Welcome to V-Drive California, a site to share my 1975 Sanger Flatbottom Bubbledeck Family Ski V-drive information with others that love the water and hot boats
Well it has been again a few more years and things are done and past and moving on.... "time can never be contained", I don't know who said that first but it's true. So the '57 went through a couple renditions before being totally completed. But here it is for its main use as the BOAT PULLER.... for the '75 Sanger Flatbottom.
Tuesday, February 28, 2017
Jeeze.... here it is 2 years down the road and just not been into bloggin.... I guess. The boat has taken a little bit of a back seat to my latest project that has been running on about 2 years now and its going to be the boats pulling vehicle... a 1957 Chevy Step-side Pro-Street pickup truck. Powered by a supercharged 540 CI engine in the 900 hp range, so once the boat and trailer are dropped off we can have some fun in the tow-truck too!!!!!
CFW was really just perfect this year... lots of space for everyone to park and get into the water, the water was good, the sun was out, no wind, and lots of good people just having fun~!
Add to that the boat ran well and made it back to the trailer and you have a - "Perfect day"
My dad was in town for the holidays and he is a sailboater, and he had never been to anything like this before and wanted a ride in a flat-bottom... so we made it all happen for him.
He is 91 years young and actually doing pretty well for an "old guy".... We were parked right next to Dave Kikers "Nighthawk" TFH and when he lit the engine off, I told my Dad to plug his ears.... He just pulled his hearing aids out and put them in his pocket and said... "ALL GOOD!"....
He had a great time in the boat and meeting all the boating crowd out there, He says "thanks!"
Dave Kikers Nighthawk made a run, but had a small issue that was later fixed.
Photos by Cathy Geist Hayes
The RED BARON II made its debut again this year with Fred Romani and Matt Woodward there to break it in. All new layup, paint and rigging and Joey Grose power.... The boat just looks phenomenal guys!!! great job!
There were many other alcohol boats out there too....
Well my friends, I have to say that the end of the 20th century came alive again for a day and an evening in the California Delta this past weekend when more than 35 + old style hot-rod boat owners (Hot-Boaters) and all their friends and family got together for a good time on the North Sacramento River.
We all met up in the town of Knights Landing which is about an hour north of Sacramento on the Sacramento River. We all launched and then headed further up river for some fun in the sun. It was a perfect day with triple digit temps and blue skies as far as the eye could see. The colors, chrome and details on all these boats parked along the white sand beaches gave the party goers a lot to behold as they walked along sipping their favorite cold beverages of choice. Oh did I mention the water was PERFECT TOO!
Enough with the small talk, lets see some boats!
There were so many very nice examples of 50's, 60's and 70's era boats provided for the eyes to behold. All of them with V8 engine power, Big intakes and BIG EXHAUST! ...all made for great sites and SOUNDS to hear them all rumbling around as we all made passes during the course of the day.
Sanger Flat and Sanger Shovel-nose Hydro
Heres a great video of the whole day by RW Morris!
Get it on Brother!
After the daytime fun at the river we had a little get-together at a local ranch where they invited all us Hot-boaters in for a some more cold beveys and some great catered Mexican dishes that made for a great end to an already just absolutely awesome day on the Delta!
A big Thank You to "Billy and Crew" from NorCal V-Drive for putting on a great event for all of us to enjoy
And here's a slideshow of all my photos from the day
Well I finally got around to doing the trailer changes Ive been wanting to do and getting it all rebuilt basically. It was the last thing really left to do on this whole project from its starting point. This is what it started out looking like with the white painted frame, white fenders, 14" chrome reverse wheels and the spiral chrome caps, regular lights and old bunk boards and side boards.
I decided to just take it totally apart (except the axles and springs), weld up all the old existing light holes and clean up all of the welds all over it. I installed the chrome fenders and they were a little different than the old ones so the steps had to be filled in with sheet metal. Some the step sheet metal had to be repaired after dings and dents have taken their toll.
After installing the new fenders I realized my old 14" steel wheel offset dimension was totally wrong and they were sticking out of the fenders... so I found a set of 15" aluminum wheels (Ford Ranger XLT) and practically new tires for a deal and would fit into the wells just perfect. A little elbow grease and some aluminum polish and they came out nice.
The whole trailer then went down to a sandblaster here locally and they knocked it out in a few hours and I had it back home the next day for the primer coats to be put on... man let me tell you trailers are not easy to paint! Then I sprayed it with an industrial silver coating that should last a good long time and be easy to touch up if needed.
I cut and made all new bunks for it and also made new side fender boards. I coated them all with LINEX truck bed liner before installing all new Marine grade carpet instead of home carpet. That should keep them water-resistant for awhile.
The final product came out pretty decent and I still have a few more small things to do to it like step plates for the side steps and rear steps above the brake lights, and the tie downs mounted on the rear.
I got the "D" rings welded inside the perimeter rails all the way around for a future highway cover too!
"It's Always Boating Weather" as the DLB proclaims and this day was no different! Only in California in mid March can you find the Delta with smooth water and 80 degree days... what an awesome day on the rivers with all the folks from the Delta Lunch Bunch. Dont know how many boats showed up but we had a pretty good group of people and friends and family that came out to have a bit'o the Irish fun...
Heres some pics: (click on pic for the full size version)
