MY Square nose Superjet build

[WFO Speedracer]

People ask me sometimes why does it cost so much to have a jet ski repaired, my reply is it doesn't , that's just how I keep the riff raff out.


I used to get Crammit442 to help me with turfing , he always had spare turf and underpadding just laying around, he was the kinda guy that would help you do it but he wouldn't do it for you, you tend to learn a lot more that way, this is the last turf job he helped me do.

 

[WFO Speedracer]

Occasionally on my build threads you will see me pass a long a few tidbits of info I have learned over the years, you may agree, disagree , like it or not like it, I will keep doing so however.

A couple of things going on in this photo, you will notice I always have some kind of paper on top of the work area when working, that is contractor paper or builders paper as some places call it, it is very thick and absorbs oils and resins very well, I also use it to make turf patterns and upholstery patterns, as masking paper and it has many other uses. Home depot has it for about 15 bucks for a 3 ft by 120 ft roll. It's nice to be able to just roll up your mess and throw it in the trash .

Whenever you are mixing composites you need containers, lots of them, I save any small container, wash them out and reuse them for mixing composite resin, urethane foams etc , you will need lots of them, trust me on this one.

The white stuff in the container is not powdered sugar, it's cabosil , cabosil is dangerous to breathe and difficult to measure out, the big plastic container is what it comes in from US Composites, I take it out of there and put it in the sugar container for easy dispensing, a plastic canning funnel fits into the sugar container perfectly, the top is like a parmesan cheese container top , it has one small hole on one side and a much larger hole on the other side, it saves material ,messes and cuts down on the amount of loose material that you could possibly breathe in. Save the container it comes in it is excellent for mixing paint and large portions of resins.

 

[WFO Speedracer]

I knew somewhere I had a like new KVPI throttle after robbing that one I finally found it today, it didn't help that I thought it was black so I was looking for a black throttle and this one is silver lol.

I have had just about ever different brand of finger throttle from Hot Products to UMI and KVPI , the UMI I actually hate the hook in the end of it is awful, the KVPI is one of my favorites. The 130mm ODI grips are on the way and should be here by Saturday.

I worked on the underpadding today , turns out three layers of yoga mat is roughly equal to one layer of Hydroturf 26mm plush.

 

[WFO Speedracer]

So the turf is now done and boy did it come out looking sweet !

Just kidding , what that actually is a protective pad I made for working on my skis, you can lay your tools on it and not have to worry about staining your turf, also useful if you have to climb under the ski to remove something from the pump, the straps are there so you can run a bungee under the ski to hold it in place.

 

[WFO Speedracer]

Its a little early for Hallowen decorations, so these must be for something else, anyway if I did have a set of these , not saying that I do of course and maybe if I had some vinyl ester resin, fiberglass, gelcoat, two part urethane , vacuum bagging equipment and supplies I wonder if I could make something, I am just kidding of course , I mean why would some stupid Alabama redneck have all that stuff anyway ?

 

[WFO Speedracer]

You would have to look really closely to find what is going on here, even then you won't know unless I tell you, this is or at least was a brand new steering cable, it has been sitting around for years and never installed, I believe I initially bought it to put direct steer on my X2, the cable was blue and the blue plastic cover had started to crack, I really was not wanting to buy another cable so I did some out of the box thinking, what can I put on the cable to renew the covering.

I had several cans of black plastic dip, it looked like it might work but it didn't, it scrapes off really easily, so I removed all of that . at least it kept the cable from getting any worse, then I thought about heat shrink tubing, $12.49 shipped for 25ft , enough to do this cable and a couple of more, I doubled it up on the ends, just for good measure.

I don't know if I would trust this on a salt water ski, but chances are quite good this one will never see salt water . Apparently they use a lot of this stuff for wind turbines because that's where it came from.

 

[WFO Speedracer]

So I am have been collecting all the materials , right now I have peel ply, stretchalon plastic and I believe some mesh to use as perf, gelcoat , resin and cloth or carbon fiber , I haven't decided yet, I still need to round up some bleeder, some tape and some more two part foam , hopefully I can find the tape and bleeder cloth locally and then it's off to the races, I can foam them later and I want 8lb foam, all I have left is 2lb. the last sponson I made was the hollow sponson on my X2 project.

One thing I wanted to address is the spots for the screw holes, these molds really just barely have any indention, you can make out where the holes should be but I want more definition, I don't want to mess with the molds at all so I am thinking outtside the box again ,I came up with these, they should do the trick.

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[WFO Speedracer]

My sheet of eva foam came in today, it's basically really thin solid Hydroturf and it's not a lot of fun to work with because it's so thin, I put three layers on before I got it where I wanted it, this afternoon I will get the vinyl sewn up for it and call it done. I am either going with Silver or puirple carbon fiber vinyl I will decide later today, hell I may do both and see how they look , you never know.

 

[WFO Speedracer]

So this is a tank I traded Shonuff out of , I had one that already had the internal fuel fill, he wanted internal fill , I didn't so we traded tanks , it's been sitting here ever since
unused and forgotten, so when I dug it out I guress from beng transported and stored for so long both nipples were broken off the tank, I installed these new fittings to save a very nice tank , they were well worth the $10 I paid for them. I drilled the holes going up a few sizes at a time then installed them with Dawn dishwashing detergent, they are a very tight fit.

 

[E350]

Very cool. I stupidly broke off a nipple on one of our skis and actually tapped a hole where the nipple was (it is very thick plastic at that location) and installed a brass barb to machine screw straight adapter.

 

[WFO Speedracer]

I have seen a lot of guys do that as well, that tank has been stored inside forever , it would have been a shame not to be able to use it.

Very cool. I stupidly broke off a nipple on one of our skis and actually tapped a hole where the nipple was (it is very thick plastic at that location) and installed a brass barb to machine screw straight adapter.

 

[WFO Speedracer]

Not sure which thread this goes on, tubbies are going on both builds but here we go anyway. yeah I might have went overboard on the wax and most probably I will wax it another five times before shooting it with PVA, then gelcoat, I may very well brush this gelcoat on and see how it works, if that works ok thats the way I will do all of them if not I will shoot it on next time, then the fiberglass and bagging it up, overkill, sure why not, but hey It don't cost no extra to go first class.

The little plastic bumpers are where the screw holes go I wanted way more defination without having to modify the molds so these take care of that problem nicely.

 

[WFO Speedracer]

Well this is in the books or at least it will be when it kicks, lessons learned, Vinyl ester waits for no man, pva can be sprayed too thick, have all your supplies ready and in order, gelcoat does not like to be brushed and putty tape will not stick to PVA, however I still call it a success as you can see I got it laid up and got a vacuum pulled on the bag, it will only get better from here on out, there is a definate learning curve here, they are going on my personal ski so :

 

[WFO Speedracer]

All the waxing and PVA must have paid off , she popped right out, the gelcoat looks good, resin saturation looks good and the plastic buttons did exactly what I wanted them to do, I still have to pull off the mesh, I am glad this isn't epoxy or it wouldnt pull off, I will now claim this a complete success, all thats left is trimming and foaming then on to the other side.

 

[WFO Speedracer]

All trimmed up and place with some putty tape on the ski, at the correct measurement from the back of the ski it fits really well on the Superjet, good thing is that side hasn't been faired yest so I have a perfect bonding surface, on the 300 SX yeah thats going to take some sanding to get it to fit the skis profile.......

 

[WFO Speedracer]

My fuel pickup for the Superjet came in except it wasn't for a Superjet because it was way too long, it isn't too long anymore it fits just right, freaking Ebay sellers !

 

[WFO Speedracer]

It's official , this has just become a real build now because it's on a roll around stand, some of you won't get the reference , it's from some of my eariler builds because a lot of people seemed overly concerned that the ski was not on a stand ( like I don't have ten of them or something ) anyway no need to worry folks it's on a stand now, some poor broken GP 800R is sitting on the ground now but it's a small price though pay isn't it ?

 

[Myself]

I might need to try a set of tubbies on my Tigersaki.

 

[WFO Speedracer]

I stopped on this to try and finish up the 300SX, then I stopped on the 300SX to finish up the trailer, I have spent a lot of time building and painting skis in the past but I really didn't have a good place to store them inside when they were finished , the trailer build solves that issue so that's where my focus is right now, doing multiple projects at once, is a balancing act that I have never been very good at, my ADD won't allow me to focus that way, I can hyperfocus on one thing and get it done but I get really scatterbrained if I try to do three projects all at once.

Just realize that besides what you see here I am restoring a 1970 GMC pickup, 1964 Barracuda, a Yamaha BW200, building a trials bike out of a TLR 200 frame, restoring a Honda Z50R , a CB125, a YAMAHA TW200 , a Farmall cub tractor and I have a bunch of ATV projects going on as well.

 

[Myself]

The trailer build IS pretty sweet! I swear dude.....we're long lost cousins or something LOL! I've been working on the wife's Superjet, my Tigersaki, had to replace a few floor joists and an 8ft section of wall on my house, I have my buddies '72 Scout engine and trans in the shop, my son's '66 Lincoln engine and trans in pieces, my Seadoo HX, wife is ready to start her '68 C10 shorty, I'm ready to work on my '82 T/A, my SBC powered S10 Blazer and '55 Buick are shoved aside, and I recently hauled home a '94 2wd Ext cab Chevy dually, not to mention all my watercraft projects I need to fix and sell. And we're NOT getting any younger either!