1988 32' Hydra Repower and Facelift Project
 

I didn't know where to post this. I thought there might be some interest in my little project I just started? I know I've read some project diaries and have learned alot and taken away a few good ideas from them. I'll try to keep current with updates and pics as it progresses. Comments and ideas are welcomed.

As it stands now, the boat has been striped of all power, dash, drives. All of which is for sale by the way. It had 468's, N/A making about 580hp and Bravo 1 drives supposedly with XR upgrades. Best I got out of her was 94 on GPS at 5K.

New power being built right now is 540's, N/A, to make 700hp, drives will be 2007 Imco's, Extreem SC's with -2 Shorties and Stellings 12" boxes. New dash with all Livorsi guages, controls ect.

I wanted to get a little flash into the look and this is what we've done so far. The front will get the same only gold flames over the red and down the side with the name midway in gold and black. All the flames will get a thin black outline. Trying to keep it a little old school. All the flames will have red micro flake. Dash will be the same gold panel with white guages and red bezels.

Here's where we're at so far:

More pics:

And more pics:

More still:

One more time:

That's going to look killer when done!!

Cool project. I'll keep checking back for sure!

Nice Job

WOW! Looks great. You've been a busy boy!:drink:

Hey Howard, Did you ever get that monster of yours going? Is that your permanent parking spot? LOL We still have to do a half dozen or so coats of clear then some rubbing but I like the way it turned out so far. I never realized how many man hours where involved in painting this type of thing. Tape, tape, retape and then some more tape. On and off 4 times so far. Front flames on the points and down the sides will be gold over the red. The logo RIPSTA will get vinyl. (Rip **** Tear Ass Racing). New engines are being built as we speak. I look forward to seeing you out there this coming summer. Bill

Bill thanks for posting the pics . that looks great

Bill who is building your motors?? Looks good.

Oh yeah. Had it out Labor day. Ran well. Still need to adjust a fewe things to be perfect but she is ready to go. Lenny told me to leave it there, but now he doesn't know what to do with it. lol. I can't believe it's not covered yet. Should get to it this week. Sounds like a few CI runs are in our future.:drink:

I was wondering too.

Very cool fireboat! Maybe next summer you can hose pinky and me down on a chesepeake bay fun run :drink:

HAHA! Bill, wait til you meet this crew. :party-smiley-004:

Kurt Berger up in Brick NJ is doing the motors. I'm trying real hard to get it ready by April. I think my new spot is Northeast, MD. Just an hour trailer trip and its a blast. Why burn all that fuel running all the way down there? I should be at the club on Sat. I have no hours in yet, Yikes! Lenny needs to give the bigger power boats some room on the side away from the smaller guys?

Maybe we should plead our case to him. I know Ron Jourdain would agree with that. He has the Baja.

Looks great Fireboat. Keep us posted with more pics as it progresses. I love seeing refurb pics. Re-rigging is one of the things I enjoy doing the most. I put up as many pics as I can to hopefully give some guys some ideas for their boats. Good luck with it.
Eddie

What?? (like vinny barbareno) :kiss:

Yes, NE MD is a good place to run out of. See you next yr pinky and fb :cool:

Looking forward to meeting all. We should be finishing up the rear with clear and buffing this weekend so I should have some finished pics next week. Then we'll start the front. Looking at some vinyl today for the logo. All the stainless trim fittings are at the polisher. Ext. boxes will get the gold when we do the front flames. Should be easier taping off. The front will be the bigger flames. Those little ones across the rear deck where killer.

These are kind of cool if you like that type of look.
http://www.signwarehouse.com/shop/me...egory_Code=VSG
http://www.signwarehouse.com/SGETL-p-SG-KIT-LET.html

OK, It's been quiet over the winter. Couldn't do much with the paint etc. so we concentrated on the power. All new 540's, working on some use of cost effective parts Strike Force aluminum heads and intake with some CNC work (China). Looking to see what can be done with them to save some $ and still produce some good HP. Fired up the first engine today on the dyno. Using a Merlin X intake. Strike Force intake wasn't back from the machine shop yet. First pull without touching anything had a best of 653hp and 589tq. After changing some timing and a few carb spacer changes at the end of the day we found a best of 687hp and 677tq. I'm pretty happy so far and figure theres another 20-30hp to be found in carb work, timing and an intake change. If the weather ever breaks we can get back on the flames and cosmetics. Thanks!

OK it's been awhile. Been working my azz off, running about 6 weeks behind but things are coming together, few big set backs but it's moving along. We never did get to the front flames, Time and budget problems, One of the drives was bad and needed upper gears. We also are using a different drive line setup than the normal Stellings stuff. I wanted to keep with the couplers instead of the solid shafts so we used drive line bells, couplers and bigger driveline shafts. Hopefully this will save some wear and tear on the drives. Since we had to move the engines forward anyway they are now moved forward about 2 feet. Engines came in at a final 715HP and 690TQ with a good wide TQ band. Not bad for a hyd roller motor, 9.2 comp, single carb

Some before and after pics

Engines being dressed

Boxes and drives going on

Dash is near complete! It was all black before, AWFUL!

Some engine compartment work being done. We had to replace most of the main stringers we found to be rotted, yet another delay!

As of today, both drives are on, engines installed and alot of the smaller things are getting done. Gonna run dry tails out the back so another change and lose the tips. Steering still needs to be done, don't think there's any issues thes except for ext ram lines need length. I'll get some more pics next week. Gotta stop and make some more loot! Hopefully we start testing props and drive height in 2 weeks? Fingers crossed. I'm only about $25K over budget, SO FAR!

Looks good...nice work. I like the boxes painted gold. Sounds like you should see some good numbers in a couple weeks. What props are you going to start with?

Thanks, the boxes are gold powder coat. They don't match the paint since the paint has red micro flake in it but the gold is real close. Dash matches the gold paint though. I picked up a pair of Hydromotive 5 blades 26P I think they should at least put me in the ballpark. I have my eye on a set of 28P Herring 5 blades but I need to test it first, Almost there!

Which boat did you buy ?

More than likely I played a role in building that boat.

It great to see one after all these years be restored .

I think I saw saw your boat inside Kurts, but I thought it may have been Wherlen's when I saw the all red...

Best of luck it. :drink:

You did see it at Kurt's. This one was Larry's boat. He has 2 others there. A yellow one with twin OB's and a PINK one with triple OB's. I'd like to see more of them, maybe if you have any pics? When it's finished I want to take it past Hydra and show Jack. I've never met him but we spoke on the phone about redoing the windshield possibly. I think mines the only one with it and it is a home made job. I don't think Jack did it but it's not done badly, just tired.

I was wondering where you've been. Progress looks good. See you out there in a couple of weeks! :coolcowboy:

WOW...nice job...cool !!!!!!

Thanks guys! Howard, you up and running yet? DD good to have you back on board posting.

Bill;
Nice job on the upgrades!! Can't wait to see it on the river!!

Kevin

YEP! I had her out on Memorial Day and put 100 miles on it. Had an oil pressure gauge take a crap on me and just got that in today so once I replace it, check the lash one more time, and take care of a few odds and ends I should be ready to make a speed run. So far, I hit 80 @ 5,000. Should rev to 6,000 so we'll see what I have. Nothing like your rocket but pretty damn fast for that old girl. :drink: