Thunderstruck ! Counter to the Blunderjet thread

[WFO Speedracer]

Thunderjet the real lightweight! Now with carbon fiber!

Heres the plan,disassemble the shoddily put together hull,reglass and reinforce everything,brace the firewall heavily,reassemble and upgrade to much larger engine,we arn't talking 1000ccs just 750 or larger.I am in no hurry here as I have other projects to finish up as well.Just thought some of you might be interested in a few pics of the first lightweight jet ski hulls that was ever mass produced.I had this thing apart in less than twenty minutes if that tells you anything,hull construction appears to be epoxy-s-glass composite,none of the bond lile was holding and the foam appears to have been put into the two halves of the hull before it was assembled.It uses an inner liner like WDK's boats with the firewall made as part of the inner liner.It took no cutting to get this apart just a bit of prying with a wonderbar.

 

[MADMAT]

What do ya do for a pole when you bring one of these suckers back to life. Will you maintain the original solar panels?

Cool project.

 

[WFO Speedracer]

The pole is in good shape and yes the solar panel still works,puts out about .5 amps.Hood is also in great shape and very light weight.

 

[GDFL]

Anybody ever ridden one of those in the surf? Might be a fun little econo-build

 

[WFO Speedracer]

They really had no bottom end power,it was built for racing,about 52 mph top end but nothing out of the hole,I am wanting to have the opposite,lots of bottom end and I don't care how fast it is on top.

 

[onesojourner]

footholds?

 

[WFO Speedracer]

Nothing I have ever built or owned has had footholds and I doubt if any of them ever will,I'm an old school surf stance rider.when you have been riding that way for twenty something years you don't just up and change because everyone else is.:Thinkingof_:

 

[FL-cracker]

cool project..... I bet that hull is super light!

What pump are you gona run?

 

[RiverRat]

cool project!

 

[SJ Thumpa]

Excellent project. I had the pleasure of riding one of these about 5 years ago.
Felt super light and IMO was really playfull. Just begged bottom end power. Anyone got any weight specs on these?

 

[wydopen]

Nothing I have ever built or owned has had footholds and I doubt if any of them ever will,I'm an old school surf stance rider.when you have been riding that way for twenty something years you don't just up and change because everyone else is.:Thinkingof_:

thats the smartest thing ive ever read on this site...:arms:

 

[WFO Speedracer]

I am still debating on the jet pump,either I run a 550 pump and prop it up for a 750 engine or I do a lot of bodywork and install a 650 or 750 jet pump.Either way a shaft has to be shortened.The 750 bolts in with an adaptor plate no muss no fuss.I don't know the weight but the inner liner weighs as much as the bottom does.I picked up the bottom of the ski with one hand easily.

 

[superramjet]

701 and yamaha 144mm pump would be great in there

 

[WFO Speedracer]

701 and yamaha 144mm pump would be great in there

I looked at that option,too much work and engine mounts are way too far off
the Kawi 750 looks to be the easiest swap and I just happen to have one laying around.That is unless an inner liner like you have will work on this boat.It does use a similar inner liner system,look at the pics.

 

[superramjet]

pretty sure a liner like i had wouldn't work, you could pull out the inner liner and start over, putting what ever you like in there.

 

[WFO Speedracer]

Yeah I have been following your build pretty close Tom,nice job on the Octane,your build is what gave me the idea to do this ski.

 

[superramjet]

thanks, don't be afraid to jump into a project like that, it takes time but just break it down into small tasks.

 

[WFO Speedracer]

A few more pics of the progress so far,I thought I might have to call royal flush in on this one when I saw the exhause plumbing and no its not PVC,is ABS lmao.It appears it was hurridly put together and the inner liner was not properly adhered to the bottom,also foam was injected in through a hole in the liner and it looks as though it expanded too much causing the liner and bottom to seperate,there were large sections which had glue on them that never touched anything other than the liner and some of the glue had foam between it and the bottom.The triangle looking pieces next to the bulkhead in the second pic are plywood and yes they were rotten.

 

[superramjet]

great ski to build, your options are way open now. I agree the yamaha pump would be hard, what about a sx pump with a 701? A mild 701 feels so good off the bottom. Get the pump mounted correctly, put the motor in the hull where it lines up(blocks of wood and shims) and glass in some aluminum. Nice starting point you have there, you can make the hull much better than it was originally built

 

[WFO Speedracer]

I did test fit several engines in there,The 701 would go fairly easily but I don't like the way it sits way off to one side,not really sure about exhaust clearance either,I also looked at some other options but the easiest thing to do will be a 750-800 Kawi swap with the adaptor plate and use the stock inner liner,that way I know if I put a 650 ex pipe in it there won't be any issues.As for the pump I am still looking at that one,the easiest thing would be a 550 pump set up and shorten the shaft,I also looked at a 650 pump but the pump would have to mount up into the pump cavity much higher to get proper alignment,basically I would just have to cut the pump cavity out and start over with an inner mold splashed off a 650 ski ,which means major alignment issues.