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

[GRiN]

Shot the first coat of Rust-Oleum topside primer... Kinda annoyed I had the whole ski blocked to 320 grit and this stuff calls for 80grit sanding as prep, had to rough up the whole hull lol looks like it covers pretty well, I will sand 320 between coats and hopefully all the 80grit scratches are filled after the second coat...

What is the preferred orientation for painting? I have an engine hoist so I could stand it up....I'm kinda screwed because the top half becomes the bottom half at the rocker so If i spray bottom and top separately I'll have to blend the nose well and carefully cut/buff the wet edge.

I got lucky spraying in the open because it's normally pretty windy here, and primer is pretty forgiving (especially knowing I'm going to block it between coats) but I don't think I'll have as much success shooting a gloss topcoat outside so I might have to carefully take the ski to work and use the spray booth there. Then I'm at the mercy of the production schedule and waiting for it to be available. My goal is to have the ski ready by July, so it just might just get a full backyard jobby...

 

[Storbeck]

I like this project partially because I am also a 38 year old man who makes poor financial decisions.

 

[GRiN]

I like this project partially because I am also a 38 year old man who makes poor financial decisions.

Whole lot of enablers around here lol

 

[GRiN]

I went ahead and sprayed the first coat of gloss white topside paint thinned with mineral spirits and kicked off with valspar enamel hardener. I need to adjust my gun settings a bit for the next coat to hopefully reduce orange peel (spraying in the wind certainly didn't help either), but it cured nice and hard and I know from experience this stuff cuts/buffs to a look like glass - I rolled/tipped my 17' boat and after wetsanding it honestly looked as good as if it was sprayed, so I'm assuming that if I'm starting with a sprayed flat finish it will wetsand even faster and buff to a mirror finish. I definitely messed up a bit on prep when I realized that the 80/120g sponges I had plenty of are WAY less aggressive than paper discs, and I unnecessarily created a bunch of deep scratches before the first coat of primer... I switched to the sponges after the first coat of primer when it didn't seem to be building as high as I expected (that stuff is THICK in the can)... I totally could have gotten a much better prepped surface for the top coat had I blocked my first coat of primer back off to get rid of the deeper scratches, but It's good enough for the type of riding I'll be doing (not looking for top speed) and I imagine after beaching it and cart/hitch-hauling it would immediately get minor scuffs/scratches anyway... fortunately I only prepped with sponges above the bond-rail, so the top half of the ski will look nicer..

After primer mockup looking like a rocket-ship!


Couple "gloss" shots lol... shhhh it will get better after the next coat.



Here's the boat that I rolled/tipped with the same paint 3 years ago:

 

[GRiN]

Matchy-matchy!

Printed a pair of these using ABS and they came out great...tabs engage and are flexible. (PLA test prints snapped if you pinched them even slightly)

 

[GRiN]

I reinforced the front of the hood with two layers of 6oz. carbon fiber after filling in the original SN hood prong holes and what I believe were holes from RN hooks. I also put down a layer of carbon inside the hood breather tubes which had been made out of paper-towel roll cores coated with epoxy...looks a lot better now.

 

[GRiN]

I feel like I've been painting this thing for way too long... Lots of timing/motivation/weather delays. Hoping to be DONE with paint by this weekend...it won't be perfect, but I'm over chasing pinholes and tiny scratches at this point.

 

[Quinc]

Looking good! But would be looking better in the water.

 

[GRiN]

Looking good! But would be looking better in the water.

At this point I should have just bought your ski lol

 

[Quinc]

At this point I should have just bought your ski lol

But you wouldn't be able to appreciate how easy it is to buy a ski after someone else did all the work until you do all the work yourself.

 

[WFO Speedracer]

Yep everyone bitches about how much bodywork-paint work costs until they try it for theirselves

 

[GRiN]

Yep everyone bitches about how much bodywork-paint work costs until they try it for theirselves

especially "marine" body work... if I could slap a bunch of bondo on there and sand it back off several times an hour that would be one thing, but having to wait hours for fairing compound to cure and be sandable means you really have to plan ahead and apply in batches... doesn't help that this hull is so heavily modded in numerous locations, so sanding too much in one area to try to improve symmetry or remove imperfections sometimes reveals other problems and creates more work... a lot of the extra time in my case has to do with my work/commute schedule just eating up all my energy during the week, and then hoping it's not crazy windy or 105 degrees outside on the weekend which kills my motivation...sometimes I only get a few hours per week to tinker on the ski... That combined with house projects or taking my boat out really hinders progress..

I'm nearing the home stretch though... there is really only a couple things remaining to "figure out" when it comes to the build aspect (tank/battery/exhaust related stuff), after paint, the rest is basically just assembly and a turf job.

 

[E350]

Buddy, keep going, but when it is 104 degrees like last week, reward yourself by getting out on that 550 or wakeboard or water ski just to get wet.

There is nothing more glorious in our area than getting under the Sun and into the water on a 100F+ day. Don't be afraid to take those days off. And even if you are too tired, force yourself to just do it, because you won't regret it, it will create the attitude adjustment necessary to motivate you to carry on...

 

[WFO Speedracer]

especially "marine" body work... if I could slap a bunch of bondo on there and sand it back off several times an hour that would be one thing, but having to wait hours for fairing compound to cure and be sandable means you really have to plan ahead and apply in batches... doesn't help that this hull is so heavily modded in numerous locations, so sanding too much in one area to try to improve symmetry or remove imperfections sometimes reveals other problems and creates more work... a lot of the extra time in my case has to do with my work/commute schedule just eating up all my energy during the week, and then hoping it's not crazy windy or 105 degrees outside on the weekend which kills my motivation...sometimes I only get a few hours per week to tinker on the ski... That combined with house projects or taking my boat out really hinders progress..

I'm nearing the home stretch though... there is really only a couple things remaining to "figure out" when it comes to the build aspect (tank/battery/exhaust related stuff), after paint, the rest is basically just assembly and a turf job.

Yep lots and lots of applying and waiting then hand sanding, very few places you can use a DA sander on these skis

 

[123hi]

Nice job! Are you going to run the round nose pole or go with something aftermarket?

 

[GRiN]

Nice job! Are you going to run the round nose pole or go with something aftermarket?

Poor.... financial.... decisions... Lol I was going to wait until it was painted to post a mock-up but here ya go!

 

[GRiN]

Ok, I woke up this morning and shot another coat of primer, waited a few hours to lightly sand it, then sprayed two coats of Rust-Oleum topside paint with Valspar hardener thinned with xylene. First coat came out good, second coat not as good because like an idiot I switched my compressor off thinking I was turning it on, then put headphones on and closed the garage door..it's a 26gal tank that had 125psi so by the time I noticed I was getting weird coverage I was almost out of paint...I kicked it back on and was able to spray the rest of the cup and I've decided that whatever 1200/1500/buff gets me is what I'm going with.... I've been obsessing trying to make it nicer than it needs to be when it's just going to get battle scars anyway...not entering it in any beauty contests so it is what it is... Guess I should probably assemble my engine now.

 

[GRiN]

 

[GRiN]

I have lots of updates, but life has been super hectic lately traveling to the east coast for work and I've been bad about posting... will post pix later... built my motor, acquired a mod chamber (waiting for Wax to ship the last piece of the puzzle!), laid more carbon inside the hull, mounted FFH, I really just need to paint the bilge so I can start assembly but its been nasty hot here so I've been less than motivated! I also need to turf the ski (for my first time ever) and I think i'm a little anxious about licoriceing it up so I've been procrastinating... I also spent a weekend of project-time to wake up my Sea-Dont's so I could list them for sale locally... I'm beyond ready to finish this thing and ride it!

 

[DylanS]

I have lots of updates, but life has been super hectic lately traveling to the east coast for work and I've been bad about posting... will post pix later... built my motor, acquired a mod chamber (waiting for Wax to ship the last piece of the puzzle!), laid more carbon inside the hull, mounted FFH, I really just need to paint the bilge so I can start assembly but its been nasty hot here so I've been less than motivated! I also need to turf the ski (for my first time ever) and I think i'm a little anxious about licoriceing it up so I've been procrastinating... I also spent a weekend of project-time to wake up my Sea-Dont's so I could list them for sale locally... I'm beyond ready to finish this thing and ride it!

It’s looking sweet, very nice work.
Turfing isn’t so bad, take your time you got it in the bag. If not just make sure when you post pictures you hide the blemishes