The factory uses a gray cloth tape to simulate metal. Well, I have never seen any gray cloth that looks like metal. So I stripped that crap off the hatches and applied chrome tape instead. Now that looks like metal!



After the 'gas caps' had been sanded and re-painted I glued them to the aluminum rings. The caps had little nubs on them so all I had to do was drill a hole to mount them. They are supposed to simulate 'screw on' caps so no need for flanges and bolts. Made it easy.







Well, the dash is finally finished.



A couple more poseur pics...







After that, there was nothing else left to do except put here in the water and see if she floats.







I could barely crack the throttle and this big boat slipped through the water easily. With no reverse on the esc I was pretty nervous about it so I brought it back to me. I then decided I would do a 'stress test' on the motor to see if it would get hot. (Stupid idea I realize now!) So I held the boat, and went full throttle and counted down 60 seconds. Man, it has pretty good push against my hand. Anyway, I take the boat out of the water and figure I will mosey on over to my shop and get my temp gun. I lift off the hatch and SMOKE is coming out. Ah geez..........

Well I get my temp gun and start looking for the 'smoking gun' and can't find anything overheated. Motor was around 95* except one spot near a brush was around 105*. The esc was around 103-105* and the batteries were in the 80's. What the heck? I let it cool off for a few minutes and then powered it up again and all seemed okay. I then ran the motor and it worked fine. I think I missed a bullet!

I want to find a deck mounted navigation light in the right scale. Any ideas?