Wifes new cheetah wildcat build thread

[2FORCEFULL]

Well, it all started about 6 mo. ago,.. we had decided to upgrade the power in sues wild cat..
we wanted to go to 525 power,and full hydraulic steering,...She had had the boat for 4 season
trouble free, and figured,... might as well screw with it till it doesn't work anymore..

A little about the wild cat;

the Wild cat is a gary lench design and were layed up by them( same guy that did most all of the havasu and so cal builders hulls)

the wild cat bottom is very fast and forgiv'n .. very easy on plane , rocket out of the hole...
with the 496 ho, it was tested by HOTBOAT and top speed of 73 mph was obtained..

I added exterinal steering, and dana exhaust, and had prestige tune it... with enough prop changes to open a prop shop,..
I settled with a top speed of 77 mph...(GPS)

after doing the math over and over, and listening to sue keep asking when am I getting the new motor....

(lol... she's like a wheel bearing on a boat trailer that needs grease, everytime you take the boat out you have to listen to it till you do some thing about it..... )

we decided that it would be way cheeper and make way more sense to just buy a new boat.. (you can buy the new wild cats for middle 60's with a 496 ho).. not bad for a custom built boat...

here's her old boat.... sure a few of you have seen it on the river and at havasu......

[2FORCEFULL]

Ok, on with the build,
If any of you have ever delt with Cheetah bob, what a treat....no pressure kinda guy,, if you want it fine , if you don't ... well that's fine too

so now the build starts... very first thing , you have to decide on colors, and grafix on the hull..

this is were it get skechy..you have no idea what it's gonna look like till it comes out of the mold, and guess what....

yep....YOU OWN IT!!,,..

so when ever you see a boat that's bad ass, or horrible, that isn't production made copy.... keep in mind what the owner had to go through

so after about a mo. of waiting... they finally popped it out of the mold

[kevnmcd]

Looking good Steve!

[HB Vic]

Looks good so far. But feed us more details. Are you doing the 525 or going with the new 520?

[2FORCEFULL]

Now we need a new trailer, with the stock option, you get a painted fender tandum axel trailer trailer...
the trailer is a 7000 lb gross weight..... well, by the time you add fuel and gear it just too close for comfort for me
so for a couple grand more we setted with a triple axel, stainless fender trailer

[2FORCEFULL]

Looks good so far. But feed us more details. Are you doing the 525 or going with the new 520?

hold on, it's all coming...

[2FORCEFULL]

so now we have hull, well, two halfs of a hull on dollys... and a triple axel trailer..

we also up graded to the 525 power package and full hydraulic to the helm steering....

we ordered the whole sterndrive package from merc, I believe it comes with an xr drive

all kinds of storys from every one on what they think the boat will do speed wise with the 525 power,

but I'm gonna start with what NODIGG on the boards said be cause he had one with the 525 power....

he said GPS'd 92 mph gps'd

we will be happy to be able to cruise 70 with out having to be on pin and trimmed to the moon

the power package arived

[2FORCEFULL]

the actual hull build is a lengthy process with little to show for progress,

the two half are prepped , there are (I think), two types of hulls,... a clam shell(top and bottom mate together) and
a "shoe box".. top over laps....this is a clam shell...

another wait and see deal here..... you have to hope the grafix line up

how they even get close is a mistery to me, you have to tape inside out and backwards...

while the halfs are apart, all the bulk heads and balsa core is installed, this boat has a 90 gal belly tank and it must also be in stalled

[2FORCEFULL]

Once the two halves are prepped, tank and bulkheads are in stalled,... they bond the two halves together,

these boats have a full fiberglass inner liner , way better IMO than plywood floors... the top bonds to the bottom way better making a very solid hull...

after 4 years of pounding havasu in the old one... not one crack anywhere

[WMC]

Wow great thread

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