Help me.

LOL at the pics. 75, I'm sure that extra level of care helped yield the desired results. Scott, those tractors would have been really useful.
For anyone still interested in this project, here's an update. The corrected prop, strut, and shaft have been re-installed and the water was water tested a few days ago. Ran perfect. Really smooth, plenty of power. No mechanical hiccups to speak of. The interior also underwent some intense cleaning and looks pretty good despite a couple tears and some light mildew residual. I used Starbrite's mildew remover and it worked excellent. Would recommend it to anyone with mildew issues. This boat was covered black in some spots with mildew and you can look below to see how it sits now. I also threw in some new speakers for the radio which sound better and look better.

Next on the list is correcting some of the gelcoat spots from the accident, mounting platform, buffing exterior, and ordering a freaking $400 MDC computer for the gauges. I was planning to do the gelcoat work myself with help from Art. It's my first go around with gel but I think I can do it. After all of this, she'll be ready for some summer fun I believe.

Nice

when I went on my recovery mission I took a good boat trailer and flatbed trailer with me. I was only an hour and a half from me which made it more economical to take 2 vehicles. It was on the side of the highway.. The owner made a few phone calls and from a referral contacted me about recovering it for him. Luckily it was in a location near a friend of mine"s farm and I was able to borrow a couple of his tractors. I

My fork lift guy would have been helpful:

81nautique wrote: On a side note, can anyone really put a value on Art Cozier? The man is priceless to us here.

truth....


john

For those of you interested in the progress of this boat, here's an update.
The driveshaft and strut are off to the foundry being straightened, I've got a platform in the mail from Michigan. I actually ended up chopping both of the axles in half and taking the best side of each and welding them together and then welded it to the trailer frame (With some home-made clamping mechanisms for backup. Then I rebuilt all the bunks and bent what I could back into shape and put the boat on it. Now at least I have a trailer dolly of sorts to move v-drive boats around with.

Oh never mind, looks like they're 5 lug.

Wonder if there was miscommunication on them not helping you load . I go to copart quite frequently and it is a given that they will load onto flatbed or trailer .

I considered the above mentioned idea of shoving the axel back underneath and strapping it in such a way that it would make it down the road but I'm glad I dismissed that idea after seeing the state of the trailer.
As for the details, I still don't know much because we got in real late last night, it's been storming all day, and I leave this afternoon for the weekend. What I do know is that I have a bent strut, most likely a bent shaft, and some gelcoat damage to contend with. I did push through the rain and wind to hook up a battery to the boat an hour ago and the engine fired up beautifully as well as most all of the electronics appear to work. I'll get you guys some more detailed pictures of the boat eventually. The task for now is to locate a good v-drive trailer to set it on and come up with a game plan to correct the running gear. If anyone might be interested in some of these trailer parts, just let me know. I have two nice, fancy aluminum wheels with great tires, LED lighting, swing away tongue, and bent up axels with disc brakes. No clue if it has any real value.

To echo the rest of you, Art really is an excellent resource and helping hand. He was a fundamental piece in the success of this mission.

Jake,
Did you hear what happened in the accident?

81nautique wrote: On a side note, can anyone really put a value on Art Cozier? The man is priceless to us here.

Nice job, that is one of the more ambitious retrievals we've seen.   Sort of surprised they put up such a fuss about not helping you and then show up with that big loader. Seems they could have offered that to you in the beginning at an hourly rate and be done with it.

On a side note, can anyone really put a value on Art Cozier? The man is priceless to us here.

DayTony wrote: nice job. Now, i'm sure a lot of others are also wondering. Whats the damage tally? and what are the plans? part out, rebuild, etc.

Jake,
I sure agree with Tony and yes, I too am wondering what the plan is.

MADE IT HOME IN ONE PIECE.
When I arrived at the boat, they had actually lifted it and moved it which made most of my original plan impossible. However, I used this as leverage to make them help me load it. Luckily, the fork lift operator I ended up with was really helpful. Art and I still did several hours with of prep work to make the transition easier including jacking the boat level, removing the axels from the trailer, and blocking the trailer such that it would sit level and comfortably on the flatbed. Was a little bit shy on the tongue weight which resulted in some fish-tailing issues, so we had to keep it below 65mph or so. Here's some pics from the day.

Tool setup.



The boat after being leveled out some.


Axels (Both bent and mangled) cut out and out of the way.


The front loader showed up to help making things much easier.




Being set extremely carefully onto the trailer with the blocking we had arranged.


Strapped onto the trailer and headed home. (3 hours later)

i like the sawzall with plenty of batteries or generator and line volt sawzall   some ubolts and a complete axle assy that you will use when you fix the trailer.. Jack it up, cut some crap off it and bolt the axle under it and go

But seriously folks... Tony has the right idea. How do you think it got to where its at now? Some mouth breathing knuckle dragger winched that girl up on a flat bed wrecker off the interstate then dumped it on the ground in the yard. Do it again.