Boat Hull # M58194 and this is as I bought the boat. She was last in the water in the 70's and stored away until 2002. Power is the Cadillac Crusader 331 with 2 /4rs. I had it delivered 05/29/07 and now the work will begin.

Unfortunately the restoration boat was missing it's original hard top so the hunt was on to find one. This boat hull # M58158 was available on EBay so I had to buy it. Well the biggest catch was it was over 1000 miles round trip to Missouri to get it but the trip went well and nothing important seams to have fallen off enroute to its new location in Dallas.

Now they are both home and we will begin to inventory and remove hardware looking for the best of the two. The engine is a big question so we will check compression and generals this week.

After 2 weeks messing with rebuilding the starter to no avail the engine was pulled and the boat was readied for the rollover.

Pulling the monster Cadillac 331 after all these years. I will begin the rebuild later but at least we determined the heads have already been rebuilt and the internals seem to work as they should.

The framing is built to support the boat both structurally and off the floor with rollers to keep it mobile in the garage.

The roll over was successful and it was transported back to the house for unload

The boat is on the framing and casters and after I get the bottom off (dirtiest part) she will go inside for the restoration.

"The beast lives" !!! After a few failed attempts to run the engine the Cadillac 331 finally cranked after all these years (possibly 30) and has great compression in all cylinders. We will run it again to test more systems and then decide its fate.