MY Square nose Superjet build

[WFO Speedracer]

I finally got around to building an exhaust bracket, now I can send it off to have the bracket welded back onto the pipe, I did listen to what some of you guys said and I am all about some overkill, this shouldn't go anywhere ever.

 

[WFO Speedracer]

I have been looking at the nose on this thing for months, the more I looked at it the more I hated it plus it doesn't have any kind of splash guard , I really don\t want to ride something that is going to constantly throw water in my face so I decided to build a front bond line.

I had this roll of plastic strips, no idea what it was used for or what it actually is but I am using it as a form to lay glass up to, I glued a lot of pieces together so I could make a ledge and fill in the gap, anyway here it go, the glass work isn't pretty just yet , righ now I am just filling gaps and putting in plenty of material so I can grind it down later..

 

[WFO Speedracer]

Before and after , no more Dolphin nose.

 

[WFO Speedracer]

One of the main holdups on this build was the steering , since it is on the left side it wouldn't work, I had cut the piece the steering cable ball mounted to off and make another one for the other side out of Aluminum stock, I had planned on having it tig welded and I still may but every tig guy I have tried to get to weld it has flaked on me.

So the wheels slowly started turning , a bit rusty and slow at first but they are spinning pretty well now..

Then it hit me , it doesn't have to be welded I can bolt it on, because of the way the handlebar plate is made I was able to drill it and tap it from two different planes, and so I did, when I got it all stuck back on the new mount was hitting before the plate hit the steering stops so I ground it down to clear and now we have full lock to lock..

It also allows me to mount the ball quite a bit farther out to quicken the steering up a bit.

I will have to wait till the pump and steering nozzle are on and the steering cable is installed before I can drill and tap the hole for the steering cable ball and I have to move the cable bracket to the other side, I already relocated the one on the 300SX so I know what parts to use and how to mount it up.

 

[WFO Speedracer]

So I didn't want to lay up 50 layers of glass here , there is a product called expanded PVC I have used in the past to rebuild bond rails , so I rounded some up, it is also used quite a bit in construction, it is very light , bendable heat formable and glues up very well with epoxy as long as you rough up the surface first. I cut it into 1/4 strips on the
table saw and cut it to width.

I will be using two layers here so a little over 1/2" then I will lay glass over that.

It has cooled off here and the epoxy takes forever to cure so I jumpstarted it a bit by putting it in a cooler and heating up water and filling the cooler it only hits 75 here today so working time is not an issue.

 

[WFO Speedracer]

Mixed up cabosil and epoxy to about the consistency of cake frosting and buttered it up, don't try to eat this stuff it looks way better than it tastes.

I used a grinder and flap disc and put a long taper on each end so it will blend into the existing rub rail, It will need grinding back and reshaping slighty but not a lot.

You can see on the sides at the top on both sides it will have to be ground down to meet the hull shape, the rest looks pretty good.

I used up pretty much every clamp I had here but its clamped , next go around it will probably get screwed down since this stuff holds screws really well.

One down one to go.

 

[Quinc]

I needed this thread 10 years ago when I did my sn!

 

[WFO Speedracer]

While this was drying I installed some Corvette seats I installed new covers on , then I went to the lake to buy this gem.

Hull is crap rear seat base is crap but it has a good hood and the engine is 100% OEM and intact , it spins over freely by hand, the guy said he had started it on starting fluid, more on that later but the best part is it was $50.00 delivered.

On a side note I am now selling these custom lanyards in the last pic so if anyone has an interest please contact me.

 

[Quinc]

Plastic fork?

 

[WFO Speedracer]

Plastic fork?

Sorry for the blurry pic I was in a hurry to get home, it's a galvanized fence staple.

I mean who knew I had a whole box of lanyards here and I didn't even know it .

 

[WFO Speedracer]

The epoxy hasn't fully hardened yet but it's enough I can unclamp it and go for round two.
So before gluing the second piece on I gave it a shave and a haircut.

 

[WFO Speedracer]

I made a gauge out of some Aluminum stock that I had to check symmetry, it's low on the left side so I will extend the second piece to that side to cover it, glue it up then grind it back down, the gauge will have to be rebent to fit the new curvature.

Remember I said this was thermoformable , it is and at a relatively low temperature 150 -170 degrees, so i cranked the oven to 170 and let it heat a few minutes then formed it around the nose, the benefit here is this time I can just use spring clamps which are much easier and I have a ton of them to boot .

 

[Myself]

If that 1100 checks out........how much would you want? I ended up with a pretty nice SUV this summer that chunked a od right out the left side of the block. Knocked the starter off.

 

[WFO Speedracer]

If that 1100 checks out........how much would you want? I ended up with a pretty nice SUV this summer that chunked a od right out the left side of the block. Knocked the starter off.

Probably not selling the engine , i have a very nice looking Waveventure 1100 here that needs a motor , my mission till Spring is to build all these skis I have that cost little or nothing in parts to fix and pack the shop at the lake full of skis , then next year sell , sell , sell !

I have worked on skis for people making peanuts for quite long enough , I am about to tell all these piddly a$$ no money spending leeches, errr, I mean customers to go somewhere else , my problem is I am just an old softie. I try to help people out, doesn't work that well on the business side of things and in the long run , at any rate around here it's me time.

I have some 1100 -1200 cases and cylinders, heads and two basically complete stuck 1100 engines laying around if that will help you out.

 

[WFO Speedracer]

Next refrain , more of the same , except that I ended up using twice as many clamps this time , go figure.

But the good news is the rub rail is really starting to take shape now , at least now I know it will be ridable .

I got a really late start today so it will have to cure all night and probably all day tomorrow, I have a DR, appoint tomorrow anyway so no biggie.

 

[WFO Speedracer]

Went to the cardio appt and got a clean bill of health, best part , no more BS about a pacemaker.

Epoxy still isn't dry, but I didn't expect it be, I did some grinding on it anyway, As Jerry Lee Lewis would say :

We ain't fakin there's a whole lotta shaping going on .

You can see the Aluminum piece I am using for a gauge in the pics , in that second pic you can see that side is still a little too wide , lots more shaping to follow .

 

[WFO Speedracer]

Just a quick update pic , it is finally starting to look like what I had envisioned , the irony is I put this rockered nose on because I hate the way the nose looks on a SN , it ,like it smacked into a pier and got flattened , once I installed it I reallot didn't like that either, third time is the charm I guess.

I have a bit more glassing to do and then I will start working the body lines in where they need to go.

The divot at the very front will probably get filled in next.

 

[WFO Speedracer]

Sanding, sanding and more sanding , this part sucks.

Every damn standup I have done lately has crappy paint that has to be totally removed , BTW this Metton sucks , give me SMC any day of the week over this crap , it sands funky it's messy and it weighs a ton , this is one heavy a$$ pig of a hull even with the aluminum handlepole.

Maybe this is the ski I need to give the wooden look , I mean hey it's already brown. .

 

[Myself]

Yep, sanding on my wife's was funky too. I just dry sanded it to I think 180, then wet sanded with 220 and 320 before primer.

 

[WFO Speedracer]

F the 180 , I am using 60 grit on the DA as I will be spraying with high build Urethane primer, I was using 80 grit and it was taking way too long , I want some serious tooth to hold the primer on , then the primer will hold the paint on , the way Yamaha did this paint is ludicrous and the black paint someone sprayed on top of it was just nasty.


I am probably doing a color change as well I just remembered today that I have almost a full Quart of Yamaha Teal in Nason polyurethane , it's one of my favorite Yamaha colors, I am thinking Teal ski with a white bottom and maybe some purple accents.

This hood in the pic below is Yamaha teal.