Jet Sled Rebuild

[scottphillips208]

Unfortunately, I didn't accomplish as much on Sunday as I'd hoped. Beyond cutting and installing new vinyl decals for both motors, I tackled the bottom portion of the new console. Ended up spending most of the day hanging out and shopping with the Mrs.

The old aluminum console is only about 12" by 12" square, and since I'm adding a second battery to the boat I wanted to get the weight of both batteries off the stern. So, I built and carpeted a box that'll go beneath the existing console (which I'll cut down tonight) to house both batteries. I'd never thought of this before, but I took some good advice from the forum to heart and rounded over the edges of the bottom half of the console before carpeting it.

As an added bonus by reusing the existing console I won't have to fart around with removing the steering wheel and mechanism. I'd tried to take it apart earlier, but stopped short of applying enough force to break it.

I'm getting closer to finishing this project, but still need to:

1. Cut down, paint and install the steering console
2. Paint and reinstall the aluminum seat boxes and seats
3. Figure out what I'm doing for a fuel tank
4. Rewire everthing and install misc. things like a bilge pump, switches, fuses, etc.
5. Paint the registration numbers on the hull
6. Dig out my fishing equipment and boat safety gear

Cheers,

Scott

 

[scottphillips208]

Yesterday I took the night off from boat building, and didn't accomplish much tonight either!

I did manage to get the old aluminum console cut down in preparation for mounting it to the carpeted "console base" that's been installed as far forward in the boat as possible. In total, the console and base will be about 46" from the floor to the top of the steering wheel - this should be at a comfortable height for me standing, and will ensure I have great visibility over the bow.

After cutting the console down with a decent blade (made for leaving clean cuts in plywood) in a jigsaw, I fabricated a wooden inner-base from some leftover 3/4" plywood that's screwed to the upper aluminum console and will be screwed and bolted to the lower console base. This inner-base should make the whole console very sturdy.

A little bit of JB Weld was applied to the swiss-cheese holes that perforated the old console. The previous owners must have really liked to put holes in this boat!

Finally, I mucked around with the aluminum gas tank that came with the boat, and think it is salvageable. As previously mentioned some Einstein had JB welded some pvc fittings to the tank to form a cap and fill spout; beneath this extraneous pvc pipe was a 1" nub of an aluminum fill spout. Someone should be beaten for cutting the original spout down and gluing on plastic. I managed to undo the pvc sins, and found that it shouldn't be too hard (or expensive) to have a proper aluminum spout welded back on the tank...the guys at Blake Trailer, a trailer repair shop and manufacturer here in our hometown of Star, Idaho, can fix anything!

The new gas cap/filling port which will be fitted into the gunnel of the boat arrived today from Amazon along with a bilge pump and bilge pump plumbing kit.

Most likely I won't be working on the boat for a few days as the Supreme Leader has instructed me to finish the master bathroom remodel I started a LONG time ago, or else she'll scuttle the RiverShark!

Cheers,

Scott

 

[scottphillips208]

Although much of the day was spent with our children and neighbors having an End of Summer/Back to School Party, I managed to make some pretty good progress on the RiverShark.

The repairs were completed on the various holes in the center console; the console was painted and installed; and the aluminum seat boxes were cleaned up, painted and installed.

If time allows tomorrow I'd like to get started on rewiring the boat, install the seats on the aluminum seat bases, carpet the access panel that goes on the front of the console, and maybe, just maybe, install sealed LED lights on the trailer. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and hope to be on the water soon!

The fuel tank situation still needs to be resolved...I keep vacillating between the options of having the fill spout on the 12 gallon aluminum tank extended and buying a portable plastic tank. The 55 Johnson probably isn't a motor to sip fuel, so the scales are tipping in favor of the the larger aluminum tank over a 6 gallon plastic tank from Walmart.

Cheers,

Scott

 

[scottphillips208]

Eureka, progress!

After getting caught up a bit on my "honey do" list I was able to devote a some time to the boat project. My last update was about successfully rejuvenating a faded steering wheel with Kyrlon Fusion spray paint. Over the weekend I managed to:

- Build an install a four-pole rod holder. It's made from some scrap 2" pvc pipe, wood, and a few squirts of black spray paint.
- Install the seats and swivels on the aluminum seat boxes
- Paint and install the motor's controls on the steering console. Previously, the controls were hung from a bracket on the rail above the gunnel. The bracket looked like heck, and their placement on the rail would be too low to use comfortably while standing at the new helm. So, I mounted them to the side of the console and used a few nuts as spacers to allow the controls to be mounted to the right side of the console.
- Extend the battery leads off the big motor. The wire I used came from an old set of jumper cables, but I had a really hard time soldering the connection between the old and new wires - my iron wouldn't get hot enough, and I was concerned about frying off too much insulation with a torch. My solution was to use some aluminum blocks with set screws that I picked up in the electrical section of Home Depot to join the wires. The set screws received a healthy dose of Lock Tight, and the connections were protected with a really heavy duty shrink tubing.
-Installed the new bilge pump with a thru-hull filling (well above the waterline) and got it wired up.
- Ran a ton of wiring and kept it neat and tidy with many zip ties.
- And, last, but not least, covered the trailer guides with some foam, and zip tied it in place.

This week I hope to finish the switch panel, pick up the aluminum fuel cell from the welder (he's going to weld a new and longer aluminum fill neck to the tank) and install it, and do a little more work on the electrical system.

Maybe, just maybe, I'll get this boat wrapped up before the warm weather slips away!

Cheers,

Scott

 

[acabtp]

lookin' good man, keep up the good work

 

[scottphillips208]

Has anyone every heard of a boat manufacturer named Custom Aluminum Boat Specialist, Inc. of Vancouver, WA? I was able to clean up the mangled Coast Guard capacity plackard from my boat, and deciphered this name stamped on the plate.

It looks like they were incorporated in 1997, and the business dissolved in 1999.

Thanks,

Scott

 

[Y_J]

scottphillips208 » September 4th, 2014, 5:07 pm[/url]"]
It looks like they were incorporated in 1997, and the business dissolved in 1999.

Thanks,

Scott

Now that's a short life for a company. Never heard of them myself though.

 

[fool4fish1226]

Very nice build =D>

 

[scottphillips208]

Made a little more progress last night by installing a 12 volt power plugin in the switch panel I fabricated from some scrap aluminum, and turned a $5 cutting board into a transom-saver.

If time permits, I'd like to wrap up the electrical work over the weekend. I'll also call the welder this afternoon to see if my fuel tank has been repaired.

Thanks for the comments and for following my build log!

Scott

 

[acabtp]

i know it's probably what you were trying to avoid, but you need to put some screws from the inside of the hull into that transom saver. 3m 5200 is not suitable for bonding polyethylene (HDPE's what that cutting board is made of). if you look at the specifications, they actually list the shear strength of a 5200 bond to polyethylene as ZERO.

see page 2 of https://multimedia.3m.com/mws/mediawebserver?mwsId=SSSSSuH8gc7nZxtU48_e5xmSevUqe17zHvTSevTSeSSSSSS--&fn=Fast%20Cure%205200_R1.pdf

sorry man, don't mean to be negative, but i am sure you'd rather not find out the hard way on the water by losing the transducer. i love 5200, this just isn't one of the things it's good at though. using the 5200 to seal between the transom saver and the board is a fine idea to keep water out from between the two and prevent corrosion, but you need some other mechanical fastener to secure the saver to the hull.

 

[scottphillips208]

Thanks for the advice, acabtp. I'll sing a couple of screws into the HDPE from inside the hull as you recommended.

Scott