My First Stand-up - The story of a 38year old man who makes poor financial decisions.

[GRiN]

Hey everyone! I've been a member here for almost 2 years so I figured it was time to post my builds since I don't know what I'm doing and I have ALL of the questions.

Allow me to quickly introduce myself... My name is Colin, I'm a 38y/o Engineering Technician from northern California, and I like to build and modify things. I have never owned a vehicle of any kind that I didn't immediately start to modify, including the 1973 VW Thing I bought for $500 from my HS auto-shop when I was 14 (I have REALLY cool parents lol)..
Anyway, After becoming obsessed with being on the water once my boat restoration was finally functional, I randomly got into Seadoo's. A guy who was buying something I had posted on craigslist offered to give me an old parts ski for free if I came and got it off his property. I started looking into what the parts were worth and a week later I owned 3 more skis...and then things kind of escalated from there...


Not Pictured: The Honda Hawk GT in my guest bedroom, the two JS550's and the reshaped and 701 swapped JS300 in the back-yard........... and yeah... I know I need a new roof... but... Jet skis.

Also, I don't know how to ride jetskis... not important at this particular juncture, but that will likely explain a lot of what you'll see if you keep scrolling...

Anyway, we're not here to talk about couches or ignorantly "ruining" already-junk kawi hulls, so let's get down to fiberglass tacks. Pictured above is my beloved squar' as she sat the weekend I brought her home as a hull+Extras... She was Rustoleum battleship grey with fresh black and yellow diamond turf...

Below are pix of the listing i texted to @BAYAIR asking yay or nay and he told me not to buy it because the front exhaust would suck. I listened at first and slept on it for a few days, but I kept looking at it and I just kinda liked how it looked and kept thinking I'd regret it if I didn't buy it.






I mean come on... just look at her!

Well... don't look too close... because then you'll see things like this:




I was pretty bummed when I noticed the cracks after I had already bought it (I drove almost 2hrs to get it,It was dark out and I did not look at it too closely). I would have bought it regardless, but I would have at least tried to negotiate a better price since I thought I was buying a water-ready hull I could drop a motor and pump into and then immediately sink trying to backflip lol

I guess it worked out, since even though it was painfull to rip up what appeared to be brand new turf, I knew I had to investigate the cracks along the tray rails and fix the holes in the strakes. I decided to just fix all the body-work, do more reinforcing (it was a surf-ski in it's previous life, so it already had a filled bond seam covered with several layers of fiberglass) and I decided I would relocate the exhaust to the rear like all the cool kids...I wasn't married to the color scheme anyhow.

I bought a round-nose thru-tray exhaust tube from one of the Jetski Brothers via eBay, and once it arrived I got to work........

 

[fastgtfairlane]

Those cracks dont appear too difficult to repair. Are you planning to defoam the tray while you're at it?

 

[GRiN]

The rear of this hull has been chopped and rockered which is i'm assuming why the original builder ran a front exhaust. I made a paper template of a modified RN exhaust flange and traced it onto the hull...looks like it will fit! It's hard to tell from this angle, but just above the top of the flange outline is a radius which makes it difficult for the flange to fit without interference with the hull as it turns back on itself...hard to explain, but you'll see what I mean...

Well, she's certainly not water ready now!

Look Ma! I made an auger!

lookin into the bilge!

 

[GRiN]

Those cracks dont appear too difficult to repair. Are you planning to defoam the tray while you're at it?

The "cracks" were basically just where the edge of the fiberglass for the lowered tray rails got sanded too thin when the previous builder was trying to make a clean outer radius I suspect....the cracks didn't appear to go all the way through or be caused by stress which was my original concern, but regardless, I used a dremel to grind all the way through and basically ran a 1/8" seam of thickened epoxy from front to back to essentially "widen" the top of the vertical portion of the rail and then laid fiberglass over the top and down the side all the way to the bond line... I guess I didn't take pictures of that process, but the cracks are all fixed now. As for de-foaming the tray, short-answer is "no". reason being, this ski already has a very modified tray (not much foam left in it anyway) and when I bored for the exhaust 90 percent of the foam I pulled out was still bone dry... there was one little section where it was wet, but I removed just about all of the foam from that side and replaced it with aluminum tubing and fresh 2-part foam to fill the rest...

 

[GRiN]

Here is that rocker radius I mentioned before... gonna have to massage that flange a bit after trimming it down.

That's a little better...

"Good enough for the girls I go out with"

decided to go without fasteners to "shrink" the flange a bit more and Installed with 3M 5200 "forever".

 

[GRiN]

My approximation for the bilge side hole was a bit off so I had to enlarge it a bit.. the curved line above the hole is not a sawzall cut, its the edge of a layer of glass I added to the inside of the the dash. This pic can give you an idea of how much the rear of the ski was shortened..

since I had to cut off the oem bead, (and was too impulsive to find someone with a bead roller or TIG welder), I improvised by using some JB wet-stick to bond a small sliver of the excess...It says it has 1300psi holding strength and it cured hard as a rock, so I'm assuming it's not going anywhere...if this is the dumbest idea on earth and I'm risking sucking failed epoxy back into my engine and ruining it - someone please tell me now so I can cut this off and have someone weld a bead on there!!


Here is the trimmed length.
stood the ski up after re-foaming the right side and made a batch of thickened epoxy to secure the pipe from the inside.

where you goin?? nowhere....

 

[GRiN]

I guess I didn't take many pictures of patching the front exhaust hole, but you can see here it's in process... I glued in an oval piece of js550 hood into the old opening with thickened epoxy and then put down two layers of 1708 on the inside for reinforcement. (don't worry about what's goin on in the background there... A whole other build thread to laugh about is on it's way soon!)

Here is how she sits as of today. Top half is ready for final pass bodywork (filling small imperfections etc.)


Hood and bottom side of hull need some love...

 

[WFO Speedracer]

For someone who doesn't know what they are doing you are doing really well so far.

 

[GRiN]

For someone who doesn't know what they are doing you are doing really well so far.

lol Thank you, I appreciate it! I probably have some degree of impostor syndrome going on because I've got practically zero tray-time other than some bone stock JS years and years ago and here I am building multiple custom skis simultaneously... I've read a LOT of build threads and have been planning/researching for a while, so maybe I know more than I know that I know hahahah. I've worked with fiberglass a bit before this too, so I DO have some knowledge in that area... I have made custom motorcycle tail sections and I replaced the entire rotten floor of my 17' Marlin bowrider (never......ever......again....lol).. but other than composites, virtually all of my jet ski knowledge comes from this forum, Instagram, youtube, and the guys at the marina on Wet Wednesdays...

 

[GRiN]

Ok..... so my first questions are in regards to hood ventilation/drainage etc.

Are pole breathers sufficient for supplying air to the motor as a stand-alone supply, or are they used typically ONLY for when the ski is submerged?

My hood currently has two 2" openings at the top rear which drain outside of the hood seal and allow air-flow above the carb. The previous builder cut cardboard tubes in half and glassed over them...I would have gone about this differently, but I'm going to use it for now after some clean-up work...why they didn't use a slightly smaller hole saw is beyond me... I'm going to fix that with epoxy and possibly cover these with frogskinz..

latch/strap area is reinforced pretty thick.



There are 4 sets of holes on the front of the hood...the inside two are clearly for hood prongs, But I'm not sure what the outer two are for...I thought maybe for ventilation, but they all have stress cracks as though something was bolted into them.. Any ideas what might have gone here??? Straps would pull the front of the hood up against the hooks (the prongs and hooks do not touch when the hood is sitting on the seal under it's own weight) but I would think pulling the front of the hood up into the hooks would adversely effect the seal at the front of the hood. What should the interaction between the hood prongs and hooks be ---should the hooks be holding the front of the hood against the seal? if so, I may need to relocate my prongs upward. The CarterB rocker + Hazard Bracket + modified hood combo doesn't seem to be quite dialed in.

 

[Okoblowji]

Inside holes are square nose hood prong location, outside is round nose hood prong location. maybe someone ran a round nose pole bracket at one time and moved the hood prongs out??

 

[GRiN]

Inside holes are square nose hood prong location, outside is round nose hood prong location. maybe someone ran a round nose pole bracket at one time and moved the hood prongs out??

This seems to be the most likely scenario... good to know they are "extra" and I can just fill them in.

 

[Quinc]

You going to have her ready for Pismo this weekend?!

 

[GRiN]

You going to have her ready for Pismo this weekend?!

If gas alone wasn't $300 I might just have to drag a couch down there to watch the shenanigans lol I'm actually getting both of my armpits tattooed on Friday, so no water for me this weekend hahah

 

[Storbeck]

If gas alone wasn't $300 I might just have to drag a couch down there to watch the shenanigans lol I'm actually getting both of my armpits tattooed on Friday, so no water for me this weekend hahah

Everybody has their thing but I think this might open up the possibility of more "poor financial decisions" jokes.

 

[Storbeck]

Nice work on the ski. I always like to see people taking on projects instead of spending the cubic dollars (even if it might not make sense). Cool ski.

 

[GRiN]

Everybody has their thing but I think this might open up the possibility of more "poor financial decisions" jokes.

Nice work on the ski. I always like to see people taking on projects instead of spending the cubic dollars (even if it might not make sense). Cool ski.

"it's cheaper than therapy" or whatever hahaha but I agree, I have spent a mint on my tattoos over the past 15 years or so, and that money invested traditionally would be performing much differently today... My best friend is actually my tattoo artist, so getting tattoos means I am spending time with my buddy while also supporting his craft.

I appreciate the compliments on the ski! You're right, I could certainly just BUY a wild ride, but a part of this process I enjoy the most is LEARNING along the way and also the feeling of earning my involvement in the sport (if that makes any sense)...

Don't get me wrong, I'm still throwing money at this thing left and right lol

For those wondering what a dasa cylinders worth of tattoos looks like:

 

[GRiN]

Had a little time this weekend to make some progress.

Got the bottom of the hull faired in and ready for real primer.

I also installed the trim tube and re-sealed the water lines at the pump side.

I started stripping and sandblasting a bunch of stuff so I can powdercoat it.




I mocked up my pump and discovered that my ride plate interferes with it unless shimmed pretty substantially.. I'm going to post a thread asking for some measurements to figure out what exactly is going on...
Not sure if so should shim the ride plate or clearance the underside with a grinder... Anyone able to confirm the measurement between the pump mounting surface and the ride plate mounting surface on an OEM pre-96 SJ?

 

[GRiN]

ok quick little update...

Last week I got my Thrust steering nozzle from JM (my used Thrust trim came with a perfectly good oem nozzle but I wanted one I could powder-coat).

On Monday I received a package from @tomski with a front foot hold and a Rapid intake grate. I will post pix once I decide how I'm going to install the hold.
The grate has been stripped and is ready for bead-blasting and powder-coating.

Yesterday I sent payment to @Sanoman for a used set of Tom21 tubbies, and placed a decent sized order with @JetManiac for a bunch more parts including an ADA girdled head!

I also got a shipping notification from @waxhead for some tasty carb dress-up bits (only a couple more weeks and we should be getting our head-pipes too!)


Today I received the pole bracket and battery box I ordered from @Fast Elements and they look REALLY nice!

(I also ordered a Rhaas 701 swap, JS hull carrier bearing, and x2 driveshaft recently and a BlackMarkit billet 750 pump swap kit for my other build, so I guess it's safe to say i'm on a bit of a parts buying spree lately!)

More pix soon!

 

[Quinc]