Dude, collette must be ready to ring your neck!!! :eekdrop:

Looking good though bro. I hope everything finally comes together as it should for you.

Tank are you kidding? For now I've just told her I'm having a few cosmetic updates done. LOL :D :D It's true though! Did you notice the whole windshield is off too. The deck hatches are off being repainted too.

Thanks......I am told it "will be exceptional" when complete. Probably a few more weeks to go. :drink::drink::drink:

Hope you're planning to keep it!

We'll see.....I have a few ideas. We need to get you guys on it too. :cartman::drink::drink::drink:

Your wife is right....blue

Nort, thanks for the updates. Great thread to follow, and to see the progress. She's gonna be a beauty when you're done!

Maybe you should make them gold so you can keep reminding yourself that you could have purchased a mega yacht by now! LOL If Gold is not your style then she is correct blue looks better.

Nort, why not diesels? I'm sure you've made the decision by now and have reasons to stay gas, but in a few projects on trucks that I've worked on, when we've done motors in trucks that are too small, they have more gremlins than we can chase. It's almost like the motor is revolting for being put in too big a truck :angry-smiley-038:
20K pounds on trip 502's just seems like a lot of strain. $.02 from the peanut gallery is all. The boat is absolutely gorgeous!!

Gold......Platinum would be better. :D :D You're funny! This coming from a guy that has been building a house in Maine for 20 years! :D

Thanks for the comments. The problem is that this is project boat. It has to always be worked on! :D :D

In reality, I bought it to do a quick update, keep for a year, have some fun and then sell. One thing leads to another and here we are 9 years later. It's a rare boat out this way and not too many in the US.

The engine issues have been figured out. Besides the "previous build" issues, the original exhaust design was poor at best. Even though we thought we had it licked before, the crappy Mercury manifold junction was the weak link. That issue is now gone too with all new IMCO stuff.

The majority of these boats were built with diesel engines and are slower, and they also reside in Europe where gas is super expensive. At this point, changing to diesel will require me to change the hull too. :D :D