Blaster1 restore

[Pantyblaster]

Well finally made it home from months of being on the road working to start my winter restore and build. It's been a lot of work so far but it's been hella fun doing it. I purchased this rockered blaster this summer from a guy up in NY, it was in decent shape but definitely showed signs up being rode hard. Paint was terrible, tons of fish eyes and pin holes and lines were way off. Rear patching of the rear rocker kit was piss poor and the inside of the front rocker wasn't any better. Glass reinforcement was separating from the hull and the glass on the exterior bottom was delaminating.

I'm no glass or paint expert but I've done enough of it to lay it down to make a good bond.
First I sanded all the paint off the top, once I got down to gelcoat, some areas got sanded all the way down to bare glass to get rid of all the spider webbing cracks. Next sanded down the bottom deck around the bond lines of the rocker kit, then moved on into the inside and started grinding all the biaxial glass out. Once I got that far found lots of areas that we're water soaked and literally had to grind all the way through to get the bad glass out, more licoriceing holes to patch lol, but it had to be done. Once that was done it was ready to clean and degrease it and ready start the new glassing. After inside was done I decided to give it a much needed nose job. I didn't really like the way it was shaped without the bond line rail in front, plus it kinda helps as a splash gaurd cuz this licoriceer douches you to death hahaha. Flipped hull over and started fixing the strakes, they were poorly shaped to the rocker kit and some had puncher wounds. Here's some pics of the process, hope y'all enjoy and fill free to chime in with any ideas or what nots. Happy riding guys!!

 

[Pantyblaster]

The beginning

 

[Pantyblaster]

Now for the bottom

 

[Pantyblaster]

The nose job
Took a piece of round foam and used it as a guide to drape the glass over to give it a starting shape. 1 layer of 14oz 1208 biax. Then 4 more layer strips in front to build up the lip face and then 3 layers of 8oz E glass on top of that. Underneath is bonded to lower hull with 6 layers of 8oz E glass. It's just as thick as the original side rails, maybe just a tiny bit less but close enough. It's beefy!! Patched the front top to fill in low spot then once sanded finished off with a layer of 6oz Eglass

 

[Pantyblaster]

Forgot to take pics of the pump tunnel but I reinforced it with a few layers. Next to seal up the big ass hole I cut in the back deck I screwed in a few stainless steel brackets underneath and layed 5 layers of 1208 on some wax paper on a board to form a patch board. Cut it to match hole and placed inside resting on the brackets. Next layed two layers of 1208 over it and into the footwells as well to give some more meat for my foot straps to hold onto then finish with a layer of 8oz. I'm probably going overkill with the layers but I don't really feel like doing this poop again hahahaha, big props to all you bodywork painter guys, holy cow this is a lot of work, but it's kinda fun. I also cut out two inspection holes for some 4" screw in Windows for future problems if they arise, like the brass fittings spinning loose

 

[Pantyblaster]

4 layers of 1208 from bottom to top deck and 6 total at the seam line in front of the motor mounts with 2 strips running all the way from the nose to the back where the midshaft is. I think she will take on the biggest waves you want to throw at it now. Each layer is stair stepping further onto the next layer so it has tons of strength in every direction. Seam line is criss cross paterend . I will have to say 14oz 1208 is a bit thick and is really hard to get all the air pockets out. Would probably be best layed using a vacuum bag method but I did perdy good, just a lot of work making it lay out good. The metal glass rollers are a must working with this thick stuff, it really helped out a ton. Was the first time I've ever used them and was impressed

 

[Pantyblaster]

More inside pics. I used my easy up canopy and wrapped in plastic. Needed to run the heaters to help kick the resin and help it setup in these colder temps. 35 degrees outside, 92 inside. It's a damn hot box lol

 

[Pantyblaster]

Power has been out for 2 days at my storage building so improvised and moved operation to my lake pad. Don't laugh, I just gave y'all an idea when this poop happens to you bahahaha

 

[Pantyblaster]

All glassed up. Now for some cabosil and areas and glaze to help make it smooth body lines again

 

[Pantyblaster]

After a long 8 days of work finally got to shoot some primer and got the bottom deck painted lime green. Took a few days off for the holidays and catch up on some much needed R&R. Next will be shooting the topdeck

 

[Pantyblaster]

Top deck is all shot. A little bit of trash in the paint but a little bit of wetsand and buffing and will be all good. Paint has been curing for about a week now since it's been cold as crap here in Texas, global warming my AZZ hahahaha. Should be ready to buff now

 

[jetx]

Looks great, dig the color...what motor and setup you going to be running in this?

 

[smoofers]

Looking good! You're right up the road from me!

 

[catpower]

could You pm me about the color. if you used Kawi green and if so what paint, PPG , Omni, Dupont, etc.... color chip code? Getting ready to spray a X2 Kawi green. I'm green with envy. LOL

 

[Pantyblaster]

Thanks guys. Setup will be a kinda hush hush at the moment HPE stroker build. Motor will be talked about once givin full permission to brag about it lol. But it's going to be sweet, sorry I can't discuss any further details on it at this moment. But all other parts will be:

Solas 12 vane mag pump
12/17 SkatTrak redone by impros
Thrust trim nozzles 86/89
Factory B pipe, limited chamber. I just got done boring the Mani and head pipe out to 51mm, still needs a finer polish done
Playing around still with ride plates but I think I've got one cut that is going to give a better result for me
JD#13 intake grate
VF3 reeds
Bored out stock manifold with reed spacer and rhaas speed plate
Blackjack 44's
Lightened stock 61x flywheel with MSD enhancer
The rest is just some cosmetic stuff, 701 steering, turf etc......

 

[Pantyblaster]

Hahaha, yeah all my stuff is lime green. I'll get you the paint code sometime today catpower. It's just a single stage, but all 5 skis I've built and painted with turned out really nice and held up super good, and I'm not easy on my stuff,I take care of my toys very well, but I ride the ever loving piss outta them

 

[Pantyblaster]

Will have to go ride together smoofers!!

 

[Pantyblaster]

Top pic is R&D plate I put a relief cut in the back, made a huge difference but was still needing improved. Was just was entirely too much plate hanging off the back. The very bottom pic on the left plate is the hack job plate it came with, that picture doesn't show how really horrible it was done lol. So I decided to trim the edges down on the R&D plate and may shorten it some more. Reason being, the short plate all it wanted to do was flip on you, which is fine and dandy if you've got the motor or wave to do it but the lil 735 wasn't enough to flip it on a lake, close, but no cigar. You couldn't chase boats very far cuz you couldn't keep the hull in the water, so that when I started messing around with a little longer plate to see what its effects where in the rockered hull. It still jumped like crazy, actually a way better launch then before, landings were much more stable and it would actually carve and steer. So going to put this newer cut plate on it and see how much better it got, it's all trial and error really

 

[loictahiti]

I will want find enought time to start mine .......

 

[Pantyblaster]

I don't get much time with my projects hardly ever. I've been lucky and have been off work for about 3 weeks. But fixing to be balls to wall nonstop next weekend. By the time I'll make it back home it'll be summer already.