See Description Below - last updated 08/22/2010

08/22/2010: The water pump spacers didn't come in so we decided to put some paint on the boat. Pulled the boat up so it would reach the welding machine and rewelded a couple small holes in the old welds. Have had several people ask why we were painting the boat and to be blunt it is because the boat was covered in buckshot. So we sanded the sides and part of the aft and it already looks better. Then put on the self-etching primer, the real primer, and then color. Looks like a completely different boat now! Yep that is metallic dark blue. Can't wait to get the cage on it to see what it all looks like together. The primer all dried really fast...guess that was because it was 103 today...didn't look to see what the "feels like" temp was but it was not a cool breeze!

Kyle welded in a drain plug to the water line below the engine and we filled it back up and did a water pressure test. No leaks are a good thing.

08/15/2010: It is still hot! It was only feels like 107...yeah yeah normal for August in Texas but still hot. We got the mesh attached to the inside of the cage and I like it. We were not sure the black zipties were going to work well and they seem to be acceptable. I will still keep my eyes open for something better but I was pleasantly surprised to see how stout it is. Also added brackets for the LED nav lights and got them installed. We have the top light but it is not LED so we will keep our eyes open for one while we use this one. We also started bolting down the aluminim mesh to the front of the cage. This will be bolted so we can pull it off to work on the engine easier.

Got the new water pump installed but it does not fit well with the aluminum pulley so we need some spaces. Also changing out the thermostat housing and going with one that has a reservior built in...it will be in next week.

Sure are a lot of people coming by asking when the mayden voyage will be. Well we are shooting for a month from now but we will see. Work has me travelling a couple times in the next month and got the Texas State Bowfishing tournament in a couple weeks too.

The Durabak sure looks good but really think I should have gone with the dark grey rather than light grey...its almost white. Might have to add something to it but will will see.

08/06/2010: This week we put Durabak non-slip coating on the deck and I think it looks pretty good. Forgive the low quality pictures. I forgot the camera again and used the cell phone. We finished the 2nd coat right before dark so the picture was even worse.

Took a picture of the cage all welded up but we still want to add a couple little brackets for KC and extra nav lights. We laid some of the mesh behind the cage and dont like the zipties we were thinking about. We got some better ideas but it will take longer. We also need to lay the mesh with the pipe to make it look better.

This morning we got the driving platform done. We used a marine plastic for the base and a grey foam top. Yeah it has a name and will need to get that from Kyle. The color is not the same but it is close enough. We will see how it holds up and if we had it well we kept about a quart of durabak in a glass jar in the refrigerator so it might keep. We figured out where we are putting the batteries and I picked them up today. Going with two of them even though we really dont need it. This way we have a little more insurance.

We spent a little time getting ready for the Anahuac tournament tomorrow night so we wont be doing much else to the boat this weekend. Sure wish that this boat had been done.

08/01/2010: Yesterdy it was hot...100 degrees hot but I did get the front deck sanded. Today we got the deck door done and the front of the deck welded up. We then cleaned everything up and taped off the deck. We then got the self-etching primer laid down. Sorry I forgot to take the camera but needless to say it really looks bad with that primer on it. It doesn't cover very well but who cares since that is not really what its job is. Will try to get some pictures of it before we lay the durabak.

07/30/2010: It is always the little things. Got the engine up to temperatur several times and found a few little things that need to be corrected. The water pump is giving us problems and found a crack in the neck....cheap Chinese water pump! So that will need to be changed before we put the cage on.

Mudkat got his shop addition done and it sure looks good! We moved the boat over there and the new section looks small. But it is brighter and cooler. Always build your shop facing the Southeast in this part of Texas to take advantage of what little southeast breeze we might have in the summer!

We are going to lay Durabak in light grey on the deck and sides and it should be a whole lot easier to do this now rather than wait till the cage in on. We need to finish welding the front of the deck before we do that too. We did get the deck door almost done and just need a few more bolts on it to get it done. I also installed the hour meter in the back of the console...yes, back because there really is no more room for a full size gauge, or at least no where that would look good. I kind of like it hidden in the back because it is not that noticable which is what I wanted anyway. I figure as long as you can read it you are good. Also finished bolting down the mufflers. You know you can get polished stainless headers, pipe, and mufflers and as soon as they get hot they start to discolor. Will remember that next time, don't waste your money on polished stainless for exhaust.

Got a couple KC lites (that is how they spell that brand!) and instead of getting the stainless lights I opted for the black powder coated because they simple look a whole lot better. They sure are bright!

07/25/2010: IT....IS.....ALIVE!!!!!!! Whooohooo! It sounds so good too. Much more quiet than I expected. Guess those Magnaflow muffler really are working like we wanted. Don't laugh at my temporary wiring....didn't want to post that picture but was too pumped not to. Once the cage goes back on I will have to re-run all the wiring to make it pretty and I assure you that it wont see the water until that is done. I had an electrical fire in a boat before and know how NOT fun that was. We still need to adjust the timing but with the sun glaring inside the shop door we will have to wait until later in the day to get it right.

Here is a short video I took with my camera. Yes, this will direct you to youtube and for non-engine guys it is pretty boring since you pretty much only hear the engine start and rev a few times.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mH-2rw6Vfbw

I guess I finally broke my promise about not showing the console until the end...well its close now right? I sure love the look of it especially with that dark blue metallic!

07/24/2010: We are real close to firing up this bad boy! Got the mufflers mostly mounted and cut the flex pipe to size. Finished installing most of the sensors and got the radiator hose installed. I think we have the coolest radiator hose on the planet! We reinstalled the seat platform and mounted up the seats and drybox. We installed the carb and air cleaner and mostly finished wiring the console. It is real close to running.

07/20/2010: Well as you can see I have not been doing a very good job of keeping the site up to date. I hope I can get some more pic added soon. We pulled the cage off the boat and finished welding it up. We then finished the seat stand and added some extra bracing and it really looks sharp. Even checked to make sure the generator fits under there fine. We then pulled it off too and finished welding it up.

I started wiring up the console and I must say it sure looks good with the paint and gauges. Still not planning to post a picture of it until the end! Hoping we can get the engine broke in this weekend because we are running really short of time if we are still going to take it to Anahuac on Aug 7th.

Last week we did get the console primed and painted. We first used some self-etching primer that the paint guys recommended but it really did not cover well. So on went the good gray primer and then two coats of top coat.

07/09/2010: Last week after work we finished up the cage. Bent some more 1" pipe to support the rudders and the back of the cage. It really looks good.

Missed last weekend because the wife drug me out to the great state of Arizona. Yep, the one that is fighting the illegals (yes, I called them illegals, not undocumented workers you liberal puke!) and saw Tombstone and the Grand Canyon. If you have never been to the big ditch...well pictures just do not do it justice. It is simply amazing. Saw some beautiful country up in the Arizona mountains that I didn't know existed. If I didn't love Texas and bowfishing so much I could live there assuming the winters are not too bad. While I was off playing Kyle cut down the console and added the gauges and dry box cover.

Today I cut out the switches and took the grinder to it again while Kyle finished welding up the seat platform. He bent a couple pipes on the outside of the seats that will act as hand-holds and seat support. Also cut the door in the seat platform and put the grinder to all the areas we want to paint. Still think it will look killer.

Picked up $400 worth of epoxy paint for the console, seat platform and sides of the boat. Not sure yet if we will paint the rudders yet. Maybe we will get some color on the console this weekend so I can wire the think up.

Trevor and Justin came by and welding some more on the plate. Those guys lay down some tig welds that are just crazy good!

06/27/2010: It really looks like we got a whole lot done! Worked on it a couple evenings this week at Custom Marine Concepts (thanks again Glenn!) and we got the two rear hoops in the cage done. Justin and Trevor started welding up the seams on the plate and man those guys put down some pretty welds!

Then we came back in Sat and got most of the cage done. Today we got most of the fill pieces done and Kyle mocked up the seat box. We still have some pipe to bend for it and it needs to be plated to make it pretty. Glenn, Kyle, and I hung the rudders, which was interesting for some guys who have never done it before. But they are level and look great. I especially LOVE the anodized polished aluminum pipe for the cage. I am sure there are other airboats that have used it but it sure looks good. Some guys might laugh at my plastic car racing seats but I love them. They look cool and are really comfortable. Might do some seat covers for them just not now.

I have not said it yet on here but want to send out a big thank you to Glenn at Custom Marine Concepts who have been getting our materials and let us use the shop the past week. It certainly saved us sunburn at the least. Definitely going to owe you a cold beer and a bowfishing trip!

06/19/2010: Have I mentioned how hot it is in Texas in June! Hot enough that we have changed the work schedule and I am at the shop at 6:30AM when the sun is coming up. We work till lunch and shut it down and sometimes work on it after 6:30PM till dark.

Kyle got a couple guys at work to finish welding up the tank and it looks good. It should be about 75 gallons. We had to install it in the engine stand because it is wide enough that it cannot be pulled. Yes, it was tested for leaks.

We got the engine in the boat which was fun. We got lucky that the tractor had a lift tall enough that we didn't have to use a tree. We then installed the prop blades and man this Sensenich SuperWide is SUPER WIDE! Talked to some serious experts before deciding on this prop. Special thanks to Dantheairboatman for his sound advice. Glad to see another 400 sbc fan out there! We then adjusted the engine stand as far back as we could and we still have plenty of clearance. Drilling those holes and bolting the engine stand down was a serious pain. We also started on the center console but not going to take pictures of that until it is done. I love the look of it.

Got the rudders from Diamondback yesterday and we will start on the cage this week. NOW it is starting to look like an airboat!

06/16/2010: Been busy but do not feel like we have gotten much done. We laid the plate for the back of the boat and started building the fuel tank...sorry no pictures of that. Also installed the oil cooler and I kind of like where it is behind the radiator. We were going to install the engine and stand in the boat but after some measuring it would have been very tough to get the tank in the boat because we have the sidewalks over the gunwales. Played around trying to polish the stainless magna-flow mufflers but did not get very far. Also laid out the instrument panel with the gauges. Still need to get a water temp gauge for the front stick and an hour meter.

The headers and the prop came in yesterday so we will be mounting everything pretty quick. Also finished welding up the fuel tank. I got a little sunburned on my face this past weekend while holding the alumunim while Kyle tacked it.

06/05/2010: The engine stand was coated and it sure looks good. We mounted the engine and got the pulleys and belts installed. Attached the flexplate, flywheel, and gearbox for the final time and relashed the rockers. Checked the oil flow while we were there and all is well with the oil system.

Since we finished everything we could do to the engine without more parts we attached the two plates to the front deck. We riveted it down and will weld the outside edge. Also started working on where we want the lights and what we want. Planning to go with two 400 watt MH lights in front but most likely add more on the sides. Also received the side pieces of polymer and will put them on when we get more screws.

05/31/2010: Engine stand is done. We added the radiator supports. Might have built it a little tougher than it needed but you never want your radiator to break loose. The way it is going to mount in the stand we might go with a slightly smaller fuel tank but we will cross that bridge later. Now it is off to the coater to get coat of liner. That will seal it up pretty good against the elements.

05/30/2010: If it ain't one thing its another! Does not seem like it has been 2 weeks since the last post but hey, time flies when you work a full time job and spend your weekends working on a boat too! Guess I will back up a little. We got the engine over to the shop and put in on a scale. Was pleasantly surprised to see it weighed 398 pounds. Temporarily added the geardrive and it brought it up to 473. That means that the geardrive might be 60 lbs but they might not be counting the flexplate and flywheel? At any rate this is pretty good. Did have a problem as usual. We ordered the geardrive for a small block but the flexplate on my engine seems to be a big block plate. Called Classic Airboats and they took care of it and sent a replacement and it works great.

The trailer has arrived and it does look good. I still think we might add in some side boards to help the boat get centered on the trailer but that is for later. I upgraded to stainless bolts but did not do anything about the wheels and they are galvanized. They are not as pretty as aluminum wheels would be but they are shinier than I thought! Still going to need to pick up a spare tire at some point.

Had to change out the water pump and pulleys since these pictures were taken since the long pump was not going to work with the aluminum alternator mount.

This past weekend we started on the engine stand, and no I didnt get any pictures yet. We built it to sit most of the weight on the two main supports in the back of the boat and will house the fuel tank under the engine too. We figure it will be close to 90 gallons when done. Got the radiator but have not yet built the mounts for it. I will get some picutres of the engine stand soon.

05/16/2010: I cannot believe how little water this wide boat sits in! As you can see by the pictures it is drafting about 1/2" in the back. Of course it has no weight in the back and all the weight is in the front for the deck bracing but this is still impressive. This boat is not light...it was not light before we added the bracing but really wide does help. When I sat on the back the boat rolled back aft and drafted closer to 2". I am just very happy to see that it is not the pig I was expecting. Check out the trailer pics...it showed up and was all wrong...wasn't even a flat bottom trailer, much less an airboat trailer. And it was two feet short. The guys at McClain are making it right and even took the boat to fit the trailer to it. Hope to have it back early next week. We are moving the engine to the shop and will start on the stand when the boat comes back with the trailer.

Oh and we found ONE screw that gauled up and it was one of mine so I cant blame it on anyone. It is in the turning chine so it will be real easy to cut off and replace.

05/08/2010: Kyle flipped the boat over yesterday and we put the stainless nylocks on the 1000 screws in the bottom of the boat. Of course with stainless you must use anti-seeze or they will freeze up and then you have big problems. At any rate was surprised that it only took 3 hours. It was boring work and once you get the routine down it goes very fast. I have no idea why anyone would not do this because it is much faster than drilling and taping. At any rate we had no issues with any screws working out which was very good.

I am impressed with the polymer. I can push the boat by hand now and could not even think about it before the poly went on. We drug the boat over to the pond and push it into the water and was VERY surprised to see the boat only drafting 2 inches of water! Check out the one picture of the rear where the boat is only drafting about 1/2 inch of water. Now I realize there is no weight in the boat except for the deck bracing but that is still impressive. The 2 inches was near the front which was most of the bracing and bulkhead weight. I sat of the back and the front lifted up and the back dropped to about 2 inches. This boat might just draft much better than I expected once it is loaded out.

Boat trailer arrived this week but it was wrong. The trailer guy said to load the boat on it and they will build a trailer to fit it.

Next will need to get the engine over to the shop so we can start building the engine stand.

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04/25/2010: Well I sold my SeaArk fan boat so I could build a jet boat. I wanted a 20ft long with an 80" slick bottom similar to many airboats. I called several places and decided on Epidemic Boats to build the hull for me. He built it to the exact specifications that I wanted but the hull looks more like an airboat than a big jon boat. Let me say this about Roy at Epidemic. He is a great guy and honest. I gave him the down payment and he built me a boat...and did it in a week and a half....yes, very fast!!!! I am still amazed that he could do all this with a wirefeed welder!

Of course then we tried to pick up the boat and found how heavy the thing really was! With 1/8" thick sides and transom and 3/16" thick bottom it is not light at all! It also had 5 t-braces across the floor with the two cross braces similar to most airboats. Check out the picture of the boat on the car trailer, this thing is huge! My old SeaArk was 18ft and I thought it was big but it was a modified V. Since this boat is a flat bottom you gain all that space in the V that you could not use on the other boat.

Of course we thought about turning it into an airboat immediately but tried to get that thought out of my mind. While building the bracing for the front deck we started thinking about how much of a dog it was going to be with any fan motor made. Tossed around the idea of a VW engine for a fan motor but those things are heavier than a 35HP Briggs and while they can be upgraded to some serious horsepower, they are not exactly cheap. Plus I had to think would it really push the boat over a log or through thick grass if it was drafting 8 inches of water?

That was pretty much the time we decided to go with an airboat. I will admit that I have always been in love with airboats but never thought I could afford one. However, I now have the hull and engine and just need a prop and gearbox so this might be as close I as could get to one.

By the way the engine I built for the jet boat and now for the airboat is a Chevy small block 400. Well really it is a 406 since it was bored 30 over. It was an old engine that my father had sitting around for almost 20 years. I wished I still had pictures of what it looked like when it came in. It was covered in rust and the iron heads were simply too rusted to even try to restore. Broke it down and then sent the block out to be reworked. They bored and honed, decked the block, restored the crank and rods, and balanced the whole thing with flat hyper pistons. I added Edelbrock Estreet aluminum heads and Performer intake. Yeah I know the Estreets are not the best but this was originally a budget build. Went with an Edelbrock marine carb and the Proform HEI distributor with mechanical advance. Did get some nice Edelbrock aluminum value covers. The oil pan and waterpump pulley was chrome so I shot it with clear coat to hopefully make it last longer. Went with one of the smaller high torque starters. Still trying to decide if I want to mount the alternator low or high since I don't yet have the mount for it yet. Other than mounting the alternator and adding the oil cooler, the engine is ready to mount and break it.

We are mating the engine to a 2.68 gearbox and planning for an 80" prop, which we have heard real good things about with small block engines. I am not looking for it to run dry ground but do want it to be able to get into really skinny water. I have visions of sliding across the mud flats at Anahuac dancing in my head!

Back to the boat..we added walk-arounds to the sides and four more t-braces for a total of 9. We left the 7 foot long engine mounts to the back of the boat because those things are very strong. Originally they were going to support the engine for the jet but they will be perfect to hold most of the weight of the engine stand and fuel tank. The front deck is 8 1/2 foot from front to the back and the door is 3 ft wide. The old boat deck was 4 ft and I think it was a little too big. We are planning to make this one a little more waterproof. The deck in my old boat leaked rain into the front storage but did not have enough air movement to allow the moister to dry out quickly. We added the bulkhead and welded it to the floor and sides. If we ever take water over the back (or even the front), this will keep it in the back of the boat and have a mostly sealed section in the front. The only problem with welding the bulkhead in is the warping on the sides. Was not planning to paint the boat right away but with all the grinding we had to do and the buckshot, I should be able to sand the warping mostly smooth and make it look good. We also reworked the transom for the rudder supports and made it look more like an airboat. If nothing else it makes crawling in and out of the boat easier right now.

I have not yet mentioned how much help my good friend Mudkat has been. WIthout his expert welding experience and general building knowledge this project would not have happened. I have built plenty with wood and can troubleshoot a lot of things but it is nothing compared to him. Thanks Kyle! Also want to say thanks to Glenn at Custom Marine Concepts and we will be heading back over there when we start rolling the alumunum cage.

Oh let me stop and say something about welding. All the welding that we are doing is with a tig welder because it is really the best way to weld aluminum. It really does a better job of bonding the aluminum and leaves a much prettier and more precise weld. The only place we could not tig weld was the T-braces that we added. We borrowed $10,000 worth of welding machine (between the push/pull wire feed system to the high end Miller welder and cooler) and got the job done. It took a little while to figure out the proper setting for the t-braces but once it was done the welds looked pretty good for a wire feed. It is not the most precise form of welding and threw down some serious burn marks but it did the job. A brass wire brush did the rest.

In the past few days we flipped the boat over which was a chore and then ground the welds on the bottom. We went over them again with the tig and then ground them smooth so the polymer would have good contact. The polymer is Blue Iron from Horn Plastic out of Idaho. They were great to work with but make sure that you tell them not to use Estes shipping because they sucked. Estes got the polymer 10 days ago and since they were not going to deliver it for another 3 days I called them and found out they had it in Houston and drove over and picked it up. Estes freight building is in about the worse part of Houston too! I had to clean off my center console to make sure I could get to my pistol fast! While we were in that area we also picked up all the steel we would need for the engine stand.

Finally got the polymer to the shop and laid it on the bottom of the boat. The 20 foot sheet was perfect! There is about a two inch overhang on the back but it will butt up against the front pipe, which is a 6 inch half pipe in case you were wondering. I won't have to worry about denting up the front of the boat. We put about 50 screws in and called it a day. Mudkat called the next morning and said we better not try to do anything until later because the poly shrank 1/2" overnight. I had always heard that you need to get the stuff hot to put it on and now it makes perfect sense. We started up again that afternoon and put about 400 screws in it and only have the turning chines to do, which are going to suck.