Winter projects?

[old377guy]

I've taken out a lot of parts and pieces that need attention, replacing or repairing over the last several months. To name a few: cockpit seating, sun lounge pads, swim platform, engine accesories and brackets and some guages. I hope to be able to get to go after some issues in drivetrain, but money is short to say the least. I'd like to be able to fix a few details on trailer as well. What are the rest of you up to? - Jeff

[Rookie]

I'm taking the hook out of the bottom of the Panther, pulling an engine out tomorrow so I can have the tranny rebuilt. Got my new JimV (Valako Race heads) Dart heads last week. Jim went to the Darts foundry and changed the sand casting of the Dart 345's to his hand porting. Pretty sweet heads!!! Flow as much as an AFR357 CNC or Dart 355 CNC at only 330cc's and at the .650" lift for a marine cam. The port velocity is great. Mine will be some R&D engines. Also going to try to rebuild the trailer and finish the vinyl on my side panels.

[old377guy]

an ambitious young fellow you are!

[old377guy]

tt

[old377guy]

ttt

[MOBILEMERCMAN]

My boat project got put on hold. Purchasing a new to us home.

The project now is to build the garage to work on the boat in.

[Ratickle]

My boat project got put on hold. Purchasing a new to us home.

The project now is to build the garage to work on the boat in.

Close yet??????


I'll call you......

[old377guy]

I'm behind on my projects and have no really good excuse as I have a great place to work on it. Of course, I'm not as young as Jim.........

[MOBILEMERCMAN]

Of course, I'm not as young as Jim.........

I haven't been called young in at least 20 years. :sifone: Thanks

[old377guy]

I haven't been called young in at least 20 years. :sifone: Thanks

Yeah, but at least you've got hair

[Rookie]

an ambitious young fellow you are!

So I have been kinda busy. Engine out and drives off.
I think I found out the culprit for the transmission failure. I Disconnected the tranny lines from the cooler and the fluid was all foam and light pink almost white. I think I have a leak in my cooler. It was whipping up and bleeding all my fluid out my vent. The tranny would slip, I would add fluid and then I was off on my way for another 5 miles. There is going to be a lot of cleaning in the bilge!!

Also, here are a couple of pics of my new heads. (Jim's new marine head) They are ~330cc flow 400cfm @ 0.650", either 110cc or 121cc combustion chambers. The side by side shot is next to an old ported 345 PRO1. :)

[old377guy]

impressive

[rschap1]

Looks like fun!!
Congrats on Jims heads, to him also.

[Rookie]

Looks like fun!!
Congrats on Jims heads, to him also.

Thanks, I will pass that on to Jim as well. His heads are also PRO1's.

[old377guy]

it looks like I will add "Address steering issues" to the winter list. BTW Rookie, thanks for getting back to me, I look forward to the details and pix of your rear steering setup.

[Rookie]

it looks like I will add "Address steering issues" to the winter list. BTW Rookie, thanks for getting back to me, I look forward to the details and pix of your rear steering setup.

Sent you a quick summary, give me a call if you have any questions
Jason

[old377guy]

thanks Jason

[Rookie]

So I forgot how much I hate saltwater! Over the last week I have spent about 20 hours sandblasting, hand sanding and prepping 1 drive. Cleaning it up so I can fill in all the pits from salt water so I can paint it.
One drive ready for filler tomorrow and going to start sandblasting the second.

[Rookie]

When I bought my boat the bilge was a pit. I always wanted to clean it up and get it painted. Now that both engines and trannies are out I started to attack cleaning the bilge. 2 big cans of Comet cleanser, 1 gallon of isopropyl alcohol, 1 round toilet bowl brush, 1 hand scrub brush, 3 rolls of blue towels and many, many more hours of elbow grease.
Next cleaning up the wiring and rigging......where does it ever end?

[old377guy]

The good news is that's it's a never ending source of satisfaction when we wrap up another project. Good luck Jason.

[Bobcat]

The bilge looks great !

[Rookie]

The good news is that's it's a never ending source of satisfaction when we wrap up another project. Good luck Jason.

Jeff, I forgot to send you the pics of the steering ram lengths. I will try to get those out to you tonight.
Jason

[old377guy]

Jeff, I forgot to send you the pics of the steering ram lengths. I will try to get those out to you tonight.
Jason

Thanks, look forward to it. - Jeff

[Rookie]

Thanks, look forward to it. - Jeff

Did you ever find TRS wingplates? I have a lead on some and if you want them I will pick them up. $150

[old377guy]

Did you ever find TRS wingplates? I have a lead on some and if you want them I will pick them up. $150

I have a buddy that says he can make some from some 7/16"? aluminum sheet stock that I have - we will see. thanks Jason

[Rookie]

So it was finally nice enough out this weekend to hang some drives and tabs from the Fork Truck and squirt some paint. Starting to put things back together. Also painted the tab mounting plate. This Inferno Metallic Red really "POPS" in the sunlight. Did I mention how I HATE saltwater! It took forever filling in all the pits from corrosion.

Pay no attention to the drives pumps hanging out of the bilge, the bilge has been gutted. :)

[old377guy]

Hey, why are the drive pumps hanging out?............Very nice looking Jason, it's an inspiration. - Jeff

[Bobcat]

Looking good !

[rschap1]

Yep
Looking good!

[Rookie]

Made some mounts for the pumps to mount to the front of my bilge.
And.........Getting ready to drop some new power in.
Am I the only one participating and updating this thread? :)

[old377guy]

Apparently yes you are. Gen V blocks, eh? VERY nice looking - maybe just a bit more shine on the valve covers though:biggrinjester:

[Rookie]

Apparently yes you are. Gen V blocks, eh? VERY nice looking - maybe just a bit more shine on the valve covers though:biggrinjester:
Yes Gen V, what gave it away the blocked off fuel pump on the sea water pump. I run electric pumps now.

I am now just finishing up my other project. I wanted a little inland lake boat that I could do a little fishing on and it might be a little more economical than the Panther. :) I found this 16'6" 1989 Fabuglas Bahama on craigslist. He wanted a $1000 for it with a great running 115 Merc. I beat him down on the price a little and brought it to the shop.
Here are the before pics. It came as is, no interior, stripped.

[Rookie]

After:
I had 4 seats laying around that I got when I worked at Attwood Marine. The carpet was on sale at menards for $9.99 for 8'x6' I bought 4 rolls. Had 2 sheets of plywood laying in the basement. The floor had a few soft spots that I had to cut out and reglass. I then coated the floor and a sheet of plywood with resin screwed and glued it to the floor for more strength. I then painted the floor and carpeted over that. I know it is probably not the right way to do this but it is what I had laying around. Built 2 boxes and carpeted them for the front seats and built a box for the back seat. They are all hinged for storage under them. Removed all decals and accessories and threw down some paint.

[rschap1]

Nice lil' rig!
Enjoy.

[old377guy]

Great job Jason!

[Bobcat]

Nice job!

[old377guy]

When's the Scarab gonna get wet?

[Rookie]

When's the Scarab gonna get wet?

Hopefully this weekend, Wednesday at the latest. I decided to rip out all of Wellcrafts wiring besides engine harnesses and simplify it. It was a nightmare chasing down s#it that didn't work and corroded from saltwater. (boat came from Pompano around '98) I'll post some pics of the pile of unused wires that was connected to Air. Or the 30 wires that ran back and forth from the bilge to the dash for + and - that they could have just run two 6 gauge wires to terminal blocks for them. It is a real cluster F!

Here is a some of it.

[old377guy]

I get a perverse pleasure from ripping out silly old wiring and simplifying stuff!

[Rookie]

I get a perverse pleasure from ripping out silly old wiring and simplifying stuff!


Well then here is some wiring porn for you. :)
Before

[Rookie]

Progress.....

[old377guy]

oh yeah, now it's happenin!

[Ratickle]

Made some mounts for the pumps to mount to the front of my bilge.
And.........Getting ready to drop some new power in.
Am I the only one participating and updating this thread? :)

Maybe we should rename the thread.......



Nice looking work

[old377guy]

:rolleyes:The "economy" stalled my upgrading efforts for the foreseeable future.

[Rookie]

Took a couple pics at the launch today. Haven't opened her up yet just finally enjoying the boat this summer.
Going to install new throttles tomorrow, paint finally dried.

[Ratickle]

Looks really nice. I like the white and red scheme throughout the drives, throttles, etc.

[old377guy]

look fabulous, Jason.

[Bobcat]

:iagree:

[Rookie]

TTT
What's the projects this year!!!!

[Ratickle]

TTT
What's the projects this year!!!!


You have more plans?

[Rookie]

You have more plans?
I'm putting new Dart single planes on and probably getting larger carbs. I am going to finish truing up the bottom and sharpening all corners. I am lengthening my inner strakes. Looking for a pair of 380K-plane plates. I am searching for a pair of tall deck blocks and going to start building a spare set of big cu/in blower motors.
Also I need to get my Mustang and Trans Am out this summer. I am sure there are a couple hundred other things I need to do.

[Ratickle]

Is that all???????:rofl:


What made you decide to lengthen the inner strakes?????

[Rookie]

Is that all???????:rofl:


What made you decide to lengthen the inner strakes?????
My old Panther runs to wet. I need more than just bow lift or stern lift. I was doing some Google searches on strakes and an OSO thread popped up where BenPerfected posted about lengthening his strakes on his Panther about 4'. This was about 12" behind the center of gravity. BlueThuder who also has a Panther made up some 6' oak strakes from a profile supplied to him by Ben. I bought those 6' oak strakes from Blue and thought it could not hurt. I will attached these to my hull and test handling and performance. Put the boat back on the trailer, cutoff 6"-8" and go test again. Once I find a happy medium I will make some permanent strakes to apply to the bottom. I am just going off of what someone has already done to gain overall performance on a hull similar to mine.

This is how wet my boat runs at 72mph. It needs some serious help. And I do know that I am trying to make a bathtub fast. I am looking at this 10year work in progress a total learning experience. And I enjoy learning things.
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e395/jay2one/th_DSCF0075.jpg (http://s43.photobucket.com/albums/e395/jay2one/?action=view&current=DSCF0075.mp4)

[Ratickle]

I wonder what would happen if you cut a pad?

[Rookie]

I wonder what would happen if you cut a pad?
That probably surpasses my talents.

I also need to repair or replace my rubrail. Not looking forward to that. But with the rubrail off I will try to glass the deck to the hull.

[old377guy]

Damn, you are ambitious! I'm still waiting for my job (unemployed) situation to turn around. It can only get better. Good luck to ya!

[Rookie]

/
Jeff, What's your background? My mother lived out in Tigard for 9 years and has a few contacts out there still.
How far are you away from this? I am looking for a 182c but for the price I might just have to pick up the monochromatic.
http://portland.craigslist.org/nco/boa/2793186793.html
Jason

[Ratickle]

Almost a two hour drive.....

[Ratickle]

I may still hold the record from Lincoln High to the end of the road in Seaside.....:sifone:

[old377guy]

Jeff, What's your background? My mother lived out in Tigard for 9 years and has a few contacts out there still.
How far are you away from this? I am looking for a 182c but for the price I might just have to pick up the monochromatic.
http://portland.craigslist.org/nco/boa/2793186793.html
Jason

actually I live right on the Tigard city line. What exactly do you need?

[old377guy]

Jason, check you PM.

[Rookie]

I guess I will add to last years winter projects. I decided to put the throttles in that I have had laying around for a couple of years in. Was suppose to install them this summer but I got lazy and decided to just go boating.

[Rookie]

Couple more, I need to file a little more to get them to fit evenly. Cutout is almost line to line to the new throttles.

[rschap1]

Nice

[Ratickle]

Yes indeed.


All the cables stayed the same length????

[Rookie]

All the cables stayed the same length????

Uh, oh?? I have not hooked up the cables yet. I was planning on checking them out and maybe buying new ones if necessary.
Is there a difference in cables, I thought they were just 33c cables.