So it begins. I purchased this boat at beginning of August with the intent of basically restoring it cosmetically to its original design as much as possible. The boat has lived a hard life to say the least and its going to be pandoras box as we get further into it.
With that being said....I KNOW ITS ROUGH AND WILL COST MORE THAN ITS WORTH.
So as it stands now.
I bought the boat site unseen. I was not too concerned with the condition as long as it was remotely close to described (It was, if not slightly better). I found pics of this boat from years ago in decent shape and then some more pics from recent in terrible shape but I am sure we could all find pictures of ourselves or wives from years ago where we werent exactly mint condition also.
I threw some muffs on it and it cranked right up. Throttle sticks, trim button sticks, motors idled good. Oil was perfectly clean so that didnt tell me anything.
2000 ZT330
Twin 330hp 454 mercs
Bravo 1s
Scope of initial work to be done.
1. Entire interior removed and redone to original.
2. Brand new XR drives
3. Engine bay gutted. Painted. Stringers/bulkheads beefed up
4. 496 engines with 250 blowers. May go bigger but 750hp each is what I told them was a minimum goal (with one caveat).
5. All new lavorsi gauges
6. Imco steering
7. Dana marine tabs
8. New windshield (every panel)
9. Once boat is gutted it's getting every ding/chip and discoloration fixed.
10. New hatch lift cylinder (may do dual)
11. 4 batteries with billet mounts
Here is where I am at so far.
1. XR Drives deliver tomorrow or friday. They may not last but they will get me going. Slow starts and not throttle through jumps....we will see.
2. I removed the windshield after getting a quote from Ocean Dynamics down in miami but of course I did not read thoroughly through their included document which requires a few measurements before disassembling it. So I need to put it back on and take it back off. 500 bucks per curved piece of windshield and I am going to have them go ahead and cut new glass for all the straight sections so that it will all be the same tint.
3. Interior is being removed now. So far nothing thats not expected (rotten wood on bottom of seats). My local interior guy is going to make his best attempt at matching the original design. I have faith that this will be accomplished. The embroidery part of the logo I have not clarified as to how or if I need to maybe contact checkmate about that. If it ends up not being the way I really want it, then I will just order it from Kip and redo it.
4. Hatch had rotten wood, lift cylinder pulled through fiberglass, I have a new lift cylinder, fiberglass guy is working me up a price on fixing that and I am also waiting to see if Kip still has a mold for the hatch in the meantime. I probably will end up putting two lift cylinders instead of one.
5. The shop doing all the work is going to take it out either tomorrow or Friday and get a baseline. My guess is 59 mph.
The caveat to my motor build:
Motors will be the last thing I have built because I want to see how long it takes to get all this stuff done. If it ends up being March by the time everything is complete then I may just throw a set of blowers on the 330s and dog the crap out of them until they puke their guts out. (I might do that anyway).
I have done a few build threads with cars in the past and always enjoy following other peoples so that is my intentions with this one. I plan on doing a nice long thread with pictures of progress until completion.
My father had a 1999 ZT260 when I was a freshmen in high school and we had a ton of fun with that boat before selling it. We always wanted a 330 but he was busy with work and I had became a 16 year old more interested in girls and fast cars.
19 years later I am a married 35 year old interested in boats, cars, work and spending as much time as I can with my father. We have a construction company which takes up almost all of our time and the idea of getting a boat we had wanted sounded like fun.
I will post pics as progress continues and hopefully this thing will end up being on of the nicest ZT330s still in existence. Anyone that has any insight, tips, suggestions, references throughout this is greatly appreciated.
With that being said....I KNOW ITS ROUGH AND WILL COST MORE THAN ITS WORTH.
So as it stands now.
I bought the boat site unseen. I was not too concerned with the condition as long as it was remotely close to described (It was, if not slightly better). I found pics of this boat from years ago in decent shape and then some more pics from recent in terrible shape but I am sure we could all find pictures of ourselves or wives from years ago where we werent exactly mint condition also.
I threw some muffs on it and it cranked right up. Throttle sticks, trim button sticks, motors idled good. Oil was perfectly clean so that didnt tell me anything.
2000 ZT330
Twin 330hp 454 mercs
Bravo 1s
Scope of initial work to be done.
1. Entire interior removed and redone to original.
2. Brand new XR drives
3. Engine bay gutted. Painted. Stringers/bulkheads beefed up
4. 496 engines with 250 blowers. May go bigger but 750hp each is what I told them was a minimum goal (with one caveat).
5. All new lavorsi gauges
6. Imco steering
7. Dana marine tabs
8. New windshield (every panel)
9. Once boat is gutted it's getting every ding/chip and discoloration fixed.
10. New hatch lift cylinder (may do dual)
11. 4 batteries with billet mounts
Here is where I am at so far.
1. XR Drives deliver tomorrow or friday. They may not last but they will get me going. Slow starts and not throttle through jumps....we will see.
2. I removed the windshield after getting a quote from Ocean Dynamics down in miami but of course I did not read thoroughly through their included document which requires a few measurements before disassembling it. So I need to put it back on and take it back off. 500 bucks per curved piece of windshield and I am going to have them go ahead and cut new glass for all the straight sections so that it will all be the same tint.
3. Interior is being removed now. So far nothing thats not expected (rotten wood on bottom of seats). My local interior guy is going to make his best attempt at matching the original design. I have faith that this will be accomplished. The embroidery part of the logo I have not clarified as to how or if I need to maybe contact checkmate about that. If it ends up not being the way I really want it, then I will just order it from Kip and redo it.
4. Hatch had rotten wood, lift cylinder pulled through fiberglass, I have a new lift cylinder, fiberglass guy is working me up a price on fixing that and I am also waiting to see if Kip still has a mold for the hatch in the meantime. I probably will end up putting two lift cylinders instead of one.
5. The shop doing all the work is going to take it out either tomorrow or Friday and get a baseline. My guess is 59 mph.
The caveat to my motor build:
Motors will be the last thing I have built because I want to see how long it takes to get all this stuff done. If it ends up being March by the time everything is complete then I may just throw a set of blowers on the 330s and dog the crap out of them until they puke their guts out. (I might do that anyway).
I have done a few build threads with cars in the past and always enjoy following other peoples so that is my intentions with this one. I plan on doing a nice long thread with pictures of progress until completion.
My father had a 1999 ZT260 when I was a freshmen in high school and we had a ton of fun with that boat before selling it. We always wanted a 330 but he was busy with work and I had became a 16 year old more interested in girls and fast cars.
19 years later I am a married 35 year old interested in boats, cars, work and spending as much time as I can with my father. We have a construction company which takes up almost all of our time and the idea of getting a boat we had wanted sounded like fun.
I will post pics as progress continues and hopefully this thing will end up being on of the nicest ZT330s still in existence. Anyone that has any insight, tips, suggestions, references throughout this is greatly appreciated.
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