Ok Guys, I got it home, now we need to fiqure out what it is, and who made it. I will say, it is built very heavy duty. The fiberglass body is 3/8" to 1/2" thick everywhere, nicely laid up, Everywhere that there is a tiedown hook or clevis, it is reinforced with a metal plate glassed into the body. The axles are 1 3/8" stainless steel and are supported on the outside of the body and at the end of the axle on the inside by big, greasable bearing blocks. The bearings are bolted to the sides of the body on the wheel side, on the inside there is a metal cage glassed and bolted into the body that the inner bearing is bolted to. The drive chains are bigger than #50, I'd guess # 60, all the chains are riding on spring loaded tensioners with nylon wiper blocks on them. It has the Berkley Jet Drive, that is coupled to the engine crank with a sliding coupler that you have to manually loosen 2 set screws and slide the coupler forward to engage 6 pins into the drive lug. I can see that being a PITA, I will be re-desiging that engagement method to something I can do on the fly from the drivers seat, probably an electric clutch of some kind. The engine is a Subaru, I think 1300cc, it has points and a carb, so that dates that to mid 70's to early 80's . Transaxle is a VW Bug, mid 70's also because it came out of a Bettle that had CV joints. There is an aluminum adapter between the engine and trans. There are brake rotors mounted on the output shafts, the rotors and calipers look to be XJ Jaguar units, I'm familiar with those from my Cobra kit car,( wish I still had that), The gauges are also Jag, except for the speedo, that is a Stewart Warner. It has 2 gas tanks teed together, one common fill. There are 2 small radiators also teed together in the back, each one has an electric fan mounted on it, the fans are controlled by an electric thermostat on the engine. There are 2 bilge pumps in the rear well, they exit out the rear bulkhead. The wheels are all the same, the front and rears have that stiffining plate welded/bolted into the center. the hubs are welded to the axles. The tires are 26-12-12. It has an AM radio in it, and the interesting thing about that is that the antenna mast is glassed into the body, up under the dash.
I'm wondering if this was some kind of a kit that you built? They supplied the body, mounting hardware, you supplied the engine, trans, etc.. I've attached a walkaround vid, I'll take some pics as I get into it deeper. Let me know your thoughts...
Coop
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), that is the rear hull and loosen a set screw and slide a coupler together to engage/disengage the pump, really a bad design. I am going to adapt an electric, shaft mounted clutch, so I can drive into or out of the water and just flip a switch to operate the clutch...
