- Location
- Michigan, United States
Hello everyone my name is Dan, long time rider, first time poster. I had my first chance to ride a stand up probably around 12 years ago and have been hooked ever since. I picked up a mint condition 1997 750SXi about 11 years ago and recently my girlfriend has wanted to get into riding.
I’ve been keeping my eyes out for a while and decided that buying something as a project might be the best course of action with the winter upon us. I managed to pick up a 1995 750SXi for a pretty good price, but it has definitely seen better days… There is no serious damage to the hull anywhere that I can see but it has a fair bit of scratches, chipped paint and sun faded plastics. This is what it looked like when I first brought it home:
I figured that with about 6 months of work time ahead of us we mine as well go all the way. The plan is to fully disassemble the entire watercraft, replace anything questionable, sand and prep the hull right down to the fiberglass, lay new glass in any problem areas and spray new gel coat over the entire body. With a lot of prep work ahead of us I figured it was best to build a stand that I could wheel the ski around on and keep it at standing level. Unfortunately I didn’t document this but it was pretty straight forward. I pretty well just replicated what I saw on google images.
With the stand complete and the engine pulled the ski was light enough for us to carry it downstairs into our basement where we plan to do all the work and keep warm during the winter.
At his point we were ready to get started with component removal and prep. The fuel tank, CDI box, grate, ride plate, pump, drive shaft, etc were all removed.
So far the biggest PITA has been getting the stickers off. They’re quite damaged from the years of sun exposure and they tend to break off in little chunks. The one trick I found was to use the steam from a clothing iron to loosen the stickers up. I’ve tried using a heat gun but the Iron really works wonders, it just takes a long long time and typically leaves sticker residue all over the gelcoat. After getting fed up, I moved on to remove the handle bar pole and the rubber liner around the engine compartment. I still have a few more stickers to remove and lots more sanding but this is how it sits now.
I should make it clear that I have never rebuilt a ski before, nor do I have any substantial experience working with fiberglass. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Right now my understanding is that I can sand the whole thing down, spray about a gallon of gel coat over the ski, wet sand, polish and call it a day. Is that correct? Furthermore, should areas where I intend to stick hyrdroturf be gelcoated or should I leave those raw?
Thanks for your advice.
I’ve been keeping my eyes out for a while and decided that buying something as a project might be the best course of action with the winter upon us. I managed to pick up a 1995 750SXi for a pretty good price, but it has definitely seen better days… There is no serious damage to the hull anywhere that I can see but it has a fair bit of scratches, chipped paint and sun faded plastics. This is what it looked like when I first brought it home:
I figured that with about 6 months of work time ahead of us we mine as well go all the way. The plan is to fully disassemble the entire watercraft, replace anything questionable, sand and prep the hull right down to the fiberglass, lay new glass in any problem areas and spray new gel coat over the entire body. With a lot of prep work ahead of us I figured it was best to build a stand that I could wheel the ski around on and keep it at standing level. Unfortunately I didn’t document this but it was pretty straight forward. I pretty well just replicated what I saw on google images.
With the stand complete and the engine pulled the ski was light enough for us to carry it downstairs into our basement where we plan to do all the work and keep warm during the winter.
At his point we were ready to get started with component removal and prep. The fuel tank, CDI box, grate, ride plate, pump, drive shaft, etc were all removed.
So far the biggest PITA has been getting the stickers off. They’re quite damaged from the years of sun exposure and they tend to break off in little chunks. The one trick I found was to use the steam from a clothing iron to loosen the stickers up. I’ve tried using a heat gun but the Iron really works wonders, it just takes a long long time and typically leaves sticker residue all over the gelcoat. After getting fed up, I moved on to remove the handle bar pole and the rubber liner around the engine compartment. I still have a few more stickers to remove and lots more sanding but this is how it sits now.
I should make it clear that I have never rebuilt a ski before, nor do I have any substantial experience working with fiberglass. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Right now my understanding is that I can sand the whole thing down, spray about a gallon of gel coat over the ski, wet sand, polish and call it a day. Is that correct? Furthermore, should areas where I intend to stick hyrdroturf be gelcoated or should I leave those raw?
Thanks for your advice.
I like the eraser because it takes all of the adhesive off clean too.
