1987 Hydra-Sports VS-150 Bass boat restore project

[northrivergeek]

Hello all ... This is my 7th restore .. Ive been posting the progress on another forum Bass Boat Central , but I figured guys who are wanting restore a bass boat but never found BBC this would be a good place for them to see a restore from day one to completion ... This is still an on going project, weather has me about a month behind schedule, but warmer weather recently has helped much.

I bought this boat for $200 dollars with no motor, with the intention of restoring it.. but not just a restore .. a total custom rebuild, redesigning some of the boat as I go .. The boat was totally gone .. stringers, floors, transom, all wood rotted. gel coat had been clear coated over by a previous owner . it was cracking and peeling off the top cap, in general it was in sad shape.

Here are pictures from day one to present .. the wood work/glass work is close to being done prob 3 days of 50+ weather an that part will be finished .. then on to putting the top cap back on the hull and glassing the two halves back together. Then on to sanding, painting, etc etc

I have aprox $973 at the moment in the boat , motor, and materials
$200 for boat
$300 for boat motor 1987 Erude 90hp,
36lb thrust bow mount motorguide 1999 model = FREE

Fiberglass 20yrs 1.5 oz mat $53 shipped but they never charged my account for it, I called they said they did .. oh well so that was free, locally that mat would have cost $6 per yard for a total of $120

BIAXIAL fiberglass cloth 24 of woven cloth with 2 oz mat bonded to it (scrap pieces 6 lbs ) $12

Polyester Resin - so far 13 gallons at cost of $275, harder for resin 28 oz $20

2 sheets of 1/2 A/C exterior grade plywood $60, 1 sheet of 3/4" A/C exterior grade plywood $34

Flap Disks for grinding 6 at $4 each = $24

1 new 90 degree livewell pump Rule 750 gph $39 Ebay

1 new auto bilge pump Mayfair 500 gph - free

here link to pictures from day one, and a few I will post from the beginning steps the rest I will let you look through them there are lots of pics

http://s29.photobucket.com/albums/c296/northrivergeek/Hydrasport restore/

 

[oops!]

Re: 1987 Hydra-Sports VS-150 Bass boat restore project

hi N-R-G welcome to the dry dock.

thanks for posting......
if youve done 7 of thses puppies....yer a nut ball and thats good

we have a few bass boats being done here, but could allways use another.....and we really like looking at pictures

one thing......you said you had to "glass the cap back" on......

thats a standard shoe box joint on the hull/cap........flange joints are the only type of joint that needs to be glassed.

so my question is......why does a bass boat have to be glassed between the joint?.......the only benefit would be no chance for water intrusion.....but that can be handled by a quick dab of 3m around the joint.

thanks......cheers
oops

 

[northrivergeek]

Re: 1987 Hydra-Sports VS-150 Bass boat restore project

hi N-R-G welcome to the dry dock.

thanks for posting......
if youve done 7 of thses puppies....yer a nut ball and thats good

we have a few bass boats being done here, but could allways use another.....and we really like looking at pictures

one thing......you said you had to "glass the cap back" on......

thats a standard shoe box joint on the hull/cap........flange joints are the only type of joint that needs to be glassed.

so my question is......why does a bass boat have to be glassed between the joint?.......the only benefit would be no chance for water intrusion.....but that can be handled by a quick dab of 3m around the joint.

thanks......cheers
oops

Ahhh .. but wait
glass the cap .. but you have to glass / Glue the top down to the floor, and glass the transom to the splash well, and re glass the top cap that cover the transom , then screw/ silicone ( 3m 5200 ) the alum trim down to that and then stainless steel screw the cap down to the hull and yes silicone (3m 5200 ) between the pieces then also add some glass patches on the under side in the rear access area to help hold the back area together not completely necessary but that's the way manufacture had it ,, as did most

so yes you do have to glass the cap back on

 

[oops!]

Re: 1987 Hydra-Sports VS-150 Bass boat restore project

they must really be worried about the stresses on that one.....i havent seen one on a standard i/o and cant remember one on a ob.......

a good seal is really important hence the 3m 4200 between the cap hull joint......most water intrusions come in thru the cap joint.




got any more pixs?

 

[northrivergeek]

Re: 1987 Hydra-Sports VS-150 Bass boat restore project

Boat is back together .. I still have to glass the splash well to the transom, and screw and caulk the top to bottom. Then the fun begins again , cleaning, sanding, and repaint of the top cap, then buffing the hull, new carpet, new gauges, new steering wheel, led lights in the storage areas, new Aluminum hatch lids, strip and repaint the trailer, overhaul the engine, and repaint it.. all kinds of fun things yet to be done

 

[northrivergeek]

Re: 1987 Hydra-Sports VS-150 Bass boat restore project

Feb 8 2009

Well the transom is completely done now, 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.
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

Feb 9 2009
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 turns 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 don't know if the person or shop who did the repair got it too hot ( too much harder ) or didn't 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 a lot 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 put 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

Feb 13 2009
more detail on the bad repair area

Gel coat was a good 1/4 inch thick in places and crazed and chipping, and they used regular bondo ( why ?) to fill in pin holes, over the fiber glass cloth they used to repair, on back corner there where very deep spider cracks, in what I thought was glass.. 1/2 later of grinding I hit glass cloth .. the rest was resin! no wonder there were cracks back there! thick poly resin always cracks like that . that may have been made that way in mold at factory !?

Im so glad I was paying attention and decided to dig deeper in to that area .. would have been cracking all over again if I hadn't caught it , now fixing it right !


Feb 15 2009

I'm conflicted though now on what to do to the top cap !?!?! I was gonna just sand , fair, sand, fair, and sand, epoxy , primer , then urethane automotive paint, then 2k high solids clear coat, wet send, and shoot another clear.

BUT .. now that I have sooo much exposed bare glass .. I'm thing I really need to re gel coat the top instead of messing with paint at all, it will last much longer and take my abuse much better.. I just cant decide.. I really wana get this boat in water .. but at the same time I don't want to have to do it again anytime soon ..

Ive never done a whole top before with gel, but have done patch work, guess its the same principal have read a good bit on re-gel coating a boat, I know what to do .. but most of those examples were boat bottoms, not tops with all the angles, hatch holes ,and curves etc etc

I could try to blend in the patch areas and just wet sand and buff the old.
But its black with silver flake on top, Id really rather have it all white on top with no flake, just because white seems to hold up better over time, and easy to patch in future! or just back to black and flake since its already that way.

ANy help with this delema would be appreciated !

 

[80jeep]

Re: 1987 Hydra-Sports VS-150 Bass boat restore project

Thats a lot of work, but keep after it

 

[northrivergeek]

Re: 1987 Hydra-Sports VS-150 Bass boat restore project

Well Its been a while since I lasted posted any progress reports .. I havent had time work on the boat since about the first week of March .. but the last 2 weeks have been making up for lost time..

Top is painted , engine well lets just say Frankenstein lol .. the engine long story .. picture worth a thousand words lol

Here is the pics

I swapped the motor and foot over to new mid section, and replaced the water pump while in the process, and sanded the whole motor, and primed part of it .. more work to be done on motor later..

 

[northrivergeek]

Re: 1987 Hydra-Sports VS-150 Bass boat restore project

More pics

 

[Knotty1]

Re: 1987 Hydra-Sports VS-150 Bass boat restore project

Hey nice work! What type of paint did you go with (Deck)? Obviously you sprayed it... Sure makes things easy when you have all the right equipment and the space to work!

 

[northrivergeek]

Re: 1987 Hydra-Sports VS-150 Bass boat restore project

Hey nice work! What type of paint did you go with (Deck)? Obviously you sprayed it... Sure makes things easy when you have all the right equipment and the space to work!

PPG Urethane base/clear , and epoxy primer.
Yes it does make it easier.. by no means easy lol.. since those pics I have wet sanded the clear, and buffed looks better now than before..
I have to spray the transom area with white gel coat, to cover digs etc from rotted transom.. removed the pin stripe around the red z on the side ( so I can wet sand the sides) , re drilled all the holes for splash well and motor mount holes, and the floor drain hole.
I have a couple of fiber glass patches to slap in one under the console and a couple in the battery box area to tile the back wall into the floor area back there..

And make a storage box where there is a cooler / tackle box area now up front by the deck, still waiting for my seats to get recovered .. cant rush free .. but I hope he gets them done soon or I will be sitting on milk crates soon lol
And My rear deck lid and rod locker lids are being remade from aluminum , will save about 100 lbs in those two lids, then install carpet, trolling motor, my new faria gauges, depth finders and motor .. then I can go fishing again

 

[D.spencer]

Re: 1987 Hydra-Sports VS-150 Bass boat restore project

Great job- I thought I was slightly insane but 7 restores??? I would probally go crazy after the third or second one so I am close I guess

 

[northrivergeek]

Re: 1987 Hydra-Sports VS-150 Bass boat restore project

here are a couple pics of the console, with new gauges and steering wheel

 

[northrivergeek]

Re: 1987 Hydra-Sports VS-150 Bass boat restore project

Motor is done, and my son tries to drive off lol

 

[northrivergeek]

Re: 1987 Hydra-Sports VS-150 Bass boat restore project

Here is my new bow control panel I had made,and carpet is going in,motor is mounted

 

[northrivergeek]

Re: 1987 Hydra-Sports VS-150 Bass boat restore project

Hey all much progress since last post .. just a few more lil things.. wiring wise and will be ready to take to lake and do a test run

here is pics

 

[2ndcar]

Re: 1987 Hydra-Sports VS-150 Bass boat restore project

Awesome job. I'm just starting my first boat restoration on a Hydra Sports also. I will be referring to this throughout the process.

 

[northrivergeek]

Re: 1987 Hydra-Sports VS-150 Bass boat restore project

Here is the final well I say that ..but I keep adding stuff or changing stuff LOL .. I just traded a guy for a newly rebuilt and modified 84 GT150 .. he spent all that money then saw how fast it was he never went out again after hitting 78mph in it .. I know the guy who built it .. he is the one who set up the trade for my 90hp .. the guy actually traded his mod engine that he had over 2600 in for my 89 90 erude !! .. I put the engine on wed .. took it out this Sat morn .. I dont even have it set up 100% yet and not even full throttle hit 72 .. I can only guess what this boat will do with every thing tweaked.. here are some pics From Thursday after it rained

 

[2ndcar]

Re: 1987 Hydra-Sports VS-150 Bass boat restore project

Can you explain how you did the transom? I'm going to have to do it on mine also and I just want to make sure I'm doing it correctly. Thanks

 

[northrivergeek]

Re: 1987 Hydra-Sports VS-150 Bass boat restore project

too much to type all out .. its not an easy job.. but I can send you a PDF book on step by step via email.. of course there are always things that the book dosent cover.. every boat manufacturer is a lil different on how they make their transoms, stringers etc .

Also each year model varies from on to the next .. they try something if it works they kept it.. if not the following year or two it was changed.

And there are alot more options these days in transom, floor, and stringer materials than they had in the mid 80s.
Composite materials, and resins that were not an option back in the day .. of course Standard exterior grade a/b or a/c and polyester resin was the norm then.. and still the most cost effective, but if you plan on keeping the boat for 10 yrs or more.. then you can still use the plywood, but I would recommend using epoxy resin for the construction of the new transom, and all other wood knees, stringers etc .. epoxy is stronger and water proof.

Epoxy is not as cheap but you will have a better quality boat when done.