SRTie4k

No big turbo installs for me this winter, that was last winters fun . Instead, my dad wants to touch up on his painting skills (hasn't painted a car for 30 years), so I volunteered my jet ski. Here's how I bought it:



So far, I've peeled all of the decals off and removed the sticky residue. I also cleaned a good portion of the rest of the finish with a heavy duty crud remover.







Goo Gone Xtreme is a miracle worker! I bought 4 spray cans and haven't even used 1 yet, it works so well.

I've already decided on the colors. We're going with Eastwood paints (since we have all of their prep mixes), Malibu Sunset Metallic Orange+ as a primary, Tunnel Ram Metallic Gray for contrast.






Essentially I would like to emulate the colors on this 08 GSXR 1000, but with dark metallic gray instead of black.



I also have a few cosmetics to fix up, like the speed hole I put in the front while tuning the carb and the ugly patch job. That will get glassed over again, then sanded down, primered and painted along with the rest of the hull.



And I need to replace the hydro-turf which is peeling up in the back.



There are a few pieces here and there I'll need to do some glass work on, and I still need to get a fuel door cover.

Anyways should be a fun project, I'll be updating it periodically as I get time to work on it.

BlueBreadTruck

great! I cant wait to see the progress!

__________________
86' Kawasaki X-2 800cc
Sm pin 750 at 83mm, 40mm bored SXR carbs, FPP B pipe with Blaster chamber, Skat 14/19 Swirl
89' Kawasaki X-2 1100
ZXI 1100 triple, 96' carbs, OP f/a's, Skat 16/22 C-75 Swirl
95' Yamaha Waveblaster 1
Reliable stock backup ski

burlmays9

Man those colors look pretty damn good, cant wait to see it painted

__________________
Signature......?

johnny5

Wow I had No luck with the goo gone extreme plus it looked like it was taking of some paint... I had better luck with denatured alcohol maybe its just me...

__________________

92 Yamaha VXR 650 Ocean Pro head, Ocean Pro Vortex flame arester, Twist sponsons, DG Quadra Fin aluminum ride plate, DG performance intake grate, Riva red pipe exhaust, DG aluminum water box, Solas impeller, UMI steering.

Firm believer in "The Darwin Theory"
"I don't feel tardy..."
"Yamaha for life!"

SRTie4k

Hmm, the gel coat on mine is still in extremely good condition and is obviously very durable. Only time I started to chip it was when I had to use a razor blade to remove some of the older stickers and sticky residue.

SRTie4k

Update:

All the plastic bumper skirting, tray pads, chin pad, are off. Also removed the steering plate and removed the handlebars, shroud, starter switch housing and thumb throttle. The ski is essentially stripped of everything but hydro-turf and engine bay components.







Also ordered a set of 7 degree bars, a bilge pump kit (Atwood 500gph pump, 650SX bracket, exit port, hoses) and a Waterwitch automatic bilge switch. I'm still trying to find a finger throttle with cable adapter that doesn't cost $75.

SRTie4k

Update:

It's been a hectic 2 weeks of holidays, which means the jet ski was put on hold while waiting for parts, but I've slowly started to get what I need the past couple of days.

Maier nose cover - not the best fit, will need some work cutting and lining it up until it fits correctly.



Atwood 500gph bilge pump kit with bracket - think I found the best possible location for this without it interfering with the pump shaft.



7* bars and a Hot Products finger throttle - Had to work the bars in place to get them to fit, but they're done and feel 100x better than the stock V bars. And the finger throttle fits excellent and is much more comfortable than a thumb throttle!





And lastly, I stripped the Hydro Turf, padding and glue from the tray. It was a pain in the ***, but this Goo Gone Xtreme is seriously amazing stuff. It probably would have taken me 5x longer without it.



Now all I'm waiting for is a WaterWitch automatic water switch for the bilge kit and a set of ODI Rebel Grips with Lockjaw clamps. In the meantime, I'm going to continue cleaning the hull and prepping for the soon-to-come painting!

SRTie4k

Body is all patched up, just needs some sanding. The hood is still being worked on.





The new 7* handlebar setup with finger throttle and ODI rebel grips.



Glassed, bondo'ed and sanded the nose into its final shape.



The tray fully sanded.



Also drilled a hole for the bilge dump.

Brink70

looking good

__________________
go big or go home

77 js 440-sold
84 js 440/550 rebuilding
88 js 550 mod parts
88 js 550 custom

SRTie4k

It's been a slow project, mostly because I'm splitting my time between working random schedules and my girlfriend, so naturally the ski only gets attention during the small occasions I have free time.

But a lot has changed since the last time I updated the thread. And unfortunately I lost some of the pics of my time masking, but here's to making up for that

So I masked everything not being painted, which took about 3 weeks of on and off work. But I finished that 2 weeks ago, so what to do next?





All primed! We also cut and fitted the gas fill cover just prior to the primer:



I then sanded down and smoothed out the primer and cleaned up the dust...and it's now ready to paint! But the 2nd most important step of all was done Sunday night - choosing the paint!

It was a tough choice, but I triumphed. Ordered on Monday and received today, here is my reward:





Albeit a VERY expensive reward...I didn't think this little bit of paint would cost so much. Just to give you an idea, the paint cost me about half of what I paid for the whole jet ski itself . I guess that's what I get for ordering two C6 Corvette paint colors - Atomic Orange and Cyber Grey Metallic. Here are the colors, respectively:





Now all we have left to do is some quick glass work on a crack I didn't notice before...and then it's time to paint!

Soon now...