Thanks for the advice! Finally got her painted and the nonskid down. Awlgrip with rhino hide additive for the nonskid came out great! Also dropped the boat off last night with Don at Hermco. Really glad I decided to go with one of his brackets cause they are nice! Ended up going with the 24" setback.

looking great!

Well got her in the water and couldn't be more pleased! Top speed 52mph at 5600rpm. Could use a bigger prop fir more speed but its perfect for how I load the boat. The motor is mounted three holes down which seems to be the best performance. Slight porpoising when the motor is trimmed up at lower speeds. Tabs or trimming the motor down stops the porpoising. Couldn't be happier with the overall finished product. Thanks to all for all the help and special thanks to Deny for all the technical insight!

Boat porn!

Pics

More Pics

And more pics!

Last pics for now!

That's a great looking restoration! The last pic is pretty sweet too.
It's hard to tell in the chop but it looks like the stern rides nice and high with the 200 on the back, maybe it's a Hermco thing! Please post motor model and performance when you have it dialed in.

It's a 2004 hpdi 200hp. So far I've seen 52mph at 5600rpm and still had a little more to go. Rpm range should top out at 5500 so didn't want to push it any further. Don't know the fuel burn yet as I do not have a flow meter so gonna have to wait for a trip to get some accurate numbers. Hoping for 2.5-3mpg average! I'll post as soon as I have the numbers.