1995 Yamaha Superjet Resto-Mod

[brapperdoodle]

With the assumption that my turd square nose had water in the tray, and poorly placed footholds from the previous owner, I decided to go ahead and dig in. I am personally a big fan of the shape and styling of the square nose superjet. I really enjoy the way it moves and I am not interested in modifying the hull or hood shape. I do however want to modify it to my liking and am going for the look of an early 90's Pro Mod race ski. With the help and guidance of my new friend @Sanoman I took a trip over the mountain to TN and got to work on my first jet-ski project!

Last picture of it before tear down...


Got The engine bay stripped out and turf removed...



After That it was time to head over the mountain and get to actual work!






As suspected, the foam in the tray was absolutely soaked! So much water in there it was like digging through a swamp. Smelled wonderful. But after some tedious work, it was just about all gone.


After a little sanding and then some pressure washing, It was all clean! Yanked the old SN exhaust tube and aluminum lines...

 

[brapperdoodle]

The next step was to prepare the engine bay for reinforcement, sand down the ribs and get some of that old flaky gel coat out!



Next was another trip over to TN to get a few more things in line... I decided to use a plumbing fitting for my steering tube insert. I thought the ability to remove the fitting without disturbing the tray would be a good idea. It came out nicely...




Then I was headed back home to NC and its such a beautiful trip this time of year! Always love going through the gap.



If you ever get lucky enough to see one of these, do yourself a favor and grab a burg. You won't regret it!

 

[brapperdoodle]

With nothing to loose I tried my hand at mixing some resin. I mixed a few small batches and did a little experimenting and was ready to make the mix. I began first by filling my rear bond line in preparation for the reinforcement.


I mixed the first fill a little thick with the cabosil but it smoothed out nicely. I went to a local restaurant and grabbed some thick butcher paper and used it to make templates for my reinforcement glass. After filling the bond line I waited about 4 hours before installing the glass mat. During that time I cut out some pieces of 1208 biax using my paper templates, one slightly smaller than the other and got them ready for installation.


I laid out a large drip pan and covered it with a contractor bag as a working space. I got it nice and wet with resin and laid the mat into it. Then I poured resin onto the mat and used a roller to insure full coverage. I laid my smaller mat first, then the larger mat down and hand worked the bubbles out. When I was happy with it I took a 3" metal roller and rolled the mats, much to my surprise this removed even more bubbles I couldn't see. Very glad I got the roller. But as a result my first glass work looked decent!


I went ahead and did the next side after that... not so much cabosil this time haha


Using the same paper template but flipped over like a mirrored version, I repeated the process from the first side and cut my glass mat and installed. Then BOOM just like that I was no longer a virgin

 

[brapperdoodle]

After much thought I decided to use a colored pigment for my engine bay, not paint. I made another template from paper for the engine bay reinforcement and it was also able to be used for both sides, a mirrored version. I used the maximum amount of recommended pigment to resin ratio 1oz of pigment, per quart of resin. I whipped it up and filled the bond line! Let that cure for 4 hours and then laid glass, this time I used 1708 biax for the engine bay, 2 layers, 1 smaller than the other. Handworked for a while then hit it with the roller. Again, that little 3" metal roller does amazing! Gets out so much air that you can't even see. By the way, you can't see bubbles through the glass with colored resin! Glad I had the roller to get it all flat.



It came out pretty nicely, The 1708 was much harder to work with as well as using larger pieces. After it all cured I went around the edges with thickened resin to give it a clean looking edge and also to "hold down" the edge of the mat if it ever decided to lift. After more sanding in the engine bay, it started to look pretty good to me.


It always bothered me that underneath the motor mounts, the pockets hold water... so i filled them with resin using a syringe and it came out perfect!


Next was fitting the exhaust tube, I purchased an OEM Yamaha round nose exhaust tube. With a little trimming and some hammering to get the flange flat, it was in place and fit nicely. I had never played with 3M 5200 but now was the time! I fitted in my new Stainless Steel 3/8 Pro-Tec cooling tubes and my steering tube as well. Came out better than I expected!

 

[brapperdoodle]

Somewhere along this time I also filled the bond line up through the nose with very thick epoxy.


I also filled a little bit underneath the handle pole and reinforced it with 3 layers of 1208 biax



Last weekend I was able to start filling the tray back with the pink foam from Home Depot.



I used small 3oz cups to mix my 4lb expanding foam to fill all of the voids. I would only fill the cups about half way, doing very little sections at a time to ensure proper fill. I even removed a few of the pink pieces and filled behind them, then put the pieces back and used a cinder block to hold it flat and not let the expanding foam distort its fit.



Sanded it down smooth for a level tray.

 

[brapperdoodle]

SO now, Im having trouble figuring out how to fit these footwells... Im not sure how to overlap the fiberglass and not get it on top of my side rails where the turf goes. Anybody have a good idea? I made a mistake cutting out the right footwell for the exhaust tube. Im a little sick and was not thinking. I can fix it though..

 

[mikidymac]

Hindsight is 20/20 but in my opinion you cut way too much out of the sides unless you were going for a wide tray which isn't a bad thing at all. Given that you have no sides or top contour left where the sides roll up to the top it will be easier to just widen the tray at this point. Push those footholds as far to the sides as they will go so you don't have to rebuild the entire transition from the sides to the flat top of the rails. You can then use pour foam and sand to shape then glass over everything.

You have also left a very small space on the top rails to layer and overlay the new glass so you are just going to have to do the best you can.
For future projects if you are just defoaming and adding holds do not cut the tops of the rails or the rounded contour up to the top of the rails. Just cut enough to get the sides cleaned out.

 

[brapperdoodle]

Hindsight is 20/20 but in my opinion you cut way too much out of the sides unless you were going for a wide tray which isn't a bad thing at all. Given that you have no sides or top contour left where the sides roll up to the top it will be easier to just widen the tray at this point. Push those footholds as far to the sides as they will go so you don't have to rebuild the entire transition from the sides to the flat top of the rails. You can then use pour foam and sand to shape then glass over everything.

You have also left a very small space on the top rails to layer and overlay the new glass so you are just going to have to do the best you can.
For future projects if you are just defoaming and adding holds do not cut the tops of the rails or the rounded contour up to the top of the rails. Just cut enough to get the sides cleaned out.

I am going for a wide tray, but I’m not sure if these footwells are going to be any easier than just doing it totally custom at this point. In the pictures those footwells are pushed up against the outside of the ski so the gaps are as small as they can be

 

[Sanoman]

I believe we can run a strip of 1708 on the underside (of the gunnels) to bridge the gap.The strip should be wide enough to catch the underside of the foothold enclosures.Let dry.Then thickened epoxy with glass shards mixed in to fill and bond the gunnel and enclosure together.Then drill and install pop rivets to hold in place.Add a strip of glass or some carbon tape on top of everything.
You are doing great on rebuilding this ski!

 

[davidescu_radu]

Hi! nice job - you might consider to enlarge intake grate area! maybe to install a 155 pumpshue

 

[brapperdoodle]

tubular

 

[Mdavies_02]

Great work. I didn't realize it but I miss reading these. Keep the posts coming

 

[brapperdoodle]

Did somebody say Skaaaaaaat-Trak?

 

[bored&stroked]

View attachment 386832

When I glanced at this pic quicky I swore that was some ugly ass mid 80's pro stock mustang style hood bulge/scoop on the truck haha

 

[brapperdoodle]

When I glanced at this pic quicky I swore that was some ugly ass mid 80's pro stock mustang style hood bulge/scoop on the truck haha

Eew no hahaha it does look like that though

 

[Sanoman]

Are you done yet!?

 

[brapperdoodle]

Are you done yet!?

Hahaha No. Unfortunately Im still waiting on my engine parts back from Harry at group K and apparently there was a little mistake at Jet-Hot with my B-pipe ceramic coating. so it looks like this ski wont be making it to Daytona. However we are bringing the other Superjet and 750SX! This is probably a good thing though, slamming it together and riding it for the first time in surf might not be the best idea haha Im glad I can take my time with the assembly and make sure its all dialed in. I was really stumped about how to add that lip of glass to bridge the gap for the footholds. I figured I would think about it for a little longer and come up with a good plan, it seems tricky!

 

[brapperdoodle]

I had some time before Christmas and just today to start getting my upper tray figured out. I thought I would cut strips of foam and lay them under the sides to give a little more width. I pulled the table saw out and got creative!


After that I decided to flip the ski over and fill the little groove where the turf butts up on the outside, to make sure that the glass had a nice flat surface to bond to.



After that cured and was sanded down I was able to cut strips of 1708biax 32”x2” for the underside to fit on top of the foam I cut. The idea is to lay the strips of glass on top of the foam and then clamp it to the underside.

 

[brapperdoodle]

I didn’t like the way it was looking so I added some more clamps to be safe haha

 

[jetx]

That’s a great idea with the foam on the sides with the glass, looking forward to seeing this all come together