Full Force

iTrader: (5)

So I bought this Sept of 2017, from straight priority here on oso, you can search his name and find some threads on this boat, was supposed to be nicer then it was, but for sure not bad and I was gonna go with it, at the time I was looking to get a bigger cabin then I had in mistress and a cafe or top gun was in sights, but when I got there I found rot, not a ton but some and I didn't wanna do that work since mistress was zero rot, the hatches were glassed shut, and the one drive was smoked was just supposed to need engines and go, far from it. So I drove forever and we made a deal for me to take as a parts boat and put any money made towards another, then the trailer was so bad I made it 2 blocks before a axle shifted (broke off mount) so I took back he refunded me as no way it was making a 10 hour drive, super cool guy to deal with, I told him if you get the boat to me after his buddy fixed axle I would still buy it, the boat showed up at my house that Monday 2 days later. Then Eric and matt came to check it out and matt bought it from me after I took what I wanted. I'm glad to see it go back together I loved the paint, looks really nice with just a few scratches not many will notice, It will be fun to follow this one, Matt text me I wanna come visit and check it out.

cheech

The deck hatches on this project boat I presume?
Where'd the engine hatch go?

Full Force

iTrader: (5)

Some Cafe Pics

Twin O/B Sonic

Love it!

Ive done several, smaller, keel up projects and they’ve all been expensive and all been a challenge.
(Only totaled rect’s on the first one!)

The satisfaction/gratification once completed though…., something you’ll have forever.

Another huge motivator for me is, of the “turn key” rigs I’ve bought/owned, I uncovered major issues in all of them that I never would have found (until it failed) had I not opened them up.

The piece of mind that we have after going through one, when running it hard, like most of us do, is huge!

My saying is, “I want to be the weak link in the system”.
In other words, if I decide to make the run home through **** conditions, I don’t have to worry about motors, stringers, fuel system etc.

Consider:

1. A friend and I had just returned home, across Lake Erie in hellish conditions I shouldn’t have gone into when I removed an aft floor section to repair a soft spot.

W/that floor section removed I could see the fuel line from tank to motors.
It was laying in bilge water…..,and had delaminated and was down to the inner mesh layer holding it together!

If that fuel line ruptured on that trip, we’d both be gone.

I left it alone until my buddy could come over to see what we just survived!

2. A 36’ aft cabin cruiser I had.

Was in the bilge trouble shooting an intermittent main bilge pump when I put my hand on one stringer and burned the **** out of my hand!

Boat was rigged w/all ships grounds terminating on a 5/16” dia stainless bolt, run through a piece of plywood bolted to the stringer.
The bolt had come loose and the loose terminals were arcing which created the heat.

The bolt had a flat washer against the plywood on both sides.
The heat burned its way through the plywood, the exact dia as the flat washers!

You could put your finger through that hole!

What if I hadn’t caught it?

Same boat failed a survey on a previous sale due to fuel odor in bilge.

It had spin on fuel filters and one of the three had the old seal still attached to its mount w/a new filter/seal on top of it!

Soooooo, a potential fire w/an intermittent fuel leak w/a sometimes functioning bilge pump…., what could possibly go wrong?

We had multiple guests on board, overnight, multiple times on that boat.

let that sink in…..

For me, if I’m going to run my boat hard, in challenging conditions w/friends and/or family on board, that’s the only way I’m comfortable doing it.

And I like that they know and respect that.

Carry on……

4195

Exciting read. Good luck to the Cafe owner and bringing it back to life. I understand where 1Moses1 is coming from though. I have done a fair amount work to a few Cigs and understand first hand that yo start with an expected budget only to find you have way over exceeded it. I had a 1993 Cafe Racer with stock 502's and horrible 90's paint. I put new motors in, transom assemblies, redid the entire interior, gauges, throttles, shifters, redid all the powder coating and full paint. The boat was dry and structurally sound and I still spent $40k 20 years ago. I sold that and bought a 2001 42 Cig Tiger and repowered the boat. I took the existing Keith Eickert 675's sent them to Zul to make them 800's upgraded the drives and transom assemblies to all new Imco SCX's. Because this I need to change my steering, hatch ram and exhaust. Put all new cables for indicators, shifters and tabs in. I had the paint touched upped and had someone shoot new clear on it. I probably put $70,000 plus in that one. My point tis that starting with pretty much a bare hull you will need every thing and things are expensive or you have to make the decision to put together with used parts from other boats that have been parted out or someone has updated their existing boat and now wants to unload the used stuff. Buying a used boat as i did still involved a significant investment but I could not imagine starting from a tougher point then I did. You will most likely spend more and wait longer to go boating. unfortunately many of these projects get started and never finished. If I was in the market I would look for a boat that someone else has already spent money on and buy it for pennies on the dollar. With that being said I do love watching these threads when they do get complete by people who have the skills. I remember the boats Carter used to put out that is what I would save my money towards.

division1

I see all points but we can go back and forth all day on this lol. In the end it’s all what you want. And really it’s all what you are capable of. In regards to the cafe yes if you bought all the parts brand new from cp you’d be backwards. I’m his case he has a really nice scarab to transplant nice power from. In regards to my topgun I wanted a boat that was brand new, I wanted new style dashes, I wanted clean paint job. I wanted new style gauges ,new wiring , I could go on. But that would put me at buying. 2015 or new 38 at about 400k so in MY case the 100k I’ll have in mine I’m really happy with I won’t feel worried if I decide to go to Bimini or keys or something similar. Some people start them and don’t finish them. Some people buy running boats for 80k realize they have a soft transom in spots , they may want to update parts like interior, paint and so on. So if you buy said boat and put another 60 in it your way backwards totally agreed there are very few people that are willing to take on projects like me and Matt that are willing to travel to buy parts willing to get your hands dirty do all the work your self and make them nice i totally get that. I will have a lot of work and time in my boat but I will have a complete updated topgun and new from end to end for let’s call it 115-120 so I’m happy with that and at the end of day Matt will be on the water in a sound cafe for less then you think.

4195

There is more then one way to skin that's for sure. I am excited for both of you guys, keep the pics and updates coming it gives something to look forward to when I get stuck on the phone at work. I hate to think about any of these boats not being loved so keep up the good work. i wonder where my old Cafe is today. I may have to start a thread on it and see if anyone knows.

1Zoom

One thing everyone is forgetting is boating is not just going out to the lake, for some it is about the hobby of working on it and making it the way you want it. I have been in the custom car business for years and can tell you most of the top winner's loose tens of thousands of dollars but when they finish one, they usually start another. It is about meeting people, exploring ideas, and having the satisfaction of completing the project and knowing you did what you want.

Division One your boat is great, and it is what you want, Moses's boat is also great, and he has what he wants you just went about it different ways. Some folks take longer to complete their project or change ideas, finance issues can also derail your project, but everyone has dreams, and it is nice to see them being shared and documented on sites like this.

Knot 4 Me

Love build threads. Looking forward to your progress over the cold winter months!

division1

Absolutely!!!! There are a lot of great boat out there there are a lot of really cool builds to !!! We got to run the donor scarab this weekend so that was nice ! Cafe is making progress we have gotten lucky on that boat some good deals have came up through some good friends so Matt had been able to make a lot of progress !