Scarab Panther always a work in progress
 

So I had been gathering up pics of my Panther and the different transformations the old beast has been going through over the years. I have been meaning to post this in the Scarab section for a while, but had never got around to doing it.

For starters like a lot of others I am not a professional. Working on boats is not my job.....sometimes it feels like a second job that I don't get paid for. I consider it my apprenticeship. :)

I will try to post pics in chronological order to the repairs/restoration/upgrades.

I purchased my Panther in October 2002. I didn't know what I was getting into. I had cash in hand and wanted and '80's Scarab Panther since I was a kid. I didn't know what a Florida saltwater boat was....... :eek:

Here is the shape when I bought it.

The Panther ran flawless for the first 4 year just gas and oil. Full throttle everywhere. Those Merc 420's were great engines and it would run 71 +or- depending on conditions.

The first upgrade I decided was to paint the whole boat white. Then I would have a blank canvas for later if I wanted to add graphics. I thought since the boat was named White Knuckle why not paint everything all white. Drives, tabs and the Drew Marine Sidewinders (steering stabilizers). I also changed the font on the name.

The red lines were sanded out and then painted with DuPont single stage Chroma-One.

I then moved on to interior upgrades. The pleated '80s red and black was not to comfortable and was a little outdated. So I tried to keep the pattern of the red and black but use white and keep it simple.

I pulled out the gray carpeting, sanded the floor and put a coat of Pettit Epoxy topcoat white down. Cut a little runner out of red marine carpet and snapped it to the floor.

Summer of 2006 the Port engine dropped a valve seat (cracked between the valves) and took out a piston.

Time to build fresh power. Added new pistons 9.7:1, solid roller cams, Isky lifters, Valako (JimV) ported Merlin heads.

Put in the back of the truck and headed to the dyno.
590HP Now pushing the old TRS Panther to 78mph.

More to come

Looking good Jason! Are the huffers on it yet?

Come on man, I know you have more pictures then that! Let's see them!!

Patience Grasshopper....patience
Oops....I forgot all about this thread.

After the new power I sold the Drew marine sidewinders and started piecing together a full hydraulic steering system. I will say that the Panther was a death trap without the sidewinders and hydraulic steering was now the #1 priority. It chine walked, bow steered, and was plain scary. I put it up for nearly a summer until I completed the steering system for safety reasons.

After adding hydraulic steering I actually lost speed. I believe this was because now more of the hull was always in contact with the water. What a pleasure the boat is to drive now. I feel now that I can be at speed and walk away from the helm to clean the dash, grab a drink or mess with the stereo. If I was ever to do ANY upgrade to another boat the first thing would be add Full Hydraulic steering. This would be before any power upgrades, paint, vinyl or props and I have done them all!

Now that I have new power and things were running good I could now do some of the little things like add new oil coolers, rebuild the crappy Merc seawater/fuel pumps and fix my plexiglass hatch.

Painted the copper coolers shiny silver.

Ordered new bearing and seals for the sea pump. See thread for DIY.
http://www.offshoreonly.com/forums/d...fuel-pump.html

Hatch was cracked and screwed together with a little sheet of plywood on the bottom side. I ordered a sheet of 3/8" polycarb off of ebay. Clamped it on a sawhorse, heated it with a torch and slowly cooled it with a mist of water. See thread for DIY.
http://www.offshoreonly.com/forums/s...ass-hatch.html

At the end of 2010 the Port transmission was starting to slip. So the plan over the winter was to just pull the tranny and have it rebuilt.

Seeing that one engine and tranny was out I decided why not pull the other to clean the bilge and repaint...... Oh what a nightmare this idea would turn out to become. (BTW the bilge looked this bad when I bought the boat) One thing lead to another and after all was said and done I had removed my drives, stripped them, filled all corrosion pits and painted them, pulled out all of my wiring dash to bilge (it needed it, refer to the earlier post on F'n saltwater boats!) and re-rigged the boat.