1999 Longhorn Nautique Restoration Thread

I’m in Houston regularly. I’ll figure something out.

Small update, I spent the last week trying to figure out how I was going to blend the Holley Pro Dash into oem dash. The conclusion I came to was, no matter how I blended the screen in, it just wasn't going to look right in the boat. It's cool but doesn't fit the style of the boat. I am going back to gauges which I think is the right move. I have a pretty good idea of how I will be placing the new gauges, PerfectPass, radio, and 3.5" Holley Interface.

I have to thank Aaron at PerfectPass. I wanted to be able to flush mount the PP display into one of the panels on the dash. I also wanted to use my own button for On/Off, Menu, Up, and Down. Aaron went out of his way to build me a custom harness to accomplish this. I think the dash is gonna look pretty cool when done!

Lastly, I received my 2001 Ski Nautique shift console. I will be blending this console into the 1999 dash. Since the decks didn't change much from 1998-2002, this should fit with little to no modification. Will just need to remove the radio console portion and then wrap the entire thing is vinyl to match the dash. This console will house the front right speaker, depth finder, hour meter, ballast switches, and fire extinguisher.

It's amazing how much time and effort I've spent just on the driver area but I think it will pay off. I guess it's a focal point of the boat.

Gelcoat should be in this week. The deck will be pulled over the weekend. Castaway Customs will be coming by next week to measure for Seadek. The engine is coming along nicely. All components, pistons, rods, cam, crank, and heads are in. Block is currently at the machine shop. Upholstery materials have been picked out. The primary white and tan vinyl will be Spradling Fresco Cool Touch. It feels super nice and doesn't get hot! Slowly but surely things are coming together but man are there a ton of moving pieces.

67 ski nat wrote: Beyond impressive. Mclonghorn

Thank you 67!

Jonny Quest wrote: I’m afraid to see the final invoice... (I realize that this is a labor of love, but damn...) JQ

I look at it this way, everything I am doing is exponentially cheaper than going out and buying a new boat today. Being that this boat was gifted to me, the money I would have spent buying a new boat is how I justify it. Even when it's all said and done, I will only be in this thing for a quarter or less of what I would pay for ANY 2020 Nautique. I consider this boat a family heirloom so I will be passing it down to my kids and I hope they do the same for their kids. The coolest part is that this boat look, drive, and perform just as good as any new boat on the market. It is a Nautique after-all, best ski boats ever built.

79SNbrady wrote: Digging this restoration! Going to be subscribing to keep up to date on this rebuild! I hope that you are also upgrading the boat cover design, and not going back to snaps in the glass. Thats my biggest pet peeve! Snaps take away the clean look of a boat. When i was shopping for a newer boat, it took me months to find a 236 that didnt have snaps in the glass.

Oh yes, all snaps are being removed throughout the entire boat! I am totally with ya on that!

Didn't expect to see this today but the final mold is complete. I test fit the first dash (couple posts back) onto the boat last weekend. It fit perfectly but it still had those indentations from where the original gauge holes were. Now that I knew it fit, I brought the dash back to the glass shop. They took this first production fiberglass dash, filled in and sanded flat all of the holes and inconsistent edges. Once that was done, they made a brand new mold that is the final production mold. The dash in the below pictures is the first part out of the final production mold. If somebody wanted, I could make this dash with their boats matching gel coat (blue, red, zephyr, green, maroon, etc) and not even wrap it in vinyl. It looks and feels that nice. It really did turn out incredible.

Damn , Look at that stereo.. And to think that I ripped my stereo out the day that I bought my boat because I love the sound of dual exhaust.

Very VERY Impressive. Dem' Texans don't fiddle fart around. Nice work. Keep the pics and updates coming. Cool thread to watch!

Boat has been transported to Austin to position the trailer bunks, build the prop cage, set the bow stop, and build the rear steps. Next week the boat will go to Aus-Tex Media Blasting to have the entire hull, inside and out, blasted to remove all grease, carpet glue, and silicone. While the gelcoat will be sanded down and re-sprayed entirely, we need to get any lose or cracked pieces off and ensure that the surface is free from all contaminants, lime, calcium, etc picked up on the hull after years of use. After Christmas, the boat will be brought back to McQueeney to begin sanding, filling, and blocking the floor and interior walls. Then Correct Craft neutral white gel-coat will be sprayed, sanded, and polished to prepare for SeaDek.

This thing is way over budget that I can see!

Budget? I do not remember hearing about a budget.
I love spending other people’s money, so keep going

You mentioned buying a new Phoenix trailer and it looks like one of your pics shows the boat on it. It looked pretty nice. What happened?

Wow! Just checking in after several months of being away and silent from the forum. You sure have come a long way since I last looked through your posts. It's all looking and sounding very good!   And that AUDIO setup ... Double wow!    That is really going to sound awesome!   
I've got to poke a little at Pete here though ... really surprised he hasn't had a thing or two to say about that          

Gary S wrote: Pete's eyes glaze over on anything newer than 1979,anything with no wood does not even exist

Woah woah woah...my boat has 2 1/2 feet of teak stuck to the back of it.
Where ya at Pete?

I thought i was undertaking a big project but this is amazing. I will be watching this and taking any ideas that i can use on my project.