WELCOME TO RIVER DAVES PLACE

Back From The Dead... A Jet Bote Build

D19

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I bought this and I was never totally happy with the way it was set up and planned to re-do everything to my liking.

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About 6 years ago, I decided to tear it apart and begin a restoration. Soon after I began, work got busy and decided to shelf the project, buy a running boat and enjoy the river when I could. The boat sat untouched for years.


Here's what she looked like when I finally re-committed myself to the project and pulled the cover.


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The tires on the trailer where rotted, flat and the entire trailer was in need of a restoration itself. Since I knew I would be wrenching on the boat, I figured a dolly conversion would suit my needs well.

Eliminator was nice enough to loan me some dollies while I did the conversion so I could store the boat inside.

I lifted the boat off the trailer onto the dollies with the help of a floor jack, a cherry picker and hand full of curse words.

I didn't take very many pictures of the process because I just wanted it to be over with.

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Here's some pictures of the trailer resto. I shortened the axles and welded on new spindles to get the tires underneath the trailer. The brakes were removed. They had to be to go to smaller wheels anyways. Fenders N More supplied the fenders. The wheels are golf cart wheels and the tires are DOT rated to 1250 lbs each which is ample. All wiring, lights, bearings and hardware was replaced. Some guys like to change out the leaf springs to get the tires closer together, but I like them spread apart. I believe it tracks better behind the truck.
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With the fenders off the boat and the orignial steps cut off, it would be a pain to get in/out the boat. Matt and I fabbed up these locking pull out steps. When the boat is stored, they slide back in.

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Here's a few pics of it completed.

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The trailer was a success and it tows great!
 
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D19

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I installed a new steering rack, cable, billet hub and wheel. I wanted to go to calgo, but couldn't figure out what do do with the steering tube hole in the transom. All the hardware will be powder coated.

The boat is getting more gauges and some of the locations of current gauges are moving so I decided to just rewire the boat.


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If anyone is wondering where I got the work cover, DOC's wife made it.
 
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D19

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I made some dump bezels out of old stringer washers on the lathe and started assembling the transom and bolting on a few other things I got from powder coat.

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I picked up this twin turbo 509 from my friend Dennis. It makes over 900hp. I will be going through it and making a few needed changes.


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D19

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Got the new IMCO stainless tanks and fills in. I had to take them back to have returns ports put in. Bilge pumps are in and a lot of the wiring has also been finished.

Now it's time to bring the boat back to CA to get the motor plates and other fabricated parts made.




Chris and Joe from B1 Racing have been teaching me a lot of fabrication, machining and jet pump skills. I'm very lucky and grateful for their help. I took the boat over to the shop and we figured out where the motor is going to be and mocked up the plates. After mock up, the plates go in the CNC and then I'll window the rails in the Mill.

I decided to go with bucket seats. They are lighter than the previous seats that were in before and give the cockpit of the boat a little more room. In these pictures the seats are just sitting in the boat so we could figure out how far forward to put the engine.

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D19

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Here’s some pictures of the rail kit and seat mounts I made that are already powder coated and installed.

Gauges are in.

I made a plate for the ignition box to mount to that bolts to bulkhead in front on the passenger side fuel tank to keep everything out of the sun .




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Puddemup

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Thing is gonna b badass...fabbin' your own sh** is cool and sooooo rewarding..."who did the rigging?" or "where did you get that?" and you answer "I did!" and "I made it".:cool:
 

D19

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Thing is gonna b badass...fabbin' your own sh** is cool and sooooo rewarding..."who did the rigging?" or "where did you get that?" and you answer "I did!" and "I made it".:cool:

Yes it is very rewarding when it’s “built not bought” I am enjoying the process and I’ll know the boat like the back of my hand.
 

D19

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Transom plates done and suction double drilled.


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I don't care for the way the factory hand hole cover doesn't fit the new style Dominator suction flange so started making my own.




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Made a foot throttle and linkage, there are holes drilled in the peddle, but don't have a picture of that. This will be a pretty cool one off set up that runs through the stringer.

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Modified a bearing cap.

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Fuel Pump Mount. Decided on the Magnafuel Quickstar with built in filter. Made it easy to remove base plate to service pump and filter.




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Custom made pan from Dan Olson, did a full kick out on the side since I decided on top mount starter. Pan that came with engine was too wide.

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The oil pick up they made has to be the nicest I've seen.




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Pretty much need to get everything back from Powder Coat so I can get the engine in finish wiring and start plumbing. Boat is back at it's home (the river) so I'll be making weekend trips out there to work on it. Thankfully it's air conditioned, because it's starting to get warm out there. LOL
 
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cofooter

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I made some dump bezels out of old stringer washers on the lathe and started assembling the transom and bolting on a few other things I got from powder coat.

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I picked up this twin turbo 509 from my friend Dennis. It makes over 900hp. I will be going through it and making a few needed changes.


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Did you make the though hull fitting with the white insert that fit the black plastic tube? Or buy it?
 

D19

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Did you make the though hull fitting with the white insert that fit the black plastic tube? Or buy it?


I bought that steering tube kit from Bob at Dana Marine/ Recycle Performance. It's called the "Detmar Tube" It all came anodized black. I powder coated the transom flanges.
 

rush1

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Your Essexs is beautiful, your jet boat is Pure Art ,I'm in love
 
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D19

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Ride plate, stiffeners and cradle done and ready for coating. I was able to reuse the ride plate, the cradle moved out because of the longer dominator bowl but I used the old holes for the stiffeners. The cradle was a lot of work. Milled the entire bottom 4 degrees and then the edge 9 degrees.

Hoping I got lucky and won’t have to use any shims. Need to bolt it up and check my angle.

Made the front alt bracket and spacers. Need to test fit it all again with a belt then that can also go off to coating. It’s a little difficult with the boat far away but its coming along.
 

D19

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Ending up needing shims for the cradle.


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Wiring almost done. Plumbing is laid out. Just need to get around to doing it. Alternator mounted. Need to make a few more things, pull intake to reset and take another run of parts to Embee Powdercoating.




Intake is a Meirsh so I need to modify while it’s out and make a new loader. The loader that was in before was straight up garbage. Here’s example of old (left) next to new.

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It’s getting there...
 
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oldschool

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Looks great. I’ve plumbed a couple twin turbo engines so I understand the level of commitment this takes. You running turbo “zoomies”?
 

D19

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Progress...

Had to replace the MSD system.

I made the plate unbolt with 4 screws and Left a big service loop to make it easy to work on box. The digital boxes are really nice.
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New tail pipes made by IMCO.

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Had to fix an oil leak. That was a lot of fun but not really.

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Made some wiring and plumbing changes that aren’t all that interesting but time consuming.


Video.

 
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If Looks Could Kill

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you gonna bring it to the horsepower fest when your done? Heard you did good last year
 

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ChumpChange

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Good updates. I was gettin more from IMCOs IG account than here!
 
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D19

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Good updates. I was gettin more from IMCOs IG account than here!

Lol Thanks. Freddie suggest I did a few things so I’ve been working all that out. Waiting for parts in the mail then then all the mechanical stuff is all done. Then I’ll work on the easy stuff like getting the jet assembled then bolting it and the seats in. Pretty excited to have this thing back on the water soon.
 

Outdrive1

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Damn. Awesome project. Gonna start calling you Smart and Old!!! [emoji1305][emoji91]


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D19

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Plumbing is finally done.

Moved the fuel pump relay to a place I don’t think it will get wet and added a shut off switch.

My goal with this project was to make everything very easy to service, All the electrical connections to the engine are in the same area. Two plugs and a ground stud and 5 hose ends. I can have this engine out of the boat in 20 minutes. I spent a lot of time on the wiring and but I think it will be well worth it. After working on a lot of boats at B1 I really learned how a boat should be set up to make it mechanic friendly. LOL

Hopefully I don't need to pull it out again for along time though!

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Dropped the seats off at interior early this week. I should have them back next week.




Now onto the jet pump assembly. I was going to powdercoat it but screw it. I want to go boating! I’ll pull it back apart, machine an undersized wear ring have Chris at B1 lighting the bowl and put a new B1intake in the winter. The boat currently has a meirsh intake now. There’s a lot of other hardware that needs coated still but I will wait til winter.

Hoping to lake test next weekend.
 
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D19

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Put the pump on to mock up and finish the steering arm extension I made. I don’t want my pump parts help hostage at a powder coat shop so that will all be done this winter. I just want to run it.

I showed up at Marine Industries West last week and Bob literally stopped what he was doing to press my bearing on the shaft. I realized I forgot my shaft sleeve and he didn’t have one so I ran it over to Place Diveter and they sold me one and did it on the spot. MIW has been a big help with this build, if you needs parts go see Bob!

Got the wear ring in, just waiting for my pump tools to arrive from CP to finish her up.

She’s getting a stainless AA. The engine previously sat in front of an outdrive and made a lot of power at 5800 rpm on the dyno so I want to try turning a 9.5” and keep the rpm low.


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D19

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Nice, where did you end up getting them upholstered?

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Thanks! Rudys Interior in Hesperia. FYI he makes deliveries to hot rod shops down the hill frequently, So I just met up with him.
 

D19

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1st time on the water in about 12 years. Felt really good especially after all the hours I have into putting it back together. She ran great. Couldn’t really open her up because I didn’t want a ticket.



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78Southwind

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Is that puddle Stone? Looks good.

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