Hi,

there is always the need to keep going on the boating hobby,

so here I am, on the verge of buying a Donzi 19 bench seat hornet. This boat has been sitting on its trailer for around 30yrs without going back in the water again, its a bench seat, colour is blue, and original engine was a holman and moody (don't know if its a 6L or 7L) powered with V-Drive.

The engine is broken so needs replacing, and my first question is if a merc 5.7 or a 7.4 will fit and match together with the v-drive as it is not worth my while restoring the holman and moody.
Now the owner has no kind of paper work as the boat belonged to his father who passed some time ago, and could not recall where the info and paper work is. I could not locate the hull number and was wondering if any of you guys would know where this would be located, as normally this is found on the transom.

Also if any of you would have or know anyone who restored one of these hornets, any info would be greatly appreciated, as i will be starting from scratch !
Anyone who would know where to get any parts and accessories for this model would be greatly appreciated thanks

P.S I am not in the U.S but would be able to get anything from U.S

For a much quicker response , and many of them , you need to get over to the Donzi.net . Once signed on there you'll also find plenty of Benchseat Hornet resto stories with lots of pics.

They were built well before it became mandatory for HINs to be molded into the stern. The best place to look is on the rear of the instrument panel on the deck . Sometimes it's difficult to distinguish it clearly but normally they're written in black marker and are glassed over.
It should look something like 'C19-digit/digit B '
You might have one of the 427 powered ones , but there was I/O s available as well.

I'm sure it's going to come up somewhere along the line and others will want to know where you and the boat are !

Besides looking for the v drive info as we suggested, you should also check the cylinder block and heads for casting numbers to,see what engine it is.

DonZ

got your email and with the info you sent us we know what hull you are looking at it was a 7 litre Ford but who knows if it is the original 427 FE

I am putting together some info for our website I can send you some info . we had a member just finish a benchseat and another who has one in progress. We learned a lot doing the first one some was the hard way but the with the second one underway we can help you avoid issues .


Mattyboy
The Lake George Donzi Classic Club

I think this boat was featured in an ad will do some more research and let you know what I find out