Hull Repair on my 96XP

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Krispy

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Last year I purchased this ski for a great deal of craigslist. I focused on repairs above the waterline and mechanical in nature. I had a good season and now I have brought it back into the garage to fix the items below the waterline.

It appears as though the previous owner liked to beach the ski and hit everything he could with the ski.

I have some composites experience but it dealt mostly with laying up carbon prepreg into a mold to pop out prototype parts. I have done some wet layups but never repair of a gelcote (gelcoat?) surface.

My questions are as follows;

1: Should I bother repairing all the damage? As in will I see a noticeable performance increase by fixing it?

2. If I repair the damage how should I go about doing it? Can I fill the areas with Marine Tex and then sand down? Do I need to bust out fiber glass?

3. I would like to flip the ski to make it easier to work on but have no idea what the best method would be to do that . Any suggestions?



On to the damage pics!











^ This is worst of the damage, near the intake grate material missing off the chine.

Thanks for any and all help!
 
As far as performance loss I don't think so. Some of the racers used to think a rougher hull was faster and they used to drag brand new skis up and down the beach :facepalm:
 
ride plate and the back part of the hull would be the parts I would put the most work in rough hull will grip a corner faster like matt said good for racing. weekend worriers like my self smooth and polished is the way for spinning in circles and strait line speed. I used spot glaze on my hull and ride plate.
 
ride plate and the back part of the hull would be the parts I would put the most work in rough hull will grip a corner faster like matt said good for racing. weekend worriers like my self smooth and polished is the way for spinning in circles and strait line speed. I used spot glaze on my hull and ride plate.

Yea, I am not too worried about cornering grip, I enjoy some spinning. I have only ridden this x4 so I don't know if this is a characteristic of all of them or if mine has a handling problem but I can drive into a turn pretty hard, until the point of sliding, and then all of a sudden the boat "grips" almost burying the nose in the water and nearly flings me off. If I am ready for it it is great somewhat of a pinpoint turn. If I am not I go flying. Any tips on that one?

I kind of want to repair it just because it isn't "right". I was hoping this might be where I was missing some top speed from. I have 150 compression in each hole but only top out at about 51 mph on the GPS. Still PLENTY fast. But I have a buddy with a 2013 GTI 130SE that I ride with that can run 51.9 mph on the same GPS. I would love to be faster than him in a ski that I have less than 10% invested in as compared with him.

So if I were to fix it how would I go about flipping it? Or would you just repair it as it sits on the stand?
 
As far as performance loss I don't think so. Some of the racers used to think a rougher hull was faster and they used to drag brand new skis up and down the beach :facepalm:

I would cry if I saw that, but I have heard the same...ever seen a smooth golf ball?
 
My current 96xp project had the same problem only worse. I flipped the ski over and taped off an 11" wide strip down the middle starting at the intake grate and coming to a point at the front keel. Sanded the damaged area down then painted it with pick up bedliner paint.
The bottom looks great now with the rough textured black paint.
Before I did it, I read several threads on the pros and cons. If you take your time and really sand the hull good, then clean the area with acetone before priming, the liner paint really sticks well and will not come off.
 
My current 96xp project had the same problem only worse. I flipped the ski over and taped off an 11" wide strip down the middle starting at the intake grate and coming to a point at the front keel. Sanded the damaged area down then painted it with pick up bedliner paint.
The bottom looks great now with the rough textured black paint.
Before I did it, I read several threads on the pros and cons. If you take your time and really sand the hull good, then clean the area with acetone before priming, the liner paint really sticks well and will not come off.

Can you post a pic? I am curious how it turned out.

Also, how did you flip the ski? Mine is currently assembled with a mostly empty fuel tank.
 
Your handling in turns tells me you are trimmed down too far. You have a 56mph ski so to me that is the part that is screaming "not right". Lets find that anchor your dragging. Water valve, raves, HS adjusters turned out, exhaust leak in hull, etc?
 
Don't have a pic, but the ski was gutted when I did my hull so it was easy to roll it over on a blanket. I will take a pic and post it for you.
 
i bought a qt of yellow gel coat from the place that supplies it for seadoo and a qt of duratec supper high gloss clear. with motor out of ski and in the floor on its sided, all i did was clean, sand and apply. then sand and buff. check this out.
http://www.seadooforum.com/showthread.php?67577-99-seadoo-gsx-rfi-semi-restro/page2

Thanks for the thread, it was good to see some before and after pics. I wonder if I can tilt my ski up like you did yours, How did you keep it from rolling all the way over? I see you placed it on wooden blocks.

Did you source your gelcote from gelcote international?

My neighbor has a full paint booth and gun setup but I haven't sprayed anything. I am sure I could call in a favor but I need to figure out how to flip etc the hull if I do decide to go do a major repair. Did you spray the paint in your garage?
 
Thanks for the thread, it was good to see some before and after pics. I wonder if I can tilt my ski up like you did yours, How did you keep it from rolling all the way over? I see you placed it on wooden blocks.

Did you source your gelcote from gelcote international?

My neighbor has a full paint booth and gun setup but I haven't sprayed anything. I am sure I could call in a favor but I need to figure out how to flip etc the hull if I do decide to go do a major repair. Did you spray the paint in your garage?

Anybody that wrenches on skis needs a tractor with a front end loader. I move my skis around all the time with my tractor. They are great for installing engines, as well. :) Get youself a tractor...makes rolling skis easy as pie. :) :)

Kidding!!
 
Your handling in turns tells me you are trimmed down too far. You have a 56mph ski so to me that is the part that is screaming "not right". Lets find that anchor your dragging. Water valve, raves, HS adjusters turned out, exhaust leak in hull, etc?

Thanks for the help Matt, It is quite possible that I am trimmed down too far. The only way I seem to be able to stop the porpousing(sp) problem is to run with a large amount of downward trim.

I have sourced a set of trim tabs and some other goodies (see new thread coming soon to a forum near you) that should help this nose bouncing issue I was having.

Check this post for a list of things I have checked on the ski. (I have done some others as well)

My top speed was measured with full tilt up and I forget the engine RPM I was running from memory it was about 6700?? that was last year and I have killed many brain cells since then.

I have not verified my water valve function, really unsure how to do that. I have cleaned and checked my raves and see a major boost in performance (vetec yo! j/k) around 4k RPM so I think those are opening up. I have my LS needles set at 1 turn out and the HS needles lightly seated.

I just pulled the carbs off to clean them for this season and found 3 issues, the first was that I had a mis aligned carb base gasket (no signs of high idle or air leak but it would have been possible) and I found a leaking needle and seat on the PTO carb. Finally dug out my old pop off tester and found one carb would hold ~30 PSI (for a while) and my other carb wouldn't hold 10 or even pop off.

Also found a broken motor mount, parts will be here today.

What else to check/fix?

Thanks again Matt!
 
Anybody that wrenches on skis needs a tractor with a front end loader. I move my skis around all the time with my tractor. They are great for installing engines, as well. :) Get youself a tractor...makes rolling skis easy as pie. :) :)

Kidding!!

I see you are in Georgia! How long would it take you to drive your tractor over to LaGrange Ga? ;)

I am looking forward to seeing a pic of your repair!
 
Thanks for the thread, it was good to see some before and after pics. I wonder if I can tilt my ski up like you did yours, How did you keep it from rolling all the way over? I see you placed it on wooden blocks.

Did you source your gelcote from gelcote international?

My neighbor has a full paint booth and gun setup but I haven't sprayed anything. I am sure I could call in a favor but I need to figure out how to flip etc the hull if I do decide to go do a major repair. Did you spray the paint in your garage?
you're welcome! when i get home from work ill post some info on the process and source.
 
I second the tractor idea. Makes moving them around so much easier and can put the ski anywhere without the trailer.
 
[MENTION=62923]Krispy[/MENTION], yes i got the gel coat from gel cote international. i was able to select the year and make of my seadoo and they mixed it to order. not a perfect match but close. it comes with wax mixed in to help with cure. i also bough a qt of duratec super high gloss clear. duratec helps a lot with thinning to spray with a paint gun (i used 1.7mm tip) with minimal orange peal and duratec also allows gel coat to cure very quickly with out the use of wax. but the gel coat with wax is better for below the waterline.
to start my job i cleaned the work area with acid tone, the sanded the entire area with 180 grit then wipe clean with acid tone again the first several coats of gel was mixed with 20% duratec and 2% meKP hardener and sprayed several coats to build up the desired thickness no need to let it dry between coats. then i mixed another batch 50% duratec and 2% meKP and sprayed a few more coats. then i immediately removed the masking paper/tape while still wet. it was 60 degrees in my shop when i did this. after a few hours, then sand with 200 grit to remove all orange peal and runs if any to contour / feather sand to old surface. let it sit over night to allow for chemical bleed out. the sand with 400 grit, 600 grit, then 800 grit, and finally 1000 grit. i the used med heavy grit buffing compound and a power buffer, then scratch remover or light rubbing compound then hand wax. that's it! gel coat sands a lot and contours a lot like bondo. the hardest part of applying gel coat was the formula on correctly mixing such as how much meKP to put in. such as what exactly is 2% of 8 oz of gel along with the duratec as it took me 2 hours to do the math on google and sorry i cant remember it all so do your homework. lol! just to let you know you have 20 minutes of pot life once you mix the hardener then you must clean out the paint gun of you will end up throwing it away! also i highly recommend going to harbor freight, they have a 10 pack of plastic liners which make clean up super easy. acid tone works very well on cleaning the paint gun. hope this helps! enjoy.
 

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I used a gelcoat repair kit. It turned out really well. Hardest part is color matching it. You almost need to buff the bottom to see what color it will be after buffing and then mix the color to match. It will dry the exact color, it does not lighten or darken when dry.

Thanks JSG I remember reading that thread a while back, you scratches seem minor in comparison with what I have going on. But I did like the fact that you showed the whole process and how to get a better bang for the buck.

Does everybody agree that my ski needs only a gel cote repair and doesn't require special filler or fiberglass?

Also, people are being quiet on the methods they use to flip a hull (especially a fully assembled one) short of a tractor how are yall doing it?

JSG, I saw yours flipped over with bars and hood removed resting on your work stand...could the upper deck support this weight if the ski was fully assembled?

Thanks again for all the help!
 
you should pull the engine, mine was out steering gear still in tact which helped hold the ski on it's side. looking at the pictures i believe gel coat is all that is needed. did you see my before pictures? if you want perfection, get a gel coat patch kit and patch the dimples and scratches then spray gel coat
oh and no primer needed.
 
you should pull the engine, mine was out steering gear still in tact which helped hold the ski on it's side. looking at the pictures i believe gel coat is all that is needed. did you see my before pictures? if you want perfection, get a gel coat patch kit and patch the dimples and scratches then spray gel coat
oh and no primer needed.

I really don't want to pull the engine until I have to for a rebuild. I think I am going to try and roll it over on its side on some old used tires and moving blanket. I may build a |_| type channel to support the bonded surface between the hull upper and lower so it doesn't just rest on my garage floor. then figure some way to hold it in place while I fill/ patch these areas.

Then, assuming I need a rebuild after this season, when the engine is out perform a full flip on some stands and re-gelcoat the whole bottom (hold your breath 96 purists) black ala 99 spx....

That is how I am feeling at the moment. Subject to change...

Opinions welcome!
 
or in the mean time keep an eye out for a clean 99 spx hull only. may be able to pick one up for $100.00
as for leaving engine in, not sure if the motor mounts can take the stress, maybe someone will chime in.
 
I really don't want to pull the engine until I have to for a rebuild. I think I am going to try and roll it over on its side on some old used tires and moving blanket. I may build a |_| type channel to support the bonded surface between the hull upper and lower so it doesn't just rest on my garage floor. then figure some way to hold it in place while I fill/ patch these areas.

Then, assuming I need a rebuild after this season, when the engine is out perform a full flip on some stands and re-gelcoat the whole bottom (hold your breath 96 purists) black ala 99 spx....

That is how I am feeling at the moment. Subject to change...

Opinions welcome!



You can pull the engine in less than an hour, a few gaskets etc...... why wait, I wouldn't fully flip one with an engine in it and I'm sure other wouldn't either that's why no one is chiming in. Not to mention you need to drain the oil and the gas. If you're not willing to pull the mill then just wait until you do. As much as I hate to say it, start from the bottom up. I buffed the bottom of my 96 by leaning it on each side on a blanket--again it was empty and I couldn't imagine doing it loaded.

PULL THE TRIGGER

1.gif
 
You can pull the engine in less than an hour, a few gaskets etc...... why wait, I wouldn't fully flip one with an engine in it and I'm sure other wouldn't either that's why no one is chiming in. Not to mention you need to drain the oil and the gas. If you're not willing to pull the mill then just wait until you do. As much as I hate to say it, start from the bottom up. I buffed the bottom of my 96 by leaning it on each side on a blanket--again it was empty and I couldn't imagine doing it loaded.

PULL THE TRIGGER

1.gif

I just arranged a paint booth and equipment to re gelcoat the bottom of the hull.

The teardown will start tonight.

You guys are always a bad influence on me! ;)
 
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