to add some insulation to the icebox as well as building a new lid. More to come!

Jay

[Larry1942]

You do really great woodwork. Your pictures will inspire me when I get to that point in the restoration. I 've been working on my new old 1984 27 family cruiser that I purchased out of Jacksonville Beach, Fl daily since I got her the beginning of October. Having to replace many of the mechanicals was not a surprise but todays call from my diesel mechanic will have me on line here with a lot of questions on where to find parts the leahman D61 engine which was built on a Peugeot(sic) block. He couldn't get any part info from Leahman people or any of his usual sources.

I'm only about 25 miles from this years get together at Twin Dolphins in Bradenton, Fl and am looking forward to seeing what others have done with similar boats.

[don123]

Many of the Peugeot engine parts are available from www.rockauto.com

Click on Peugeot, 1974, 504, 2.1l diesel and engine and you'll see many of the common parts listed there and at unbeatable prices. The hard parts to find are those that Lehman used to marinize this engine - The various pumps, hoses, zincs etc. If you ever find any of those available used on eBay, snap them up for spares, otherwise you'll be limited to having yours rebuilt somewhere when they fail

Don

[Larry1942]

Thanks for the lead Don. The 1974 504 2.1 is only one of four models shown. Do you know if the 504 is the only peugeot model Lehman consistently used over that 10 year period, 74 thru 84?

[don123]

To my (limited) knowledge, all Lehman 4D61's are based on the Peugeot 2.1 liter engine - If you were to buy something for the 504 2.1 diesel which did not fit your Lehman, that would be news and something we should certainly share here

Maybe we need a separate thread discussing 4D61 parts, what we found, where we got them and what works and what doesn't?

I pulled the 4D61, with only 1400 hours on it out of my boat to replace it with a 100 hp turbo intercooled Yanmar (4JH3-HTE) mostly because I wanted something I could buy parts for, anywhere, anytime. Smoother, quieter, lighter and better fuel economy had something to do with it too . . . . but none of that justifies the expense, IMO

Don

[hetek]

It's my understanding that the Peugeot 2112cc diesel is the only one Lehman used to marinize for the 4D61 model. If for some reason you find a rare 4D50 model, it is simply the 4D61 detuned. The Japanese or Chinese market needed a lower horsepower engine than 61 hp from Lehman and rather than reinvent the wheel, they just detuned it to 50 hp. At that power they omitted the oil cooler too.

There is an owner's manual for the 4D61 in the "Documents" section of this site.

The Peugeot diesel is workhorse of an engine known as being used in French taxi cabs. For info and marinizing parts for the 4D61 you can't get better than Bob Smith at American Diesel. Bob was the engineer at Lehman during the 4D61 years and he basically said that they could not kill it during testing. They even tied a boat bow to the bulkhead, put it full throttle and left it for the night. Came in the next day and it was still running just fine! They put two in a boat and went water skiing with it. Bob also owns a 28TE and a 30FC Albin. I bought my wet exhaust elbow from them.

- Jon B.

[Jay Knoll]

Hi Everyone

I got caught up in getting somethings accomplished on this project so I haven't posted in quite awhile. We took a shakedown cruise in May, spent three weeks slowly cruising up the east coast of Florida. We were hoping to do the St John's river but it started getting hot and a bit buggy and when we learned that there wasn't any room at the dock in St Augustine on Memorial Day weekend we just decided to stay put in Daytona. The boat ran great and all of the improvements/repairs I did worked fine. So good times on Better Days.

Since I last posted I've done a bunch of stuff, there is still LOTS more to do to get her into the shape I'd like but at this point she's mechanically and electrically sound so that's the important thing, the rest of the tasks are to fine tune the accommodation and make her shine.

Here's what has been done since my last post, I'll include some pics after the narrative

Refinished aft cabin doors
Installed new reading lights and cover boards in aft cabin
New cushions and covers in aft cabin
Hella fans at the foot of each berth

Upgraded electrical system including
new isolated starter battery and automatic charging relay
new house bank 2 4D's
redid all battery connections and eliminated multiple ground points
new DC and AC panel
2000 watt inverter with remote control hot water heater isolated from inverter so it can only run on shore power
4 75 watt solar panels with controller
replaced switches at helm

New galley with custom dish rack and knife holder
New faucet and deep sink
Upgraded ice box insulation and built new cover
created access to thru hull sink drain thru hull fitting
Opened up space beneath drawers for more storage, added sliding doors
New propane stove with control and new propane locker in cockpit
New Faucet in Head

New cushions in main cabin (Ultra leather)
Hella fans
Alpenglow lights

Installed YETI ice chest in main bulkhead settee, surrounded it with 3 1/2" of high density foam insulation

Veneered all bulkheads and doors with quartersawn Ash veeneer
Milled new cherry fiddles and trim pieces
Installed shelves in the holding locker

Cleaned all interior lockers with bleach and painted them with white gloss enamel

New pressure water pump

Cleaned up holding tank lines, installed 90 degree elbows to eliminate crimps in line

[Jay Knoll]

More pics, the site was acting quirky, perhaps I was trying to attach too many at once

[Jay Knoll]

And some more

[Jay Knoll]

Still More