Freestylegeek's squarenose conversion

[ArtMaybee]

Has anyone tried getting heavy mil contractor garbage bags, you can shape (cut) the bag, weld the pieces back together with heat or glue and then fill the plastic with foam? The plastic should keep water from getting in your foam to begin with. 8m not terribly fond of using cut styrene foam since the expanding foam acts as a core to add strength to the rear of the ski.

 

[Matt_E]

I don't know that it provides THAT much strength. I ran my old RN hull with polystyrene in the bottom for three full seasons. I abused that hull pretty badly and didn't get one single crack or other defect in that area.

 

[ArtMaybee]

Well... it may work well enough with the house foam but the expanding foam most definitely acts as a core adding strength to the rear of the ski. The house foam has seemed to do an adequate job for everyone who has used it. Packed in tightly it should perform almost as well as the expanding stuff.

Just figured that sealing off the expanding foam with a plastic membrane might be easier than cutting and shaping tons of smaller pieces to fit.

 

[Matt_E]

It would be.

 

[freestylegeek]

Interesting, everyone that does the top deck mod has modified the exhaust. And most everyone has repositioned the steering cable tube. I think I will just leave them both alone...unless I am missing something?

The modified exhaust is usually so that you can get your footholds farther forward. The steering cable mod is a must-do if you plan on using trim a lot (especially if you're turning the bars when pulling the trim)

What about bonding the two decks together? 404? How much do I buy? What oz.? How thick should it be? 205 fast hardener okay? I am inpatient, haha!

You definitely want to use the EXTRA SLOW cure hardener (209) and the caulk gun tubes (810). I mixed up 8 pumps (of resin and hardener) then mixed in enough 404 to make it the consistency of peanut butter, then filled one tube and applied the bead to the bottom deck. I did two separate 8 pump mixtures, and that gave me more than enough to bead every contact surface on the decks.

What about the bulkhead? Is it important to have structure all around it? Or is it okay just to "seal" it.

Everything you can tie together just adds to the strength of the ski, so you should try to shape it so that it contacts as much of the top deck as possible. I actually glassed my engine side of the bulkhead to my topdeck for a little added strength.

 

[KR]

Great, thanks for answering those questions! Exactly what I wanted to know!

I actually don't use trim so it should be okay to leave alone.

I was planning on glassing the bulkhead to the topdeck too.

Hopefully a gallon of epoxy should cover everything...

 

[SuperJETT]

geek bought me some of the caulking tubes he used, but I ended up not using them. riverrat and I just scooped/spread the mix into the corner of the top deck's bondline (with it upside-down) then put the bottom in and flipped it. We had plenty of epoxy run out both the inside and outside so it definitely got good coverage.

One tip no matter what you do: use power drills with mixers to speed up the mixing. I cut coat hanger sections and bend them into triangle shaped pieces that you can chuck up into a drill. Works great.

 

[KR]

One tip no matter what you do: use power drills with mixers to speed up the mixing. Works great.

Hey! I ride jet skis, I can't afford power drills! It was a toss up between a drill or Cold-Fusion steering...