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  1. #76
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    Afishinado,
    Your '62 Stevens that you assume to be the "Actual one posing...." in the catalog, is incorrect.
    Your hull is a 17' Skiier. It has a more anglular rear side around the transom, which is white, like the sides, even over the top of the rear deck. Your hull has a bulkhead glassed in forward of the engine, the engine being a small block Chevy.
    The 17' Silhouette has a rounded rear at the transom, and the rear deck is same color as the main deck. The Silhoutte has no bulkhead ahead of the engine either, which, in the catalog picture's case, is a big block Ford. In '62 you're talking a 390 or a 406.
    The "Target Design" on both of the boats is the same style, and color. so that may have made you assume that it is the same exact boat.
    Of note, for restorers, are the jet boat, the 17' Silhouette, and 18' Silhouette pictures in the catalog. Check out the WHITE engines. The Stevens factory production boat came with a white painted engine, regardless of make of engine. The other boats pictured have custom engines installed, and could be whatever color the owner wanted.
    I hope you understand that I'm not calling you out, it's just that I've been researching Stevens Boats for years. I just intend to inform the Stevens Faithfull out there.....Best to you.
    Respectfully, Spike

  2. #77
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    Aquavette!

    Quote Originally Posted by aquavette View Post
    It is a '64 model, and seems very solid. Finish is even in great shape. gave the boat a good once over on Saturday, and took it for a quick spin on Sunday. I have a handful of minor issues to address, but all in all it is pretty lakeworthy as it sits.

    A few more pics.



    Aquavette, what you've got is a 17' SK Silhouette, and it's absolutely gorgeous.
    A Stevens built that year with a small Chevy for power would have a 283 or 327.
    I have some original seat cushion sections in my storage shed, and either your seats are nice originals, or they've been re-done like the original design.
    The metalflake finish looks pretty perfect, love that......
    The adjustable cavitation plate is an upgrade available from the factory.
    The steering wheel and engine valve covers have been changed from what the factory pieces were, as they are not era correct for the boats manufacture.
    The rudder guard on the trailer looks like a Vance design, hard to tell exactly from the photo, but a Vance trailer would have been the original unit. Trailers built then would have had a Mahogany taillight board that's removeable. If the trailer is a Vance, someone's updated the lights to personal taste.
    I'm not picking apart your boat, I think it's beautiful, just adding some info as to how they were new.
    Love it......... Spike

  3. #78
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    Hey Spike anything new with the site?

    http://www.stevensboats.com/

  4. #79
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    Pancho,<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o>
    It's still on approach.<o></o>
    I've been so busy with re-painting the house, boat shows, work, ETC., that I haven't been dealing with the webmaster lately.<o></o>
    I brought my Stevens Drag Hydro "Too Much" to the Boatfest at Bass Lake Ca., and had a great time. There was a guy there who restored a 17' Stevens flat with a supercharged Buick nailhead, that had a reverse grind camshaft. The engine inhales through the exhaust ports, and exhausts out the intakes. It was featured in an issue of Hot Boat a year or two ago. The guy (sorry, I forgot his name right now) did a beautiful job of engineering and restoring on it. Look for that one in your old Hot Boat magazines, if you have any.<o></o>
    I've been spending most of my boating efforts on my 18' Stevens. It's got a way to go.<o></o>
    Put a different mag on the blown Hemi ( a Scheifer unit from the sixties), changed plugs, and my priming technique, and now it really runs good.<o></o>
    Took the "Mortician" over to Pete Giroux's speed and marine shop to have some trailer welding done last Monday.<o></o>
    So, I'm keeping busy, but I PROMISE, I'll get back on having the website put up.<o></o>
    SPIKE

  5. #80
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    Hey Spike no worries kinda did that to let other peeps know of its existence.That reverse flow 63 Stevens is on the River Rats-2 video available from v-drivevideo.com.You know the rules right if you speak of a boat you have to include pics also.Went for a ride in my friends 65 Stevens last night powered by a 401 nailhead and what a sweet boat,he did a total resto this winter and hit it out of the park. http://www.v-driveboat.com/vweb/forumdisplay.php?f=3


    http://www.v-drivevideo.com/cart/index.php
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails keiths motor.jpg   giroux.jpg   100_8759 (Large).jpg  
    Last edited by pancho; 06-21-2008 at 06:27 AM.

  6. #81
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    Pancho,
    Wow! you read my mind about posting pictures. I couldn't get my photos to attach to my e-mail. I even asked my wife to see if she could,(she's good at the computer stuff), but she couldn't figure why our pictures weren't attaching either.
    I was trying to attach a photo of the "Mortician", and "Too Much", a flat and a hydro that I own, to add to the eye candy that you guys have posted.
    Now you know why the website is dependant entirely on the webmaster's schedule. When it comes to most things computer, I'm a cyber idiot.............
    As to the photo of the Giroux trailer decal, yes, that is the same Giroux, Pete Giroux, to be exact. Great guy. His shop is actually called Giroux Boats, I think, and is located in Camarillo, California. They still make custom trailers. as well as complete boats and what have you. Pete Giroux owns some of Hondo's and ,(I think), a cole Boats mold, and they make 'em new there.
    Pete made a custom steel prop strut for my Stevens hydro that has a small foil, or, wing, on the barrel. I was telling him how the Stevens hydro is heavy and doesn't "Blow the tail" as easily as the lighter, sleeker , Sangers etc.
    Pete said that he had heard of someone adding a wing to his prop strut. I asked him if it really worked. He didn't know. I said, let's try it and we did. It does help. I also added a " clever" style prop, that adds a lot of transom lift to it as well.
    How's the nailhead running?
    Spike

  7. #82
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    Quote Originally Posted by Spike Morelli View Post
    Pancho,
    How's the nailhead running?
    Spike
    Spike, The Nailhead is running fantastic!
    I like it a lot more than the Hemi that was in it...plus it's a Nailhead!
    Keith

  8. #83
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    Keith,
    That's a really nice Nailhead, I'll bet it's pretty torquey. The Edelbrock mounts and wet manifolds are getting harder to find too. Who ground your cam? Headwork? Pistons?
    I need to correct myself as to Aquavette's boat. I said it was a 17' Silhouette. That is incorrect, it's a 17' Skiier.
    I must have been looking at how nicely the sides roll up around the transom when I typed that. This is one of those curious things you'll find. Possibly there was a mold change at Stevens, or a change in how the deck was moulded in to the bottom, because some Skiiers are more angular than others back there.
    Clearly, the 17' Silhouette has a completely different deck cap, that has a one piece color matching deck which includes the afterdeck. My mistake.
    Spike

  9. #84
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    Hey Spike you seem to be up on the Stevens stuff my boat has notches at the transom that i havent seen on another 60`s Stevens someone once said it was probably bought as a hull and decked somewhere else that sound possible?
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails 265.jpg  

  10. #85
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    Pancho,
    Well, It appears to me that, judging from the photo you attached, you've got a wood deck that's been painted over. A factory glass deck has a deck that rolls down smoothly into a dashboard, and the dashboard turns gracefully into the sides of the gunwales. Check out the photo of Aquavette's dash to see how a glass deck rolls into the sides and dash.
    With the cost of repairing, or replacing wood decks so expensive ( although not really overpriced when you see how labor intensive it is, and what kind of a craftsman and talent it requires), lots of boat owners opt to merely paint over an aging wood deck.
    As for Stevens, there wasn't a wood deck guy per se, in Stevens employ. Stevens used various wood deck artisans from a pool of guys who did wood as a specialty. I know a man named Harlan Orrin, who did many of Stevens' wood deck jobs, but he also did Mandellas, Rayson-Crafts, etc., at the same time. He was (and still is) a veritable "gun for hire" in the industry.
    Every guy who did wood decks has a signature style, or method of building and styling a wood deck. Harlan has told me that he can often tell just by looking at a picture of the deck, who did the job. Interesting.
    Also, you can have a wood deck put on any glass deck boat years after it was built. They just cut the deck off and build a new one on top of the glass hull bottom, like putting a lid on a coffee cup.
    Anyhow, not to be so long winded, I think that's why your rear deck is raised, or " notched ", I think there's a wood deck under the paint.
    Am I correct?
    By the way, from the photo, it appears that engine and v-drive placement is moved forward in race boat fashion and the transom has no exhaust holes. Did your boat at one time have thru-hull exhaust trumpets, and has the v-drive angle been changed from a 12 degree box to a 9 or 10 degree box and strut? It's all hot dog stuff, including the adjustable plate set-up. Just wondering how much is a factory set-up. So many boats have been modified to taste, at this point, and the restorer in me is always interested in how something was when new, and how it becomes to be how it is today.
    Most v-drive flatbottoms are like an archeological dig when you get into it's history.........
    Spike

  11. #86
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    Ya Spike wood decker,hear that Harlan name alot.Boat came from Cali in 1967 with Pontiac power and thru hull exhaust with the adjustable cav plate.In 1990 the guy i bought the boat from converted to Chev and moved the motor forward 8" but left the rest original from what he said

  12. #87
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    Pancho,
    Very cool. I can picture your boat with a 389 and Tri-Power in my mind. Pontiacs, Buicks, Olds, Caddys, were very commonly used in the sixties for hot inboards, along with FE Fords and Chevy 327s, 348s, and 409s.
    All that stuff is coming back again too, it's amazing. Metalflake finishes and wood decks are on the rise as well.
    I may be off a year or two on this, but the big 396/427 Chevy style engines came on the scene around '65 or '66, so most boats built prior have had an engine swap if they're big block powered.
    Headders, or, "dry stacks", as they were called, were only used on race boats, and even then, not ALL of them. Though many independant makers made exhaust stacks for customers, it was Bassett who started mass producing headders for the masses, again, somewhere around(I think) '65.
    Consequently, you'll find most boats earlier than '65 had thru-hull exhausts originally.
    No matter, you'd be hard pressed to find a factory set-up boat these days, like their land counterpart hot rods, most people will tell you they're never finished!
    By the way, Harlan isn't the only game in town. Jim, or John Miller of Miller Boat Fame(brothers with two separate businesses) still build fantastic wood decks here in So Cal, as well as Clayton John ( C.J.)who's in Oakhurst Cal., I believe. Interested wood deck guys take note.
    Hang on, I'm still going to post a few pictures of my boat(s) so you can see what I'm up to. I'm jealous, your ski boat is running, mine isn't.......................
    Spike

  13. #88
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    I have seen pics of the boats coming from the Miller shop simply amazing.My boat is apart right now after having a new stringer put in and needs to be assembled. Went for a ride Sat with leadsledmerc in his Stevens with the nailhead that thing runs great and is beautiful to look at,check out the vid



    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNUuccvzXj8

  14. #89
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    Pancho and Leadsled,
    O.K., now I'm jealous of both of you. My 18' Silhouette will be a while before I can use it. That video looked fun. I asume a cold beverage awaited on shore!
    Well, since I haven't figured out yet how to post some of MY photos yet, try this: I've mentioned the Stevens boat "Mortician" that I'm bringing back.
    Go to www,vintagehydroplanes.com, on the left side of the page, click on "viewers photo albums". Now click on "Bob Foley". There's a nice photo on page 3 of the "Mortician" in the sixties,
    That's the best I can do for now, but I'd love to share with you how it looks today. Anyway, check it out, tell me what you think.
    Spike

  15. #90
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    Spike i have seen pics of the Mortician before and that thing has a cool factor of 11 nice to know its still around and well kept, good job
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails foley_mortician.jpg  

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