bouyhunter

In another thread, a few guys asked for some pics of my restoration work on my 1980 24' Pantera.
This boat is well known by a few OSO members. I've referred to it as "the one that has been passed around OSO like a groupie on the Motley Crue tour bus..."
It was first brought to the OSO family by IRONMAN. As I understand it, he pestered a marina owner to sell it to him. The Marina owner had been sitting on it for a few years after taking it in on a trade for a Cig 28 SS. Before the deal was completed on the trade, the original owner was sent to the "pokey", and paperwork was never completed, so he had to jump through hoops to get the paperwork done properly. Ironman did some serious work to the boat while owning it, built (I believe?) a 540 for it, and had it running around 80 mph. He also changed the TRS drive for a Bravo. I'm assuming he's also the one that originally changed the exhaust, and also added the external hydraulic steering.

Here are some pics from the day I got her home.

bouyhunter

Please, If I mis-quote, or mis-direct the history of this boat, forgive me, and those that know the details, please feel free to correct me.

Ironman had the boat for (I believe) about 16 years. Before selling it he pulled the big motor, and put in a stock 330 hp 454. Dude! Sweet! here on the board bought it and had it shipped from NY to Southern CA. The shipper was Pantera's own Barbie hauling it across country.
Dude! added the SMI exhaust, and ran it in the Pacific and out to Catalina for around 6 mos. and then decided to move up to a 28 Pantera (it happens to be that Ironman also moved up to a 28).

tomcei

cool.
let's see something that's torn apart

bouyhunter

Dude! then sold the boat to NickK here on OSO and the boat went to LOTO. Each time this boat changed hands, I had watched it here on the board, and everytime, I was kicking myself for not jumping on it.
After NickK had it for a short time, he decided to go bigger and put it up for sale. I found the ad and made a deal with him in one day, site-unseen. I knew I was looking at a project, not that it was in bad shape, but I want to bring it up a few notches. Two weeks later, I took a drive across Indiana, and Illinois to pick up the boat in St. Louis. My boss (another boater) made the run with me, and it was 750 miles and 12 hours round trip to bring her home to Cincitucky.
Upon initial inspection, there were some things that I wanted to fix.

bouyhunter

I took the boat to a buddies the following weekend (ITTLFLI here on the board), and we started out doing a fluid change, and I saw a few things that looked like they needed to be gone through on the motor. I decided to go ahead and pull the motor and have it gone through.

bouyhunter

Then I got her back home, and realized I have a disease known as "Mightaswellanoma". "As long as the motor is out, I might-as-well..."
"As long as I took this off, I might-as-well..."
So, I stripped everything from the transom...
And started working on things to be filled, sanded, smoothed, and just generally massaged...

bouyhunter

Of course, Might-as-wella-noma spread to the bilge...

bouyhunter

Here's some work on the transom

bouyhunter

I'll try to post some more this evening - time to go get some work done.

tomcei

wow. that's what I was talking about. You will be so happy when it is finished. I saw your post in the paint section.
I used Imron paint in my bilge. I am very happy with it and it was very easy to mix and apply with a brush. Also easy to find at an auto paint supply. No problem applying on gel, clean, scuff, wipe down, and apply. I have spilled and dropped everything on it and it wipes up and shines nice.
Exellent project Bouyhunter!!