I’m starting to mount the engine / trans., it has all new stringers and floor. The wife calls it a hot rod for the water. She’s right.
Used to ski behind a Ski Nautique. Mid 70's boat. 351 Cleveland power. I love straight inboards. And what a power house. Yank your arms out. Cool project.
This project came with a “boat load” of new parts. It also has some cool vintage parts. The Cal Custom hood scoop is sweet, but I don’t really like how it looks on the engine cover. I might sell it at a later time. The intake manifold is something I will not be selling.
My brother in law had a late 70’s Mastercraft Stars-n-Stripes with the 351 in it. It sounded so awesome and pulled like an ox. I want to teach our kids to ski behind something cool. Maybe catch a fish or two...there’s really only room for two fish anyways.
So, the boat has come a long way, since I posted last September. Come to think of it, so has the world, in a not so great way. I’m, hopefully, getting close to starting the boat for the first time and thought maybe my HAMB brothers might want something to read about besides another hot rod thread? I joined and posted a lot on correctcraftfan.com, but I got the feeling they were more like the ford barn, than the HAMB. I appreciate their interest in pure, certified USCG, not straying from stock position, but my boat, as most of early vintage, have been messed with so much that it isn’t cost effective to “restore”. Sadly, these boats don’t bring high dollars upon resale. I’m passionate about resurrecting old mechanical things of the past, but I’m not going to go too far beyond parts investment to feed my passion. Of course, I never expect to recoup my time. I’m fine with that. I wouldn’t do it, if I didn’t get some enjoyment from it. So, if it’s OK with y’all...I might “start from the beginning” and document some of the major milestones of the restoration of this boat.
@mercman@bulldog I’m going to be getting back to this thread as the weather gets colder. In the meantime, I realized my dog picture is gone. So, here it is re-posted. Our Westie is 14.5! years old, and our Cairn is only 3. We really like terriers. No fear big dog attitude wrapped up in a compact package.
Here’s the engine mounted, but this is getting a bit ahead of all the other work. I’ve been crazy busy lately.
Looking good. Those little 302s are great, the ski tique came with a Hallman moody 302. My brothers and I were competition slalom skiers growing up, them especially, and we skied behind an 85 master craft, which my middle brother still owns to this day, almost 3k hours in it I think... I switched to a v drive after owning a few different dd boats, a cc sante 210, and it's been a great boat. One of my buddies restored an old mustang. We used to be mechanics together at the local nautique dealer during college. I'll see if I can scare up a Pic of it... Very fun little boats. Edit, added a few pics
^^^^That’s a great looking boat!^^^^ I had been posting on Correctcraftfan.com, but it didn’t have the HAMB feeling I’m used too and it ended up getting hacked. The hacking caused tons of photos to disappear. As you can see from a few of my other posts, I was cheating and just taking screen shots off of that other website and re-posting here. Time to participate properly.
Backing up a bit, I wanted to document my trailer mods / rebuild. The bearings were completely cleaned, inspected and re-sealed. The leaf spring mount bolts and wear rollers are all new and lubed. New light bulbs, wiring harness, winch and coupler were installed. I’m planning new wheels and tires next spring. Here it is getting ready for the mods.
Here’s the notch required to clear the prop and I added mini side guide bunks, angled to match the hull. I think this will make loading easier. Especially since the rear bottom of the boat is very flat.
After new fenders, and admiring how well it fits the boat, I was finally ready to get back to the boat. The trailer is rated for 2950lbs.
Distractions...I’ve got a lot of them going on lately. The transmission that came with the project was in an unknown condition. I was told it worked, but I wasn’t going to install it behind a fresh, zero hour engine. My wife graciously printed out the entire rebuild manual and I went through the trans. It probably did work, as it was very clean on the inside. The reverse clutch was the weaker “fiber” disc. Now, it has the steel reverse discs. It also matches the engine in both hours and color.
Plenty of work was done to the engine. It was an assembled long block when I got it, but it had several things not up to my standards. I could see the cam and lifters lacked lube, so I made sure there’s a good coating of moly lube on them now. I ordered the rear sump pan, installed the oil pump, the timing cover, reverse water pump and the old school “Say Why And” intake manifold. There were about 4 different shades of blue on various parts. I corrected that as well.
Everything is now zero hour / totally rebuilt. I picked up this Edelbrock for $50 and it’s currently installed “backwards”. Being backwards placed the fuel inlet on the fuel pump side of the engine and it also keeps fuel biased towards the accelerator pump. I have a wedge for the intake manifold if it doesn’t run properly, but I’m going to try it like this initially.
The Jalopy Journal
