Re: Winter Upgrades
 

Can't wait to see the tinted glass in it. That is going to look sharp.

Re: Winter Upgrades
 

after seeing how ckolek tinted windows turned out, I cant wait either.

Re: Winter Upgrades
 

I know I am in the minority, but i'm not a big fan of the tinted windows. I can recall last year being caught 30 minutes down the lake when a storm came out of nowhere. Having to drive back in that storm with pelting rain made me happy that I could actually see through the windshield as opposed to having to take it on the chin the whole way back. Looking forward to see your progress on everything though.

I'm going to tint them the lightest I can. For me it's more of an appearance effect then anything.

Re: Winter Upgrades
 

spent 14 hours working on various parts of my winter upgrades. First and foremost was the windshield.

let me tell you a story.....bout a man named Jed. Opps, wrong story.

Now all I need is the drivers side windshield glass. Taylor doesnt make any longer and to have one custom made is over $5,000.

Many of you know that Mariah sold the 27 & 30' molds to Challenger. Figuring the Z302 and FPS302 look almost a like (cosmetic changes), the windshields have to be the same, why would they change that ? I bought one of those from Great Lake Skipper for over $2k shipped to my door.

Glancing at it, all looks the same. WRONG. Thank gawd I assembled it and did a test fit install.

First the Challenger windshield is slightly wider then the Mariah and significantly shorter as well. So off to work I went trying to make it fit. After plans A,B, C, D, E & F all failed, I said "lets just completely disassemble both window frames and see what we can make from the two and get it to fit the boat"

So I installed both curved pieces. Being the Challenger is 2" wider, I had to remove that 2" from the center folding window.

http://i1197.photobucket.com/albums/...17D9894856.jpg

http://i1197.photobucket.com/albums/...17F4B2CFC8.jpg



Next we found the profile of the side of the boat are different from that of the Challenger. So we used the angled frame piece from the Challenger, the lower rail from the Mariah and the top piece from the Challenger to form side window frames.

Here you can see how much "shorter" the Challenge windshield is then the Mariah one. Dave is holding the Mariah side window up to the Challenger curved window.

http://i1197.photobucket.com/albums/...1797FC9452.jpg

The height of the windshield is now 6-7" shorter which im totally digging. Much more sleek look.


http://i1197.photobucket.com/albums/...17C99857A3.jpg


Then we got into the mid cabin. This past summer I had water building up and saturating the carpets slightly. Figuring I have a drain that is clogged. Left in the driveway on a HUGE slope, it would empty after a couple of days.

So we pulled the mid cabin floor to clean it out. This is the dirt stain (toilet bowl ring) that was left behind. On man does it stink too. AARrrgggg

http://i1197.photobucket.com/albums/...17D220C752.jpg

Last thing was working on the engine rigging. I pulled all but the two main batteries. On each side of the motor are cavities ( there the dirty troughs you see in the pic. Does anyone know why they are there ? They have drains in the bottom, but arent deep enough to hold any real liquid. Each of them had fiber board covers over them, but still it created a recessed area.

http://i1197.photobucket.com/albums/...t/IMG_2713.jpg

http://i1197.photobucket.com/albums/...t/IMG_2712.jpg


http://i1197.photobucket.com/albums/...4D85FC261A.jpg

My plan is to cut a pair of UHMW sheets to cover both so that I have a completely flat area to mount batteries, etc. to. Looking tonite I will be moving all the batteries, chargers, bilge fans, etc to the drivers side of the boat totally cleaning up the passenger side of the motor for storage of play toys

Gotta drop off the window glass and newly modified frames to the glass shop on Monday. Then install this next weekend.

Re: Winter Upgrades
 

Found out today you cannot re-cut tempered glass. However, new glass cut and tempered was cheaper then I had thought it was going to cost to cut mine. Win Win for me.

Re: Winter Upgrades
 

That is a lot of work. I really like the lowered window look. Maybe lowered is not the word... How about streamline!

Re: Winter Upgrades
 

Afterwards we were cranking up the shop stereo and listening to "Low Rider" by WAR. In my best accent, I was telling the guys "I gotta chop-top now"

Re: Winter Upgrades
 

Tonite we removed the micro, overhead nets and center mounted reading lamps. Im going to build a pair of doors that match those under the fridge and use the space for storage instead. In 3 years, weve never used it once. I plan to buy a nice BBQ and mount in the passenger rear corner perko pole holder. Im making cover plates from matching black acrylic to cover overhead lights. We counted and there are 14 lights in the mid cabin area. Wayyyyyy to many then are needed.

Next was the rear sink. Weve never used either sink, so I removed the facet in the main cockpit, leaving the sink as a "junk" collector. Im covering the facet mounting holes with matching black acrylic as well. Im leaving the lower sink in tack. My plan (probably not this winter, but next) would be to install a small rigid 3-5 gal tank in the engine compartment area and an electric pump and replace the facet with something a bit more useful. the whole "water" bag idea it had didnt thrill me much.

I made a pattern of the passenger side dash junk collector. Im having a piece of clear acrylic made with 2 drink holder hole cut out. When in place, youll still be able to see whats inside the cavity and well as a place to house your beverages.

It kinda strikes me odd, that as much thought as Mariah put into these boats and their tag line "Built like no other boat in the world" that there is only the 2 cup holders on the drivers dash and the one behind the sliding door and NONE in the rear of the boat at all. With a seat that is designed to hold 4 passengers and no where to set your drink down at. Well, Im fixing that.

My next project in the rear of the boat will be build a small table. Im going to relocate on the table holder floor sockets to just behind the drivers seat. There I will design and small table (with drink holder holes) that is routered out in the center leaving a ridge around the outside keeping stuff from just "falling" off. Nothing that BIG, but enough space to place a bucket of KFC or a meat/cheese platter on.

Re: Winter Upgrades
 

Oregondunes,

Would you mind sharing who is making your acrylic cover for the passenger side junk collector? I have tried to have one made once and it failed miserably. If you had somebody with a pattern I would definitely pay good money for one. I couldn't agree more with you about the cupholders -- somebody was sleeping in the design room on that deal. I finally bought one of these at the Chicago Boat Show last month just to have something. Cup Holders | SeaSucker

Good luck with the mods. You always have such awesome ideas and the ambition to take them on.

Thanks!