Thanks! I used to spend a lot of time in Cali visiting customers in Fountain Valley/Brea and Riverside but I'm not covering that area any longer ...... keep those pics coming DS!

Fountain Valley! That's up the street from me! Well that's a shame. I'm expecting to get the motor next Tuesday, so pictures to follow along with some dyno video I hope.

Well, finished the motor, installed a freshened trim pump for the port tab and now on to the battery mount! I'm going to try redoing it in Merc blue to see how it holds up .. since I use it as a step in the bildge it will probably get scratched and worn quickly but we'll see. Maybe Jo will give me a Pantera decal to help???? :cool-smiley-011:

I also installed the new depthsounder .... it fit nicely on the starboard side dash and helped balance it out with four smalls on each side now :D Pepe wants me to replace all the powdercoated trim bezels with black .... would look cool - maybe next year, with all else I am doing I can't imagine undoing all of the instrument wiring right now.

After a few more things and the swim platform installation it's on to the cabin!! :party-smiley-004::food-smiley-007:

Great job Mike! I agree, that depthsounder looks like it was meant to be there.

Thanks! it's smaller than the others so it's kind of an optical illusion to get it to look like it's placed correctly. Man it was tight under there being at the end of the inside of the race fairing!

Mike, you definately have one slick mo fo :cool-smiley-011:

Mike, excellent work. Looks killer!!

Test Drive!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ???????????????

Thanks all .... now the long wait ..... Kirk unless you have a really big indoor pool I'm on hold for a test drive!

On the other hand ... I know boats are a little faster on salt water, and faster yet with steps to add air/bubbles to break water friction, and faster in the cold with higher air density ........ what does ice on the lake to do add to top speed? LOL! :rolleyes:

Mike, it's looking great! How did you get at the underside of the race fairing? Mine's sealed to the deck. Is there access under the dash for yours?

Thanks Dude! yes there is a little lightweight plywood triangle covered in the cabin carpet to give you access to the backsides of the instruments. Since my instruments are basically mounted in the deck mold there would be no other way to get behind them unless there was an access. It gets tight on the ends however ... my wife ended up threading the nut on the bracket over the depthsounder head since I could not fit my hand into the area ..... not bad eh??

This boat is crazy efficient in it's design to save weight and simplify with full function, I really like it ..... the room to work on the engine with the single is almost like having it sitting out on your shop floor. :boat:

I'm so jealous! :D

I'm going to have to do something like that on mine. From the "cabin", you can see the back of the gauges, wiring, etc.

I like the hard core race set up as well......:evilb:

But remember grasshopper, when sun high in sky, you can have shade down below:cool-smiley-027:

NICE boat!!!!!

Ahhhhhh but Confucius say: why not have it all!

Actually, I want shade up above as well! :cool-smiley-011: LOL! I plan to re-use my Anchor Shade on this boat for the days hanging out ..... this will be my forth boat I use it on. It closes up into a large umbrella basically and stows in the cabin ...... really great for nice shade without the whole bimini top thing going on and related hardware ...... one of my best purchases ever .... plus it matches my new boat! :D

Mike ,I have one also. They are great. I've used it on the beach to.

On the hottest day of the year, water temp is about 67 in the Pacific. No shade needed! :D

Well I had another productive trip up to the boat with the long Easter break weekend. Installed the refinished swim platform ... looks good on the boat and will really add a lot for anchoring out on sandbars which we do a lot. I was worried the white paint is a lighter/brighter shade of white than the gelcoat but it seems to look fine on the transom.

A little exhaust soot and it won't make a bit of difference! :p

Next up was the refinished battery box install and my new big bucks Odyssey PC2150 battery :cool-smiley-011: ... man that battery is a bad boy with something like 2,000 Marine cranking amps .... I can use it to run my house in the winter!

Lastly I installed the cockpit snap-in carpet but I had to be very careful since my boat does not have a liner, combined with a drop down floor for the bolsters. Had to stay well off the edges for fear of screwing a snap right through the hull chine ..... turned out well ..... now I have to figure out how to get a set of eyes in the middle of the carpet and to add green welting to the carpet edges ....

mike... looking good.
You could have velcro to fasten the carpet down.
Mine wasn't even snapped down and it never moved.
Since its so low in the boat, the wind buffeting didnt effect it.

Looking good Mike!

You know, that's a great idea for adding support for under the bolsters ...... since my carpet is over rubber mat it still wants to slide a little when I lean back with my feet forward in a bolster. I have snaps on both the upper and lower levels at the transition but velcro would help eliminate the carpet creep.

I think foot boxes are in order but that will give me something to do next winter!

Thanks Dude! you too BTW !!

I'm preparing to mount an electric actuator hatch lift to operate my new rec hatch. It's a new installation since it had a race hatch with gas shocks before.

I have the switch mounted in the lower dash already and I am running 10 gauge wire from the battery to the switch and back to the actuator.

My query is where is the best place to mount the actuator?? should I mount against the transom forward to the underside of the hatch?? or from the engine forward bulkhead rearward to the hatch underside?? I've seen both ways on Pantera's .....

* Does the transom mount add a lot of strain on the actuator?
* Does the bulkhead mount get in the way moving around in front of the engine?

Thanks! Mike

Mike, I moved mine because the math was all worng when it was on the transom. I also wanted to clean it up a bit as well.
I put mine on the stringer. I can post a pic later. works great and not a problem to work around. It is mounted close to the battery on the port side stringer

Thanks Tom ... would love to see a pic .... here is my port side next to the motor ... not very busy there so could be a good spot. I would have to make a U bracket to protect and go over the trim lines on top of the stringer. Would the outboard stringer be too far to one side for the hatch to open cleanly?? too far from center?

I put mine on the bulkhead and made a 90deg aluminum bracket to mount it on. And used a few shims to get the height correct.

I wanted the hatch lift to be as centered as possible to be able to run without the hatch pins and not risking cracking anything.

Mine was mounted like this from the factory. It was a tight fit. I had to move it to the outside of the exhaust when I changed to CMI's. It pulled a little to the side after I moved it.

What do you mean it pulled to the side Griff? did it want to shift the hatch to one side when it lifts?

I'll find a better pic of the bracket when I get home.

Here's a few pics from my old 24.
It was off to the side like griffs/DS' boat.
And it pulled to one side, which made the hatch close a bit lopsided. I guess that's the best way to describe it.

When you closed the hatch, the side where the actuator is pulled down snug, but the other sidewould still be a little(1/8-1/4")loose. You could not really see it, and a gas shock on that side probably would have taken care of it.

Tomas, did it get in the way when moving around the engine compartment? seems like it would block the port-starboard movement. Thanks

Thanks Tom, with my powersteering pump there I wonder if I can get the clearance you had ..... I'll have to move it around once I get my hatch to see if it will clear.

Storm, no issues with excessive strain on the actuator? seems like the transom mount would be much harder for the motor to lift?

Not that I noticed, but Ziemer may be able to chime in, since he's got it now.

The hatch is pretty light and goes up fast. Now my AT hatch is another story. It weighs at least 5 times as much and takes 3 times as long to lift as the Pantera did.

Update - Hatch and movement!
 

This weekend I received my new hatch from the guys and was able to mount it with my ram ..... I used 10 gauge wire with a reverse polarity switch and a 30 amp breaker. Kind of a pain running two double 10 gauge wires to the dash (more like a cable!) and back but it cleaned up pretty good.

I really appreciated everyones input on ram mount position, I think this worked out really well for my setup. It goes up and down with decent speed and very smooth, plus it opens almost to straight up and down and when down leaves some lifting space in case of a hatch ram failure to pull the pin. When it's up all the way up the stress of the offset ram mount is relieved and lets the hatch set straight and even.

After doing this (what looks like a minor little job but taking twice the effort I thought it would) I can really appreciate the work Pepe & Jo do .... man that takes talent!

Ignition!
 

Next up I was able to run the engine off of the hose, ran really well with a nice idle and great response with no load. I was ready to hit the lake but the used Bravo 4 blade 26 I had vibrated on the trailer so I pulled it and put a 25 Hydromotive 4 blade on and everything was smooth. Problem is I did not have the lock washer for the old style "non-torque flo hub" on the Hydromotive and it was after 6 PM on Sunday ..... so no splash for me this Memorial weekend:(

Here is a really crappy video taken by the wife into the sun from far far away but you get the idea, couple friends helping out for the ceremonial firing of the engine!.

Should be good to go with a new Bravo 1 26 four blade for this weekend and if the weather holds up out for the first timer run! :cool-smiley-011:

At least my down day Monday gave me time to organize all the safety equipment, lines and anchors etc ..... so I won't be an idiot on on the water for the test run when the most stuff can go wrong!!! :angry-smiley-038:

Well strike that, I can still be an idiot even with all my stuff!!

[YOUTUBE] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXIS4_gOPRE[/YOUTUBE]

man that sucker is tight!!!
:cool-smiley-027: