SWITZERCRAFT Shooting Star

The boat is complete. I have TITLES FOR EVERYTHING. It is a 69.PLEASE NOTE: power head itself needs assembly, all the parts are mint, fresh machinedand ready for reassembly. I canassemble but, have found many either only trust themselves to do such things or they "know a guy". We can talk about this if an issue, auction at this point is for it unassembled. Please read all of this to understandall that comes in the package, lot's of extrahard to find 1500 XS parts included. IT IS LISTED ELSEWHERE, SO AUCTION WILL END IF SOLD WITHOUT NOTICE.More photos available once we talk if you are interested. I'm not trying to be difficult I just want to communicate with those really interested in this most excellent piece of race history. I have had it since 2006 or 7. It has vintage correct instruments, Merc "high performance" wheel as noted by solid spokes, throttle and kill switch. The seats are original, even original upholstery! Gel is original, still shines not rough like typical aged metal flake. A few hairlines here and there in the clear gel and a slight hint of fade here or there but ya gotta be staring at it in the correct light at correct angle to see and most people don't, it presents very well. I have acquired all the parts and cable to do a period correct super ride guide dual set up, I also had the bracket made for the motor modeled after what Merc did back at that time for the inlines. My plan was to do this before I ran the boat again but, I ran it just as is on one cable with no worries. The Shooting Star had one structural issue and that is the drain holes in the stringers allowed water to wick in under the stringers, so the bottom 1/2 inch was rotted in certain places so I cut out all the frames and stringers and replaced them. I used Okume Marine ply, biaxial glass and epoxy, way superior to factory and corrected the drain hole issues. Not my first rodeo on boat restoration. No pics as that computer died long ago and took my photos with it....bummer. The ply laminated in the hull was 100 % OK as was transom. I did redo the drain sleeve in the transom, bedding it for 100% seal. Originals are just a tight fit to the wood core ( yikes!). I put in shiny black AstroTurf exact as was in the boat so I assumed that was original. I left as much of the original speckle inside paint intact as possible. The seat box was a hollow closed box, when I rebuilt it, I made it so the top flips forward now for storage for all the required stuff, paddle etc. Where the transom is high, taller than surrounding deck, There were two1 inch widesteel piecesabout 4 feet long that connected near the transom top then angled out and down to the stringers. I put in Stainless Steel turnbuckles using the original transom holes and tied into the first frame. This was much better structurally and it gave more room for two 6 gal tanks, battery and trim pump in the motor well area, very tidy back there now. I kept the angles if exact factory is desired. The fellow I got the boat from was owner 2 but, only had it less than a year and never ran it, lost his job andwantedtosellit. Original owner was a Merc mechanic. He made a neat foot switch for the trim which is in the boat and works but, I have a trim switch on the throttle running in tandem. He also had a tall windshield on the boat, I was able to remove this and thankfully there were only a few small holes, some holesI put in snaps for a cockpit coverso I only had to fill two small holes, you have to look very close to tell. Lucky, as that windshield was hideous! The trailer is original for the boat, its a Sterling, needs cosmetics but, frame, tires and bearings are good to go. I focused on the boat and motor. The XS still sports near perfect original decals and excellent original paint. The inner screens behind the louvers are very good, a small nick here and there. I have the shifting low water as well as the SSM. Trim/tilt/pump etc. are perfect, hoses are new, pump is the original 1500 HD one with the red tubing on the motor wires, all decals present. The wire harness is new, a frequent problem on older Mercs is crumbling insulation. Carbs, fuel lines, fuel pump etc. all have been done so rubber is ethanol compatible. New timing belt too. When I started using the boat it had a lefty ( weaker) SSM and it dropped a pinon tooth. I had it rebuilt as a righty which are much stronger, Steckbauer in WI did it before retiring, he was a Merc racing guru dating back to the 60's. Service parts are still available from Merc. I swapped on the shifting case to make sure it was fine, it is but, never really ran it with the correct prop. I have since found a cleaver and a Laser chopper that I estimate would be close to what's needed for that gear case. Once running the righty I lost a few mph from the 84or so to 81 or 82 as compared to the lefty. With driver on the left, boat was set up for a lefty lower. One however, would never notice anything different. That said, before I got all the righty props sorted out the inner waterjacket cover leaked (typical weakness when not done right) I shut down at first loss of speed but, on tear down there was a crack between the intake ports. It was during tear down that I discovered the original block was .030 over and the bolts for that inner cover were not installed with the epoxy as Merc stipulates. I called owner number 2 and he confirmed motor was rebuilt with .030 to "make up for any loss due to switching to low dome pistons". Too bad they blew the inner cover install. I started hunting for a correct good block which led me to pick up 1500 XS related items as they surfaced. Eventually I got 3 blocks, 2 service J blocks and one NOS 1500 block. I had Jim Ruck in WI do all the work on these three blocks. He did all the Merc racing work in the 70's /80's. These were close to the last job he did before he sold the shop to his long time employee... He's also good too! The NOS block got ported to match the original block that cracked, I sent him the original to measure and match. The J blocks got what was needed to get them up to snuff. I opted to do 6 sleeves on one at standard bore, the other got three sleeves at standard and went .015 over on the other three holes. I have 2 used but, excellent low hour clean complete crank assemblies one with high dome standard dia pistons, one with low dome standard dia pistons. All Merc stuff not aftermarket. All carbs dist, fuel pumpcovers wire harness (new) etc. are ready to just bolt on to complete the powerhead. Not a lot to do, a few days and it's going over 80. Which brings me to the extra parts, after a complete powerhead is built (all this is only freshwater use or new): 2 extra blocks at least one would be a J depending on what was used on motor one extra crank assembly high or low depending on what was used. A second excellent low water pick-up gear case A shorty mid section no rams/ shocks, needs paint, detailing A 1500 XS louvered dent free cowl, needs paint but, I have a new remade decal set A1500 XS faceplate, A set of 3 correct WMK-14 carbs, A correct new NOS -25 switch box These are what makes an XS an XS. The missing stuff is all standard in line 6, classifieds board has the needed things listed all the time for lowdollar. Would be pretty straight forward to get a second complete motor.The reserve price is more than fair, just all XS motor parts are worth more but, I can't bring myself to break it all up, it's too special. . I am interested in a boat I've been chasing for a while andwant to move on it.Thanks.