Boat Vid

elponcho said:

Same boat so its easy. Except mine has the original olds 355 currently.

Click to expand...

When I rebuilt the boat, I had a journal thread going over on Hot Boat and one of her original owners (AquaBoogie1) recognized her from the pics I posted of what she used to look like. Apparenly when he got her, she was sitting in a storage yard in Pittsburg with a non-running Olds 403 (I assume this was the original motor mine had). It had spun a bearing. From a Chilton's manual he replaced the crank and bearings and rebuilt her, then ran her for 2 seasons. As the story goes, he ran her aground at Lake Camanche and sucked up a bunch of sand, which overheated the motor.

Was gonna convert it to a Chevy, but got a deal on a "built-carb-to-pan" Olds 455. This thing had rear storage compartments on each side of the motor, which he had to move the walls of it over cause apparently the motor was a tad bit wider. Put the motor in, and 20 minutes into the run that motor blew so he sold it to a guy in Monterey, who pulled a 455 out of a car and sold it again on eBay to a guy in Madera who had it for 1 season.

Long story short, I ended up with it from a family in Madera Ranchos. Floor & stringers rotted, 455 olds, 30 year old pump, weathered gel and interior, and only half the gauges working. Originally had a bow tank, which I changed over to saddles. Had the floor & stringers replaced, bottom smoothed out and cracks fixed in the fiberglass, then all new gel. Converted the engine to a Big Block Chevy and went OT headers instead of the original TT exhaust.

She runs a solid 77mph spinning 5300RPM. No shoe, no rideplate. Just a White Lightning loader and an Aggressor droop with a Place diverter.

Here's what she looked like when I got her.

And here's the GPS readout from the last run (top speed in top right corner). This was with a passenger in the boat.

Here ya go Racer J! BTW pleasure meeting you out at Fresno Slough on Sunday.

The rebuild was a winter of '06-'07 project...this is her 3rd season on the water with her new look. Still have a lot of cosmetic work to do to her yet. Blowing up the motor last season really set me back on that. The white area covering the trim with the missing rub rail on the starboard side was a repair due to a hit she took at the beginning of season 2. But here she is now.





And here is the trailer she now resides on. I had this custom built by Target Trailer Service up in Friant just past Millerton Lake back when I lived in Fresno.