Aqualand, Atlanta Marine and Monterey are a Hit!

This weekend was a great success with a new Monterey Dealer, Atlanta Marine at their summer boat show event.

Aqualand Marina in Flowery Branch GA. hosted a pre 4th of July customer appreciation party and Boat show. With temperatures reaching into the upper 90's customer enthusiasm was not hampered. With the current lake levels at Lake Lanier and gas prices hovering below $2.50 boaters and potential boaters were out in full force.

The day started slow on Saturday with temperatures rising quickly however, as the day progressed (and it got closer to party time) the crowd ensued! There were several boats contracted on

Saturday with the bulk sold later that day. On Sunday, the day started with two water test and and two more new customers of Atlanta Marine. Sunday ended with a bang and several more Monterey boats sold! Congratulations to Atlanta Marine and all the new Monterey boat owners!

Aqualand Marina in Flowery Branch Ga. and is the worlds largest inland marina. Located on Lake Lanier provides 692 miles of winding shoreline and about 39,000 acres of water surface. Aqualand boast over 1700 wet slips and over 400 "dry slips".

Atlanta Marine in Buford Ga. on Holiday Rd. at Lake Lanier with locations at Lake Oconee and Aqualand Marina. Owned and Operated by Kurt and Lisa Backus since 1995. Monterey Boats woulds also like to welcome our newest partner and say congratulations on a job well done.

Kirk Lewellen

Regional Sales Manager

Monterey Boats

1918 Cliffview Ct.

Murfreesboro, TN 37128

Cell - 615.207.1108

Fax - 615-896-6635

http://www.montereyboats.com/

http://www.kirklewellen.com/

Atlanta Marine At Aqualand Marina Summer Boat Show Bash, June 27-28

Exclusive Boat Show And Party Featuring Monterey, Supra, Moomba And More…
(Buford, GA) Leading Georgia boat dealer, Atlanta Marine, with locations on Lake Lanier in Buford and at Aqualand Marina in Flowery Branch, as well as displaying boats on Lake Oconee, is joining the boat show and party hosted by Aqualand Marina on June 27-28. Details on the Monterey sport boats and cruisers available from Atlanta Marine can be found at http://www.montereyboats.com/

Atlanta Marine will have boats on display and available in the water for demos at Aqualand Marina. Beginning at 10AM on Saturday June 27, the Boat Show and demos will be available until 6:00PM and then again from Noon to 5PM on Sunday June 28.

An invitation only party begins at 6:00PM Saturday featuring beer and soft drinks, music by Audio Cage, and plenty of food available at Aqualand’s Dockside Grill. Guest invitations to this party are available from Atlanta Marine and Marine Max, and also to Aqualand customers.

The enthusiasm for the lake is back and families are ready to start enjoying the lake. The lake is at near full pool, fuel prices are down significantly and financing is beginning to stabilize again.

“Atlanta Marine is in a better position than ever,” says Kurt Backus, owner of Atlanta Marine. Atlanta Marine now has a great inventory of REPO/Bank owned boats we acquired at liquidation prices. This is the time to buy a boat and relax on the lake with family and friends. “We really appreciate the strong support offered by Aqualand Marina and their commitment to all boating on Lake Lanier. They are terrific partners and friends and this event is further proof of that,” he said.

Editors: Kurt Backus is available for comment and can be reached through the contact above or by email at kurt@atlantamarine.com .

Monterey Boats and Social Networking, its not just for Kids anymore.

Monterey Boats is now embracing the latest media opportunities in social networking. If you are new to social networking DON’T BE ALARMED it is not as freighting as you may have been led to believe. If you can check your email, navigate to a web site and read English you will have no problems. Additionally, no one will sneak into your wallet or purse steal your identification and travel abroad on your credit cards because you signed to any one of these sites.

The great news is with the recent (exponential) growth in social networking Monterey has joined the ranks with such services as Facebook, YouTube, Wikipedia, Twitter and Flickr to name a few. This is just the beginning, let us take a look at social networking, where we are, where we are going, and what it all means.

Social Networking is one of the largest booms in internet media marketing reaching a greater targeted audience. Getting a mass of traffic to your web site is irrelevant if the consumer is not interested in your product. Social marketing attracts pertinent traffic, gives potential buyers the opportunity to interact with Monterey, our existing customers, and voice their preferences. More importantly, this allows buyers to interact with a related community, giving them the advantage of collective wisdom. Currently Facebook boasts over 150 million users around the world; almost half of them use Facebook every day! If Facebook were a country, it would be the eighth most populated in the world, just ahead of Japan, Russia and Nigeria.

With this latest medium we are able to build an interactive relationship with our customers and potential buyers. Friends of Monterey (as consumers) already have some interest in boating and Monterey as either a part of their boating experience or they have the interest to see what we are all about. A new Monterey customer for example can follow the latest news and information from Twitter our micro blogging site, watch videos on YouTube, or see the latest customers from some of Monterey’s Dealer Facebook pages. As an example, take a look at Chatlee Marines page on Facebook. Just like the "old days" when a dealer would make a customers picture and displayed them for all to see, Chatlee has taken that to a new level... Check it out!

So, what’s next for Monterey and the wide world of social networking? Keep your eyes peeled! Look for us now and in the future in some of these arenas…

Digg
LinkedIn
Wikipedia
Flickr
YouTube
Twitter
Facebook

and until then, will you be my friend?

Kirk Lewellen
Regional Sales Manager
Monterey Boats
1918 Cliffview Ct.
Murfreesboro, TN 37128
Phone - 615-207-1108
Fax -615-896-6635
http://www.montereyboats.com/
http://www.kirklewellen.com/

The Dodge Truck Rebuild

Well here we go again, This will (I hope) chronicle the rebuild of a 1994 Dodge Ram 1500, 5.2L V-8 now owned by my stepson Nick Balsbaugh. This truck has come to us as a family "hand me down" and I have hopes that we can do the repairs justice and Nick can carry on a love with this truck just as its previous owner did.

Years ago my cousin Tricia White purchased this new 1994 Dodge Truck. At the time this thing was the vehicle to have! To Tricia this was her "baby" and it was a beloved member of her family. This was the first year that Dodge had produced this retro body style and she, along with allot of others, loved it. Unfortunately several years ago Tricia crashed her truck and was subsequently heart broken by the mishap. Due to other issues the truck had been sitting for quite sometime until recently her brother Bill White had some transportation issues. Tricia generously allowed Bill to take her child (broken bones and all) as a replacement means of transportation until a time as he could make a decision on other transportation... WELL..... The accident that Tricia had crunched the driver side front fender as shown to the left, Bill's accident unfortunately creamed the passenger side... Needless to say there was not much hope for the truck at this point without a real investment in either time or money. With that in mind I showed Nick the truck and asked if he was ready to tackle this challenge? He agreed he was up for it ready to hit it head on, he now owns the truck. Just after Christmas 2008 (December 28th to be exact) we started to work on the beast. On that day we were able to (in a matter of about three to four hours of tinkering) able to get all of the body panels removed. From that point I really felt like we were making progress. Since that time, Nick secured two fenders from a local junk yard at a reasonable price. The passenger fender has a small "ding" in the well, center line of the wheel arch and will require some minor body work. As for the drivers fender everything at the moment looks OK, even the color matches! As of January 6th 2009 we now have both left and right fenders installed and aligned. The passenger fender was white in color and we had to paint the interior before installing it.... So far so good. The new front bumper has arrived along with the new front billet grill assembly. We are still waiting on all the final hardware to finish assembling the truck. You can check out more pictures here.






Well its Friday January 9, 2009 and we made some nice progress tonight. The Headlight buckets, headlight assemblies, bottom bumper trim, and lower bumper inserts have still not arrived. Tonight the Front main bumper assembly was installed with only minor issues. On initial installation the main attach brackets appeared to "sag". After some inspection and a little brogan maintenance we found that there is quite a bit of adjustment in the attachment of the main bumper supports. The secondary side supports were mangled during both crashes but Terah and I were able to "make like new"! It did involve a torch, a hammer and some umph, but after some gentle persuasion it all came together. Bren stopped by for his two cents worth and he informed us that we had installed to bumper too high. So



again, Nick is ob his back with a wrench in his hand... Even after this discovery we have opted to wait on all the additional bumper trim until we receive the new light buckets. There is some minor concerns that when the headlights are installed that we may have some clearance issues. I think some is this is simply due to our inexperience.

The next part of the project to tackle was installing what on initial inspection is a cheeze piece of chromed plastic. The new grill was installed without any real problems. The original grill had certainly taken it toll during its mishaps but the new grill from LMC Trucks looks great! Luckily all the necessary hardware was still on the original grill support and it was undamaged! The installation took some time but after the process was over with it really wasn't that bad and it looks great. Nick has ordered new lower bumper inserts to replace the factory original grey plastic inserts. These new inserts will have the same look as the new grill. The ole girl is really starting to come together.



Here's Nick feeling pretty good about himself! Great job Nick!











Terah looks to be happy cleaning up 15 years of grime! Terah is a pretty good sport and great help around the shop!













She's coming together nicely! New Chrome bumper and grill. There will soon be some euro headlights, chrome top bumper cover and lower valance to complete the rebuilt front end!








This truck is over 14 years old and looks like new inside!








Notice the new Airtex intake - installed by Terah Cash (with some guidance from Mr. Miyagi...







Mr. Miyagi say "Make like new"! Thanks for the Shades Tricia they make a nice addition at no extra charge!





Again, thanks for stoppiong by and taking a look at our progress. We are hopeful that we could be complete with this project inside a week. Nick should be able to transfer tags and pay his taxes on this truck next week and he has contracted a local paint and body shop to do the final color matched factory colored pait job.


You can check out more pictures here.


Kirk Lewellen
Regional Sales Manager
Monterey Boats
1918 Cliffview Ct.
Murfreesboro, TN 37128
Cell - 615.207.1108
Fax - 615-896-6635
http://www.montereyboats.com/
http://www.kirklewellen.com/

I have had an inspiration

1-3-2009



With my recent loathing of any television programming as of late, I have to admit that for what ever reason I have been inspired! The DVR taped the latest New Yankee Workshop program I watch occasionally. This program started almost elementary in discussion but I too was made again aware of things we get sloppy and sometimes impatient doing. The explanation was excellent and not too "dumbed down" to remember the basics. I can envision a total novice with a band saw and a teaspoon of gumption completing this project with no problem!


As a wood worker I "grew up" with my father in his shop. I learned wood working by osmosis I enjoy it, I can do it, it's creative and I find it entertaining and fun! I too have a small shop in my garage that I occasionally "play" in. This most recent program went back to the roots or at least to me, seemed that way. Some of the first things I remember my father creating were tables, parson benches, pie safes and the like. This program reminded me of those times. So with that, I have been inspired to build some desperately needed Adirondack chairs for the yard.

I can't say at the moment I have fully examined this project but I'm thinking.... Mahogany or teak?

Well I found a chair that I think will work nicely for a pattern. It will involve disassembly, that won't be an issue considering there was no glue used in its original construction just a few screws and bolts. After disassembly and a light sanding to cleanup the parts I should be ready to start production. this chair was purchased from Harbor Freight and is constructed from a light weight Fir (I think). It has been somewhat maintained over the years but it is starting to show its signs of wear. This chair is about three years old. It is stained with a simple, old, cheap, red wood stain which worked very nicely. For the new chairs I am still leaning toward a Teak or Mahogany and a more natural finish... Well, something else to think about...

Keep your eyes peeled and see if anything develops, spring is right around the corner.


Kirk Lewellen
Selling fun and lifestyle
Monterey Boats
615-207-1108
http://www.kirklewellen.com/
lewellenk@comcast.net