At it again!
 

Long winded..................

Well after a wonderful summer on the water I decided (well Mother Nature did) to totally go through my Z302 and freshen things up a bit. I had the freshly rebuilt 502 sent off to have it cleaned up and new bearings/gaskets installed. It is still at the engine shop and am toying around with increasing displacement to 509 and add cam/roller rockers.

The story is my Z302 sank in it's slip about two months ago (in fresh water) after I put her back in the water for the start of the 2010 season. The weekend I put her in was absolutely beautiful but that next weekend we had 40-45 mph winds in the S-SW direction that gives the boat no protection whatsoever in it's slip. I found out the automatic Rule 1100 gph float was stuck and did not allow the pump to come on to keep up with the rain and river water that was being splashed into the cockpit. Both batteries still had close to 12 volts as inspected by myself and my friendly Progressive insurance agent once it was floating again. I took the next couple days off and personally raised the boat off the bottom which was only 4-5' deep at the time and had her on the trailer the next day. The motor was pickled and removed over the next couple of weeks and is sitting at the machine shop waiting on me to decide what I want to do next. I removed the gauge panel (fun) and gauges and have ordered new Livorsi Red bezel/Chrome ring ones that should be a nice touch. I removed ALL the interior pieces and have purchased many sheets of 1/2", 3/4" and 1" expanded PVC board and will replace all the wood in the boat. I have approximately 25 yards of new really soft tan/beige marine vinyl and 1" and 2" quick dry foam to recover some of the panels that have been modified.

When I removed the rear U-shaped seating area I noticed allot of wood rot around where Mariah used carpet on the lower section of the seat bases. When I removed the vinyl and the carpet all the pieces just fell apart due to the fact that they used steel staples to hold everything together. I also noticed that the sunpad/hatch was extremely heavy and decided to redo this in the lightweight PVC board but am going to modify it to have just one elevated foam section where your head would rest instead of the the four separate headrests. In doing so I have also raised the side bolsters up 3 1/2" to sit flush with the bottom of the hatch and this should be more comfortable and be more aesthetic then the original design. The lower left and right seat bases I have redone in PVC and designed it around the same sort of shape but built it to hold 2 48 qt marine igloo coolers. The top of the cooler will be attached to the bottom of the seat cushion and lift off as one piece to allow easy access to the cooler. The center section is going to house 3 12" Wet Sounds subwoofers that will be flushed in and a red powder-coated grill placed over them to protect them. The entire section is attached to the engine firewall and rear seat cushions and then mounted on a large hinge which will allow me to fully pivot it forward to get better access to the engine and engine compartment.

Since I have gone through all this work already I have decided to take off the pitted Taylor windshield frame and am having it sandblasted and then powder-coated Black. I also have quite a few of the engine pieces and other accessories at his shop to get the same thing done. Should be really nice when completed and am watching what I spend to not exceed 5K. One lesson learned out of all this is I will never leave the boat in the water again for any length of time unless it is on a lift or totally protected from mother nature.

I will keep everyone updated and if anyone needs certain pictures of the Z302 in different stages of disassemble I probably have them or can get them as my boat is pretty much all apart.

Re: At it again!
 

Your kidding.....right????? :eek_animated:

Re: At it again!
 

Nope, not kidding.

I did not eat for a couple of days after seeing my boat under water. I have a bunch of work to do but am happy with what I have to work with. I love a challenge as well.

Re: At it again!
 

WOW! Gut wrenching to see that beautiful vessel swamped for sure! What you said about not eating for two days reminds me of myself, I would have been the exact same way and probably awake searching for parts most of that time. On the other hand, the red and black accents, the built in coolers, the new sound system... it all sounds and looks very impressive and it seems like you're still going to be boating this year too. I'm sure everyone that reads this will applaud you for taking on the job and keeping your Mariah alive. I'll be looking forward to seeing the progress.

Re: At it again!
 

Yeah it was kind of a bad time until I called my insurance company and she told me that she would take care of me because she knew how much time and money I had already put into my vessel.

I hope to be getting my engine back before the end of May and am trying to wrap up all the loose ends so I can be boating again sometime in the beginning of June (fingers crossed).

I have alot of people wanting me to be back on the water as well so I have the support of all my friends.

Pictures are of one of the many awesome days I had in my Mariah that is my drive to get it back in the water.

Re: At it again!
 

A few of the worst of the worst.

Re: At it again!
 

Boating pics look like fun. Come on warm weather! Looks like a cool place to boat and man, I do not get tired of looking at pics of that big red LE.

Re: At it again!
 

What a disaster! I'm both very sorry to see the damage done to your beautiful boat and in awe of your restoration project. She'll come back better, stronger and faster, especially if you do the extra engine work. I'll look forward to more photos as you progress.

Re: At it again!
 

Hey b-crazy can you get your block bored .030 over, cam, lifter kit, pistons and rings and stay under your 5K budget? You must have a relative in the business.

Re: At it again!
 

I cut the top of the seat base today for the 48 qt cooler. The seat cushion will be attached to the top of the cooler lid so it will be easy to get into the cooler and will be easy to put it back on. I still have to redo the back bolster section but am using it to get dimensions and fit for when it goes back into the boat.

The center section where the subwoofers are going to mount is constructed of a 3/4" PVC. There is three separate chambers which will be approximately 14" square and totally air tight. The front of the seat base consists of a 3/4" piece and attached to that I have a 1" piece as well where I am going to flush mount the billet speaker grill from behind so all you will see is the front of the red subwoofer grill flush with the seat base. Should look pretty sharp if all goes as planned.

As you can see in the photos I have enlarged the back seating area by quite a bit. I am going to use 2 1/2" foam for the sunpad and 3" for all the base cushions. I am going to wrap everything else in 1/2" higher density foam so it will still have a soft feel to it but should be more durable.