Thread: Roadster pickup getting closer

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Originally Posted by stovens

We named my 68 Mustang Damien! It was forever making wierd noises, I finally pulled the engine and tranny and replaced it with a used one, 6 months later it threw a rod on the highway. The idiot light came on with the first clunking noise!
As for my truck, it will be the S.S. Persaverance(spelled wrong I know!)

I had a 71 Dodge pickup that we named rodney, cause it couldn't get any respect! Poor truck was rotted something terrible. At the end the cab settled down so bad you couldn't shift it. 3 on the tree used to jam up at the worst times! Like the bank drive thru!

Don, it's looking good !!!!!!!! Remember your not as young as you feel and can't party all nite........LOL
BradC

Originally Posted by BradC

Don, it's looking good !!!!!!!! Remember your not as young as you feel and can't party all nite........LOL
BradC

Brad, if I were as young as I feel I would be DEAD!! Another long night, but we got a lot done. Don came and helped us and we got the engine to basically a long block configuration. One more night should get it pretty much a done motor. More SS bolts coming tomorrow, so we can finish putting the rest of the stuff on.

Here is where we ended up tonight. Now it's shower and bed time..........gotta get my 4 hours sleep before work again tomorrow.

Don

Looking goooooood!!!

Earl

Love those finned valve covers! Wish they made them for a 460! Don I don't know how you can do these all nighters and then go to work a few hours later. I need at least 8 hours between! Noticed the Volvo penta box, someone work in a ship yard?

Thanks guys. Surprisingly, I felt pretty good this morning.......once I had my coffee and Egg McMuffin. We were just talking the other night about how during that 88 day thrash to build Don's T we would work every night til Midnight or maybe even 2 AM, and somehow made it to work, and did the car thing all over again the next night. But I sure hope Dan doesn't get home from work tonight and suggest we put in "an hour or two" on his motor............that always turns into 6 or 8 hours.

And yes Steve, I work at a marina. In fact, the engine in my T was a marine take out that I rebuilt. Same with the 454 we are saving for Dans future drag car. I grab up all the leftovers I can scrounge.

Don

Don
I used to sail old Morgans out of Tortola, BVI. I believe they used volvo 4cyl engines. They were reliable and very popular. I guess marine engines are basically the same except the manifolds and using sea water for cooling?

Yep, the Morgans were sort of built for the charter business, built like tanks and very forgiving.

As for car engines and boat engines being alike, that's correct. Every Mercruiser or Volvo I/O or inboard engine is your basic 350 Chevy or similar motor. Some changes are made to handle salt water, like head gaskets, freeze plugs (brass) etc, and the bolt on stuff like exhaust manifolds, water pumps, alternators, starters, and more are special. The engine suppliers like to tell you that all the internals are heavy duty to handle constant high rpm use, but we have never been able to tell any difference there, all the parts have GM stamped all over them. What is strange is that the $ 40 piston you can buy for your Chevy car costs $ 120 or more for the same boat motor.

Don

Don,
Looks really good, you guys must feel much better now going forward.
Just out of curiosity what it cost at your company to do a complete rebuild on one of those? $120 a piston
Ken

Ken, I close the customers out here, and I see some invoices that would curl your hair! We just had a boat that came in via tow with one transmission out. A rebuilt transmission was $ 6800.00 vs a new one at over $ 10,000.00. The tab for labor and all ended up being a little over $ 10K.

The 454 I scored recently was a repower we did for a guy. His tab for replacing one of the two engines (plus some other work like new batteries, etc) ended up about $ 22,000.00. Both customers whipped out their credit cards and got a whole lot of frequent flyer miles.

We had one boat in here owned by a pretty famous baseball player/ rock star, and his tab was $ 199,000.00 before the boat left. They were out partying and blew both diesel engines to the tune of $ 100,000.00 for the pair. Then, when they were being towed in a commercial fishing boat ran into them and tore the side out of the boat. Boat US Insurance took a hit on that one, even replacing the bedding that got wet from the hole in the boat.

Come to think of it, cars really aren't such an expensive hobby, are they?

Don

Most of the boats we do are in the league that if you GAVE me one I couldn't afford to keep it.

What is it they say (A boat is a hole in the water that you throw money into )
I had a 34' Steel Clipper it cost me $3500 a season for dock space and $3500 to pull it for winter storage. The Marina I docked at wouldn't let me do oil changes on the twin diesels. They charged $1500 for 30 quarts and two filters. I did get by with changing the fuel filters myself.
BradC

Wow, that is just outrageous!! I never had a boat, how can they justify those kind of prices when you can buy a nice crate motor from GM for $3800?
How much is a tune up if a oil change is $1500?
Sorry to be off topic, but this news to me.
Ken

wow it is not to late for me to go back as a rigger / boat service .now i know why my good friendwants only me to work on his boat i work at a boat yard .at one time i was doing warranty work on sea rays windshields .i could do 2 or 3 in a day. i was making 5.50 a hour i found out how many hours sea ray was paying for one windshield .after that i had my boss back up in the corner of his office

I'm with you Ken!

It's funny, but I have seen some car part that I am familiar with, repackaged as a marine part, and the price is a couple times higher. Another thing that costs a lot is having a boat pulled from the water for any kind of service. There is a sliding scale depending on the length of the boat, and for example, we charge $9.50 per foot to pull a 40 footer out of the water, which = $ 380.00, and $ 50 to block it up on work stands. In addition, we charge $ 2.00 per foot per day while it is sitting on land, so that is another $ 80.00. Adding that up, if we lift a 40 footer the owner has spent $ 510.00 for the very first day, and that doesn't include our $ 95.00 per hour labor rate.

But the other side of the coin is that one of our travel lifts cost over $ 500,000.00 and the other smaller one cost $ 250,000.00. They also break fairly often and simple repairs on them can run $ 10,000 to $ 15,000.00 pretty fast. Plus, we are right on the water, so property is expensive as are taxes, insurance, and all that stuff. It is also a very tough, strange business to be in, but I have done it for about 20 years now and enjoy it.

Oh, Dan and I got a lot more done tonight on his motor. One more night should have it and the transmission sitting in the frame. We got all the valve train in, the intake and carbs installed, and lots of other parts bolted on for the last (hopefully) time. We will probably go straight to bed tomorrow after work because it is almost 3 am and we just got in, but Friday night we should be able to set it in there. Maybe Saturday we can try to fire it up for the first time.

Here is a picture I took tonight...........starting to look like a real motor, huh?

Don