Moved: Jetflite Resto

I moved all my resto blogs and more to a general Adventure Garage blog site here

The Jetflite should resume this fall after some customer boats and paying gigs.

Over and Out.

Yikes. Coming back

I hate to leave a project like this for so long, but the interest in Adventure Motorcycling took over.  I have Short Attention Span Disorder.  But this is a nice boat and I will prevail!  I should be getting back to it as spring projects clear out.  The bike is almost done:

Missing panels and some electrical

See you soon!

Compartment floor complete

Repainted the interior white, looks more boatier

Some scuba weights on for pressure, lights to kick off resin.
Foam will be added to the wood.

Now I can flip the deck back over.  It's been rain, rain, and more rain (or humidity).  I spent more time dumping the water out of the deck each day than working.  Finally its beginning to break.  Once I flip it, I can get to sanding down the fixes to get ready for paint and fixtures (whatever I decide to do first).  You can see with the humidity I needed to add some heat to the curing process.  Lots of work to accomplish little in this new climate we're all dealing with.  I guess better than being flooded out.

Compartment floor panel

It's been a tough spring here with record rain, lake levels and the usual maintenance.  Last eve I got back to the Jetflight and cut out the new flooring for the behind-seat compartment.  I used a big piece of cardboard to get the exact shape, the jigsawed it out of thin ply.  (look at this shape!)  The ply is now coated with resin and will be placed in with the nice wood grain up.  Good to have this solid again and with the shape more accurate, it looks less hack- even tho the cutout looks hack

I'm a little backed up on posts but working

I have a couple days into the deck that I haven't posted.  I remember saying this project was going to be easier than the GT-150, and in some ways it is, but the patching and sanding with nooks and all the damage makes this part harder for sure.  It's getting there but I have a lot of sanding and final filling to do on the top deck.

Lately I've finished up the strengthing of the backside of the top deck with glass around the corners, places that cracked and deep fixes.  Probably another 2x 14 oz pots of resin and a smaller one on Sat.

I started the re-fabricating the steering column from the back.

Re-enforced the deck edge where many screw holes caught the edge:

Painted the inside of the compartments while I have access.

Soon I'll be able to flip back over and sand the patches, fill, sand.

I have a ton of other work to do before summer, so did a lot of that as well.  Don't get too many toys, cause it hits you hard when maintenance time comes.  Here is a partial list of whats been done this past week:

H17 Mast patches, misc fixes
Boston Whaler Yamaha lower unit oil change, engine oil change (battery is on way out- $$)
GT-150 windshield work
Oar fix
Hobie 18 set up for season

Deck work

(Backside work again) This evening, I backed 34 areas requiring glass.  Many were just a single mat layer (just something for the frontside filling/patch to stick to). Timing on the cooking was perfect, musta been the weather being slightly humid and about 65 degrees using normal mekp mix.  Two medium pots (14 oz each) plus one small one for the remainder worked perfectly.  Everything laid down well, with the only bubble on the cap edge where I folded a thick sheet of 1708 Biax over the edge.  I have a couple more holes to glass, plus the bubble fix then the corner re-enforcement areas for this side of the top deck.  Then flip and back over to the front.

Some bigger ones:

8-Track patch

Deck lid edge patch (lighter color, right)

Speedo, etc patch

Deck work

Flipped the deck to get the underside.  Used the grinder to prep the backing for many of the big hole repairs, where I'm going to add backer wood (cleats, etc), and new glass.  Then I removed the foam under he seat-back/storage compartments.  The wood was rotten enough to remove that as well.  I'm not looking for work, but I hate restoring things with sub-par wood buried in there.  I'd always know it was there.

Partial foam removed

Some patches/fills (there are a lot)

Removing the wood (floor of the compartment)