I know it's been mentioned, but great thread, stellar story, and wonderful to see her slowly coming back to life. I'm looking forward to seeing more of this documentation and the final results!

What's going in for power?

since you guys seem to be loaded....put in twin billet aluminum big inch sbc, na with oh i'd say 10.5 to 11 comp. pump gas, dry exhaust. big cams so the engines talk to you at idle got to have jesel valvetrain too

Hey everybody, we were in Key West this past weekend hoping to meet some people that have posted on this thread and some others that John Pompi and Steve Stepp could introduce us to. We were a little disappointed that nobody from OSO showed up to Island Dogs on Friday (that we could tell) so we didn't meet many people from the board. Steve introduced us to Doug Seyler of Shorline Marine on Sunday, who let us watch the race with him on Sunday from his private table on the pier, one of the best spots in the house!!! It was great to meet you Doug and we'd love to show you the boat if you make it down here.

We were also lucky enough to meet Eddie Guardado and his brother, who came in last minute to work on the CMS boat. They both were great and took time to talk with us and answer the 100 questions that Mike and I always have anytime we meet someone in the boat industry We have to finalize everything but so far the plan is to work with Chris Dilling of Grafik EFX and Eddie to paint the boat. They both are willing to work with us and teach us how to do everything as well as let us do as much of the labor as possible to hopefully cut down on costs. Mike and I can't wait to get to work.

Don't worry, progress was still being made on the boat over the weekend as Steve's glass guys at the Velocity Factory were hard at work. Looks like they are pretty much done with all the repairs, with just a little more work to do smoothing out the outside of the transom after filling all the holes. The gas tanks have also been ordered and should be ready by the beginning of December. Looks like we're going to have a rear 119 gallon tank and a front 72 gallon tank so we should have a pretty good range.

As far as power and drives, all is still up in the air unfortunately. I've been concentrating on drives first as we need them to be able to set up the transom and x-dimension we're going to run. Ideally we'd like to have a pair of Bravo XR Sportmasters with ITS to keep a clean transom. However, dollars are limited and I need to make sure we keep the ball rolling with the glass, tanks, bolsters, trailer reconfiguring and paint coming up. I've been searching everywhere for the best deal on second hand drives, which is where I found John who posted above (he's got a great pair of XR's), but I need to find a good deal on transom assemblies to get a number for the whole package.

Engine wise, if money was no issue we would just put in 525's and call it a day. They put out the perfect power, are blue to match the boat and would probably run for a long time with very low maintenance. However, they're pricey even second hand so more realistically a pair of older carbed 500HP's or 500 EFI's would be great, or even 502's. Steve says that StillCrazy will run into the 90's with 500 per side, which is plenty fast for us

Overall, Mike and I are just ecstatic to have the boat and be able to actually do some work on it ourselves. John asked me the other day if I had a budget on what it was going to cost when we got the boat. I told him "nope, it doesn't really matter what it costs as we will see this project through no matter what." How long it takes us is entirely dependent on cost and the good thing is that I'm 28 and Mike is 25 and time is on our side. I can honestly say that I have never worked on a project that has meant more to me than this. I hope everyone reading this gets a chance in their lifetimes to do something like this, or work on something that means so much to them, because it is so amazingly rewarding. On top of that, it has been incredible to see the generosity and feel the support of those we have been fortunate to meet so far or who have posted well wishes on this thread. Thanks again to all of you out there.

I won't have any pictures for a couple weeks as Mike and I are headed up to Ohio for Thanksgiving and for my grandpa's 90th birthday. No one in the family knows about the boat yet, so we're planning to suprise them all with pics at his party. I wish we were further along and could show more progress before we told them, but it's been near impossible to keep it a suprise for so long so this is as good a time to fill them in as any!

Have a great Thanksgiving everybody, we'll be back soon

-Jordan

Haha, loaded...no, motivated...yes!

you guys are awesome! i am living vicariously through this thread. oh, and i was being sarcastic about you guys being loaded. my apologies....

good stuff guys! this boat is going to be badass!! tom a. posted a thread about selling his its/xr stuff. you might wanna send him a pm!

If it were mine I would make it as close to the way it used to be as far as engines and drives. Maybe a little upgrade to newer ignition and stuff like that.

How about this shot! Thanx to Smooth One of taking the picture of a picture for me.... And a scan of the big boat.

Great story/project, cant wait to see the finished project! I went through my boat (not as in depth as what yall are having to do) but I know the feeling,excitement, and the passion that goes into a restore. It will pay off in the end!!

Hi Jordan,
I've been told, though never made certain , that the top boat in that promo pic at the velocity booth was mine. Thats the paint it came with when a friend of mine bought it in 89 through Greg Gluck and brought to mass where I've had it after him for the last 12 yrs. It's almost identical to yours though has gone through many changes over the years. I also was at the miami show in 08 I think and met Steve for the second time and his plant manager invited me to Sanford to test and dial in the boat.
I was also told that my boat was used as a promo boat for Lowenbrau, hence the bluish tint in the paint back then. Any info I have no proof or 1st hand knowledge of my boats history but one thing is for sure. It was built as a emty race boat with Hawk 550's in it and the set up is or was almost identical as yours, even the interior, excect the wheel is on the rt and thottles in middle. I wish I was better at posting pix I'd send you some. Good luck with the boat. Even with the trs's mine goes pretty good and has served me well, though I must admit it's getting old on me. The fact that you have a great story behind it is terrific and inspiring. Have a good day, Brian