OK, the boat did come out very nice. But, getting it to that point was one long, relatively expensive trip. This was my first "hot boat". In the early 90's, the low profile jetboat was still popular in our area. If your boat could break the 70 mph mark, it was still considered a fast ride. So, instead of dropping $5000 on a running boat that might just need some minor clean up and TLC, I opted for the cheaper (or so I thought) route of buying a fixer upper, also know as a basket case. This rig was a 70's vintage 17' Kachina that came with a 460 Ford and a Berkley jetpump. The motor had been sitting for quite some time and wouldn't crank over, even by hand. The jetpump was laying in the back of the boat, having been removed for some unknown reason. No problem, I'm good with tools, right? Friends pretty much figured I had lost most of my common sense when I backed this thing into the yard! Luckily, not being married at the time, I didn't have to face the almost certain wrath I would have incurred had there been a Mrs. in the picture at that point! 

As you can tell by the picture, the interior was thrashed and was sort of a strange design. The original red gel-coat was now painted a metallic red.  There was also no working gauges or wiring in the boat at this point. What was I thinking? We pulled and disassembled the engine. Water had found it's way into the motor at some point, rusting one cylinder bore. The heads were not in much better shape. The motor was taken to a local machine shop where the shortblock was saved. The motor was given a new set of forged pistons, a Crane cam, ported stock heads, and Crane roller rockers. A Dooley oil pan sealed up the bottom, while a Weiand Stealth intake and Holley 850 carb made up the induction. Ford SVO valve covers, Bassett over the transom headers, and a complete MSD ignition rounded things out. The Berkeley pump was taken to Jett Performance in Phoenix, AZ for a rebuild and a manual Place diverter. The pump was fitted with a new A/B impeller.

Once the motor was completed, my attention was turned to the hull. The hull appear to be solid, so the only major work was stripping all that old paint off of the gelcoat, and fill a few old gauge holes and exhaust cut outs in the transom. Once that was completed, I sprayed the boat with black Dupont Base Coat/Clear Coat. I came up with a few simple stripe designs and added those prior to application of the clear. The only thing that went wrong here was the paint for the stripes. When I picked the two colors, one was going to be a metallic red and the other a metallic purple. However, when I opened the paint cans, the colors were real close to each other. Not wanting to pay for more paint as well as waiting, I just went with the two colors I had.

The trailer was repainted and rewired and then the boat was reunited with it. The engine and jetpump were bolted back in the boat. Next I bought all new gauges, steering, shifter and cables. I also used a  Painless Wiring universal harness and spent a couple of days hopefully getting everything hooked up correctly! That monumental day came and the motor fired up without much protest and all of the gauges actually worked! Last but not least, was the interior. This was one of the few things I was going to leave to a professional. If I had tackled that job, it would have been indoor/outdoor carpeting and lawn chairs! So, the boat was towed to Craig's Custom Upholstery, in Phoenix. He built new buckets and a rear bench seat, covering them with a gray marine cloth with purple and black stripes. He also added new carpet and even built two side covers for the gunwale mounted fuel tanks. Once again, using that hindsight thing, painting a boat deck black, when you boat somewhere that is 8 degrees cooler than Hell in the summer, wasn't such a good idea! The sides, maybe, not the deck. I think my skin on my feet and butt just recovered last season!

The boat was finally ready for the lake. I was thrilled with the hole shot the boat had! Top speed was about 72 mph under perfect conditions. The one thing I wasn't ready for was the ride on a Sunday afternoon! I had figured it would be a nice ride with the diverter set correctly. Not so, it was still a 17' boat with not much of a vee to slice the water. When the water was smooth, I could always count on riders. The lake kicks up some and it was solo ride time!  We even took the boat  camping at Lake Powell twice. In the morning we would rip around the many canyons of Powell loving life! But that trip 40 miles back down the lake at the end of the weekend usually guaranteed an appointment at the Chiropractor the next week. After enough spinal compressions, we decided to put the boat up for sale and buy a bigger boat. I added up all the receipts I had gathered over the boats year reconstruction. The total came to almost $15,000! Man, I didn't remember spending that much! Oh well, everything was new or rebuilt, it shouldn't be hard to sell for a decent price. I think I asked $8500 at first. In the mean time we had ordered a new boat that was due to be completed in 12 weeks. Well, we didn't receive one phone call. I kept lowering the price to no avail. The pick up date on our new boat was rapidly approaching and I needed the room for the new boat. I was just about to take the boat to the Boat

Brokers in Havasu, when  my girlfriends boss offered to take the boat for the $5000 I was going to ask at the boat lot. Sold. Well, I learned a lot about building a boat and what things are really worth. Hindsight being 20/20, I should have listened to the owner of Kachina when I originally inquired about a new interior. Louie Majors told me, "Don't spend a bunch of money on this boat, in a year, you're going to want to sell it and get a bigger one." No way, I love this boat and will keep it for a long time. It will be fast and ride great. Yeah, right. Just about a year to date, we were looking at another boat!  So I could have had a nice jetboat for a heck of a lot less money and work, but I did learn a lot and I do enjoy these type of projects. There is a certain satisfaction to telling someone you did most of the work yourself in your garage instead of just writing checks to shops.