BansheeVision
Seaman
- Joined
- Feb 20, 2012
- Messages
- 69
Re: 1984 Regal 255XL Restoration
Ok, It's been awhile, but its game on with the 'Blue Moose' project. I guess this one should have a name now. My reason for post lag if anyone is interested (mostly just a journal), my brother and the shop in general is not ecstatic with the with the decision of doing boats this year. We have done a few cars and trucks, our usual bread and butter, but I have purchased 13 boats in the last 3 months and have only flipped 7 of them. Week of pre July 4 was my target to return to trucks. {NOT TRYING TO USE THIS FORUM TO SELL BOATS SO PLEASE RELAX}.
Back to the Moose -> Did not use my (darling) hot rod motor. Rebuilt the 5.7 4bbl with some extra goodies and it is now installed(will be testing tomorrow). The damn boat had nearly 80 gallons of old gas in it I had to dump! There were a few long faces to see $240 worth of fuel carted off(trash has no value). There were a few brave boys that thought they could burn it mixed in their trucks, hell if that first gen guadrabog 350 was belching it out like a prom date with her first taste of budget hooch, any injected rigs would have suffered a tainted pucker.
Over all I am pleased with the build - I had some help with machine work from a couple of Alabama race car engine builders. To make a long story short - bored 40 over - opened the runners in the heads - port matched the intake to the heads to the exhaust. A few simple tricks in the heads - stamped rockers - no girdles. Estimate conservatively about 380 - 390hp on the wheel at 4200 - 4400 RPM.
Have not done the math for the torque because I don't want to know - it is a OMC 800 stringer after all.
Finished the fiberglass work on the beak(pulpit). Turned out good - I will not go into all the details because there are excellent discussions and others experiences to be found on this forum. I will say if you have access to air - even if just a small compressor - tools can be had for $20 or less utilizing 36 grit wheels and various wire attachments you will be astonished with what you can whittle out very quickly. I have done bodywork utilizing fiberglass for over 25 years. A tip I would pass along is using one of the large plastic coffee cans or other containers to use as a lacquer thinner bath to clean/revive wheels/brushes. A few attachments in rotation using a single tool usually works better for me than dragging out multiple tools. Of course the same results can had with electrical/cordless tools Or a determined soul with a scrap of sand paper. Be creative using materials as simple as masking tape/paint sticks even wax paper as molds/forms.
The upholstery is done!!! I rebuild all the wood structures and then farmed out the material work. It took the guy for~ever, and upon one visit to his shop he proudly exhibited the progress of his toil. I was impressed by the quality and skill of his craftsmanship to the point that I was a bit disheartened to bring to his attention that he had covered another customers seats with the freaky Zoot-suit material that I will never find more of. The old guy is cool, he does a lot of custom car interiors and I use him exclusively. He pressed out a boat load of buttons for me, and only charged $400 for the entire cockpit job. I'm in about $500 total for a custom cockpit on the old pocket cruiser. It's sweet - will install it last!
Where I'm at... $250 > for the 25' Regal. $300 > for the trailer and a complementary 26' Reinell (still have to go on a bits and pieces exploration). Throw in another $100 in the trailer for rebuild/spiff. $500 > new cockpit rebuild/upholstery. $80 > fiberglass/pulpit project.
At least $150 > Transportation. And the little secret that my guys will never know ... nearly $2000 for an insanely overbuilt/machined in-house motor. Have 2 stock cars sitting idle and have been in them less than 30 hours this season. Young Turks want me to climb back in so we can all go racing - Old fart wants to go boating! They can all come along...
Will post pics of progress...
Ok, It's been awhile, but its game on with the 'Blue Moose' project. I guess this one should have a name now. My reason for post lag if anyone is interested (mostly just a journal), my brother and the shop in general is not ecstatic with the with the decision of doing boats this year. We have done a few cars and trucks, our usual bread and butter, but I have purchased 13 boats in the last 3 months and have only flipped 7 of them. Week of pre July 4 was my target to return to trucks. {NOT TRYING TO USE THIS FORUM TO SELL BOATS SO PLEASE RELAX}.
Back to the Moose -> Did not use my (darling) hot rod motor. Rebuilt the 5.7 4bbl with some extra goodies and it is now installed(will be testing tomorrow). The damn boat had nearly 80 gallons of old gas in it I had to dump! There were a few long faces to see $240 worth of fuel carted off(trash has no value). There were a few brave boys that thought they could burn it mixed in their trucks, hell if that first gen guadrabog 350 was belching it out like a prom date with her first taste of budget hooch, any injected rigs would have suffered a tainted pucker.
Over all I am pleased with the build - I had some help with machine work from a couple of Alabama race car engine builders. To make a long story short - bored 40 over - opened the runners in the heads - port matched the intake to the heads to the exhaust. A few simple tricks in the heads - stamped rockers - no girdles. Estimate conservatively about 380 - 390hp on the wheel at 4200 - 4400 RPM.
Have not done the math for the torque because I don't want to know - it is a OMC 800 stringer after all.
Finished the fiberglass work on the beak(pulpit). Turned out good - I will not go into all the details because there are excellent discussions and others experiences to be found on this forum. I will say if you have access to air - even if just a small compressor - tools can be had for $20 or less utilizing 36 grit wheels and various wire attachments you will be astonished with what you can whittle out very quickly. I have done bodywork utilizing fiberglass for over 25 years. A tip I would pass along is using one of the large plastic coffee cans or other containers to use as a lacquer thinner bath to clean/revive wheels/brushes. A few attachments in rotation using a single tool usually works better for me than dragging out multiple tools. Of course the same results can had with electrical/cordless tools Or a determined soul with a scrap of sand paper. Be creative using materials as simple as masking tape/paint sticks even wax paper as molds/forms.
The upholstery is done!!! I rebuild all the wood structures and then farmed out the material work. It took the guy for~ever, and upon one visit to his shop he proudly exhibited the progress of his toil. I was impressed by the quality and skill of his craftsmanship to the point that I was a bit disheartened to bring to his attention that he had covered another customers seats with the freaky Zoot-suit material that I will never find more of. The old guy is cool, he does a lot of custom car interiors and I use him exclusively. He pressed out a boat load of buttons for me, and only charged $400 for the entire cockpit job. I'm in about $500 total for a custom cockpit on the old pocket cruiser. It's sweet - will install it last!
Where I'm at... $250 > for the 25' Regal. $300 > for the trailer and a complementary 26' Reinell (still have to go on a bits and pieces exploration). Throw in another $100 in the trailer for rebuild/spiff. $500 > new cockpit rebuild/upholstery. $80 > fiberglass/pulpit project.
At least $150 > Transportation. And the little secret that my guys will never know ... nearly $2000 for an insanely overbuilt/machined in-house motor. Have 2 stock cars sitting idle and have been in them less than 30 hours this season. Young Turks want me to climb back in so we can all go racing - Old fart wants to go boating! They can all come along...
Will post pics of progress...
