'72 Hallett Vdrive Cruiser

[Goodwin48]

I decided to make a thread documenting the build process for this boat. I've been boating since I was a spec in my parents eyes. Always gravitated towards the older Schiadas and vectors and knew one day that I would own one! Well... being a 25-year-old who is getting married, just bought a house, and just graduated college, Schiada or vector was not in the budget. So I scoured the web and lost out on a couple of Howard vdrives and discovered this Hallett from a friend of a friend.
It had no Engine in it which was perfect since I had a engine that was supposed to go in a drag boat that never panned out sitting in my garage collecting dust. So got the approval from the fiance and went and scooped it up!

 

[Goodwin48]

First thing was to rip the interior out of it and give the girl a deep cleaning. Interior will eventually get redone to some round buckets and a new back bench. Ripped the 200 lbs hatch off and tossed it in the trash. You cant have a tunnel ram and not show it off!!

 

[poncho]

Nice, those 3 axles will let you hang with the cool Kids here

 

[Goodwin48]

The goal was to throw it together with as many parts as my buddy and I had lying around to see if it would be worth putting some real time and effort into perfecting it. So the Velvet Drive stayed and the TopLoader stayed for now. We needed to make a front motor plate, so ordered a 1/4 plate from D21 Enterprise.

 

[Goodwin48]

Nice, those 3 axles will let you hang with the cool Kids here

it was a big selling point! She's a little rough but Nick at Mad Skillz is going to get her dialed in this winter.

 

[poncho]

it was a big selling point! She's a little rough but Nick at Mad Skillz is going to get her dialed in this winter.

In good hands there, Phil@D21 good people also.

 

[Goodwin48]

Motor needed to be broken in so I hit up Tom a Pro Marine and he got me dialed in. We yanked the Magneto out, slapped in a ready-to-run MSD and changed up the carbs. We dialed it way back to run on pump gas and live fat and happy

 

[jeepdog]

Young man with a bad ass sled putting in the work....very proud of you..cheers

 

[Goodwin48]

After that was rigging the boat! I called upon Dave Conolly to guide me in the direction I needed to go. We drilled a secondary pick up to force feed the oil cooler, trans cooler, and vdrive.

 

[Goodwin48]

After we got all the cooling side figured out, next was getting the exhaust and fuel system figured out. the boat had a set of tanks made by John @ Tank It in Lake Havasu so they were prepped for big -8 lines. I called Teague to get one of their bitchen dual In single out Fuel/Water Separators. We ended up making a bracket off of the through hull pickup to mount the fuel filter. well have to change over to the shorter filter when we go to change it out. I Scoured the Interweb for some Emi Manifolds Cmi headers or even lighting headers with no luck. one day scrolling through facebook. Josh Lightfoot had posted an old set of CMI sport Tubes with welded on pipes and mufflers. Scooped em up as fast as I could for the price he was asking. We were going to need to chop them up to make them fit the boat anyways so I wasnt worried about it.

 

[Goodwin48]

Next was figuring out the steering for the boat. I called upon Dave Conolly again for some guidance. I wanted to get the steering wheel away from the dash so I could move my seat back so my leg was under the dash as little as possible. we got an 7" extended steering column and my buddy dug up the old steering wheel from his Hallett Vector "Restle$$" and we slapped it on for temporary permanent usage lol.

 

[Goodwin48]

After we got the Motor in the boat and plumbed up. It was time to make some big holes in the transom. I grew up with hot rods and loud boats and this boat was going to be no exception. The water level exhaust tips were going to cut it. Called up Teague again for some tips and we measured 15 billion times and I did the dreaded part of slicing and dicing this thing.

 

[Goodwin48]

When the boat gets a new interior, we will eventually redo the wiring. It was okay enough to run around and drive the boat for awhile. we wired up the boat and hit the key and bam! All Kinds of good noises.

 

[Goodwin48]

Later that night we took the boat over to Lake Havasu Marina to see if we have any leaks. All was good

 

[Goodwin48]

Saturday we took it up river to make sure everything was all good on it. It needs ALOT more gear in the vdrive and a way bigger prop. if anyone has any gears for a top loader or 1 inch shaft props let me know!

 

[Goodwin48]

My Fiance tackled cleaning up the interior for now so its somewhat useable. I scored a set of schiada front seats. They arent perfect but way better than what is in it right now.

 

[cj222]

Bitchin

 

[papabear639]

Good shit man!

 

[sintax]

good work man.

glad to see another cool old boat resurrected

 

[Goodwin48]

Bitchin

I gotta bounce some ideas off of you for the trailer and boat. Mind need to make it have some adjustable plates

 

[Goodwin48]

good work man.

glad to see another cool old boat resurrected

Thanks! Turns out she’s had some history. Hearing the old stories are just as cool as building it

 

[pull-on]

bitchin boat and project.

 

[Goodwin48]

bitchin boat and project.

Thanks! The goal was to make it to halletts in havasu and shake it down to find out what it needs. Crushed it!

 

[pull-on]

Hell yeah. We'll be there. Can't wait to check it out in person.

 

[Zach bash]

Very cool boat.

 

[oldschool]

Great job! Love those old Halletts, built like a brick shithouse.

 

[Goodwin48]

Cruised all morning today and was coming back up river and snapped the output shaft going to the prop shaft. Pulling it out and taking it to Mike King next week. Fingers crossed we’re all good!

 

[78Southwind]

Back when Jeremie and I owned it. We bought it from my buddy Jeff who bought it from the second owner. I saw the second owner back in April and she was wondering what happened to it. Jeremie and I pulled in 9 boats with it at the Parker 300. This was one of my favorite pictures of it next to a friends Jet Boat. I called the picture Complete Opposites.

This is when we were a Patrol Boat for the Parker 300.

 

[Goodwin48]

Back when Jeremie and I owned it. We bought it from my buddy Jeff who bought it from the second owner. I saw the second owner back in April and she was wondering what happened to it. Jeremie and I pulled in 9 boats with it at the Parker 300. This was one of my favorite pictures of it next to a friends Jet Boat. I called the picture Complete Opposites.

View attachment 1433555

This is when we were a Patrol Boat for the Parker 300.

View attachment 1433556

She’s back in her natural habitat! Still has the velvet and top loader. Interior is tired so that’ll get a refresh but she’s a cruiser! I just talked to Jermie a few days ago and got some more history on it!