All Activity
This stream auto-updates
- Yesterday
- Last week
- Earlier
-
Glide Bearings Dripless Shaft Seal
rhino89523 commented on Hyperryd's project in Engine, Transmission & Performance Projects
I'm not all the way back together yet on mine because I got side tracked getting ready for a family vacation and only had a few hours with the boat before leaving. Anyway the tear apart went pretty good and a socket worked well with some longer bolts to separate the shaft on my style V drive. The strut bushings came out pretty quick and easy, long blade on the sawzall upside down into the support. Hold the sawzall real flat and you can see when you get close, few taps and she popped right out, the rear one or towards the front of the boat was a little tougher but with the long blade it went pretty quick. I had them both out in about 10 minutes. It took me longer to put them in, even with freezing them for a few days it still took some persuasion to get them installed. -
Glide Bearings Dripless Shaft Seal
Hyperryd commented on Hyperryd's project in Engine, Transmission & Performance Projects
Good luck man. It's not too bad. Toughest parts were breaking the shaft free from the coupler and getting the old strut bearings out. Other than those it was a piece of cake. Should be nothing compared to a V-drive swap! -
Glide Bearings Dripless Shaft Seal
TimbrSS commented on Hyperryd's project in Engine, Transmission & Performance Projects
Great write up, Thanks for posting. My non SC unit showed up yesterday. I think I'll do the strut seals while I'm at it.. Hopefully next week, along with my v-drive install. -
TimbrSS changed their profile photo
-
Haha
-
Great job as usual Rugger! If the rest of your boat get equal attention that the ass does, it's going to be better than a new boat for sure!!
-
Real simple project here but maybe someone else will benefit from seeing it. I had some scratches on the back of my transom, which I inherited from buying a used boat. The plan was to wet sand and polish the scratches, and then cover it with a transom saver to protect it going forward. We still use the boat for wake boarding, which seems to be the biggest culprit for transom scratches. Here's the scratches prior to the fix. Rather than tying on a branded transom saver with a big logo, I chose to go for a sleeper look -- where you really can't tell there's a transom saver at all. I used a sample of EVA foam flooring, which cost $40 plus shipping. I used the Marine Deck Factory material that many on Wake Garage have used for floors. I went with plain black grain texture, lined up horizontally. Cutting it was as simple as using a razor blade. I ended up using blue masking tape as a visual line to cut with... so that I didn't draw on the actual material. Final picture with the EVA foam... you hardly even notice its there.... which was what I was after. Provides nice soft protection against the transom. I may also add a narrow strip across the back rail of the surf gate swim deck I added for the surf gate project. Totally simple. About a 10 minute job. Works for me.
-
Refinished / Updated Dash, Glove box and Switch Bezels
Rugger commented on Rugger's project in Interior Updates & Refinish Projects
Thanks @Hein, and good idea on black screws. Would look nice. -
Refinished / Updated Dash, Glove box and Switch Bezels
Hein commented on Rugger's project in Interior Updates & Refinish Projects
Great work, write up and awesome outcome. May I suggest black screws on the switch bezels -
Yes, it sits just about flush. Maybe 1/4" below the top of the pad.
-
New Ultralon Floor for 2003 VLX
henrik commented on jfthunder's project in Interior Updates & Refinish Projects
Nicely done. A++ work. -
I've seen boats that use 2 Nauticurls on them. Said they got a better wave than using just one but I haven't tried it personally. They were not line up with each other either, but offset.
-
Yeah I guess the overall height isn't what I'm concerned with, but whether the top should be out of the water when the boat is loaded. I have a Nauticurl now, and because of the lines of the boat the whole thing is underwater, even when unloaded.
-
@Shoebox most here think it does make a difference with a taller gate (delays more water), especially as you sink the boat w/ballast. However I would not worry too much about it because there are so many variables to a surf Wake that at one point in my testing gate height the results seemed negligible. In other words it doesn't suddenly start working at a given height. Taller gates spray more too, but so what. Another option if you want them flush is to raise your swim platform. I lifted mine 3" which gave me 14" tall gates that were flush. Although the newer modern boats typically have a higher mounted platform already. Mine was ten years old
-
Thanks, just didn't know how tall they needed to be, unloaded they look like they're only a couple inches into the water. Do you have a pic of them while you're running loaded? I didn't say it earlier, but they do look awesome. I'm thinking of doing something similar or maybe wake plates on my 2014 Mondo.
-
If I was going for purely cosmetics, sure. I'm a believer that once water starts running over the top of the slapper you have reached the point of diminishing returns. If you are adding a lot of ballast you are sinking the ass end and lowering the slapper in the water. To me it's a simple decision of function over form. You don't add slappers for style points, although you can do extra things to make them look nice. I wanted mine to look stock and gave them a pretty good shape. They will never be accused of looking better than @Rugger stealth gates, but then none will.
-
Could you have made them less tall - in line with the swim step?
-
Our boat came with 4 hard tanks and I added 2 more on top of the rear stock tanks. We ran that for a couple years but realized we needed bags to get the weight needed. Below. rear tanks. there is another one underneath plus two more under the seats. The bags. Rear ones are notched to fit over the side swipe exhaust plumbing. I boxed in the exhaust plumbing and valves with panels made out of Celtec expanded PVC. Made some templates out of cardboard and then cut the pieces. This allows the bags to be bigger and sit further back. The fore/aft bulk head on the right has the aluminum channel that the new side panels will slide into. I also made bulkheads to constrain the inside of the bags under the seats. My daughter made the templates and then I digitized and CNC'd the Celtec parts. They were basically the same on both sides so that saved some time making them. The rear edge on the left will get the forward channel for the engine side panels. Starboard bags installed and new engine side panel. CNC'd these too. Corrugated hose is for bilge fan. Hoses to tanks are for venting. Fill and drain ports are on the bottom towards the back. Hopefully a forum update is coming so my photos can show up inline. Until then here is a video of our wave after the bags.
-
After looking at a number of options and trying to come up with solutions, I decided to dive in and do my own marine decking. Those of us with older boats that have non gel coated floors are at a disadvantage, until now! I started with the painful process of pulling up the old carpet. There is a bunch of write ups out there on this so I will spare you the details but will say getting he first part up is the hardest and acetone works well to strip the old glue. Specific questions, just ask. After stripping the glue, I made a series of templates based on the sheet sizes of the Ultralon to limit seams or hide them in areas already covered. There are seams where the fiberglass overlaps so I decided to use a fairing putty to smooth them out. After the fairing was done and the dust cleared, I laid down to coats of epoxy to eliminate fabric print and to give a clean surface to bond to. Finally it was time to lay the floor! I scuffed the epoxy with 120 grit to knock out any dirt and imperfections that might cause delamination. I double checked the fit and and laid the first piece. I continued on, double checking and fitting pieces... So there it is, a quick update on my flooring project. There are a number of foam flooring suppliers like SeaDek and Gator Step but I chose Ultralon for the durability, higher HDT and the color retention. Anyway, I will explain all of this when I finish the project and complete the post. I am happy to answer any questions before that time as well. I used an epoxy from Axson and added a pigment to it. The product was fairly viscous and self leveled well. The first coat was brushed on with a 4" brush (faster than you might think) and the second was done with a roller. The foam can hide a lot but not like carpet does. Smoothing the transitions keeps the ridges from showing and more importantly, make sure you have full contact for the adhesive. The carpet would not be accurate enough for the flooring so I used a heavy flooring paper and masking tape. Since it was a one off I was not too concerned about it. I was able to keep them intact after cutting my pieces surprisingly. The epoxy and fairing material were both Axson products. The fairing putty could be a basic polyester type material (bondo) as well if you wanted to save money. Almost there! Finished cutting the center floor locker last night. Only thing remaining is the pullout. From a pricing standpoint I am not sure how it compares. I do know that it is much more durable and has a high HDT so it shouldn't be moving around and pulling back like I have heard with SeaDek and the like. If you are interested send me a message and I can help. I am getting closer to finishing this project and came across some things that might help others along the way as it pertains to how you can deal with the center pull out. I am rebuilding my center floor because the aluminum honeycomb that was there has been dented, dinged and has delaminated over time. That said, I know many center floors are just fine which will have most wanting to reuse them. What you will find once you remove the carpet is that the center floor is much smaller than the opening and this is to compensate for the carpet which wrapped around both sides. There are many ways to finish out the edge of the Ultralon but one thing you cannot do is simply allow the material to overhang and fill this gap. If you did there would be nothing underneath it and likely the product would move around, creating an uneven edge. So, even though I am replacing my center floor and it will go all the way to each edge I decided to play around to see if I could come up with some solutions for those that want to do this and also want to retain their existing center floor. First I came up with the idea of cutting a V groove on the backside to allow the material to wrap over the 90° outside corner with a much tighter radius. The picture below is something I did with a razor blade just for sake of trial. This creates a much cleaner and tighter angle compared to wrapping the 6mm material over. This also releases the tension on both surfaces. If this were cut with a clean router edge it would match up to itself quite nicely. It also turns out, in my case, that wrapping both sides filled the gap just about perfectly. The corners of the main deck panels are not 90° and are cut with a slight radius, again, to compensate for the carpet. I opted to cut my new center floor and the main deck at a 90° angle because the two radiuses were not the same. It is amazing what you can hide with carpet. I bring this up because I am not exactly sure how you would accommodate that radius with this method. I suspect it would take some creative cutting and fitting to make it work well. One benefit of overlapping both edges is it will create a nice tight fit and therefore you would not just be relying on the adhesive to maintain fit and finish. This should be helpful considering the amount of cutting a material manipulation that would likely be required for the radiuses. What I will be doing on my floor is putting just a slight bevel on the main deck and the center floor with a 45° router bit. The results are pictured below. Since my center panel will go all the way to the edge it will be completely supported therefore I do not need to roll the material over the edge. This will also allow it to fit nicely into the forward corners which I have cut to 90° angles. Another thing that I found when I was aligning seams together while laying the floor is that this material does and amazing job hiding seams. This got me to thinking about leaving a slight overhang, perhaps 1/32 of an inch, and creating a very tight fit for the center floor. The idea would be to have a seam that is nearly invisible like the picture below. I decided against this because maintaining that perfect edge in an area that will see high traffic could be difficult. I think it would end up looking like you were trying to hide the seam which, of course, would be the idea but if someone can tell that you are trying to hide the same what is the point? Anyway, I hope this gives you some ideas and sparks some conversations when you get ready to do your own. I was able to get the center floor rebuild finished and I put down the Ultralon. it is not done as I still need to fit and align the outer seams and get it screwed down but this was the last obstacle to completing the project. I changed course on the swim step. I was going to do it with the standard brushed grey to match the bow steps and gunwale pads I made but decided to match it up to interior floor. Just a quick update. I am planning to finish this up in the next few days so stay tuned! I made templates using the original step pad and used a 45 degree router bit to cut the edges. Some choose to use a quarter round or similar bit. I have a variable speed router and used a lower speed and made a moderate speed pass. Feel free to ask any other questions you might have. The final issue I faced was the walk through locker door. Having been wrapped with carpet, the panel was undercut and off center. My solution was to use a 1/2" piece of starboard. The factory aluminum honeycomb was 3/8" but with the 6mm Ultralon on the 1/2" starboard, everything lined up perfect! The factory hinge (pictured below) was too short with the 1/8" higher starboard and the decking was getting pinched when the door would open. I bought a 1 1/2" stainless hinge (pictures below and 3/4" when closed) which resolved the issue and lined up flush with the door. Final step was to cut a 1 3/4" hole for the door pull and the final result of this project is below. All I need now is a thorough cleaning and to wrap up a few small details... I have one seam in the main area and it is center between the fuel tank cutout and the forward locker. The center floor was cut from a single piece. That's all I needed! I suggest investing in a nice metal straight edge and cutting directly along one of the black lines (if you use the laminated plank) and cut at an ever so slight angle toward the straight edge. Then when you place the panels together you can use about a 1/16 or 1/32 overlap and the seam virtually disappears without causing a ridge. So there it is! I hope this helps and if you have any questions or need more details, don't hesitate to ask.
-
I didn't know I wanted this until I saw it, pretty cool. I use ours to hold life jackets that are not in use. We usually have at least 2 to 3 slung around it but this is so cool.
-
Man that turned out so nice. Your upholstery guy did nice work. Great job!!! Dig the dash rewrap.
-
I like that. Seems simple enough! Does it sit flush when retracted?
-
LOOKS RAD.
-
Awesome job
-
Thanks for sharing this project. All I can say is wow! Looks awesome and I love the attention to detail. I think most on this site have boats ten years or older and your post proves the concept, make your current boat better. Looks brand new. Really like the carbon fiber look with French stitching. Nice to see other flooring alternatives as well. I'm gonna get a sample of that stuff to check out.
-
I just found out about this website and I saw the post from Blytle473 about a new interior project on a 2004 23 LSV. Loved how his turned out. I was in the same boat, both literally and figuratively. I have a 2004 Wakesetter LSV that needed some interior work. The project started off with re-wrapping the dashboard parts due to vinyl extremely sun damaged. That 1st step turned into a complete overhaul of the interior. Since we love the boat and are not in a position to purchase a new one, we opted to spend the cash. Fortunate to have a friend with a heated warehouse, I decided to tear out the interior this winter. A little scary step when you are not sure who or how is going to be able to do the trim work. I located a trim shop in Lake Orion, Mi., Rod's Canvas, who was able to fit my project into his schedule. I was extremely satisfied with the work, to say the least. Dash Before: Tear out (Extremely moldy): New Dash (Change in design direction with carbon fiber and blue French stitching): Floor Repair. We decided to replace the carpet with the Infinity Woven flooring. It seemed to be the best option for quality, cost, and keeping the moisture out of the boat. Especially with all of the water that is pumped into the boat for surfing. We also decided that it was not important to have easy access to the fuel tank, so we shimmed the space with a cedar shim and laid a single layer of fiberglass between to floor and removable floor (In the event we need get to the tank, we have a plan for that. A seam in the new floor covering under the seats, allowing us to roll the material back up once the seat bases are removed. 20 minutes with a vibrating tool, and the fiberglass can be cut and the removable floor is free). Probably easier said than done. I also have extra material in case I decide to revert to the original execution as Blytle473 did. Interior - Before + a sad attempt to use paintbrush to pick interior design: Not shown in, but the cushion material was sun damaged and torn in some places, especially the cushion that everyone steps on. Final Result: Really happy with the results. The color selection was based on the newer Wakesetters. Also, the addition of stainless steel cupholders and blue LED interior lights really made the interior POP at night. I do have to re-wrap the trap door to the ballast pump since I wrapped the flooring material 90% it in the wrong direction (not too noticeable in person, but really shows up in the pictures). The other option I am toying with is to make the trap door out of teak. I will also say that I am happy with the flooring material. it feels good, dries easily, and looks fresh.
