Restoring an old Velocity 22 Race Boat
 

Figured I would share some pics and progress on a boat I have been working on. Like any good story in my life it usually is some weird mid day deal with a distressed seller (house was sold and pending settlement and it needed to go). I can't ever seem to find a normal sale in a marina or a heated perfect toy garage.

This one was no different. It was in the middle of a horse field (seriously) surrounded by things left from horses. The owner had little to no knowledge of the boat and almost seemed as he had taken it on a debt or something of the sort or funds owed, but he was a genuinely nice guy.

BUT it had a title and was COOL, even if it didn't run- it was a huge gamble. Story was the original (now we later know race) engine with big headers, and single plane was gone. They had "sort of" hung a fuel injected L29 engine in, hooked up no critical wiring or rigging, and seemingly gave up? No leather washers, no springs, no tight bolts. But it was a gen 6 roller L29 EFI engine. With some haphazard rusty manifolds bolted on. It never ran since this swap was attempted that I could tell. No oil cooler setup in anyway, or ps cooler. It had a oil filter adapter on the block with a filter bolted right to the block (probably from a floor test fire).

I had taken one look at the boat and it was too weird to not be some sort of ex race history. Custom fabricated gigantic tabs, some ghosted old graphics/name, a rare alpha ss -2.75" shorty (80's fodder), and a derelict engine situation. I was in hook line and sinker. After 2 days of back and forth we shrewdly negotiated to 50% off the asking price. I probably should have pressed harder on negotiations being not running, but the trailer was gorgeous (nicest trailer of any boat I have owned condition wise & torsion beam axles) and it was too cool.

Once she was secured and home safe, I started backing into the history. Some google image searches, some facebook historic race photos, and we had found her. Originally campaigned in the late 80s, early 90s in ABPA/CPBA by a super cool engineer. "Boatel California" or "DX/DT" had been found. Pretty cool as DX/DT is the mathematical calculation to determine Velocity. She still wears the same old APBA Sticker and MD Registration.

Funny enough even being derelict, he had left the snap cover on and it was in great shape once it went in the washing machine and recoated with 303 fabric guard. Floors and interior were in great shape and at some juncture the gold paint had been changed to red, the deck sprayed gloss white and the interior done.

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As things pressed on it became an all summer project (how these things always go). The motor came out, was cosmetically restored, the old fuel pumped out of the boat, the engine compression and leak down tested (thankfully passed with flying colors) and the old boat anchor exhaust while not leaking, looked like it may at any moment!

Some paint, some powdercoat, some stainless marine exhaust, a hardin stainless thermostat housing with new thermostat, sensors, fittings, some new gaskets and brand new fuel injector connection Bosch injectors and we were off the "races" with a fuel injected L29 engine. By no means a race motor with its lower WOT RPM, the 7400 vortec L29 was a vast improvement over the early 330 hp peanut port 454s of the 90s. It made sense to run though as it came with the boat and had good health #s and they have fairly decent heads and the MEFI 3 ECU runs beautifully on cold starts/etc. They have a very low WOT RPM and are torque motors, but the play will be to just prop it as close to max WOT throttle rpms as we can get. Estimate is about 330-340 hp with the stainless marines and about 400 lb ft.

Got her cleaned up and she was starting to look like something! Rebuilt the transom assembly and the gimbal bearing and seals/ gaskets/ alpha ss water pump. Went to an HP500 oil cooler as the boat had nothing with it, with as many factory merc lines as I could, made a few pushlok fragola lines, some AN fittings, and went with a GM Performance Parts 30 PSI bypass valve in the Gen 6 oil filter housing and went to a merc Oil Filter Adapter. Had a few power steering coolers around so got that rigged in as well.

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Kept messing with her between life, an apache project, a few whipple injected motor projects, and 2 fountains. Started to really come together. Picked 2-3 things a week and 3-4 things a weekend and she really came back to life. Finally started running her. She was TOO FUN. Rerigged half the boat, cleaned up everything, powdercoated the diamond plate in the bilge wrinkle black, vaccumed it about 37 times and she was finally something to be proud of.

Repainted the drive/tabs. Added in a overboard dump for the alpha ss to dump onto itself as a drive shower, have the boat using a through hull fitting direct to the raw water pump. Seems to be working awesome.

Need to delete that horrid bow light.
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Huge shout out to my neighbors and my friend Scott from SNP Marine for all the help. Would not be here without help in anyway.
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So far been the most fun. That gets us to current. Maybe try some prop testing or move onto something else. Sure would be a riot with an all alum 7000 rpm LS and a bravo with a shorty set to 3" below the pad and some full hydro steering!

These boats are legal mario kart on the water!

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WOW! Great looking boat and great back story! How does it handle with those huge tabs?

Padraig

Really good. The ex- engineer owner designed/built them. They are fixed at a level setting and it seems to be "perfect". It planes fine without need to put them down and in rougher water it really flies well. If it gets bow light it catches itself and lands soft. Once its on the pad I think they are too high to matter, but rougher water, neutral trim you certainly feel them.

Cool part was I was able to track down the original owner who built/raced the boat and I got a ton of info from him (far more than the seller).

Oh great looking boat
you are not kidding
those are freakishly long trim tabs
still...she looks amazing.
Your hard work paid off