NJgr8ful

What a beautiful w/e up here in north east (NJ). Sunday was just a perfect day. Hope you got a chance to snap a few pics HD! ((you had sent me some info on the full covers you had made for your 'old' canopied Gladiator, Thx! )).

BTW IMO That is one of ,,, if not the,,, nicest example of an Apache Powerboat I've seen. Hope you're not going to go and throw a bunch of (too much) color at it. I love the 'color' now! Other than the hints of yellow lol, Hint: save that paint $$$$$$$$ for gas! hehe

trader1

Hey Will, What brought you to Grasonville? I wish I would have known. I would have met you for lunch. I would loved to have seen her! You should let me know next time you are headed down.

thedonz

for sure don't forget

donz jr mike

Hot Duck

njgr8ful : As for how it looks, the boat is what I call a good 5 footer. From 5 feet away it looks great, but up close you can see that it needs attention. There are still some chips and dings on the exterior that need to be fixed and all of the painted and powdercoated hardware needs to be refinished because nothing matches and pretty much everything is either faded, scratched up or chipped. Right now the boat has so many colors from things being added or changed over the years that it is ridiculous. Inside and out, some things are teal, some things are green, other things are red or yellow and some things are light or dark blue! It's crazy. Not only will some paint and powdercoat work freshen everything up, but it will also make everything work together towards one paint and color scheme.

On the exterior, we considered putting the Kid Apache paint job back on it, but right now we are leaning towards going with just a simple red stripe or a simple design in red against the bright white background, leaving a lot of the white showing. Maybe we'll incorporate another color as well. We'll see. That is where the painter will come in, to work the design on the computer until we get it exactly right.

For the interior, we want to change all of the red vinyl to white. Maybe use some red piping or some subtle red accents. If there is another color on the exterior, we will use that somewhere on the interior as well. Other than that, the rest of the color will come from the gages, handles, seat bases and all of the other hardware. Like the exterior, we don't want anything wild, just something simple and really clean looking.

As for the cover you mentioned, that same shop is working on one of those full covers for the Apache right now. They have been working on the patterns and they actually ordered the material for it today. This full cover is going to be red. We have had two in purple, one in bright blue and one in black, so why not do one in red? Besides, this will just help to make sure that it grabs attention going down the road.

trader1: I was there to have Offshore Performance swap out the other tranny for us. It was still working, but we, along with the folks at Huber, were afraid that it might have the same manufacturing flaw inside that caused problems in the other tranny. The serial numbers on the two trannies were only 1 digit apart, so we figured that they were probably built at the same time. Better safe than sorry. We are gonna send the tranny that just came out back to Huber to have it checked out to be sure that it is OK.

This is the first time that I have used Offshore Performance in years and I have to say that I was impressed with the guy that did this swap for us. (I don't know if he would want his name posted or not, so I will leave it out for now.) I can't personally vouch for any of the other mechanics there, but I was with this guy for most of the day and he really has his stuff together! Oh yea, this is not to mention that I called them at 4:30 the day before and they squeezed me in the next morning and took care of it while I waited. We swapped the first one out in the yard at home a few weeks ago, but it is much easier when you have some kind of overhead lifting device! Besides, after helping with the first one, all of my boating friends were conveniently busy every time that I wanted to do this one! Thank you Offshore Performance.

Fast Shafts

Hey Will, the boat looks great! I can't believe I've missed this thread for 2 weeks. I was hoping to see you in Key West, I guess you can't make it, I'll be there "Pit Lizarding" for your "Wanted" friends...
Best of luck with the boat....I hope you get all the "gremlins" figured out!
Bob G.

Hot Duck

Hey Bob! As you well know, there are always going to be kinks to work out with any new boat or new project boat. You almost have to expect these things in the beginning, and we did. Once this boat is finished though, it is all going to be worth it. We have actually had it pretty easy so far because this is the first real kink that we have run into. Cross your fingers!

As for Key West, you don't know how badly I want to be there this year to see the races and to sit down and catch up with you guys, but it's just not going to work out. That's the story of my life lately! I guess that there's always next year.

Jayl13

Will, Let me know when your coming down, LS, TheDonz, Rechevelle and I can all meet up.
and yes I moved from PA to FL!
Need my year round boating fix!
Jason

Hot Duck

YOU LUCKY DEVIL!!! Just think, you will never have to winterize a boat ever again!

Jayl13

Yes Sir you are absolutely CORRECT!
Make settlment on new house this friday as well so its all good!
J

Hot Duck

Congratulations!