1978 Johnson Outboard Restoration
Bringing a 1978 Johnson outboard motor back to life, part by part.
A hands-on restoration project — stripping, cleaning and rebuilding a decades-old two-stroke outboard, documenting the journey from seized and crusty to running sweet again.
Key features
Full teardown
Complete strip-down to assess decades of wear, corrosion and seized components.
Powerhead rebuild
Cleaning, inspecting and replacing the worn internals that keep an old two-stroke alive.
Cosmetic restoration
Stripping, prepping and repainting the cowling back to its original character.
Not everything on here is a screen. This one is grease under the fingernails — a 1978 Johnson outboard that hadn’t turned over in years, picked up as a project to restore properly rather than just patch up.
Starting point
Seized, crusty and full of surprises. The first job was a careful teardown to understand exactly what I was working with before ordering a single part.
The rebuild
Cleaning every component, replacing the parts that were past saving, and reassembling with the patience an old engine demands. Half the fun is learning how these things were engineered in the first place.
“There’s something deeply satisfying about taking a dead engine and making it run again with your own hands.”
Like what you see?
Whether it’s a build, a brand, or just a chat about an idea — I’m always open to interesting projects.
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