How classic race boats get saved
 

I have 16 months in mine so far. All done in my front yard. If that's not love I don't know what is.
http://supernova19.com/Hosting%20stuff/101.wmv

PS
Waiting for the V Drive to be finished and it will take a weekend to finish the boat
I have a 16X20 Garage (that's packed)
No press or laves or big equipment
Made 40 grand a year (unemployed now)

Watched the video, WOW!! That is dedication! Well worth the effort, looks like a quality restoration!
Are you going to one of the historic boat races?

Baby steps.
My main goal is to have it cross the bay (28 miles each way) under it's own power by the time the St Michele's Boat Show happens next June.
After that .......who knows. Most of those big races are down the road from me. I do need to get it to Florida for Cadillac's OFF event once but I think that will be it's longest trip.

Brownie always hated Mercruisers, when did they get put in? Last time I saw the boat it had 427 hm Fords in it..
Fantastic effort..beautiful job.. congratulations..

Always knew he had an issue with the “aluminum outdrive” (the last of his 19’s that I have has one) but never knew it was MerCruiser overall?
No big deal, they are just Chevy 454’s with BorgWaner transmissions anyway. The only things left that’s MerCruiser is the bell housing and a water pump.
Mad Poodle has the V drive and should be done in the next week or so. After that it all depends on the weather. Could be in a couple weeks or next spring.

Video of how to save a race boat! Good job!
I hope that this will give to 1965 thunderbird the strength to continue with its restoration project of the Thunderbird-Mona Lou II.
And find someone who will help him in this.

f_inscreenname trust me I hear you...I have been quietly following your build for a while now. I too am in the process of rebuilding my Pantera 24 "FactorX" and understand the difficulties...I have been out of work for the last 8 months BUT just got a new job and I'm starting Monday!! Thank God. So I will soon be able to hopefully have some extra $$ to dump into her.
Bottomline you've done a great job so keep it up and I hope to see you next year at some of the HOBRA races. I'm trying to get mine completed to go to the Long Island race and Ft.Lauderdale to Key West also.

Congrats
Angel

Great job..I'd never stick with a project that big (I'd never START it). Question, I see a single screw shaft drive but (2) 454's......how does that work?

Long story but let me see if I can shorten it.
2 motors. One standard rotation, one reverse rotation. One in front, one in back. Tail to tail. Both got to a the top gear in a single V Drive. Prop shaft goes to the bottom gear.

Later a few folks that ran these type of set ups decided to put the rear motor to the top gear and the front motor at a 12* angle to the bottom gear. That way you could use two standard rotation motors and less torque on the top gear. My boat came around before they thought of that.

To make it a little easier and to get around those pesky copyright laws a friend made a sort of youtube version. The quality is not as good though.
http://80.94.70.30:86/index2.html

I've had a couple V-drive cruisers back in the day and understand what your describing....I was thinking they were in-line somehow, just didn't know how. Pretty cool set-up but wouldn't the 2 engines be required to run the same rpm at all times....or does the gearing force the 2 motors to run the same rpm.