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Originally posted by dhmcfadin
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Great story -
Dash has been disassembled and is now at the mold shop. Couldn't believe how bad mine was once I pulled the vinyl and trim panels off. Should have myself a mold and a new dash in about two weeks. If anyone needs a 90's style Nautique dash in the future, let me know.
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When you say Dash shop what do you mean? I have a cracked 04 dash that they stopped making and have asked every shop in town and no one will touch the vinyl can you get me the number of the shop?
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I googled "fiberglass molds austin texas" and there were a few shops around that specialized in making fiberglass molds. I went to John's Custom Fiberglass and he set me up. I am sure you could call him and ship your dash over. He does all of the body work, plug, mold, and first run. Super nice guy, very knowledgeable. 512-778-6993Originally posted by JAppler View PostLast edited by dhmcfadin; 11-12-2019, 10:00 PM.Comment
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I might be in for one. Mine's decent but the stereo opening and some of the mounting holes are pretty hammered.Originally posted by dhmcfadin View PostComment
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I’ll post lots of pictures of the new dash. The final product will be made out of fiberglass instead of ABS so it should be much more durable, including all mounting holes.Originally posted by Treybizttu View PostComment
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Windshield is disassembled and ready for powder coating!
This tool made disassembly a breeze.
Last edited by dhmcfadin; 11-13-2019, 10:07 PM.Comment
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Another step forward. The engine has been pulled and dropped off at the builder. I initially was going to ship this engine up to Prestige but I decided to do more research in the local Austin area. I found a well known retired engine builder who is known in the cigarette boat racing community. I dropped the engine off at his shop this evening. When I pulled up to his garage, I was speechless. Couldn't think of a more perfect place to have a Ford 351 rebuilt consider the two incredible self built Shelby kit cars parked there. After speaking in detail with Bob about how to build a potent and extremely reliable marine engine, we decided not to build 427. We are going to build a 393 or a 408. Meeting people like this really make this restoration and the story of this boat that more special.
The deck will be coming off in the next couple days and the interior body work will begin. One item I have been brainstorming is how to incorporate a belly hard ballast tank with a sender. Cody and I went back and forth about this and then he came up with the idea of reinforcing the gunnel walls and then building integrated gunnel ballast similar to what jet boats use. This way the center ballast would be closer to the center of gravity of the boat and I would be able to have individual control of each tank. The ballast tanks will be glassed to the walls of the hull along with reinforcing the hull walls. They will be independent of the deck and gunnels. Each tank should add just under 200 lbs each. Including the factory rear tanks, this boat will have about 800 lbs of factory ballast. While not much by today’s standards, 800 lbs in this boat is a lot. I’m not a wakeboarder or surfer. I grew up skiing on a pair of cutoffs. This will be plenty for me. But, this ballast idea is not set in stone. I may go with bags all together. I just really want to be able to monitor my tank levels. Bags won’t allow me to do that. Not sure why that is so important to me.
Last edited by dhmcfadin; 11-20-2019, 08:21 AM.Comment
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Another piece of the puzzle has arrived. In my first post, my plan for gauges was to have Livorsi create some custom instruments with the hope the classic Nautiques logo could be incorporated on the gauge face. Unfortunately that couldn't be done due to copyright. I realized that since I am running a Holley EFI system on this new engine, I could utilize their EFI Pro Dash 12.3". It's built for rugged environments, is water resistant, completely plug and play with one cable, and has an integrated GPS speedo. It would also show everything analog and NMEA 2000 gauges would and more. It also offers a variety of different input and outputs including digital switches and potentially incorporating depth sender data into it (I hope this is the case). While I was pretty sure I wanted to stick with the classic oem dash look, I realized that this boat is not a perfect period correct restoration. It's a resto-mod. Part of that is incorporating new technologies. The Pro Dash stays with this trend. Best of all, I can incorporate as many Nautique logos as I want.
Since my new dash will be made out of fiberglass, it will be fairly straight forward to mold and flush mount this screen into the dash while maintaining the OEM shape, bezel, and matching overlays like the OEM dash. I would also make the screen frame-less so all of the gloss black surrounding the screen would be covered up. The only step from here is figure out what Perfect Pass gauge I will be using. It will most likely be the rectangular gauge face they sell. I will disassemble it and then flush mount it into the dash like the Pro Dash. I may re-solder the Perfect Pass settings buttons to a different place on the dash if it's possible. I am thinking I will flush mount it below the gauge cluster where the oem tach and ballast gauges were. Maintaining the same frame-less approach. We will see on this.
What are y'alls thoughts?
Last edited by dhmcfadin; 11-20-2019, 07:25 PM.Comment
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Would appreciate y'alls feedback on what ballast configuration I should use please!
https://linkto.run/p/BGK2PJ5H
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I love the restore projects. Looking forward to the postsComment
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I voted.... No tanks, got to bags.
Interested to see what you come up with for the dash.
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Very special thank you to Jeff Carroll at Planet Nautique and Ron Nace from Correct Craft for helping me gather a 22 page build sheet of this boat. I am truly elated to add this documentation to the restoration book I am creating. Below are a couple excerpts. 43.1 mph isn't too bad! Can't get over that 1999 pricing though.
If you want to see the full build sheet, see link below:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dI-...ew?usp=sharingComment
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That's pretty cool!Comment
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Today was exciting! First, Wakemakers finished the rendering of the oem ballast replacement. I sent them the dimensions of the oem hard tanks and they were able recreate them in bag form down to the curvature and taper. Rear ballast with be increased from the OEM 400 lbs to 960 lbs and I will still be able to utilize the rear storage locker. An aluminum cage will be built around the bags so a beauty panel can sit on top of the cage to stow gear and life vests. Haven't measured out the belly ballast yet but will probably get to that over the weekend.
Next, Bob (engine builder" said the internals of the original 351 looked perfect. The block is a perfect candidate to become a 408 stroker. Here are some pics:
Lastly, and the most exciting part, the first dash was pulled out of the dash mold. It's a little rough right now as we just wanted to get it produced and placed in the boat to make sure everything fits properly. Final production will be dialed in, all holes and other imperfections will be corrected. There are also a couple oem lines that aren't quite perfect from the factory so those will be tightened up. Every indentation in the mold where the individual gauges, radio, and switch panel will also be filled and sanded smooth. The outline for the overlays will be retained just like oem and I will leave centering holes for placement of the oem gauges along with overlay studs holes in case anyone else needs one of these made in the future. Hope to have the second revision done by late next week. Once everything looks good and the mold is perfect, I will make a third final production dash and begin molding the Holley Pro Dash and custom PerfectPass display. Special thanks to Aaron at PP for making this possible. It's gonna be really cool! I'll post some pics over the weekend of the dash in the boat.
Last edited by dhmcfadin; 11-26-2019, 08:36 PM.Comment
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