Quote:
Originally Posted by KSims1868
Do you have any completed pics yet? Did you get it together as hoped?
The paint is a bit "much" for my tastes...but dang nice looking job on it. Tell us more about the boat's history, specs, etc...
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well, here goes...
its an 88 excel 28 that i bought from a "really, really good friend" you know, the whole "nothing wrong with it" boat...lol, right.
had a stroked 454 mag in it, with stock exhaust, pfaff cam, and a dart intake. ran 68 like that... for about 3 trips out until one of the manifolds started leaking into the motor so bad, that it dropped an intake seat. at this point, i should add that in those 3 trips out, it went through 3 starters, a fuel pump, a rubber exhaust hose, and needed a carb rebuild. (nope, not a thing wrong with it right?
so i go through the motor, add a set of pfaff merlin heads, drop the compression a touch because i wanted to put a blower on when money was right, an imco box, hydraulic steering, new interior, and a set of stellings aluminum manifolds with dry tails. oh yeah, a new ring gear too, because the previous 3 starters and who knows how many before i bought it, killed the ring gear. i also figured now was a good time to stuff a bunch of stereo crap into it, cuz it needed 400 more pounds like it needed an anchor in the water while trying to come on plane...
1st trip out, runs 63... wtf?!?!?!?! ok, do some tuning, fix a couple of my own screw ups, cool... lets get it back out on the water and see what happens... key on, crank, ching... yeah, we all know the sound of starter death... i wont repeat the catch phrases i used at that moment.... back to the parts counter for ANOTHER new starter, ill take a spare while im here, just for good measure. go back out, fire it up, head out with my trusty gps... ok, i feel better now 73! woo hoo, 10k and 5 mph... im getting somewhere now, lol. so now here i am, in the middle of lake mead, taking a break and just double checking on things, timing, carb, shut it down to check the plugs... ok everything looks good, lets take a quick dip in the water, and head back for lunch and a few beers... key on, crank, ching--- oh fu*ck me, youve got to be kidding. gad as hell i picked up the spare "just for good measure". swap that out, now im too pissed to eat or think straight, so i jump straight to the beer. long story short, one of the starter bolt holes in the block was drilled slightly offset. come to find out, the putz that sold me the boat had put roughly 100 starters on this thing. so i buy a tilton starter, drill a bolt hole out, and use a piece of 1/2" steel tube, cut down the middle to relieve the offset. back to the water i go. couple prop changes, and a few timing changes and my trusty gps rips off a 76. ok, i guess im happy now. so now im thinking, this is cool, but theres a few scratches on the sides id like to have fixed. ill just wait till january and run it by my buddys body shop, he can match the paint for me real quick, and i wont be down during season.
january, drag the ***** down to the body shop and tell good ole george what i want... "just match the colors the best you can to fill in the scratches, whole things supposed to be covered in house of kolors". george says, sorry pal, not so much. its all single stage crap, i wanna paint it. for 7500, ill throw some paint on it make it look good as new, same design and all. 7500 later, he says " gonna need a bit more cash from you", i say "how much george?", he fires back "about 6500... alot more material than i was expecting, but ill do some REALLY SWEET graphics for that price also". ok, done... whens it gonna be done (mind you, i dropped it off 1-5-08, and its now 2-1-08 and supposed to be done already)
he says "no later than the end of the month, I PROMISE!" hehe, yeah right... fast forward through the ensuing mayhem to follow that statement to halloween... "its ready, come put it back on the trailer"... yay me, im so excited to get it back, since i basically lost my entire season, i hope its really cool! i get there and im like, wtf is that? are you fu**ing kidding me? holy ****, it looked way better with all the scratches the way it was before... "my painter quit, and i got stuck with this new guy that said he was really good, sorry for your bad luck, but i cant afford to pay another painter and for all new material... youll just have to deal with it. ill make it up to you later, if i can..." ok, well im thinking, this **** aint over, but i need my boat fixed. aroung march i found someone i liked to do the new new paint job, but he was pretty pricey... said it would have been less, if he didnt have to spend 40-50 hours sanding down all the garbage paint the previous painter s[rayed on there.... (you know im pissed at this point), but he says he can have it done in a month (thinking to myself, ive heard this before, but whatever). 4-7-08, wifes birthday... painter calls... "come see what you think before i clear it". wow, really? sweet, wife and i head over, holy crap, this is great. 4-11-08, cmon on down and pick it up, its done... btw, bring your checkbook...lol. without starting to cry again, ill just say that after the 1st painters 14k, and the 2nd painters bill, ive got way more than double the boats value in paint work.
sorry for the long story, but im sure at least one person out there will have found at least enough entertainment from my painfull story to justify the time it took to read about it...lol
ill keep my progress posted now that "its finally all coming together... again... i think"
lvrm
Gold Member
Charter Member
