RESTO 96 GTX Project Shamu

[spx787]

Well I was going to paint it myself. I've done a lot of painting. I was going to a faux carbon fiber look. Google it, it looks pretty good. Anyway, in my research I found that there is some pretty good carbon fiber looking vinyl wrap material. So I am now planning on doing a full wrap of the hood and probably gauge fairing. I will likely paint the mirrors since I doubt I can wrap them. I'm also thinking the glove box may get the same wrap. The seat cover I got is a custom Blacktip with black, silver and white carbon pattern material, so it should all work well together. I'm leaving the bottom dark green. I may add some dark green accents up top to bring it all together. Still working out the final design.

Take it to a vinyl wrap shop if you want the mirrors wrapped. Those dudes can wrap ANYTHING!!!

Also, great thread as I am bringing a 96 GTX back to life myself.

 

[soccerdad]

So I pulled the starter off. I thought it was aftermarket since it is painted black. But sitting next to my known oem starter it looks identical. At least the case does. Any easy way to tell the aftermarket starters? Or is this oem painted black?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[CReynoldsMIZ]

Look on the bendix, if it has an ND stamped on it its a reman'd OEM

 

[racerxxx]

Look on the bendix, if it has an ND stamped on it its a reman'd OEM

Correct, but not reman'd--new replacement or off a later RFI 787, those engines were black cases.

 

[soccerdad]

Look on the bendix, if it has an ND stamped on it its a reman'd OEM

Where on the bendix? I do not see a ND stamped on it. Does that mean this is not OEM? It looks identical to the OEM one, but is black. Do you know if the Chinese ones look identical? I think I will just put my spare OEM one on to be safe. I will get some new brushes for it.

 

[AdamXP800]

Chinese one are identical look for the nd

96 XP800!
Keep the 2 strokes alive!

 

[ranga97]

Im excited for the colour change! good luck :thumbsup:

 

[soccerdad]

Im excited for the colour change! good luck :thumbsup:

I received the carbon fiber wrap material today. Not sure if I can get to it this weekend but hopefully soon. Been watching lots of vids on it.

 

[ranga97]

Are you stripping it right out of leaving stuff inside?

 

[soccerdad]

I'm not pulling the motor or other big stuff. Lots of hand scrubbing and washing inside.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[soccerdad]

Well made some decent progress. I rebuilt the carbs. Oem kits and new needles and seats. Pop off checked 30 and 32 psi.

I also pumped out all the gas and oil. Then pulled the oil tank out to clean. The starter turned out to be aftermarket so I swapped it with my spare oem one. I sent the MPEM to Minnetonka4me to add keys so all my keys will work on this ski. Also pulled My pipe to be welded. Actually having three pipes welded. All leaking or patched. There was a bunch of sand behind each leaking plug. I am sure this is what causes the leaks. Water just sits there in the sand.

Also got the raves back in. Drilled the holes in the caps to see them work. Also got the head back on.

Also checked the water drain line from the cylinder and it was clean.
Still have a big list but at least some wrk is getting done.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[AdamXP800]

Looking good! You have done a great job on all of your restorations



96 XP800!
Keep the 2 strokes alive!

 

[soccerdad]

OK some more progress. I am working on the bottom of the ski now. I will post the hull stuff later. I pulled the ride plate, grate and pump off. Super easy when the ski is upside down. Glad I did it. This is what I found.









The inlet shoe has been repaired with some epoxy. Had a hole clean through it I think. Then the hull has some pretty deep gouges. Not sure what this thing ingested! I have a spare inlet shoe and will fix the gouges. The wear ring was toast. And that foam crap! Just dug all of that out. And yes, the drive shaft is missing the bumper. Can't wait to see what I find when I tear into the pump!

 

[Jetskigoodies]

The bumper may be inside the impeller. Some times they stick in there take a screw driver and move it around in the impeller and you might find that bumper

 

[soccerdad]

So the hull work. Ugh. This thing was trashed. I should have looked at it better before I cut up my other hull.

Anyway, it looks like it sat on the dirt with the kids playing on it for years. Looks like it was chewed on by rats!

 

[soccerdad]

So the basic heavy cut was not going to do it! Out with the 220 grit wet sand. Even used my electric pad sander. I got most of it smooth, but did not get all of the discoloration out. At this point, it is just about making it smooth. It is the bottom of the ski. Anyway:





This one is AFTER the clean up and quick buff. :facepalm:

 

[soccerdad]

So I got a gelcote repair kit. I mixed it to be green, but the kit did not have enough pigment to make it dark enough. I should have stopped, but I didn't. So I ended up with this:



You can see that even like this, it is still 1000% better than when I started.

After wet sanding it back down, I now have this:



It is smooth now and the deepest gouges are gone. So you likely have seen my post on painting the bottom. I am still considering my next steps. I am not going to shoot the entire thing with gelcote. I just don't care enough about the bottom. I am leaning toward painting it to match the current green. I found plastic paint that is almost identical to this green. I am going to test that first, then decide what to do next. It may end up black. Or it could go white. Hmmm. Stay tuned.

 

[soccerdad]

The bumper may be inside the impeller. Some times they stick in there take a screw driver and move it around in the impeller and you might find that bumper

I just looked and you were correct! It was stuck in there. Actually looks to be in good shape. :thumbsup:

 

[DAGRE147]

Did you pull everything and split the hull to fix and paint or just flip it over as it was? Thought about doing either/or while my 951 was out of my xpl, wanted to see different opinions.

Great work so far

 

[soccerdad]

The fuel tank and oil tank are empty. I also pulled the hood and water box. Motor is still in. Half the pipe is also out. Then just flipped it. Man it was still heavy. Wrapped a sling around it and the. Lifted with my chain hoist. Then rolled it with the help of my son.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[soccerdad]

It was warmer so some good progress. First, the hull. I decided that it was just the bottom of the ski, so I went ahead and painted it. Got some plastic paint from lowes that is the same color, but a little darker than the green. I looks OK. I wish it was a little closer to the same color, but good for now. Perhaps I will change colors later.



Ill work on it some more to blend. Then polish and wax. Then I'm done on the bottom.

 

[soccerdad]

So now the fun one. I almost feel bad with this one since some of the other real carbon fiber projects are so awesome. But I am pretty excited about this. We wrapped the hood!

Wow it was much more work than I expected. We still ended up with some small wrinkles and other defects, but all in all, it looks amazing!

The wrap is 3m 1080 black carbon fiber look. It was a lot more difficult than I was expecting, mainly I think because I had no experience and the hood was loose on the table. To get it to form correctly, you really need to pull and stretch the film. But this just pulled the hood around. Even with a helper, it was tough. Also, we worked it at too small of a level and worried about moving it an inch at a time. It seems that this stuff likes you to pull it hard and lay down big sections. Anyway, here are some pix!



Just getting started



The new baby! It took us about 3.5 hours to do it.





The gauge fairing was a piece of cake once I knew how to do it.

 

[AdamXP800]

What was your process on the carbon wrap?
It looks goid



96 XP800!
Keep the 2 strokes alive!

 

[soccerdad]

What was your process on the carbon wrap?
It looks goid

Thanks! The process was watch youtube and pray! Basically I precut the sheet oversized. Then scrubbed and light sanded the hood with 400 grit. (not sure if that was needed.) Then you peel off the backing paper and set it on top of the hood. Then you use a heat gun and spatula to soften and form the material. The stuff is made to allow you to be able to move it around and keep pulling it back up until you are happy. Then you rub it down good and heat it with a heat gun to melt the glue. Lots of heating, stretching, pulling, trimming, cussing, smiling. Lots of good videos out there. I think I bought about $75 worth of film. Mine came from Ikon wraps and I used the real 3M stuff. there is cheaper out there but I am new at this so I got good stuff. I did blow through one area with the heat gun. But luckily it was in the gauge dip so no big deal Also put a small hole in it with my fingernail when it was hot. But all in all, it is pretty strong and forgiving. A smaller part would have been better to start out on. But I am very happy with the results. I am pretty sure I can't do the mirrors. But also not sure if I want to since there is a lot of carbon fiber look going on now. May even go silver to match the stripe that is on the seat cover. Still thinking. Also, I think I may have enough left to do the glove box.

 

[AdamXP800]

I was looking at some of the silver carbon wrap. Looks pretty good. I can't afford the real carbon fiber parts lol



96 XP800!
Keep the 2 strokes alive!