Overview
Alright, so I upgraded from my 650 platform I used last season. Decided to buy an entire ski and sell the 650 (which is in process). So now in my basement, I have Idok's/Kevin Collin's old sqaurenose. Originally, I had just panned to ride it as is, but winter plays with your mind. I decided to take the entire thing apart, and go through everything. Which I have, and have found all the problem areas, and decided to renovate a bit.
Start
Here's more or less how I got the ski, minus the hood of course. Being a saltwater boat, the engine and most all the parts were in great condition. the pole looks chitty, but that's because its spray bomb, it cleaned up good.
notice that while the hood was slutty modified, and the vents were, well... slutty
Hood
First thing I did was rip out the old liner, which was FRP panel from home depot ($30 for a 4x8 sheet) which seemed to work great. Liquid nails was used as an adhesive, and a lot of it. It took a LONG time to get out, and didnt come in one piece. That stuff held like a b****.
After I got the liner out, I cut the vents out, and epoxied in a piece of marine grade plywood (1/8 inch) and then filled the other side and used System Three Quickfair epoxy fairing putty and a shaped piece of wood to get back the the curves of the hood and match the lines.
I made my own template for the handholds, and cut em out. Layed a layer of biax there just in case, and on the hood hook area layed two overlapping pieces of biax (overlapping at the radius) because that area had stress cracks and was very flexible. The front vents were sealed the same way the vents were. The stock 'handhold' I never liked got cut out and filled the same way as well.
Pieces of wood were added behind the handholds to give more to grab. Bucket backings are again, wood covered with epoxy, TLAR fit (that looks about right). All wood is lightweight marine grade plywood, coated in thin epoxy to seal it from water.
Stress cracks at hood hook area
stress cracks again
hood vents filled
vents/'handhold' filled. If you notice the pole cushion place, its filled. There was a crack that caused a noticeable depression difference between either side of the crack. I filled the difference with quikfair and sanding it back to smooth, filling any stress cracks that were present. Hood was already glassed with tooling cloth on the back.
Various holes created by OEM liner removal were filled as well (2 pinholes and one nickel sized).
Hood overview of the nearly finished product
Shop
I've played around before as you can see. Most of the materials I need I had on hand already, which is always nice.
Hull Work
Past sanding for new paint that isn't 'surf tested' I decided to do a little renovating. First I defomaed and found some water, so thats all getting sealed up with epoxy and 5200 fast-cure, and refoamed. I have some REV's waiting to go in, if you can notice the foothold footprint. Upon wanting to repaint the engine interior in some spots, I noticed that whatever glass was on the bottom was coming up, and up it came. So I reinforced the bottom with a bit of biax after chipping off all the old stuff.
Upon a closer look at the walls, I noticed some very thin cracks on the gelcoat where cracks usually form, on the BR landing side. I sanded it off and noticed they were structural, and pretty deep, all the way through the ribs and halfway through the hull. The pic below is of the cracks dremeled. Im not really sure what is on the sides for reinforcement, it looks pretty light. The other side I'm leaving as is, however Ill radius the ribs and fill the cracks on this side, and lay some 20 oz matback cloth over the damaged area on this side to reapair the crack and reinforce for any cockiness I may get when my neighbor gets his birchrum back :smile:
When I started cutting out the old footholds, I spotted some patches of wet foam, so I dug it all out. While I was at it, I reinforced the back with a layer of biax cloth, and filled the bond line with West mixed with Wood flour. Both sides are identical. The cloth is probably 16 oz. or so or less, Im not sure.
Optimistic mockup!
No pictures of what I'm about to describe, but the back was crushed in from Im guessing a shallow surf landing, the left side,which left a pretty cosmetic and partially structurally looking mess. I'm planning on squirting some great stuff around, shaping that, then covering it in duct tape or elmer's glue and glassing over that with mat and biax. Fortunately most all the damage is just to the rail, so it can all get turfed to cover it up if it doesnt look perfect. I have another hull I could splash, but I dont wanna peel up the turf! We'll see
I'm not sure If I'm going to reinforce the pole pivot point right now. There are multiple cracks but they look mainly cosmetic.
Motor/ Pump
The motor is fresh and the reason why I got the ski! The 650 wasnt cutting it for hauling me around, I was always on WOT all the time it felt like. 701 62T case, 61X cyl, Pro-X pistons, 1mm over, RIVA single carb manifold, single 44mm SBN, WestCoast head at 170 psi, 61X stator, and a B-pipe, its a bit dusty from all the sanding!
The pump got blueprinted while I had it out, I'll try and get some pics up of that. I'm sticking with the Solas I 14.5-18 for financial reasons, going to stay single cooling as the temperatures here are too extreme, might switch to dual later.
I'm never good at taking selective pictures, so heres the album with some more shots http://www.x-h2o.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=364
Alright, so I upgraded from my 650 platform I used last season. Decided to buy an entire ski and sell the 650 (which is in process). So now in my basement, I have Idok's/Kevin Collin's old sqaurenose. Originally, I had just panned to ride it as is, but winter plays with your mind. I decided to take the entire thing apart, and go through everything. Which I have, and have found all the problem areas, and decided to renovate a bit.
Start
Here's more or less how I got the ski, minus the hood of course. Being a saltwater boat, the engine and most all the parts were in great condition. the pole looks chitty, but that's because its spray bomb, it cleaned up good.
notice that while the hood was slutty modified, and the vents were, well... slutty
Hood
First thing I did was rip out the old liner, which was FRP panel from home depot ($30 for a 4x8 sheet) which seemed to work great. Liquid nails was used as an adhesive, and a lot of it. It took a LONG time to get out, and didnt come in one piece. That stuff held like a b****.
After I got the liner out, I cut the vents out, and epoxied in a piece of marine grade plywood (1/8 inch) and then filled the other side and used System Three Quickfair epoxy fairing putty and a shaped piece of wood to get back the the curves of the hood and match the lines.
I made my own template for the handholds, and cut em out. Layed a layer of biax there just in case, and on the hood hook area layed two overlapping pieces of biax (overlapping at the radius) because that area had stress cracks and was very flexible. The front vents were sealed the same way the vents were. The stock 'handhold' I never liked got cut out and filled the same way as well.
Pieces of wood were added behind the handholds to give more to grab. Bucket backings are again, wood covered with epoxy, TLAR fit (that looks about right). All wood is lightweight marine grade plywood, coated in thin epoxy to seal it from water.
Stress cracks at hood hook area
stress cracks again
hood vents filled
vents/'handhold' filled. If you notice the pole cushion place, its filled. There was a crack that caused a noticeable depression difference between either side of the crack. I filled the difference with quikfair and sanding it back to smooth, filling any stress cracks that were present. Hood was already glassed with tooling cloth on the back.
Various holes created by OEM liner removal were filled as well (2 pinholes and one nickel sized).
Hood overview of the nearly finished product
Shop
I've played around before as you can see. Most of the materials I need I had on hand already, which is always nice.
Hull Work
Past sanding for new paint that isn't 'surf tested' I decided to do a little renovating. First I defomaed and found some water, so thats all getting sealed up with epoxy and 5200 fast-cure, and refoamed. I have some REV's waiting to go in, if you can notice the foothold footprint. Upon wanting to repaint the engine interior in some spots, I noticed that whatever glass was on the bottom was coming up, and up it came. So I reinforced the bottom with a bit of biax after chipping off all the old stuff.
Upon a closer look at the walls, I noticed some very thin cracks on the gelcoat where cracks usually form, on the BR landing side. I sanded it off and noticed they were structural, and pretty deep, all the way through the ribs and halfway through the hull. The pic below is of the cracks dremeled. Im not really sure what is on the sides for reinforcement, it looks pretty light. The other side I'm leaving as is, however Ill radius the ribs and fill the cracks on this side, and lay some 20 oz matback cloth over the damaged area on this side to reapair the crack and reinforce for any cockiness I may get when my neighbor gets his birchrum back :smile:
When I started cutting out the old footholds, I spotted some patches of wet foam, so I dug it all out. While I was at it, I reinforced the back with a layer of biax cloth, and filled the bond line with West mixed with Wood flour. Both sides are identical. The cloth is probably 16 oz. or so or less, Im not sure.
Optimistic mockup!
No pictures of what I'm about to describe, but the back was crushed in from Im guessing a shallow surf landing, the left side,which left a pretty cosmetic and partially structurally looking mess. I'm planning on squirting some great stuff around, shaping that, then covering it in duct tape or elmer's glue and glassing over that with mat and biax. Fortunately most all the damage is just to the rail, so it can all get turfed to cover it up if it doesnt look perfect. I have another hull I could splash, but I dont wanna peel up the turf! We'll see
I'm not sure If I'm going to reinforce the pole pivot point right now. There are multiple cracks but they look mainly cosmetic.
Motor/ Pump
The motor is fresh and the reason why I got the ski! The 650 wasnt cutting it for hauling me around, I was always on WOT all the time it felt like. 701 62T case, 61X cyl, Pro-X pistons, 1mm over, RIVA single carb manifold, single 44mm SBN, WestCoast head at 170 psi, 61X stator, and a B-pipe, its a bit dusty from all the sanding!
The pump got blueprinted while I had it out, I'll try and get some pics up of that. I'm sticking with the Solas I 14.5-18 for financial reasons, going to stay single cooling as the temperatures here are too extreme, might switch to dual later.
I'm never good at taking selective pictures, so heres the album with some more shots http://www.x-h2o.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=364
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