Winter projects?

old377guy

Charter Member
I've taken out a lot of parts and pieces that need attention, replacing or repairing over the last several months. To name a few: cockpit seating, sun lounge pads, swim platform, engine accesories and brackets and some guages. I hope to be able to get to go after some issues in drivetrain, but money is short to say the least. I'd like to be able to fix a few details on trailer as well. What are the rest of you up to? - Jeff
 
I'm taking the hook out of the bottom of the Panther, pulling an engine out tomorrow so I can have the tranny rebuilt. Got my new JimV (Valako Race heads) Dart heads last week. Jim went to the Darts foundry and changed the sand casting of the Dart 345's to his hand porting. Pretty sweet heads!!! Flow as much as an AFR357 CNC or Dart 355 CNC at only 330cc's and at the .650" lift for a marine cam. The port velocity is great. Mine will be some R&D engines. Also going to try to rebuild the trailer and finish the vinyl on my side panels.
 
My boat project got put on hold. Purchasing a new to us home.

The project now is to build the garage to work on the boat in.
 
I'm behind on my projects and have no really good excuse as I have a great place to work on it. Of course, I'm not as young as Jim.........
 
Updated projcts

an ambitious young fellow you are!

So I have been kinda busy. Engine out and drives off.
I think I found out the culprit for the transmission failure. I Disconnected the tranny lines from the cooler and the fluid was all foam and light pink almost white. I think I have a leak in my cooler. It was whipping up and bleeding all my fluid out my vent. The tranny would slip, I would add fluid and then I was off on my way for another 5 miles. There is going to be a lot of cleaning in the bilge!!

Also, here are a couple of pics of my new heads. (Jim's new marine head) They are ~330cc flow 400cfm @ 0.650", either 110cc or 121cc combustion chambers. The side by side shot is next to an old ported 345 PRO1. :)
 

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it looks like I will add "Address steering issues" to the winter list. BTW Rookie, thanks for getting back to me, I look forward to the details and pix of your rear steering setup.
 
it looks like I will add "Address steering issues" to the winter list. BTW Rookie, thanks for getting back to me, I look forward to the details and pix of your rear steering setup.

Sent you a quick summary, give me a call if you have any questions
Jason
 
Update

So I forgot how much I hate saltwater! Over the last week I have spent about 20 hours sandblasting, hand sanding and prepping 1 drive. Cleaning it up so I can fill in all the pits from salt water so I can paint it.
One drive ready for filler tomorrow and going to start sandblasting the second.
 

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When I bought my boat the bilge was a pit. I always wanted to clean it up and get it painted. Now that both engines and trannies are out I started to attack cleaning the bilge. 2 big cans of Comet cleanser, 1 gallon of isopropyl alcohol, 1 round toilet bowl brush, 1 hand scrub brush, 3 rolls of blue towels and many, many more hours of elbow grease.
Next cleaning up the wiring and rigging......where does it ever end?
 

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The good news is that's it's a never ending source of satisfaction when we wrap up another project. Good luck Jason.
 
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