JS550 Build: First Attempt

Makrinos001 · 01-03-2010, 03:45 AM

Well I have worked on 4x4's and imports, but I recently got ahold of a JS550 with one foot in the grave. Took a trip to San Diego to visit a buddy and grabbed this for $60. Wasnt running, missing a few parts, but I needed a new hobby. Well to make a story short, I pretty much took EVERYTHING apart and put it all back together. Most parts were sand blasted and powder coated because I like a nice clean engine bay. New paint was layed and lots of upgrades were added. Heres a little timeline of pictures of the process.

Driving it home in the Jeep. Fit fairly well, except that my fiance was riding in the back!

I was working in Las Vegas for 8 months and this is where I had to work on it! So little room.

Getting to work

Decided to go with a partial flat deck. Will be adding foot straps on both sides so I can switch up stance when I want

Time for glass work. Decided to fill gas filler hole, top side exhaust, and opt for rear exhaust.

Some parts sand blasted. Ended up not using the stock head and getting an AM head

Just a couple of the parts I powder coated.

Motor almost finished. Will top it off with westcoast exhaust and 44sbn

First coat of paint

Now its starting to take shape! Time for some reassembly!

Oh so glossy

All thats left it to reassemble the motor and all the little parts here. Shouldnt be too much time before its done, but I still have to get grips, lanyard, and a bilge setup. Theres already a hole on the left side for the stock bilge, but it was removed (accidently drilled it) for an aftermarket one. Do you guys run an inline fuse for the bilge?

Well more pictures will be posted soon, seeing that I have a lot of turf work to do. Anyone wanna come help me turf? Ill buy you a case of beer!

attnondeck · 01-03-2010, 11:05 AM

what paint did you use? both engine compartment and outside? im guessing you used a spray gun? im doing the same thing right now. thanks looks great!

Makrinos001 · 01-03-2010, 12:19 PM

Inside the engine compartment is black appliance epoxy. The outside of the hull is acrylic enamel auto paint. Iive actually never used it before. I usually use the standard base coat clear coat, but the prices of acrylic enamel are much less then bc/cc. I'll tell you what, I always liked putting down a base coat and it being all dull, then spraying the clear coat on and watching the color pop! But this acrylic enamel is very simple.

Edit: For some reason the motor picture didnt work out

attnondeck · 01-03-2010, 12:22 PM

cool.thats alot nice color choices!

rock_smasher · 01-03-2010, 02:29 PM

Nice job! amazing what a little paint and cleaning will do, isnt it? I really like how the black and green work together

MCrider · 01-03-2010, 03:19 PM

wow iv never really cared for the 550s but yours is sweet i like it keep up the good work

burlmays9 · 01-03-2010, 04:59 PM

Nice job man!

you should put foot straps where you cut off your rails and then one strap towards the front of the tray

seadoobutch787 · 01-04-2010, 01:53 PM

Gotta love those kerosene heaters in the winter!!! Nice build..

Makrinos001 · 01-04-2010, 05:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by seadoobutch787

Gotta love those kerosene heaters in the winter!!! Nice build..

Haha man my garage is actually really big. Two car with 12' ceilings. Those 140,000 BTU heaters will make my garage 85 degrees in a matter of 5 minutes. No slowing down in the winter for me!

soonerkid · 01-04-2010, 06:04 PM

Is that the "pink" a/m head I sent you??? Looks much better in kawi green

. How bout the westcoast F/A? Any polish or color on it?
Looking good man.