Ok now that I have picked myself up off the floor.......
all I can say is WOW....I respect your decision but WOW.....can I buy the steering wheel?

Angel

Whaaaaaaaaaaat?????? NO WAY!!!

What a HUGE disappointment, You have been a period correct restorer somewhat devoted to what should have been a relatively easy endeavor.................. Your quote "I would appreciate any leads on st-6's. I don't plan on selling it until I have turbines in it and have been able to run it for awhile. I don't think I will ever run across something this special in my lifetime again so I better keep it and enjoy it. It is in a nice dry storage barn behind my house until I can find the right parts to restore it correctly, any help would be greatly appreciated. I have had several offers on this boat and have passed on them. I understand your interest, too bad they only built one!! "

You should have entertained Stancolmes’ offer ( A real Offshore Race family ), at least they knew what it was
I really cannot get over your lack of appreciation for the boat and lack of judgment in her disposition ...................

???????????????????????????? I still really cannot understand what you did and why ??????????????????????????????????

I really hope you're joking... If not, what a waste

I hope this is a joke.

Colorado or Timbuktu, if Odell Lewis finds out you had that boat really cut up for scrap, get a new identity card.

That cobbled up piece of chit won't be worth anything either when you're done with it. Might as well save yourself the trouble and scrap it now.

I really do not understand all this. Destroying a legend why?! Lack of money? Lack of space to store it or what?!
I understand the frustration about the difficulties to restore it as before but from this destruction of the hull this is really absurd and silly.

boycott all canned beverages so he does'nt get the scrap prices promised

I really don't get it! When I first saw this boat it was on ebay and the owner was talking about the scrap value of the boat as a sales pitch. All he wanted was scrap value of 10,000.00 and no one really bid on it I think it went to 5500.00. So I stepped up to the plate and bought it, I gave him what he wanted for it and saved it from the scrap man. He was working toward cleaning up his yard and had already scrapped the Casale vdrives, props, shafts, rudder ect.
So I see some historic value to the boat and start this thread. I didn't start the thread to sell the boat, I started it so I would be able to get some help restoring it. I didn't get much help on the boat but when I tried to do something with the boat, I was doing it wrong and people kept telling me it is not worth much. I got people that wanted to buy it and but no real offers, did not really want to sell it anyway. I told one guy what I thought it would be worth when it was done, he must have thought I was crazy and he did not even have the courtesy to reply.
I talked to a guy about different drives and told him I was removing two ls6 454's with borg warner 72c with v drives and asked what they would be worth, he said he would give me 1500.00, so I call arneson and asked them some questions and they tell me their great drives that I was so proud of are worthless and I should buy new drives. Then I get some guy posting on here that I should sell this thing to someone else who could do this right and if I did anything to it it would be worthless.
So I finished the fate that it was headed for anyway and I am a bad person. The way I look at it I gave it another three years of life. Besides that, all the time I owned this boat I didn't run across a singe person that deserved to own it. I am sure there was, There a lot of good people in this sport.
When I posted that I needed some help getting this boat rigged, no one responded. I was nearly begging for help and the only post I got is that my boat is worthless, thanks for all the help on what was MY boat not your boat. If I wanted to put outboards on it that would be my decision, you might not have liked it but you should respect it!
By the way rt930 you are right I would not put that engine in my all original # matching 350 ss 4 spd convertible that I have owned for 30yrs but if I wanted to that is my decision not yours.
A person knew when they walked up to the turbine thunderbird it was a race boat even without the paint and race #. The hull was beautiful but the engine installation was kind of crude with no polished parts or fittings. The welds were kind of rough and the finish detail was not there. It was put together for one reason and that was for racing!
As far as Mike stancolme goes he had never made a real offer or talked to me about it. When I first talked to Mike he was going to help me find some turbines, apparently he found some but he never offered them to me. So I assumed he had another project he was going to put them in. As far as being original, the pt-6's are not correct either. They are suppose to be ST-6's so what mike was thinking was not correct either.

Maybe you just don't get it after all I have / had some very rare and special pieces of Automotive and marine history, none of that matters here though. And for the record my 24 Cig (How many REAL 24 cigs have you ever seen?) Was not painted "candy azz" colors. It was all white, and hardcore to the max.

The point I'm trying to make, is who cares what it's worth? That seems to be all that matters to you, not the value of saving something special for others to see. There are plenty of people on this site, and across the country that have spent 10's to 100's of thousands of dollars on boats and cars that even when finished aren't worth a fraction of what they cost to build. But it's done out of passion; not so they can talk about "how much it will be worth when it's done."

As for your LS6 454's? I got news for you; pretty much every marine HP motor from the 70's thru the 80's comes back as an LS6 when you cross the numbers. Does that make them super valuable? Not really, because it still wont build you a numbers matching muscle car. $1500 is fair money for a condition unverified clapped out 454. I have more than a few of them...

You come on this site, maybe because you figure there are people here with means you don't have, and you think you can ask for free parts and labor to finish YOUR boat? When all you seem to care about is what it will be worth when its finished.

So many important historical things are lost everyday. Buildings, cars, boat, documents, etc. because they don't have enough cash value. I think it's ignorant and selfish to destroy something that could be very meaningful to many just because you can't make money on it.

I'm sure you have something that is special to you? A trinket, a parent or grandparents war metal, maybe a picture of your family. Someday maybe I can buy that from your estate sale for $.50 and destroy it for you; after all it's just a piece of garbage, right?