Fresh Find Friday! Project HX

[Jetskigoodies]

I told you wet sanding is a pain but the results are worth it. I am glad you went with a rougher grit to knock of the staining, if not you can double the hours. When you trace the decals for the xp I need like 3 of those traced and cut in just black. I need one for the 98 spx asap lol. Nice reflection shot too. After seeing those pics and now that the snow is gone, it is time to get back to work. Thanks for the inspiration pics lol

 

[Getemkustom]

The carbon fiber looks awesome .. I just started a hx project myself.

 

[racerxxx]

Got a little seat time today. It turned out really great for my first time wrapping a seat--EVER! I got the standard Harbor stapler like all you guys have, picked up the staples at the Depot. I got the vinyl online from yourautotrim.com. I ordered some samples a week or so ago and decided on the vinyl I wanted, I was trying to get a color to match the gray/silver 99 SPX seat on my XP. I chose a gray carbon fiber seat material, it's real nice and I guess fairly priced at $16 a yard and I bought a yard to do the HX seat. So being economically savvy (cheap), this was right up my alley. Don't get me wrong the Jet Trims are real nice, M-Lines are real nice as are the HydroTurf and BlackTips but I really wanted a seamless cover. So I guess I have about 3 hours into covering it, the first hour was build up the nerve to cut the vinyl. I asked Jetskigoodies to share some tips with me which got me to jump off the bridge and get to business. It took some manhandling to work out the wrinkles but I got them all out and got it to conform to the factory contours, all done without glue, and with one man. The only thing I glued was the foam pad back to the pan with some old 3M Super Trim Adhesive, that I questioned whether it was good or not but it stuck like a booger on your finger. The seat that came with the HX was smoked to say the least, I scored a good used complete seat off Ebay for $58.99 shipped and I took the foam off the pan and set it on my heater pipes over night and it dried it right out. I guess you can see a carbon fiber theme with my skis. So here are some before and afters.


Before:

Probably the hardest part of the entire job.

Here's a close up of the seat material:

The finished product!

 

[kicker]

Nice job as always racer, that looks great. Did you have to use steam or heat to get the bumps shaped up?

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[racerxxx]

Nice job as always racer, that looks great. Did you have to use steam or heat to get the bumps shaped up?

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Thanks Kick, always trying to do my best.

I tried my wife's extra hair dryer and it was basically worthless, so to answer your question, no. I used my Tony Robbins banana hands (Shallow Hal reference)

[video=youtube;r03L0NsFmiM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r03L0NsFmiM[/video]

 

[CReynoldsMIZ]

Looks great xxx...you know whats next tho, you gotta get rid of those purple rub rails!

 

[racerxxx]

Looks great xxx...you know whats next tho, you gotta get rid of those purple rub rails!

Thanks, I have some tricks up my sleeve. Man, no love for the purple, really?

 

[CReynoldsMIZ]

Im sorry, but Seadoo had some terrible choices in colors. I hate the purple on these skis...Purple, Pink, Yellow, Green, White??? What were they thinking?

If your going with Black, Silver(carbon fiber), Yellow, and White...now that would look good!

 

[racerxxx]

Im sorry, but Seadoo had some terrible choices in colors. I hate the purple on these skis...Purple, Pink, Yellow, Green, White??? What were they thinking?

If your going with Black, Silver(carbon fiber), Yellow, and White...now that would look good!

Alas, I show my age these skis were of my time. Just sit back and enjoy the ride, soon enough it will all play out.

 

[manolocross]

Im sorry, but Seadoo had some terrible choices in colors. I hate the purple on these skis...Purple, Pink, Yellow, Green, White??? What were they thinking?

If your going with Black, Silver(carbon fiber), Yellow, and White...now that would look good!

The purpose of the crazy seadoo colors was for being easy to see on the water... From boats or other jetskis.

 

[suke]

It was the 90's. Pretty much all brands had whack colors.

 

[Jetskigoodies]

It was not just the seadoos, just watch saved by the bell and you will see the pink, purple, green, yellow, man the early 90's were pretty bad, but hey looks like all that crap is coming back, have any of you walked into a footlocker lately?

I would say these pictures pretty much say it all, the saved by the bell picture has about every seadoo color, yellow,pink,teal,aqua,and the towel even has the purple

 

[racerxxx]

I turfed the HX last night from the left over of my full sheet I bought, traced the old ones and sat down with a few fresh straight blades. I dressed up any abnormalities with some 400 grit sand paper. The aluminum seat frame was pretty oxidized from the raw aluminum not being anodized, gave it a quick sand with an extra fine grit sanding sponge then polished it real quick with some Mothers. Good from far but far from good, it will be covered anyway.


Turfed!

Polished seat frame and aluminum fuel selector

 

[kicker]

Looks fantastic, nice job on the mats, that selector switch is a really nice touch. I know your a purist, but are you keeping the blue rubrails or changing them out?

 

[racerxxx]

That's blue painters tape to allow me to buff right up to them and not mess up the rubrail. I'm going to paint the rub rail or pick up some black rub rail. The rub rail is actually purple.

 

[Jetskigoodies]

I think we have all changed his purist ways. It is shaping up nice. That fuel selector from spim is awesome, I got one too we are just waiting to pull one of our 96's out of storage to put it on. That hull is nice and white. I have a couple black gas caps if you want I will send you one

 

[racerxxx]

I will admit, I have been swayed to the other side a little bit. Yeah I might need a black gas cap, I was checking a yellow NOS one on Ebay last night.

 

[Spimothy Leary]

I think we have all changed his purist ways. It is shaping up nice. That fuel selector from spim is awesome, I got one too we are just waiting to pull one of our 96's out of storage to put it on. That hull is nice and white. I have a couple black gas caps if you want I will send you one

I went ahead and ordered more of the fuel selectors, i was down to 1 spare and that makes me nervous

I have seen the billet gas caps, but they are crazy expensive and heavy as hell, didn't seem worth it, So I stuck with black on my ski.

 

[racerxxx]

I went ahead and ordered more of the fuel selectors, i was down to 1 spare and that makes me nervous

I have seen the billet gas caps, but they are crazy expensive and heavy as hell, didn't seem worth it, So I stuck with black on my ski.

It gives it a nice finish that is subtle but will still catch you eyes. I just have to deal with it being off 90 degrees. It's actually like an anti theft device on the HX, in the pic it show it's in the off position but that is reserve, so in the on position the fuel would be off.

 

[skoolball23]

So you wet sand it with sand paper in stages (400, 800, 1200) and then polish it with fiberglass boat polish? I am getting ready to clean up a couple of my skis myself and am trying to have similar results as you. lol Great Work! I am amazed of how well it turned out! Also what kind of turf mats are those, they look sweet and more durable than hydro turfs.

 

[racerxxx]

So you wet sand it with sand paper in stages (400, 800, 1200) and then polish it with fiberglass boat polish? I am getting ready to clean up a couple of my skis myself and am trying to have similar results as you. lol Great Work! I am amazed of how well it turned out! Also what kind of turf mats are those, they look sweet and more durable than hydro turfs.

Thanks Skool. Yes I started with 600 and went up on the yellow, on the white I had to go to 400, then even more cringe worthy because it wasn't working fast enough I went to Home Depot and got a 3M sanding sponge 10 pack of EXTRA FINE(used them wet). They didn't call out a grit and I figure how much worse could it get? I needed that to get through the brown/tan stains on the white, then worked my way back up. The white is a biatch, be prepared for sore hands, fingers and arms. Jetskigoodies is the pimp on buffing out hulls, I'm just an apprentice of his. The turf is Black Tip available at watercraftsuperstore.net ( HERE) This stuff was what they call sheet goods and I cut each one by hand since I already had the sheet left over from my XP build. The mats are stiff but flexible, I can't really compare them to the Hydro's since I never had them. These were half off on Black Friday.

Here's JSG thread on buffing http://www.seadooforum.com/showthre...uff-your-faded-nasty-hull&highlight=buff+hull

 

[skoolball23]

Thanks a bunch! That is a very detailed buffing article!

 

[racerxxx]

Did a little more work on the HX. I know I have told guys not to powder coat stuff but I figured I'd give it another go and will post back up the longevity of it. I do my own PC in my shop. I bead blast the parts at my F.I.L.'s shop then I wipe all the parts down and do the prep and powder at my shop. So here is the nozzle and trim ring for the HX before during and after shots. The trim ring and nozzle have some pretty sharp edges so I hot flocked the powder, meaning right after I out gassed the parts I sprayed the powder while they were warm. This will allow the powder to adhere and start to melt allowing a good build up on the sharp edges. I also did the impeller shaft for the XP. I have done a bunch of other parts for snowmobiles and my Three Wheeler. My investment is minimal and it is cured in a regular oven that I picked up at a local appliance shop for free, I do not cook in the oven, although I have made soup on the range while working in the shop. I need to finish detailing the pump area on the HX, I know. Again, doing it myself to save money!

Before, sun faded the original powder was worn off on the top.

After blasting

Right after out gassing threads and holes are masked with plugs

Shake n' Bake, the powder has flowed out and is no longer powder.

Clear Coat added to make the parts POP

Now for the nozzle

After the Clear

Assembled

Installed on the HX

The XP shaft

 

[Jetskigoodies]

Ok, here is my parts list I will be sending you, 5 nozzles and trim rings, 4 head pipes, 3 water boxes, 4 heads, 8 jugs and a couple sets of cases I will expect them all back within the week lol. No seriously though they all look great. I am shocked we havent seen more powder coated parts from you before.

 

[racerxxx]

Ok, here is my parts list I will be sending you, 5 nozzles and trim rings, 4 head pipes, 3 water boxes, 4 heads, 8 jugs and a couple sets of cases I will expect them all back within the week lol. No seriously though they all look great. I am shocked we havent seen more powder coated parts from you before.

Can't let all my cats out of the bag!