1999 Longhorn Nautique Restoration Thread |
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Gary S
Grand Poobah Joined: November-30-2006 Location: Illinois Status: Offline Points: 14096 |
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I guess you post on planet nautique first |
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DHMcFadin
Senior Member Joined: May-27-2019 Location: Austin, Texas Status: Offline Points: 312 |
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That made me laugh! Very true!
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DHMcFadin
Senior Member Joined: May-27-2019 Location: Austin, Texas Status: Offline Points: 312 |
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Haven't had a chance to make it out to the boat recently but John sent me a few pics. The deck is completely done and ready to be mounted back on the hull. The hull has been wet sanded to 2000 and had it's first polish. The strut and rudder log have been removed and the lower hull below the chine is being addressed. Then the floor will be given a heavier coat of gelcoat, blocked and wet sanded once more, then polish and buff. Last step will be making the floor panels. Once the floor panels are done, the boat is ready for reassembly. Unfortunately, I am still waiting on parts from TaylorMade and Ocean Dynamics. If I want to have the boat on the water by the end of summer, I will probably be driving around windshield-less.
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Jonny Quest
Grand Poobah Joined: August-20-2013 Location: Utah--via Texas Status: Offline Points: 2866 |
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Horns:
Damn fine work. Hopefully y'all will be able to cruise around the lake before summer ends -- looking for those burnt-orange-bikini-clad U of T coeds... JQ |
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Current
2003 Ski Nautique 206 Limited Previous 2001 Ski Nautique Open Bow 1994 Ski Nautique Open Bow Aqua skiing, ergo sum |
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DHMcFadin
Senior Member Joined: May-27-2019 Location: Austin, Texas Status: Offline Points: 312 |
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I was going through some old family memorabilia and found this photo from 2001. Growing up, we ordered all of our ski equipment through Overton's Magazine. In 2001, they had a sweepstakes giving away a 2001 Ford Sport Trac truck. Every time we placed an order, we were entered into the sweepstakes. Low and behold, we actually won that sweepstakes and won the truck. The truck and the longhorn boat were featured on the cover of Overtons Magazine. The below photo is one of the photos from the photo shoot. Shot in New Braunfels, Texas circa 2001. That's my mom, dad, older brother, younger sister, and younger brother. That's me in the back of the boat with the white hat holding the Connelly jumper. Over the last year I have been trying to track down that particular magazine but haven't had any luck. Unfortunately, I do not know the Overtons so I don't have a contact but maybe one day I can find this issue.
Funny detail. If you look closely, the trailer isn’t even hooked to the truck. |
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Gary S
Grand Poobah Joined: November-30-2006 Location: Illinois Status: Offline Points: 14096 |
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Cool picture. How was it decided who got the boat?
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DHMcFadin
Senior Member Joined: May-27-2019 Location: Austin, Texas Status: Offline Points: 312 |
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There are three nautiques in the family: 1999 Longhorn Nautique, 2006 Ski 206, and 2010 Ski 200. The Longhorn Boat was a huge part of my childhood and teens. My dad knew it was important to me. My little brother and sister weren't so attached. My little sister and brother grew up driving the other two boats so they have their pick at those ;) |
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ultrarunner
Platinum Member Joined: October-02-2005 Location: Ridgefield, Ct. Status: Offline Points: 1810 |
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Hey D, any updates?
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DHMcFadin
Senior Member Joined: May-27-2019 Location: Austin, Texas Status: Offline Points: 312 |
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It's been a crazy month in general so I haven't had much time to post. That being said, in regard to the boat, I've got some good news and some bad news. Good news: The hull is still making progress. The floor panels are made and we are ready to spray the underside of the deck. Just waiting on some new gelcoat from Spectrum. I also stripped, polished, and coated all of the brass running gear with three coats of Everbrite. Cured all pieces (accept the strut) in the oven at 170 for 1 hour. End goal was to ensure running gear would remain polished and beautiful. According to Everbrite, I should only have to re-coat once a year. https://www.everbritecoatings.com I also sent a number of engine/ trans/ cooling parts to the sand blaster/ powder coater. The HIN was restamped into the hull of the boat. Rear trailer tie downs were added. Lastly, I was losing sleep over not maintaining the iconic gt40 intake on the engine. Yeah the holley high ram looked cool but it completely defeated the purpose of me rebuilding this engine. I wanted the engine to appear stock and have that iconic look. I found a guy out of Houston, Precision Porting Services, who was familiar with the gt40 intake. He was familiar with the stock restrictions and he had worked a cast iron lower. A lot of shops I talked to wouldn't touch this intake because of the cast iron lower. Too much work. PPS didn't mind. Long story short, the upper and lower are in Houston going through a complete port job. Upper and lower opened up, throttle body inlet to runners is being taken to 80mm, intake ports are being matched to the head ports. This should help this engine breath better and will allow me to maintain the stock look. Even if it doesn't, I am sticking with the gt40 intake. |
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DHMcFadin
Senior Member Joined: May-27-2019 Location: Austin, Texas Status: Offline Points: 312 |
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Bad news: The engine. About two weeks after the dyno run, the engine arrived. At first glance, there were a few cosmetic and wiring items that needed to be cleaned up but nothing terrible. I attributed this to the engine builder being older and not so attentive to aesthetics. Regardless, I was already planning on stripping the engine for a nice paint job, powder coating the valve covers, rebuild the holley terminator harness to fit this engine like a glove, and finally, to swap the intake manifold. What I found as I started taking things apart floored me. I'll let the picture speak for themselves. When the builder was sending me pictures, I noticed that the O2 sensor appeared extremely close to the left hand valve cover. I pointed this out and he told me that despite the picture, there was clearance. When I removed the left hand exhaust manifold, I found out where he got his clearance from. The guy ground a hole through the valve cover. I could see one of the rocker arms through the hole. Not only that, but oil was dripping into the crevice between the exhaust manifold and head. Before I took anything else apart I started taking detailed photos. As I inspected further, I found the following:
Mutilated efi harness with bare, un-terminated wires throughout. Bare soldered wires only covered with electrical tape, no heat shrink. He did a decent job of concealing the cluster of wiring by wrapping everything in techflex. When I took all the techflex off, it got ugly quick. Rear seal had oil pooling around the bottom edge which then started leaking onto the floor of my garage Head fasteners/ bolts were reused from the original 20 year old engine. A complete ARP set costs 100 bucks. He reused the original 20 year old fasteners. I started wondering what other components and fasteners he reused. But here is the big one: He ground the hole in the valve cover with the valve cover on the engine. Instead of manning up and having the exhaust riser replaced and remachined, he ground a hole in the valve cover for clearance. When I pulled the holley high ram off, I noticed a couple silver specs in the valleys and crevices next to the push rods. It was aluminum shavings. I started finding them all over. I then proceeded to remove the left hand valve cover. Aluminum shavings and shards everywhere. When I received this engine, it had about 15 hours of dyno time on it. 15 hours with metal shaving floating around. At this point my heart sank. I continued taking pictures and documenting in detail everything I found. I then brought this to the attention of the engine builder, sent pics, detailed observations, etc. Literally his first words out of his mouth were "you are running a scam, that engine left my shop just fine". Then he told me that if I wanted the engine that nice, he would have charged me a lot more. Finally, he said the only part he would replace was the valve cover with the hole in it. I continued to confront him but it was no use. He proceeded to block my phone number. I sent emails and called and text a few more times. No response. Long story short, I've had the engine broken down by a local restoration shop to professionally document every single wire, scratch, metal shaving etc. I also sent the oil off to be analyzed for bearing material. Finally, I have obtained an attorney and am taking this guy to court. Damage plus cost of labor to rebuild is about 10k. I am livid to the say the least. This guy screwed me. DO NOT hire Bob Lloyd of Spicewood, Texas for any engine work. |
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rosconole
Gold Member Joined: May-10-2008 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 758 |
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Wow that is some special wiring, I would cut the oil filter open immediately before you go any further and see whats in it. If the Holley makes that much more power I would leave it on. If you want some more out of GT 40 lower you can weld up the runners(adding material) and port more out of it paint it grey or black no one will really be able to tell., but Cobra or Explorer upper would be your options to extrude hone if you want to squeeze every bit out of it.
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1989 ski nautique ,1991 barefoot nautique, 1993 Mustang Cobra 1998 5.0 Magazine shootout invitee
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DVskier
Senior Member Joined: September-04-2014 Location: Seneca SC Status: Offline Points: 449 |
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Famous saying : “Trust but verify”. So sorry for your issues.
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67 ski nat
Platinum Member Joined: July-19-2018 Location: Santa rosa Status: Offline Points: 1187 |
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Unbelievable. What did he think would happen when oil started pouring out of hole
He is no engine builder Just bizarre really |
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MechGaT
Senior Member Joined: March-09-2015 Location: Chattanooga Status: Offline Points: 271 |
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Wow, that’s awful. He claims you’re running a scam? What kind of scam would that be? Tear up a newly rebuilt engine to get a few bucks back? I hope you’re able to get your money out of him.
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'92 Sport Nautique
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ultrarunner
Platinum Member Joined: October-02-2005 Location: Ridgefield, Ct. Status: Offline Points: 1810 |
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WOW D! This is un-***************ing believable that someone, at any level of building, would do this. Willful misconduct and criminal IMO.
The good news is, lawsuit notwithstanding, the power that social media has to get the word out on such behavior, assures this nut-job will never build an engine again! Hopefully. With that said, the running gear work looks beautiful. I feel so inadequate looking at my boat ;-( with the bar you have set! :-) :-) Press on. I'm hoping to get a TX trip soon... Keep on posting. thanks, Mark |
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DHMcFadin
Senior Member Joined: May-27-2019 Location: Austin, Texas Status: Offline Points: 312 |
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Even crazier, once he blocked me, I sent the engine off to begin it's independent inspection. This inspection documented the oil shavings, old head bolts, broken and scratched parts, mutiliated efi harness, etc. I sent Bob a certified letter with a breakdown of the problems and items damaged. While this letter was on it's way, he sent me an email stating "I would like for you to bring the engine back to me along with a list of your issues and give me a chance to rectify them. Considering the world health crisis we are now in, and it appears we are approaching the end of time. We’ve had fires, floods and earthquakes, now a pandemic. The bible predicted all of this." I showed my attorney this email and he recommended I not let this guy touch another thing on this engine. Had it just been aesthetic issues, maybe. But it was so much more than that. Metal shavings in the valleys of the head? Really? I lost all trust in this guy the second I saw those metal shavings. I'd be a moron to take it back to him. A day later, he officially received the certified letter. He responded to that letter with a completely different attitude by sending ME an invoice for additional services and then saying that if I did not pay within 30 days, he would report me to the credit bureaus? Not even kidding, here's an example of the items on the "post delivery" invoice. "diagnostic for wiring of IAC" $120.00 The IAC was BRAND NEW and plug and play to the Holley EFI harness. He was the one who hacked up the harness in the first place. "consultation and technical advice after hours" $200.00 That was him telling me about progress on the engine. "post engine tuning testing" $1500.00 "cost of water for dyno" $35.00 So at this stage, the engine breakdown and inspection are complete. Now I am waiting on the oil test to come back. As soon as I get this back, we will be proceeding legally. It does keep me up at night. I have spent some much time ensuring that every single piece of this boat is perfect. Literally spared no expense on this thing. Sucks when others don't care about their work. |
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sport1999
Senior Member Joined: May-10-2015 Location: Florida Status: Offline Points: 313 |
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You should pick this up for a spare.
https://tampa.craigslist.org/pnl/bpo/d/pinellas-park-marine-eng-58-efi/7117394891.html Sorry to hear about the engine. |
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63 Skier
Grand Poobah Joined: October-06-2006 Location: Concord, NH Status: Offline Points: 4245 |
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That's just an awful story. You have to wonder, has he always been a hack, and if so how did he last in business this long? Or is he losing it and cutting corners? Frustrating to say the least.
Good luck with the legal action and getting the engine back into new rebuilt condition. |
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'63 American Skier - '98 Sport Nautique
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67 ski nat
Platinum Member Joined: July-19-2018 Location: Santa rosa Status: Offline Points: 1187 |
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Starting to sound like you found a certifiable nut job
RUN longhorn run |
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Jonny Quest
Grand Poobah Joined: August-20-2013 Location: Utah--via Texas Status: Offline Points: 2866 |
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Horns:
Dude, that drama with your engine just sux. I really feel bad for you. Hopefully, it all works out in the end. Your mechanic sounds like a hack. It's bad karma to mess with CCF people... JQ |
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Current
2003 Ski Nautique 206 Limited Previous 2001 Ski Nautique Open Bow 1994 Ski Nautique Open Bow Aqua skiing, ergo sum |
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DHMcFadin
Senior Member Joined: May-27-2019 Location: Austin, Texas Status: Offline Points: 312 |
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Here is filter cut open. Full of metal. |
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DHMcFadin
Senior Member Joined: May-27-2019 Location: Austin, Texas Status: Offline Points: 312 |
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That looks like a great deal. |
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rosconole
Gold Member Joined: May-10-2008 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 758 |
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I know that dealer proceed with caution , prices are normally high as well. Probably worth 1/2 that.
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1989 ski nautique ,1991 barefoot nautique, 1993 Mustang Cobra 1998 5.0 Magazine shootout invitee
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8122pbrainard
Grand Poobah Joined: September-14-2006 Location: Three Lakes Wi. Status: Offline Points: 41040 |
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Dominic, A thought crossed my mine and I too am thinking proceed with caution. Before you continue investigating what this hack did on your engine, you may want to talk to your lawyer. He may want the independent engine shop to continue with the investigation rather than yourself? Whos knows what this guy will come up with in court? He may say you did the damage and planted the metal chips? Just saying! |
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DHMcFadin
Senior Member Joined: May-27-2019 Location: Austin, Texas Status: Offline Points: 312 |
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Thank you and good point. Fortunately the inspection was completed last week by the independent shop. Everything is documented in detail in a 5 plus page invoice. The owner of the shop has dozens of photos to accompany the inspection. All I am waiting for at this moment is the oil test results from Blackstone. |
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8122pbrainard
Grand Poobah Joined: September-14-2006 Location: Three Lakes Wi. Status: Offline Points: 41040 |
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Gary S
Grand Poobah Joined: November-30-2006 Location: Illinois Status: Offline Points: 14096 |
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I had a very similar thing happen many years ago with a VW transaxle. Lawyer had me get the car out of there in boxes and take it to a dealer. 7K in todays money is what it took to get it back together so I took him to court. Just before we went into the court both lawyers wanted to settle the case- he steadfastly refused. Judge asked his mechanic how did you learn to work on these,he said he watched the companies training videos, He then asked the VW mechanic how did you learn, he spent a week in class taking them apart and putting them back together. Case closed! Got my money,he ended up going out of business all for a torque converter seal and not taking responsibility. You have a very good case sadly it will take time to play out.
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DHMcFadin
Senior Member Joined: May-27-2019 Location: Austin, Texas Status: Offline Points: 312 |
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That is reassuring. I believe this will all work out the way it should. I am sure this isn’t the first this guy has done something like this. |
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ArtCozier
Platinum Member Joined: April-25-2012 Location: Orlando FL Status: Offline Points: 1023 |
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I haven;t taken time to read all of the posts, but thought I should throw in my contribution in the form of my 2 cent's worth. I rebuild marine transmissions for "play money" after having spent almost 50 years working for Correct Craft. My advice: If you are going to up the hp, set the 40 series transmission aside and get a Series 80. The 40 was built in Italy and there are no longer repair parts available for it.. The 80 is built in the USA by the Velvet Drive division of Richmond Gear. It is a much tougher tranny than the 40.
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"Art"
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DHMcFadin
Senior Member Joined: May-27-2019 Location: Austin, Texas Status: Offline Points: 312 |
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Thanks, I will move to an 80 series but I figure I can use this perfectly good 40 series for the time being. I imagine there isn’t much resale value on the 40a but I could be wrong. |
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