sean.deangelis
New Member
Not sure how this gets moved to the Resto thread but:
Hello! Well it's probably not the ideal first PWC project or first PWC owned for that matter but here I am. I needed a winter project and the price was right. Picked up this 2003 XpDi off craigslist with a blown engine. The previous owner had already disassembled the top end (and everything in his way) and decided to sell it. The rear con rod bearing is cashed-out so I'm planning on installing a reman engine from SBT. I'm not going to go crazy and snap pics every step of the way but I'll post a brief overview here for entertainment.
The ski was covered but living outside for the last year. The fiberglass is in good shape on top but the paint (gelcoat?) was faded pretty bad. The bottom has lots of evidence of being beached.....and not on sand, but nothing structurally wrong just deep scratches.
Here is the ski (had to edit out the previous owner):
Now, I had to talk the wife into taking up half the garage with this thing for the whole winter. So before she could see how ugly it was I got busy with the variable speed buffer and my favorite 3M product. I wish I had taken some more "before" pics but like I said, had to make it pretty before the wife got an eyeful.
If you ever need to bring back some ugly paint or gelcoat (NOT SEAN ENDORSED FOR NON FIBERGLASS APPLICATIONS!) this stuff is great:
This is after 2 passes with the 3M compound and then 2 coats Mothers liquid wax:
My little helper in the background
Fast forward a week to this evening and I had removed (and labeled) all the remaining lines, harnesses and cables and suspended everything out of the way. I took loose the rear engine mount bolts and then the forward engine mount bolt. The forward mount was stuck to the engine so I ended up removing the 2 lower bolts and bringing the mount out with the engine. I was too lazy to bring an engine hoist home from work so I had to lift this out of the ski with a little help from the wife (followed by 2 ibuprofen).
The paperweight:
Some notes moving forward and a question:
1 - I have no idea why the conrod bearing dropped. Ski has 160 hours on it so it could have just expired from wear. However I'll be checking everything in the lube system to ensure it wasn't caused by a failure there.
2 - CanDoo is being purchased in the coming days.
3 - All oil and air lines are getting replaced.
4 - I have the Sea Doo shop manual for this ski. It's pretty good but covers several models so there are a few sections that are a bit vague. Is there a better shop manual than this one?:
Thanks for viewing. I'll post updates as I pick through this thing over the winter.
Hello! Well it's probably not the ideal first PWC project or first PWC owned for that matter but here I am. I needed a winter project and the price was right. Picked up this 2003 XpDi off craigslist with a blown engine. The previous owner had already disassembled the top end (and everything in his way) and decided to sell it. The rear con rod bearing is cashed-out so I'm planning on installing a reman engine from SBT. I'm not going to go crazy and snap pics every step of the way but I'll post a brief overview here for entertainment.
The ski was covered but living outside for the last year. The fiberglass is in good shape on top but the paint (gelcoat?) was faded pretty bad. The bottom has lots of evidence of being beached.....and not on sand, but nothing structurally wrong just deep scratches.
Here is the ski (had to edit out the previous owner):
Now, I had to talk the wife into taking up half the garage with this thing for the whole winter. So before she could see how ugly it was I got busy with the variable speed buffer and my favorite 3M product. I wish I had taken some more "before" pics but like I said, had to make it pretty before the wife got an eyeful.
If you ever need to bring back some ugly paint or gelcoat (NOT SEAN ENDORSED FOR NON FIBERGLASS APPLICATIONS!) this stuff is great:
This is after 2 passes with the 3M compound and then 2 coats Mothers liquid wax:
My little helper in the background
Fast forward a week to this evening and I had removed (and labeled) all the remaining lines, harnesses and cables and suspended everything out of the way. I took loose the rear engine mount bolts and then the forward engine mount bolt. The forward mount was stuck to the engine so I ended up removing the 2 lower bolts and bringing the mount out with the engine. I was too lazy to bring an engine hoist home from work so I had to lift this out of the ski with a little help from the wife (followed by 2 ibuprofen).
The paperweight:
Some notes moving forward and a question:
1 - I have no idea why the conrod bearing dropped. Ski has 160 hours on it so it could have just expired from wear. However I'll be checking everything in the lube system to ensure it wasn't caused by a failure there.
2 - CanDoo is being purchased in the coming days.
3 - All oil and air lines are getting replaced.
4 - I have the Sea Doo shop manual for this ski. It's pretty good but covers several models so there are a few sections that are a bit vague. Is there a better shop manual than this one?:
Thanks for viewing. I'll post updates as I pick through this thing over the winter.
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