Hey Joe
 

Love Your new Cig. Really love that paint job. The flag looks great. Love to hear how it turns out with the new engs. It was nice to hear from you. Hope to see you in Destin. I will be grilling on crap Island as allways. Come eat. Good luck with the new Cig. Any more pics? Artie :flag:

thanks, artie. the new engines are going to be great. the last time i ran the gladiator (when the engines started showing signs of water in the cylinders) was destin!!!! hopefully we'll have a better experinece with her this year. unless i find a poker run boat i can't live without between now and then... it wouldn't take much to be talked into leaving the gladiator at home on the dock.

another comment the dealer made to me was that i had owned the boat for two months prior to destin and said there was no way he'd stand behind it two months after the sale. i told him, if he'd look at the hour meter, he'd see it literally didn't have a full hour run time on it, which was me getting the attitude of the boat right and propping it (again, thanks, brad/tres!!!!!).

don't get me going again on my so-called "friend" who sold me the boat in good faith. another major reason the boat did not get run was, it came with the wrong props and wrong gears in the drives (1.36's). I had swept back 1.50's put on and when they sent me a new set of props, THEY DIDN'T MATCH!!!!!! one spun appx. 400 RPM more than the other. so, yeah.... no kidding it took me two months to realize the motors were rotted ---- come on!!!!!!

well, there went another useless rant. one of my family friends, who's a boater and a big name lit. attny here in houston, told me he'd be glad to create a suit, if for nothing else but to publically make known what happened and cost him, at least, the amount he could have spent standing behind the boat, on his attny's. i'm just not that person.....

we began talking about a new MTI he was wanting sold pretty bad. thank goodness i didn't move fwd. with it. there's NO TELLING how i may have been hung out to dry. Skater and Cigarette have both been spot-on, in regard to customer service... not just with the new Skater and Cig.... even in regard to Godspeed, which I obviously bought used,directly from JMac, with no dealer involved.

joe

Thanks Joe. I started this tread because Your a stand up Guy. I didn't wan't to high jack the outher one. It really would be nice to see what Your doing with Your new Cig. This treads for You My frend. Hope You can post some pics. It really is a beautiful boat. God Bless. Artie

i actually haven't taken any yet. but, i'll swing by there and snap some of the progress. the dash turned out great, as you'll see in the pics... but, i can't say i really expect you to get excited about the new swept back XR pics, but i'll take them anyway. :-) the wet sanding on the boat and trailer really made them both pop. i was very happy with david's guys work from gulf coast composites. -- side bar.... funny --- he actually bought the 1075's out of my skater that were sold to ron z who was considering putting them in his new skater.

if you go to www.flpowerboat.com and click on the photo's tab, then on joe pandak the pics from destin last year will come up. the one on the 45 degree angle looks pretty cool.

the pics of the rotted motors and intake are ugggggly! i have those saved on another computer. they're not great, but i'll get them up soon.

i can guarantee you i know a certain boat dealer that has already seen them --- not to mention Legendary Marine who pulled the first motor apart for me while it was still in destin.... i also told the dealer he was welcome to swing by legendary and look at the motors while he was there. he chose not to.

again, with the expectation we simply had a leaking heade gasket that was dripping on the starter, causing it to act up..... which i also mentioned to the gentleman who did the sea trial with me and told me that if we found the starter was bad when i got it home to my mechanics (they didn't have time to look at is as they were on a deadline to deliver a cat they just sold), they'd just send me a new starter!!!!

FYI --- the starter was bad because the leaking gasket had dripped salt water on it for so long it rusted it out and caused it to also malfunction..... to date, i have never received the new starter or credit for it. i was told by the dealership that they were clear it was a loose wire --- actually, it was....but, the wire was in their noggin', not the boat!!!! :-)


joe

Wow that sucks Joe. I bet this boat has a great new owner. I know You like Your stuff right. Can't wait to see what Your doing with this Cig. Thanks for the pm. Have a great week. Artie

did you buy the boat from peir 57? a simple yes or no will do.

it was nice talking to an old friend....enjoy the ride homie.....hope to see you soon

"yes or no" ---- however, i've always heard the first answer is always better than the latter!!!!!!


joe

I AM NOT OLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :lolhit:

you too, my friend. sorry i've been so tied up with this new venture and haven't gotten that way. makes this gladiator issue much easier to deal with though, staying busy, not having time for boating!!!

So.....maybe time to retract previous thoughts? :angry-smiley-044::evilb::evilb:



'03 Lip-ship Gladiator - Purchased (Not from Lip-Ship) w/ worn out Merc's posted on OSO Classifieds and told to me had "Fresh Motors." Wish I would have gotten to Philly's 1 Day Sooner and bought the Gladiator he sold to Tommy!!!