Ok, Here goes, new to the site and boat ownership in general. Wife recently passed away and I had promised her a Ski boat at some point. Anyway, I thought this might be something my kids and I (11 and 13) would enjoy building and using, so I bartered some stuff for it. What it is, a 1976 Saguaro that, for all intents and purposes, is not that bad. It had a blown engine that the former owner saw fit to trash the internals for, 460 ford. All that remains are all the hookups, block, intake, headers, and Mallory Unilite. Interior musta been trashed too because it's non-existent. Cables look like something on a 45 year old lawn mower and are obviously trash.

The good news it's a Berkeley Jet, 12JC I beleive (Kindof overstamped on the ID tag, but is a one piece bowl), and the boat, short of paint and some minor fiberglass repair (Mostly cosmetic) on the bottom by the transom. I figure a good once over upside down and topside, some time with a sander and some Duraglass, it can be painted to make a decent boat.

I'm not looking to race the thing. One death in the family per year is more than enough, however, can anyone help with what I should do/ not do as far as getting the pump gone through, and is it fine to use a truck 460 with a mild rebuild and possibly a mild cam/ intake/ carb to make as reliable a ski boat as possible? Is the Saguaro even worth messing with?

In reading all the posts, it seems everyone is into place diverters and blueprinting, etc. I am not interested in making the thing as fast as it can be. Or am I wasting my time on the Saguaro? Is it a decent hull or not and how can I tell if theres major issues with that?

I am not a complete idiot, my uncle had a Sidewinder and a Biesemeyer until recently when he retired and sold them. The Biesemeyer had a Blown 454 and was just plain scarey, but I am far from comfortable with some of this. He also had his jet "Blueprinted", and seaid something to me about having the pump housing/Bouwl interface machines for a BIG o-ring, which he had had done. I dunno. Any help??

Going to try and insert pics here, but dunno if it'll work.

Ray

Ray, first off, welcome to the site and sorry to hear about your wife, that's rough...

As far as your boat goes, it sounds like you have a pretty good start, (lets just say nicer than anything I own), on the Berkeley, basic rebuild would more than suffice for what you're trying to do, you don't need to go "pump crazy" until your trying to break into the 70's (not the year LOL) brobably stick with an aluminum A impeller, May be a good idea o call Tom at JBP, very fair and very knowledgable, as far as a 460 Ford, a truck motor will be fine but a quality rebuild will be paramount. If you're going all the way through it, go forged pistons with a slight overhone (a good machine shop will know what to do), a Marine gasket set, brass freeze plugs and so on...If your going with a closed engine compartment all of the periferals will need to be marine rated (SAE J1171).

Otherwise you should be good to go, new cables and properly functioning controls are without saying, very important.

Would love to see pics of this beast, the Saguaro boats I have seen were all pretty nice pieces, Good luck and hope we can help!

GT

Can anyone set me straight on why I cant see what I am typin my post up.  It is so darn hard to write something and have so many darn typos!

Secon.  It was a very nice boat that will serve your purposes very well.  I would suggest you fill out your profile so people can direct you to places that are close to home to help you out.

JoeAgain sorry for your los.

I had a Saguaro with a 455 and the boat was great.

Ok, I was wondering, lol, I did put a profile in, so maybe I'm not the only Techno-Moron in the group, lol

Ray

The link is not working.

Welcome to the site, and sorry to hear about you loss.

OK, Check e-mails, I sent pics to three of you who had the e-mails listed.

Maybe this helps, maybe not. Let ne say this, open with information, you are, and that in and of itself is rare. Hopefully the people you told me to call are the same.

This is one site that I can honestly say, God Bless You.

Ray

Here are Ray's Saguaro








Joe

Thanks Joe, /Cowboy.

Don't know why I can't do that, but whatever.

Ray

lol, yeah, seat frames and how they mount is one of the perplexing things I've been pondering since this thing arrived. Like I said, I'm going to be a moron for awhile. How do you mount seats in this thing anyway? LOL.

Ray

LOL that's funny, I feel like a moron everytime I bring a boat home too, unfortunately it never really goes away the whole time the boats there...

My patterns for my Carrera are being put into "CNC" terminology for production of an all aluminum interior framing, we'll see how it goes...

GT

There are many ways to fasten your seats to your boat...all I can say is you'll start to figure it out just fasten your seatbelt and hang on....like someone told me watchout you never know what beerjet will say next

If you look through history in the different sections (engine, interior, fiberglass...), there is a lot of good information that has already been posted.  If you have any questions about something in an old post, bring it up again and someone will give input.

Here is some pics of the rebuild on my upholstery  http://www.socaljetboats.com/index.php?topic=1390.0

X2 there Crewchief, if you can't find what your looking for on here, there is a chance it does not pertain to boats...BTW the cool thing about your boat having no interior, you can build it anyway you want, buckets, bench, wraparound, whatever, it really makes it your own (just no milkcrates, it's been done )

You thinking colorchange? nothing wrong with yellow, just curious...

Oh, Brings up another question. Haven't started tearing the jet down, is it cast Iron or aluminum? or a combo? wanted to know, know a guy who does anodizing and powder coating.

Ray