In honor of our new "Nostalgia" section in the forums, I figured I would put up some "blast from the past" articles and threads.!Please bear in mind some of these pictures in these articles are 30-40 years old and they are faded, but there's a ton of cool history and stories that should be told before they are lost forever. Because I'm a Schiada nut, we are going to start with what is arguably the Last Wood Schiada ever made!
The boat belonged to Parker residents Warren and Freida (Remember that 1 owner 21 RC that was the featured boat for sale a few weeks back? Same people). Warren contacted Leonard Schiada to build him a boat in 1959. At the time Leonard was building 3 others, and Warren's was the last to get finished. (Technically there was one more, but it was a plug for the upcoming fiberglass boats and nobody is sure whatever happened to it) Warren asked for Leonard to make some aesthetic changes to the sides and deck of the boat towards the transom so his ended up being completed in 1960.
While the boat was being built Warren had built his own trailer for it, and was prepping to rig the boat. He had purchased a 1960 Tri Power Pontiac motor for it, and having gone to High School with Mr. Edelbrock himself it featured some of their parts. Some here on the forums tend to believe that the attention to detail that Schiada owners put into their boats is a new thing. To dispel that myth, I will tell you that Warren just didn't like the way that Pontiac motor looked. He took it apart, and ground the entire block perfectly smooth and painted it with 1960 Cadillac Royal Turquoise (A green color that had just come out that he really liked). After the engine was put back together, he got together with another one of his friends whom happened to be the VP of the tool and die making department of ACME Wire. They spent some time and cut every piece of metal that it takes to put together a v-drive and didn't stop there. They actually machined their own rockers in the engine and a host of other parts as well!
Thank you Warren for spending the time on the phone with me to get some of the details of your old boat! I wish I could've seen it in person as even in these old faded photo's it looks IMPRESSIVE!
The boat belonged to Parker residents Warren and Freida (Remember that 1 owner 21 RC that was the featured boat for sale a few weeks back? Same people). Warren contacted Leonard Schiada to build him a boat in 1959. At the time Leonard was building 3 others, and Warren's was the last to get finished. (Technically there was one more, but it was a plug for the upcoming fiberglass boats and nobody is sure whatever happened to it) Warren asked for Leonard to make some aesthetic changes to the sides and deck of the boat towards the transom so his ended up being completed in 1960.
While the boat was being built Warren had built his own trailer for it, and was prepping to rig the boat. He had purchased a 1960 Tri Power Pontiac motor for it, and having gone to High School with Mr. Edelbrock himself it featured some of their parts. Some here on the forums tend to believe that the attention to detail that Schiada owners put into their boats is a new thing. To dispel that myth, I will tell you that Warren just didn't like the way that Pontiac motor looked. He took it apart, and ground the entire block perfectly smooth and painted it with 1960 Cadillac Royal Turquoise (A green color that had just come out that he really liked). After the engine was put back together, he got together with another one of his friends whom happened to be the VP of the tool and die making department of ACME Wire. They spent some time and cut every piece of metal that it takes to put together a v-drive and didn't stop there. They actually machined their own rockers in the engine and a host of other parts as well!
Thank you Warren for spending the time on the phone with me to get some of the details of your old boat! I wish I could've seen it in person as even in these old faded photo's it looks IMPRESSIVE!
