Northrivergeek's Hyda-Sport VS150 restore The top is back ON!!!

[northrivergeek]

Hey Guys and Gals .. this project is finally starting to resemble a boat again!!!

I finished all the glass work today .. and now the top is back on!!! .. Im just taking a break ... I still have to glass the splash well to the transom, but holy smokes .. its back together here is the pics from today

Im shaking Im sooooo happppyyyyyy BOO YAAAAHHHHHHHHH

[Ol JohnnyBoy]

UUUHHHOHHHH!!!! Looking good. Time to bring it on home now NRG. Good work.

[ProcraftMike]

It's looking great... I bet you can't wait to finish her up!!

[northrivergeek]

Ohh I have tons still to do .. this was just the most weather dependent part .. the rest doesn't matter if cold or warm .. cleaning, sanding, buffing, engine work, and all the other goodies , I have friend with a body shop to paint the top cap in .. just couldn't tie up is shop to do the glass work.

[northrivergeek]

Ok Guys and Gals .. small update on the progress .. Weather stopped all progress on the boat until the last couple days, Rain, Rain, Rain, and more Rain, then COLD COLD and coldest, more rain, that and 1st week of Jan I got laid off .. Ive spent most of my time last 3 weeks lookin for work, and have been lucky enough to have a few interviews, 2 of them may be a yes early this week.

Any way on to the boat ..

I haven't done anything to the boat since I finished up the wood work , floors etc .. I let the top back down on the boat, and covered it up there it has sat for about a month, we had a warm spell this week, was 55 Thursday, and has been in high 40s to low 50s since then and sunny.
So I got back to work on her .. I ran all new drain lines, installed new livewell pump and bilge pump, replaced the freshwater pump, was a 500 GPH now its a 1100gph and added a new bigger spray head and 1 1/8" hose for the bigger pump.
Finished up some odds and ends that hadn't done yet .. remounted the circuit breaker for the trolling motor , removed some wires that went no where, removed an old transducer that apparently had died and wires cut, new one added they left the old one epoxied in the hull.
Put wire wraps mesh wraps on all the loose wires that run thru the battery / gas tank compartment , so now no more wires running all over in a birds nest.
Did some dry fitting so when I get a 60+ day, I can finish glassing the splash well to transom and the cap that covers the top of the transom, and glassing top down to the floor in the (edit) pit area.

All I have left is tidy up some more wires, and a few other small things then wait for a warm day .. shouldn't be much longer its almost February usually get a good bit of warm weather in Feb. Bass here generally start staging late Feb into early March here as the water warms back into the 50s .. its in the low to mid 40s last few days.

Then after the glass work is finally wrapped up and I finish screwing the top back to the bottom and reinstall rub rail, and rub rail rubber. The motor will be next to get overhauled , new Thermostats, new Impeller, water passages cleaned and checked for debris, new plugs, carbs cleaned, then fire it up , then mount on jack plate and do some test runs on the lake, then the paint work will start after boat in good running order.

Here is pics from today
my 6 yr old took the one of me standing in the boat!

[mefforda]

looking great,

[northrivergeek]

Another update, and another milestone in this project

The top is officially glassed in and screwed down, all I have left to do is wait for one more warm day , today was 63 and sunny so I glassed in the splash well its curing now, also removed the foam rubber on the dash it was cracked, I liked the look of it but it wouldn't hold up for the long haul anyway.

Removed the gauges and switch panels , scrapped off remaining carpet.

I still need to glass over the transom cap, and glass down the top cap where meets floor, didn't have enough resin to do it all today, will need to get one final gallon to finish.
Sorry for fuzzy pics I think my camera about to die

[Ol JohnnyBoy]

looking good.

[northrivergeek]

Well the transom is completely done now all glassed in , top glassed to floor, and also fixed a crack on front deck I found about 6 inches long , under the last piece of carpet I removed from the front deck.
Also found several other cracks I fixed where previous owner slammed into dock or trailer
I also hooked up a 6 gallon gas tank to the motor, and fired it up .. cranked right up Varoom Varoom
.. then bogged down and died , it cranked right back up , same thing .. carbs need cleaned, though I'm not surprised.

And also had water out of the tell tail hole .. good sign

Thats it for today!

[BASSCAT7]

Nice glass work on the hull.

You going to finish the outside in Gel or paint ?

[northrivergeek]

Would rather do gelcoat .. but by the time I buy the gel coat gun etc ...
I could just , remove waxes, sand and epoxy prime, urethane paint and urethane clear. I already have the cap color candy apple red with small flake, freebie, just need to buy primer and clear.

If the top gel coat was in better shape and the patch work done as well as last owner had not clear coated with a brush , Id try to wet sand and buff the top out ... but with all the cap repairs.. at this point...

I'm just gonna use some poly fair on the repair areas, and remove all to take off old clear poly coat, sand and block, epoxy prime , paint and clear.

If it last 5 years before needing new clear I'm good with that.

[BASSCAT7]

If prepped right you should get 5 years..........Almost every problem with Auto clear on gelcoat goes back to the prep work, most are not primered/sanded and the clear ends up discoloring and peeling in a year or so....
Get some pics of the primer work when you shoot it...

[northrivergeek]

Did some more work today , thought previous owner had put on clear coat too thick in passengers side rear corner and half up the side. ... but nooo as it urns out that area has been repaired at some time.
Gel coat is what is was really thick and not done right at all, cracked and chipping.

I dont know if the person or shop who did the repair got it too hot ( too much harder ) or didnt clean under it properly and sand properly or what ? I put some remove-all on that area .. and remove-all bucket looked at me and laughed
So I whipped out the out grinder and D.A. and went to town on it .. there was body putty under parts of the area, and while sanding got back done to original gel coat and flake, so apparently was a repair of some sort.. just really crappy work.

But now the crazing, stress cracks , and chips are now gone.. had to go down to glass on alot of the area to get rid of the mess, gonna have to get some poly fill, to fill pin holes, before priming.

But some one did still ut on some kind of clear coat on part of it you can see brush strokes up front around casting deck , and its flaking off like dead skin

Its gonna take more sanding than I anticipated before ready for primer now

Oh well its gonna be slick when done!

[MonarkMcFaster]

Any updates?

[northrivergeek]

Nope not yet .. waiting on weather to warm back up .. end of week supposed to be warmer

[Alan S]

Great job!!

Any luck finding a job?

[northrivergeek]

Nope no long on the Job .. not working for someone else any way .. Ive been thinking of doing boat repair and restores for money for a while .. and being out of work and not finding anything has pushed me to see if I can make a go of it .. there is almost no one doing it here .. only one dedicated shop that does repairs, he is high priced, and barely speaks English .. and has been known too clash with the locals at times lol to say the least..

Ive always had soo much compliments on my glass , carpets etc .. that people kept asking me to fix theirs .. so I decided to jump in and see ho it goes.. I put some flyers out and ad on craigslist .. etc .. That was last Thursday .. as of today 32 calls .. inquiring on price some are out of my ball park even though I said boats up to 22 ft .. Ive had several boats over 34 and a 48 foot House boat call .. Im just not set up to do boats in a slip, maybe someday but not yet.. I would have to have a boat yard , with winches etc .. I really just want to do BassBoats , center consoles, and fishing type boats

If things keep up at this pace Im gonna have to get a bigger place to work, Im already looking at a couple old body shops near me.

[Largemouthlou]

That sounds awesome!! Nice to like your job!!

[ragin_cajun92]

lookin good man