Super Jet 1996 Round Nose SuperJet Project

[Pro-pulsion]

So this is my first SuperJet. I have been looking for one since I first started back into the stand-up class a few years ago. They are extremely rare in my area so made it a point to go for the first one that showed up. I figure I did alright, as the title says, it is a 1996 round nose with a 701 62T I believe and it ran me $1950.00 My first plans are to complete my own custom made footholds and start considering some new colors. This build thread will not be updated a whole lot if at all until the spring really starts to kick off but for now I figured I would get the ball rolling. As of right now, I really have no solid ideas of the mods I want to do just yet with exception of some sort of poor man's B-pipe. I'm sure there are ideas and suggestions out there so all are welcomed to chime in. I might have the ride plate powder coated and will definitely be modifying the intake grate. The last stock grate I modified performed very well, I would even be willing to say it was comparable to the top loader grate I installed later on that year. So to start, here are the pics of my new baby =)

 

[jeastes1]

Congrats man, thats a great price!

 

[jetx]

Nice deal especially for up here north of the border...if you want a cheap pipe, hit up alex_hockey he has a type 4 drypipe forsale for $300.

 

[steve-uk]

nice one bro, great price you cant go wrong at that price

 

[Pro-pulsion]

As for the footholds, I started them about a year ago now with the intent to install them into the 650sx. I guess my desire to just be out there on the water was stronger than to be installing holds lol. So to start with, I researched the different ideas floating around to make these things and found that for about 45 bucks total, I can make my own and they will be custom fit to my feet. I started off with a few packs of gardening foam blocks and contact cemented them together. I laid out the pattern on cardboard which will also double as my templates to lay them out on the ski later on. Then after carving out the starting pattern with a really big bread knife, I contact cemented one block cross ways to offer the overhang and help prevent my feet from slipping out. The most time invested was just shaving the cross piece down a little at a time until I figured I had a good form. I hope to finish the other mould this week and start putting the glass to them by the start of the coming weekend. Here are the pics. This will be all for now but I am more than happy to hear out any suggestions and keep the thread going.

 

[Pro-pulsion]

Thanks for the supports guys, sorry for the delay in getting back to you. I'm still trying to get used to this uploading tool. I wish they would go back to the old way, it was so much easier to use and understand. Here are the last few mould pics. I also noticed that the pics do not seem to post according to the way you select them lol. So it's a little bit of a jumbled mess, but you guys can piece it together =)

 

[Pro-pulsion]

Nice deal especially for up here north of the border...if you want a cheap pipe, hit up alex_hockey he has a type 4 drypipe forsale for $300.

I would normally be interested but I can't really afford to do any spending right now. My first goal to set for this spring is rebuild my XP800, get it running really nice and then sell it. After that, I can start considering parts. So for now, I will stick with what I can that is free such as polishing ports, driveline mods, and if possible make a similar pipe to what I did with my 650. That just all depends on what is under that big exhaust box on top of the manifold.

 

[Pro-pulsion]

I sent out my stock ride plate last week for powder coating and now it's back. I'm starting to get the bug for painting...can't wait for spring.

 

[Pro-pulsion]

It's been a long time since I updated this build, but after massive back issues over the last couple of months things are starting to get back on track. I currently have a turf kit on order and a nice custom chin pad as well. Still have not finished the footholds as of yet but the downtime there is not in vain. You can see the nicks and chips pretty clearly. I removed all the decals and in the last two pics I started with the decal adhesive. At first I tried everything I could think of to remove that stuff. I spent about 6 hours and only removed about a 4x6" portion. Then I found Goof Off, that made all the difference. Another 5 or 6 hours of work and all the adhesive was gone. I just put the pouring tip up to the hull above the adhesive, ran out some of this stuff onto the adhesive and immediately started scraping it off with a plastic scraper. I did need to soak a cloth though to do the final touches but certainly the way to go when you are stripping decal adhesive. I have so far invested about 30 hours into everything, decals, adhesive removal, sanding and prepping. Last night was the start of some new color. I will let the pics tell the rest of the story.

 

[Pro-pulsion]

Here is the underside of the hull. It was in terrible condition. It was definitely the time consumer of the project to this point, possibly will be of the whole deal too.

 

[Pro-pulsion]

Here is the latest of the pics. I was dedicated last night and worked from 2pm until 8:40pm. So forgive the almost night time pics but so far the hood is painted, not finished, but painted and I am really liking where this is going. At first I was getting a little hesitant because in the dark, this blue almost looks purple lol. But once the flash hit it, it made me a whole lot happier with the outcome. More pics will slowly start popping up, but this is the latest of the progress for now.

 

[Pro-pulsion]

Last few pics for now.

*May 14th Update*

I finally painted the bottom and added some little effects to it. After about 2 hours of preparation my plans have started to fall into place. I chose to go with a metallic blue (obviously) but to help bring it out I have added on the bottom so far, and will be continuing to add a series of lightning strikes all around the hull. I made the ones on the bottom pretty big because it is a lot of surface to cover and will be much more easily noticed when in the air. It's not done yet, I hope to have the last of the bottom done tonight such as color blending and adding those final realistic touches, plus a few thin but solid coats of clear coat.

 

[Pro-pulsion]

More pics.

 

[SkiDiggity]

looking good, interested to see how the holds came out, and great price!!!!

 

[Pro-pulsion]

Thanks Diggity! I am really excited to see the finished product of all this. It took a huge amount of time to sand out the chips and gouges from the hull but now that I see the smooth painted finish, it was worth the extra work. I'm back on the holds project too. I started shaping the last part of the left hold today. I expect to have the rest of the shaping done tomorrow and hopefully this week get some glass sheet laid down and curing. I figure 3 layers of glass should be more than enough. Tonight I will do the final touch to the lightning and bring out some nice effect to it, then clear coat the bottom and let it cure for a day or two before I set the ski back onto the bunks.

 

[Pro-pulsion]

So this is the finished (except clear coating) bottom of the hull. I must say, I like the way it turned out and yet I was hoping to get a much more realistic appearance to the lightning. But this is the limit of my drive to keep going, and there really is only so much a person can expect to achieve from a rattle can paint job. If it all holds up and the top deck turns out pretty good, then I will leave it alone. But if paint starts flaking off then I will put up with it for this summer and try it again next spring with different painting processes. Anyway, I hope you like what you see so far, if not feel free to redo it for me lol.

 

[Pro-pulsion]

Finally finished the bottom, it's good but not quite where I would like it. Meh, I can live with it for this year if it doesn't hold up.

 

[Pro-pulsion]

Finally completed all the painting work. Next will be onto footholds and turf.

 

[Pro-pulsion]

Well, I have started glassing my foothold moulds. I have my hopes that by adding a layer of plastic wrap to the moulds I can make that my release barrier and re-use the moulds. I'm not sure if this will actually be the case but It's worth a try. At the moment, I noticed that with the plastic wrap in place, there is nothing for the glass to cling to so it might come down to using these moulds only once and trashing them in the end. The overall expense is not a great savings but it is a savings and I get to have moulds made specifically to my feet so it has it's benefits. I figure that so far, I've spent about 90 bucks, but that's Canadian living, everything here is at least twice the price as it would be in the U.S. I think that if I had to do it all over again, given the amount of time it's taking and the cost of it...plus the itchy arms lol... I would probably just go with a set of Eric Malone holds for 89.99. I might still do that to be honest. It's a great home project and it is kinda fun if you don't mind putting out the expense but it's a real mess, and a boat load of time between making the moulds and glassing them. Here is my expense list so far, taking into account I have all the materials and may possibly be able to return some...maybe.

4 packages of Walmart bought flower foam $20 ($5/pack)
2 fiberglass mat kits $16 ($8/mat)
1 medium can of contact cement $9
2 cans of resin $34 ($17/can)
1 6 pack of paint can liners for mixing the resin each time a layer of glass goes on $7
6 cheapy paint brushes $8
$92 for materials alone, and about 15 hours combined time for assembly, carving and shaping the moulds, plus prep work for the glassing. Here are the pics to show for the results. They are certainly better than I would have expected but I am heavily debating continuing with it. The pics are just what I have done right now...1 layer on one hold. 2 more layers still to go, plus start and finish 3 layers on the second mould. Seems like an awful lot of work and coin for a custom fit lol.

 

[Pro-pulsion]

I guess I should start making some updates to this since it has only almost been a year. The holds would have turned out really well but I tried to re-use the foam moulds and made a mess of the holds in the process so I actually didn't end up using them. On top of that, at the time I was making the moulds the prices for a set of holds averaged about $120. Before I finished these moulds I had to go and buy another set of the foams because I broke one of the wings off and had to redo that part all over again. So in the end, my foothold project ended up costing me the same as a set of Eric Malone footholds which were something like 99 bucks. In a way I regret not finishing them, but the real killer was the time the project took which I was quickly running out of. Now here I am about a year later, still building up my ski and noticing a thread that is in need of updating. Well, sounds good to me so here goes.