Jeezus, that outa hold it....  Now with that outa of the way, time to dust off that rideplate/shoe dealio you were building Josh..........

We're gonna go out there and get some psi readings before I make any crazy hardware changes. But  Just a taste of whats to come.  I've been dreeming up a shoe, the intake opening is about 3/4 to an 1" up from the keel, But to bring it down to the keel seems a bit dramatic seeing as its almost 11" vs the berk almost 8". So I'm still pondering that. I have half a dosen designs in mind, so I'll probabbly make a few different ones.

The shoe addition will most likely accompany a full on narrowed "rideplate" to relpace the dinkky cav plate setup it currently has.

We''ll also know better what it needs or doesn't need when we drive it, I swiss cheeses the suction with psi taps so we can get some good solid info.

One of the big concerns or percieved short commings outsiders would choose to pick on, was lack of hardware for tuning for Panthers.  Well heres some food for thought, berkeley didn't either in 1965.  No loadered, shoes, rideplates, droops, snoots, diverters existed till someone saw a need and a market for them. 

I really think you're on to something Josh. Of course, I'm usually wrong on stuff, but, I like the basic design of the intake. With the shoe hardware, what are the mounting options you 're batting around.
I don't think it'll take much of a shoe to load the crap out of this thing.

It "seems" like this would be a natural but I just cant get my head around the shoe mount side of things.

Oh well, be fun to watch this all come together......take care...john

Actually since I posted last I already made a solid mount to bolt shoe(s) and rideplates on, futuristically, and in the pictures it emulates the stock setup.   This makes it so I can make a couple of shoes that i can swap really easy, at the lake if i want, and not have to worry about sealling and other issue that may arise if this were one piece.

Josh are you going to install nuts on those bolts? and if not won't they vibrate loose? I've heard that even with red loctite they have a knack of working loose.

Thats the plan, I had just finished mocking it up when i took the pic, getting tired of running over to the bolt bin.  Thanks for the QC

Makes a Dad proud !! you folks probably have no Idea but my Son has been workin with me since he could walk (at home and at the shop) All Very Nice work Son !!    Dad

Actually since I posted last I already made a solid mount to bolt shoe(s) and rideplates on, futuristically, and in the pictures it emulates the stock setup.   This makes it so I can make a couple of shoes that i can swap really easy, at the lake if i want, and not have to worry about sealling and other issue that may arise if this were one piece.

Looks fantastic Josh. You do fantastic work.  The above picture was the one I was struggling with. I like your approach.  My guts telling me what you already have there is liable to make a big difference without anything else.

OK this "Hot Rod" is about ready to go to the lake for some more Panther Energizer R&D, A little "crackle" for you folks (notice how talented "my youngin" is ,snackin while he's tuning) Tom

Agreed on all counts. I'm just curious if you're going to need anymore "biting edge" than what is already provided by the mount for the shoe. As far as the stock plate, it is a thin SOB isnt it?  Looking great and I can't wait to hear how you do. 

We'll see like i said we swiss cheesed the sommomabitch, to get some more readings.  The cental tap we had before never saw any more than 15psi on the suction WOT, but that was also a different boat. 

The Tahiti comes out today to make room for the Placecraft! Tom

Thanks Forked we're really anxious to see how this boat runs ,That motor pushed my 85 Bahner jet 83 and 84 BTB runs at CFW,got 2 seasons in my Vdrive cruiser this is some of the  most HP put to the Panther conversion yet to our Knowledge so we're real curious to say the least ..Tom

Thanks to Kreg (h20 mofo) for making this nice boat available to us !!

tom, nice work as usual and in the last pic who did the tahiti emblems in the front seats that is real nice

Good job Josh!  I'm glad to see that some of the possible issues I spoke of are being addressed.
And yes, the Tiki head in the seats was a OEM thing....I wonder if people paid extra for it? 

Steve  Good to hear from you !We always appreciated your input and questions from the onset ,(sometimes you were a little ahead of us  ),It was "providence" for us to finally "score' a Panther ready hull as nice as this for a test bed for upgrades and R&D  Kreg gave us that opportunity! We'll keep you posted Tom

Kreg the little blower worked very well in my Bahner as well as my Eliminator .folks can say what they want about Weiand but I've been very satisfied. I just put a 256 Weiand on my new motor ,ready to fire ,just too busy  So many boats so little time  Tom
Kreg got caught up in the Last minute Xmas sh*T today I'll call you tommorow  T