Restoration of a Vintage Outboard Motor - Elto Cub - Part 2

After all of the primer work was complete, I hit the entire motor with a basic silver as the motor had been painted from the factory. I wanted to keep it as stock as possible. 

 

 

I did however take a few liberties. Its mine, I can build it as I please. I don't have any intent of selling it, so I began polishing a few parts. Anything that would have the most direct fuel contact, and the flywheel got heavy polishing.

I made new brass fuel lines and sourced new brass fuel connections for it, as the originals were gone.

Original style ELTO waterslide decals came from an online vendor. Overall, I was very pleased with these. I've used these on other restorations, so installing them was no surprise. The entire motor was also clearcoated with automotive clearcoat after all decals were installed to protect them from fuel.

 

I also elected to paint the gas cap red, as my research indicated that the original gas caps were red. 

For the tiller, I deviated a little. I've found the reproduction molded rubber handles to be a little lacking. I'm a wood turner, so I found this great looking acrylic swirl blue and white blank. It is in the blue and white that my family calls "Hollanger Blue". I turned a small handle from it. Then I made a new tiller from 3/8" aluminum stock and polished it up. I think it looks great installed.

I don't think this tiny little motor will be pushing my duck boat any time soon, but it looks great back there!

Restoration of a Vintage Outboard Motor -Elto Cub - part 1

I recently picked up this wonderful little ELTO Cub outboard motor. 1/2 horsepower from an outboard motor. Won't be skiing behind this little thing. Pretty amazing little motor however. Wonderfully made. They truly do not build things like this anymore. The quality of castings is really nice, especially the top starter rope casting.

 

However, when I got it, it had likely sat for the last 40 or so years in the overhead of a barn. The condition was very rough. It turned over, but everything was terribly corroded. The tank leaked, parts were missing, and the coil was shot (likely from a poor repair 40 years ago).

I started by sanding down the tank to bare metal and soldering the leaks to ensure it was fuel tight.

Next up, I stripped every piece of metal or casting down to bare to see what I had.

I primed the tank and looked at what kind of real dent damage I had.

Next up, I did body work to begin straightening the dents out and making it look like new again.  

All the aluminum castings got etching primer and then basic lacquer primer.

More in the next post.