Sounds like the juice was worth the squeeze!

Congrats on the boat!! Looked like a great week for you and your "crew". Boat looks Great Tank! enjoy.

Dayum. Just seeing some of these photos makes a guy want to pack it up and move southwest. Keep them coming

Thanks guys! We put about 300 plus miles on the boat for sure. Don’t even know how many hours. Used the crap out of it in the past 10 days!! All year saved up for one run. Lol

ended up losing a couple of the exhaust manifold nuts on the port motor as we came into dock yesterday. Dan (H2otoie) volunteered to fix it this morning. Went and raided the son in laws shop and dan got it done. Stud!

Well, 12 days straight on the water, she ran like a champ! Few small things to address and will be good to go. As we left town I dropped it off at the painters. Looking forward to getting the dock rash and the deck repainted. he's also gonna fill some gell chips. Can't wait to see how it comes out.

HavaSUP looks like a great area to boat in , congrats on the boat getting almost 100% done!

Thanks brotha! Coming along. It was high 90's the whole time we were there and the place was still PACKED!! Crazy.

Paints done. I haven’t seen it personally but I was told the difference in the overall look of the boat after paint is shockingly improved. And this from a guy that doesn’t give off much enthusiasm. :D so, needless to say, pretty stoked. I was going to just have them touch up the dock rash and repaint graphics on the deck that were oxidized. But Painter decided it just needed to be completely painted (all graphics). Can’t wait to see it. buttoning up a few other things then seadeck then hopefully back here in Cali for some offshore action this winter before desert storm poker run back in havasu in April.
Mind you I pulled it out of the water in oct at night after 11 days of boating over 300 miles and I dropped it off at the painters the next morning so, pay no mind to how dirty it is please. That’s being addressed. ;)

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Minimal use until April please. It needs to be fresh for Desert Storm. :ernaehrung004:

That`s cool how the stripes are incorporated into the Cig logo.
Rock out with your Coc k out!

Had not noticed that.........Tank probably hadn't either. lol

thanks for the vote of confidence Kelly! :D

they were like that from the factory. ;)

I won’t hold my breath you’ll be out. Your record of late hasn’t been stellar. ;)

LMFAO. awesome! 😂😂😂

Looks great, good decision on doing all the graphics, better paint match and less issues down the road. I really like the new vents and the change to black drives, and the new swim platform color.

Yep, those hatch vents are definitely a cool touch.

Barrett asked me a couple times if I wanted to just repaint the whole thing. New graphics or different colors or whatever. But I actually like the graphics. I think they're a bit less era specific as some can be. Only other thing I would've done is go solid color (white or charcoal grey) with no graphics. But like I said, I like the graphics. And I love the colors. The guy that owned it before me picked those colors when he bought the boat from Gary Sanchez (Cig1) here on the boards. The boat was originally teal green and pinkish. Not exactly great colors.

And yeah, the vents are super trick and (I think at least) look fantastic. I'm glad he did them. I was thinking at first I wanted 3 individual vents to replace the stock ones but he came up with the idea of one long one with the Cig emblems in between vent holes.

I'm also super happy with the transom. The blue was cool but it was SO beat up and thrashed. He actually had difficulty getting the tabs off and apart they were so corroded and F'd up. And the drives were mis matched. Basically the whole transom hardware is new. Luckily the transom was dry so that was a nightmare avoided. Only thing he didn't replace was the step. He had the step removed, some dents taken out and re-powder coated. You can't really see but the powder coat is a bit rough so it's not slippery at all. Again, I was envisioning a smooth polished finish that would match the shiny paint on the sides but he did it in this matte and again, it came out great and super user friendly. Since the kids climb all over this thing like a freakin jungle gym, the non skid is a great touch. It'll be nice to get the seadeck down the bow and on the dash where they crawl up to jump off the bow. Some more pics of the vents, the transom and the our boys and their friends, being kids.

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Here's what it looked like from the factory when Gary owned it. first pic its off nearly out of frame next to Jeff Chengs "Ruckus" #6 gun (for sale now), Storm Bartlings Cafe (Storm is also selling now) and Larry Gleals American Flag painted Cafe that went over seas. And second pic right up front.

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I spy Speedy

Looking great Tank!!! Now, if we could only get it to LOTO :party-smiley-004:

Wait, your boat is Gary's old Cafe?

LOL, yep. We're the 4th owner. Gary bought it out of Florida from original owner in late 90's. Then Carlos bought it from him in mid 2000's when Gary bought the F2 (Lucky Strike) from Phil. Carlos put new interior in it and redid the paint and all new dash, etc but it was time for another update.

I think you should paint it back to the original colors......

lol...........Tank is that a 36 Apache on the other side of Speedy ?

??

No, that's Running With The Devil 99 Gun with 1000 Pfaff's and 6's. It's in LOTO now. Recently updated a bit and looking insanely bad azz. I was hoping to see it again in person when we were out there in June. But it wasn't around.

And sorry, fixed the F1 typo. :D

LOL Ummmmmm, how 'bout no.

its just looked shorter than the F2 in the pic

Yeah, I think it's the angle of the pic. Norts 38 Formula looks smaller than the Cafe too.

Ok. Totally random question here. Boats look amazing! I digging the aluminum swim platforms. Who makes them? Alummetalfab.com is one manufacturer. Any others any of you would recommend?

My steps factory. Most are. But Kevin of West coast Offshore Unlimited made me one a few years back for our Top Gun. He's built steps for a bunch of boat manufacturers too. Owned a cafe to boot. ;) He does "offshore" style, tubed style and billet. All custom and will do your boat name or logo.

Ski Boat Swim Platforms, Offshore Platforms - West Coast Offshore Unlimited

Thanks Tank. I just emailed them.

You're a nicer dad than me tank - I'll no longer let them get on the tiger when they are wet so jumping off the bow is a one time thing - when they are still dry. I just thinking getting on and off the cafe wet time and time again really wore the interior. Not to mention the deck on the tiger is like a skating rink even dry - is flat out dangerous if your feet are wet.....

Boat looks great!!

Thanks brother!

Regarding the kids. We bought this boat specifically for the kids to enjoy. That's why I was looking for mild power, turn key, easy driver. Seadeck is going in and we're putting some on the dash and a strip down the recessed middle portion of the bow to avoid slipping. It's taken my OCD and analness to calm a bit but I'm getting used to it :D Still no Cheetos or colored juice or Doritos or anything with color in it on the boat. And they're getting better and picking up after themselves but the boys and our 26 y/o daughter LOVE the boat. It's all worth it.

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Anyone know where I can get one of these battery switch doors. I will settle for the whole package but I just need the door or even the latch. I've checked perko and can't find it.

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I think Eddie Marine would have something that would work. Good luck.

Lipship?

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Either of these will work
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As usual. You're a huge help Kelly ;)

That's definitely......"Custom"