RESTO 96 xp stock restoration

[Jetskigoodies]

I know there are a bunch of these 96 xp threads but we have just had someone drop off their 96 xp and they want it restored. They want it close to original as possible. He wants new decals, the seat back to yellow, and it cleaned up to new. So I thought some of you may enjoy seeing the process.

So he dropped it off and said it was not getting spark. We put an inline spark tester on and hit the start button. It turned over but no spark. We tested the battery and it was at 11.7, we put another battery in that was at 12.1 volts and it now had spark and fired right up.

So now that it is running here is the plan.

Exterior
1. pull off all graphics
2. Remove mats
3. Wet sand and buff
4. Find new handlebar pad
5. Rewrap the seat
6. Clean the hood and try the wipe new method that [MENTION=41828]Minnetonka4me[/MENTION] and [MENTION=57920]racerxxx[/MENTION] have done
7. Install new graphics
8. Install new mats, hydroturf of coarse and we will buy them from pwcmuscle.com

For the graphics I called Mike at pwcgrahics.com or [MENTION=70010]RatFink[/MENTION]. I told him what my plans are and I informed him I have a 96 xp that has nice graphics with vibrant colors. I am going to send him lots of pictures and dimentions this weekend. He said that would help him out greatly in reproducing them. He said there has been alot of interest in the 96 decals.



I will be taking pictures of this xp's decals to send in.

For the inside.
1. Pull the motor just to clean everything inside
2. Clean the raves
3. Change oil lines
4. Change fuel lines.
5. Weld the head pipe
6. Paint the motor and pipes the factory colors
7. Rebuild the carbs
8. Replace the vts housing
9. Change pump oil.
10. Right now it has an oil injection block of kit, he wants the injection pump back.

I am sure there is more but this list will get us going.

Today we already stripped the graphics

 

[Jetskigoodies]

Here is what we started with.

 

[Jetskigoodies]

Took out the trusty $8 heat gun from harbor freight.

 

[ranga97]

Looks like you've got your work cut out for you! Best of luck!

 

[Krispy]

Always in for a good JSG build.


Subscribed

 

[racerxxx]

Nice! Did Mike have the perimeter of the decals already? That is the big thing in getting them to the correct size. I know when I talked to him I think he said he was going to start working on those, I think he has a 96. Can't wait to see this neglected unit get brought back to life.

 

[spx787]

I love these threads and learn a lot from them! Subscribed!!!

 

[Minnetonka4me]

On the plastic....make sure to soft scrub with bleach and scotchbrite the hood....or whatever method you do BEFORE the Wipenew. Get it as good as possible before you apply wipenew.

 

[racerxxx]

Wipe new, AKA: liquid crack in a bottle. You will find stuff to use it on trust me. Like the faded trim tabs, LOL.

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[Spimothy Leary]

we need to make a spin off TV show out of this...

Rick's restoration would have quote about $5500

 

[CReynoldsMIZ]

we need to make a spin off TV show out of this...

Rick's restoration would have quote about $5500

You gotta admit, that guy does some insane work tho.


JSG you almost gave me a heart attack when you posted those pictures of that mint 96 in the first post. I thought you were going to strip the decals off that one until I read that last line. Should look really good when done! Sub'd

 

[Spimothy Leary]

re: wipe new....

what I found what much like what Nick said....with meguiars in the middle

clean, soft scrub, then meguiars, THEN wipe new... I used wipe new as the last step and I was VERY pleased.

the one method I had the least favorable results was the heat gun, although I think we all know the heat gun is perfect for the corner bumpers.

 

[RodInEscondido]

I just got one of these recently, I got lucky as mine looks much better than this one. I will be watching the pros do there magic here and following along. I got the same deep mold looking stuff on the soft handlebar cover; is this curable or?

 

[OneT]

Great job !!!! Can't wait to see it done!!!

 

[suke]

In! Looks like the condition mine was in when I got it.

 

[Jetskigoodies]

Nice! Did Mike have the perimeter of the decals already? That is the big thing in getting them to the correct size. I know when I talked to him I think he said he was going to start working on those, I think he has a 96. Can't wait to see this neglected unit get brought back to life.

He does not have a 96 set ready to go, he has some pictures from someone but the graphics were faded. He is going to get my pictures and then send me some back with points marked for me to measure.

 

[Jetskigoodies]

On the plastic....make sure to soft scrub with bleach and scotchbrite the hood....or whatever method you do BEFORE the Wipenew. Get it as good as possible before you apply wipenew.

That was the plan, but thanks for the tips. Today we actually got started on cleaning the hood up.

 

[Jetskigoodies]

re: wipe new....

what I found what much like what Nick said....with meguiars in the middle

clean, soft scrub, then meguiars, THEN wipe new... I used wipe new as the last step and I was VERY pleased.

the one method I had the least favorable results was the heat gun, although I think we all know the heat gun is perfect for the corner bumpers.

The heat gun trick works well on the 96 gsx hoods as well. I think anything with a dark color will work.

 

[Jetskigoodies]

Ok so tonight we worked for a little while on it.

Mats came off, we used the hammer, screw driver method

 

[Jetskigoodies]

We also started to clean up the hood. It was really rough. We took degreaser and a scotchbrite pad and this was the results.

Oh we also noticed the mirror was cracked. We will replace that. The hood still needs some work but has came along way already.

 

[Jetskigoodies]

Today I traced the graphics to send to Mike. I took over 100 pictures. I took a bunch up close to show the detail in the graphics. I never knew how intricate they were until I saw the decals on this xp.

 

[racerxxx]

Sweet! I'm not the only loon on here. Nice work btw.

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[Jetskigoodies]

It took me about 4 hours, I traced the hood decal, the bombardier under the hood, the front left decal, the rear left decal, and the bottom decal.

Look how much is going on. I never saw the little dots and diamonds before, they even faded into each other

 

[racerxxx]

Isn't it amazing how much detail was there. When Mike and I talked the other day we were talking about your ski

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[1of500]

Confession I have the perfectionist sickness too makes me want some for my rxx...