Crash course in $500 Sleekcraft Aristocrat

I'd never heard of Sleekcraft but after our son says "dad if I get this boat can you help get it going, it's a great deal." 
The seller who was kind of the owner in a possession kind of way, was about to get fined by his HOA for having it in his driveway. Was asking $1500 due it's state of neglect, but it had a newer motor, solid floor & not too many fiberglass issues. 
The vinyl seats were a mess, the wiring had issues, no battery, no bilge pump & the trailer was in real rough shape. This was just from a 5 minute look over while the guy was almost begging us to take it before the next day.  
He explained the ownership issue & it was his boss's of 10 years. His boss had it since new & a couple years prior, put a new Chevy crate 350 in it. His boss passed away & his wife just hadn't done a bill of sale (no title on older boats). 
We called the wife & she corroborated the story & would sign a bill of sale. 
We got it for $500. 

The guy behind Sleekcraft was a boat racer & wanted to bring the twin hull to the masses. I read somewhere that one of the models stock in good tune & trim would do 70mph.

Has the new engine ever been run in it? That could be a nice part-out. Or a nice boat to keep and run. 

While my son took all the seats to get recovered we fixed the wiring, got a new motor exhaust fan & ducting which were missing, a new bilge pump, fixed the lights, got 2 treated 2x4s & carpet for the trailer, fixed the trailer, pumped the tanks out, replaced all the cracked fuel hose, installed better tank valves, installed a primer bulb, rebuilt the edelbrock carb, got the trim working. Then got new gas, put the water ear muffs on & started it up.  
It idled & ran great.  Took it to the lake just to get the sheriff's boat safety inspection sticker while on the trailer & it passed. 
Looks like someone moved the exhaust up above the water line. They used big 3" copper elbows but did a good job at filling the old holes. Just had to reseal the new exhaust exits.


 

Finally got the new interior back a few weeks later.

Then was on the water test & rebuild the trailer bunk boards on the same trip day. 
It ran great but the trim gauge was not working but could feel when a good trim was achieved. It was fast but needed some carb tuning & could definitely benefit from a better single plane or hi rise intake since it still had the cast intake. 
Got the trailer rebuilt while I anchored it off shore by the park so was easy to  get back to the trailer. 

Damn that’s a lot of fun boat for $500 bucks even with the upholstery work and some elbow grease on the fiberglass.   Get yourself some good goggles, you’ll need them to see at speed.   Won’t even be horrible with gas unless you’re wide open all day. 

Edited to add: the trim signal on an alpha drive is from rheostats under plastic covers on the pivot points of the gimbal.  One is for the trim gauge and the opposite side is the trim limit switch. (To trim above the limit you have to push both the the “trim” and “trailer” buttons together.)  the unfortunate part is their sealed in potting material and the wires run through the transom inside the gimbal and require drive removal to change them.   

Is the copper going to be able to handle the exhaust heat and vibration without coming apart?

Is that plumber's putty on there?

I also would be concerned with the copper.

Should name it "Flat Rock"

It's a tunnel bottom, corners like crazy. 

Water comes out with the exhaust so I guess it's cool enough.

The lighter color is solder. 

Ya the trim gauge switch is smashed. The limits work.