1995 XP 720 Restoration

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My update for today is thanks to racerxxx and his method for cleaning rub rails.

Step 1: wipe with lacquer thinner
Step 2: buff with peanut butter
Step 3: remove excess peanut butter and wipe clean with a clean rag.

These rub rails looked like shit but man this thing is looking better and better. Here are a couple pics.

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After cleaning up the rub rails, I thought for a minute that I would try the same method on the factory black plastic trim and start button cluster. And holy smokes it looks good. I did a before and after of the thumb throttle even though I won’t be using it on this build, just to show the magic.

BEFORE
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AFTER
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So with that method working I decided to do all the black plastic on the machine as well as the rear grab handle, which also came out great.

From there I did a little mock up of the single gauge hood. This is not the exact hood I’ll be using on this build because I’ll be painting the hood anyways. Here is a picture of the mock up.

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Looks pretty good but I think my girlfriend is going for a purple hood with a sky blue accent bombardier stick or something. Like I said that was a factory 95 xp 800 yellow single gauge hood, which I decided to throw some paint stripper on. I have not completely finished getting all the paint off but this was a matter of like 5 minutes of work.

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DISCLAIMER: this pink paste paint stripper says not for use on plastic, but like I said, the stripper was not on the plastic for more than 2 minutes. Literally wipe on with one rag, and wipe off with a clean rag.

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As you can see this post is long. I’ve done a lot today. Not word from the machine shop on the engine but I’ve got some other things to work on today. So expect another update later this evening wrapping up the rest of what I’ve done today.

Cheers!
 
Next up was mounting the ride shoe, worx intake grate, jet pump extention, trim housing and motor, and sit the TDR waterbox in place.

First up the ride shoe, worx intake grate, and extension. I don’t quite have the wearring and bearings to rebuild the pump but I used it to get that right amount of ooze on the pump extension. That will come off when I get the parts. Also after I make sure everything is aligned. Either way here’s a couple pics.

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The ooze looks better in person. Kinda hard to tell between the ooze and paint in the pictures.

Next was the trim motor, some grease on the screw and the fitting and a small bead of silicone around the seal of the housing, as I read someone recommend on the page.

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The TDR waterbox looks to be originally for a 580,657x, or 720. I pulled it off one of the 800’s I bought. Looks like someone welded a bung on it and screwed a barb into it and ran the line for water control valve into the barb. Either way, I think I’m just going to either plug it or cut it off and silicone the hole up and drop the exhaust hose down over it. It was a pretty shitty weld job. Either way. Here’s a pic of that.

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That’s about all I have for today. I actually got to get out there and put some time in and it felt good. I think I’m pretty much where I’m waiting for parts again. Hope everyone is enjoying the thread.

Cheers!
 
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Looking great, glad you liked the run rail trick. Sorry I haven't logged in earlier. Been have a jack of a time with Tapatalk on the forum lately. New phone coming so hopefully the problem will end. Keep up the good work!
 
Fantastic save on that hood!
I forever hate people who paint these factory yellow hoods. Get an ugly green one from the sp if you want to paint one. That's what I'm doing for this ski. This hood is going on my 95 800. I'm currently working on restoring yellow bar pads. I have not yet finished the process so I refuse to give spoilers. :)
 
UPDATE

Got a little more work done today. Not a lot but every minute working on this thing feels great. Its mid December and 10* outside, the guy at the machine shop is wondering why I'm in such a hurry to get my cylinders back. Side note, I still haven't got then back.

I got my bar pad in the mail so I did a little bit of clean up on that. I sat the exhaust in just because. I'm going to leave the exhaust purple because it matches the color scheme and the paint is literally perfect on it. After that I mess with the wiring a little bit. The PO had cut a lot of wires and just had wires nutted together. I'm going to do some soldering and shrink wrapping tomorrow.

The 95 xp 720 came with info, tach, and VTS gauges. I plan to lose the tach just because it's not important to me and I don't want to cut another hole in the hull, since I'll get using a single gauge hood. Plan is to use info on the hood and vts down low by the tether post. Some will say that's backward but I'd rather see fuel level and oil light on the heads up then where my trim is at.

Last thing I did today was open up the electrical box just to have a look. I don't think the box has ever been opened before.

Finally I ordered a lot of parts this past week. I ordered purple fuel line, blue vent lines, new OEM fuel selector, OEM fuel filter, some ODI grips, and some hydro turf. Gotta keep the last two things a secret because they are a few of the Christmas presents I got for my girlfriend.

Here's a few pics from today.20181207_183225.jpeg20181208_112415.jpeg20181208_112434.jpeg20181208_113845.jpeg20181208_113552.jpeg20181208_114100.jpeg
 
Keep in mind that the colored fuel hose doesn’t last. It turns hard, discolores and is junk pretty quick. Your best bet I’d good quality black automotive fuel hose.
 
So got some good news and some bad news for today. Start with the bad news. I'm out on the road for work again until the 20th. Yay for the wallet but boo for the working on of the jetskis. Good news, well there are two things, first thanks everyone on the question about pin connectors, with your help I was able to track some down so I can begin to condense the harness. Second good news is I got a factory pipe for this ski. Was going to leave mostly stock but I got the factory pipe so I might try to find some more 720 performance parts. More to come when I get home the 20th to a pile of parts.
 
You better post a picture of that pipe for @Matt Braley. The early ones seized engines and the later ones were right on the edge.

If I remember correctly the ticket was to put a set of 787 dual carbs on it to feed that pipe.
 
Got it from the guy on Facebook for $80. I have a few sets of 787 carbs so if that's the trick it's a done deal lolFB_IMG_1544676502327.jpegFB_IMG_1544676499219.jpeg
 
Those are awesome pipes and they do need 787 carbs for the engine to last because your making 787 power with one bolted on. The outlet of the chamber needs to be 38mm, not 34mm like the first ones they came out with. There is also a difference in the XP and the HX chambers so hopefully it's from a XP.

There is a electronic rev limiter that plugs into the grey box. It also controls the 12v water solenoid so I hope you got that part in the deal. I don't see the support bracket that mounts to the mag cover either.
 
Those are awesome pipes and they do need 787 carbs for the engine to last because your making 787 power with one bolted on. The outlet of the chamber needs to be 38mm, not 34mm like the first ones they came out with. There is also a difference in the XP and the HX chambers so hopefully it's from a XP.

There is a electronic rev limiter that plugs into the grey box. It also controls the 12v water solenoid so I hope you got that part in the deal. I don't see the support bracket that mounts to the mag cover either.
Matt I'm not sure what comes with it and what doesn't. For $80 I thought I would give it a whirl. Are the electronics hard to come by? The water control valve and such?
 
Matt I just spoke with the guy. I will need the rev limiter and the mounting bracket. I can always make a bracket.
 
I am about to paint my yellow hood cuz it's ugly. I don't know how you guys get the color back but it looks nice. I tried the heat gun thing.... doesn't quite make the grade. :)
 
For anyone who cares, miki told me about the colored fuel Iines but I had already ordered them so I'm going to use then for the time being. Before I left home I got some work done. I got the tank and oil tank mounted back in, I bench tested the fuel gauge and got a proper reading so I got that all back in as well. New fuel selector, fuels lines, and filter. Still waiting on engine parts. I took inventory and it looks like I don't really have many more parts to order to finish this one up. Things I will order
Carb kits
Jets (factory pipe and flame arrestors. I'll need them
Needle and seats
Hump seat cover from hydro turf
Foam to make the hump
Alignment tool
Delrin wearing
Pump bearings
Set of sponsons from racerxxx
And trim tabs from Matt

And a few other small things.

Still some money to be spent. But I have a spread sheet laid out, so everyone can get the real cost of this build. And I'll make that public knowledge at the end of the build. I have a certain budget but its flexible. Not a ski I'm trying to make a profit on as this will he one that my girlfriend is going to want to keep because I built it for her.
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