Wilson Marine Lowers, My Experience
 

We bought our 07 38' Lightning knowing the Sportmaster lowers had some repairs to the forward edge of the skegs. The seller disclosed the repairs and showed me the receipt for the work, which was literally a few hundred dollars per skeg. Right off the rip, I know the repairs are suspect way too cheap. Looking down the skegs they were at 5:30 if 6:00 was the perfect benchmark and the leading edge had some slightly darker material where the repair was performed. Also some pitting showing more around the repair area than I felt was acceptable. To me this wonky "clocking" would explain the boat having some "wander" at 90+, nothing out of control but not a 100% right. Notice leading edge of skegs in photo.
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I have never done drive work so figured it's time to learn and get with the program. Made some drive stands with casters and then removed the lowers.
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Contacted Mark at Wilson Custom Marine and after 1/2 hr on the phone talking motorcycle roadracing we actually talked about the skegs and Mark was definitely the man for the job. Never knew the knowledge he had so I felt 100% comfortable sending the lowers for the skeg blueprinting and repairs. Mark quoted the job and that includes making some repairs if needed. Sign me up! I built a crate and sent thru my shop. Ohio to Florida, $190 each way, business to business with insurance.
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The shipment arrived the Friday of the Key West races at WCM and was received by employees that had to stay behind. Mark and his family were at the races, they support many of the top teams with their work. A week later I get a message that they will be working on our lowers soon, will be in touch. The next week went by and I get a message that the lowers will be finishing and going into paint. My thought is what paint?? I want the badass finish like a stainless steel refrigerator, so dial Mark right away. Mark said he wanted to send me some photos, lowers are done look perfect and going into paint. He then proceeds to tell me they were the worse ever since he has been doing this. The repair was garbage causing more damage than good and at a couple points they were going to call me to suggest buying new and throwing the current shizola in the garbage.
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After Wilson Custom Marine worked the lowers. Paint had to be applied because some epoxy filler had to be used in some areas to correct the pitting and previous "repairs"
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I planned on re=finishing the uppers to have nice fresh drives and just finished starboard.
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Mark said he wanted me to be happy with the work. His son Craig and him worked very hard to do an outstanding job in my opinion. I did not understand the full impact of drive blueprinting until I talked to Mark and listened to what it can do for the handling of the boat. Mark explained from the factory the lowers have many imperfections and twists in the skegs. Any added speed is a bonus for sure, but proper handling when we are at 100+ this year is most important. Thank you to Mark, Craig, & Kate Wilson and the rest of the Wilson Custom Marine Team.

Nice write up, please let us know how they perform.

Awesome write up and the painted finish looks amazing. I've been thinking about doing this. Very interested in the performance improvements.

Thank you everyone, once we can get some running time on the boat I will update. Many of the top running poker run, racing, etc boats use Wilson to do the lowers so I am anxious to "feel" the improvements.

Look forward to your results!

Thanks for sharing

Can't wait to hear how it affects handling/performance

So, anymore speed? Handle better at speed?

The boat feels better when it runs out. I can compare it to when you get a really good track alignment on a performance car. Before when we would get 95+ the boat seemed to wander a bit. Toe was checked before this work was done so that can be ruled out affecting change. Now the boat runs laser straight and feels planted. Our boat tops out just a hair over 100 so I feel it is an improvement that will let us add some more hp/speed and be able to run safely. I can say also when in a wide sweeping turn the boat sticks with much less input needed at the helm.

It would be good comparison to new current stock untouched and undamaged drives to compare what wilson did. That would be a good apples to apples test. Just saying

after the wilson work --- Did you use the exact untouched props for the comparison ? thanks