Red Neck yard art

[Winger Ed.]

Awhile back I was going to put a seal kit in my old Mercruiser outdrive on the boat.
In the process, I ruined a part that cannot be replaced since it is about 4-5 generations back on these things.

My only viable option was to buy another/newer boat with a blown engine for the salvage.
For the newer generation out drive to adapt onto my 1968 hull & engine, I had to replace everything from the flywheel back.
Mounts inside the hull, and the gimbal ring on the outside for the new outdrive to mount up.

I couldn't just throw the old, destroyed one away, so I gutted out the gears & shafts, and made it into our mailbox post.
When we moved here, I brought it with us.

As I was setting a new post, and putting it up out front, I got to meet one of the neighbors as they went by.
He had a few comments, and liked it.
I told him I was glad to meet him, and, "I'm your new redneck neighbor from hell".

[dangitgriff]

I like it! How do you keep thieves from making off with the prop, though?

[pworley1]

Very nice.

[Winger Ed.]

I like it! How do you keep thieves from making off with the prop, though?

I thought of that, and the value of the different castings.

The cast Alum. upper, mid, lower gear cases, and the prop all have several real obvious 1/2" holes bored through them.
No way any of them could be salvaged to use again.
The prop doesn't have a shaft, its bolted on with several allen head screws straight onto the lower unit case.

Then its bolted to the steel post-- it weighs about 75 pounds by itself,
with 1/2" bolts yanged down too tight for a dope head to get off, and they're sort of hard to reach even with the right wrench.
So far, nobody has tried to get it off to cash in for $40 at the scrap yard.

One of these days, I'll teach myself to work sheet metal and make a replica supercharger to put on top of the mail box.

[Mytmousemalibu]

Looks like an Alpha drive. My buddies 19ft 1986 Cobalt with a 4.3L Chev has an Alpha. Not a very tough drive and has given us some problems. It needs a new engine now so one of these days its getting a fuel injected Vortec 4.3L we yanked out of a wrecked Blazer. It was going to get forced induction too, turbo or blower. I can tune the ECU with my EFILive system. The old Alpha drive would scatter part numbers all over the place. Plan was to find a good used Bravo 2 or 3.

[Three44s]

I like it!

Three44s

[Winger Ed.]

The old Alpha drive would scatter part numbers all over the place. Plan was to find a good used Bravo 2 or 3.

This one is a Franken power plant.
The hull is a 1968, 21' Alum. Cherokee. It came with the 120hp GM 4 cyl. The outdrive was white, and didn't have hydraulics.
You had to lean over the back, push a lever to put it in reverse.

I bought it in the 90's and overhauled a 70's era 120hp, 4cyl engine and hung the 70's era outdrive
on it and was able to put hyd. tilt rams on too.

I sold it to a buddy in '05.
He really wanted my State Arms .50BMG and as part of the deal, I bought it back 3 years ago.
I overhauled the engine again, then ruined the out drive.
I got the 1996 salvage boat with a blown 4.3. If I didn't have so much in the little 4cyl, I'd have overhauled it
and put the entire 1996 power plant in the old Cherokee.

[slim1836]

My kind of neighbor.

Slim

[LUBEDUDE]

That’s awesome Ed! I like the added touch of the exhaust on the mailbox too.

[km101]

My “by the rule book” mail carrier would have a stroke if I put out something like that, but I LIKE it!

[country gent]

Before doing mail box posts check with your carrier, a lot of states have laws on what can be used for posts now. In Ohio it needs to be a breakaway post, a 4x4 is the biggest you can use. Here it was common to see milk cans with the post set thru them Or old one bottom plows with the mail box on the lever sitting out. this law rule has made them all illegal. If hit you may end up paying for damages to the vehicle and or injuries. There are codes for what can and cant be done how it can be done and last what it can be

[Winger Ed.]

Before doing mail box posts check with your carrier, a lot of states have laws on what can be used for posts now. In Ohio it needs to be a breakaway post, a 4x4 is the biggest you can use.

All I found for here-- and ya think it would be a federal thing for all of it-- was the height and distance from the road.

Years ago a mail carrier hit and knocked down a buddy's mailbox post.
Then the post office sent him a letter to fix it.

We did, with a schedule 40, 4" steel post set 4' into the ground.
A year or so later he saw a mail truck with a smashed in fender..... and there was a big white mark on his post.
But, never heard a word about it.

There's a guy a few miles from here that has a old, dead forklift parked out in front of his property.
The forks are set & locked at the right height, with his mail box on one of them.