Ride_Klein
Well-known member
New guy here with another jet ski powered aluminum boat build. It is something I've always wanted to build, and ironically I stumbled on this site after I'd purchased a 1964 Texas Maid and 1996 Seadoo XP 800. That was the easy part.
I've accumulated these parts over the last couple months. So the pictures will be plentiful here in the beginning. I've done a fair amount of work on fiberglass boats, but this is my first major project with an aluminum boat and a jet ski. I'm sure I'll have plenty of questions for you as I move along.
Here she is. 1964 Texas Maid
15 feet long and in pretty good condition. Trailer doesn't fit, but the trailer the boat sat on before I bought her was falling apart under her. I chose this boat because I wanted a semi-v, this hull seems good, and the price was right.
To power this project I picked up a 1996 Seadoo XP 800. I wanted the 787 motor that seadoo built and this ski had it. Wasn't running when I bought it, but could turn it over by hand. Bought it and brought it home.
Outside is rough, but I don't need much of it. Thought I was getting an engine that needed just a little work sure the carbs would need some work, maybe a top end rebuild. Seadoo sat in my garage over a week, and when I went out to pull the engine it was locked up. Hmmmmm...
Mag Piston looked ok, but saw signs that water had gotten into it.
PTO Piston had pretty good carbon build up on it.
Head has some pitting on the Mag Cylinder side. Not sure if you can see it from this picture, but looked like a ring might have come apart earlier in its life. Piston didn't show any signs of wear, and both rings were intact. Any thoughts on running the head as is? Any remedies if I shouldn't run it as is?
Engine out of the ski. From there it got a little worse. Pulled the jugs off and there was a good deal of water in the case, and a fair amount of rust on the crankshaft (forgot to snap a picture). I think when I turned the ski over by hand while checking it out before I bought it that I dislodged a larger piece of rust and that caused it to lock up. This is the first time I've worked on a jetski motor and the first time I've been this deep into any engine, anybody with more experience have a guess?
You can see the rust wasn't terrible, but the bearings were gritty. I decided to order a new crankshaft since I was in this deep. Also got a new set of rings, pistons, and gaskets. Live and learn I guess.
Now that I was waiting for parts to show up, it was time to start tearing out the interior of the boat and see what I had. I forgot to take a before picture, but trust me it was rough.
Here's a view from the bow. Nice semi-v. I hope this will work to not only soften the ride on our area lakes, but also to help keep clean water heading towards the pump by not trapping air. We'll see.
Here's a view from the stern. Nice and flat.
Two layers of plywood. Looks like at some point in time they added a layer of 3/8" regular plywood over the 1/2 marine plywood. Anybody care to venture a guess which one was harder to pull out? Somebody had cut the closed bow out of this boat before I bought it. Made it easier for me to chop her up further for my project.
The floor out. Foam looking towards the bow of the boat.
Floor foam looking towards the stern. Also a view of the transom. The transom was the consistency of tracing paper. I appreciate the great powers of rot making it so easy for me to pull out of there.
Got it all pulled out and a rough clean done. You can also see the stringers
Finally, it was time for the dump run. 250lbs of junk in a 10lb car.
That's where I sit today. All the parts for the engine got here last week so it is time to start putting everything back together. Bring on the criticism and/or advice. Can't thank everybody on this site enough for all the information that is shared here. Lots of great projects to learn from. Thanks to everybody for sharing them.
I've accumulated these parts over the last couple months. So the pictures will be plentiful here in the beginning. I've done a fair amount of work on fiberglass boats, but this is my first major project with an aluminum boat and a jet ski. I'm sure I'll have plenty of questions for you as I move along.
Here she is. 1964 Texas Maid
15 feet long and in pretty good condition. Trailer doesn't fit, but the trailer the boat sat on before I bought her was falling apart under her. I chose this boat because I wanted a semi-v, this hull seems good, and the price was right.
To power this project I picked up a 1996 Seadoo XP 800. I wanted the 787 motor that seadoo built and this ski had it. Wasn't running when I bought it, but could turn it over by hand. Bought it and brought it home.
Outside is rough, but I don't need much of it. Thought I was getting an engine that needed just a little work sure the carbs would need some work, maybe a top end rebuild. Seadoo sat in my garage over a week, and when I went out to pull the engine it was locked up. Hmmmmm...
Mag Piston looked ok, but saw signs that water had gotten into it.
PTO Piston had pretty good carbon build up on it.
Head has some pitting on the Mag Cylinder side. Not sure if you can see it from this picture, but looked like a ring might have come apart earlier in its life. Piston didn't show any signs of wear, and both rings were intact. Any thoughts on running the head as is? Any remedies if I shouldn't run it as is?
Engine out of the ski. From there it got a little worse. Pulled the jugs off and there was a good deal of water in the case, and a fair amount of rust on the crankshaft (forgot to snap a picture). I think when I turned the ski over by hand while checking it out before I bought it that I dislodged a larger piece of rust and that caused it to lock up. This is the first time I've worked on a jetski motor and the first time I've been this deep into any engine, anybody with more experience have a guess?
You can see the rust wasn't terrible, but the bearings were gritty. I decided to order a new crankshaft since I was in this deep. Also got a new set of rings, pistons, and gaskets. Live and learn I guess.
Now that I was waiting for parts to show up, it was time to start tearing out the interior of the boat and see what I had. I forgot to take a before picture, but trust me it was rough.
Here's a view from the bow. Nice semi-v. I hope this will work to not only soften the ride on our area lakes, but also to help keep clean water heading towards the pump by not trapping air. We'll see.
Here's a view from the stern. Nice and flat.
Two layers of plywood. Looks like at some point in time they added a layer of 3/8" regular plywood over the 1/2 marine plywood. Anybody care to venture a guess which one was harder to pull out? Somebody had cut the closed bow out of this boat before I bought it. Made it easier for me to chop her up further for my project.
The floor out. Foam looking towards the bow of the boat.
Floor foam looking towards the stern. Also a view of the transom. The transom was the consistency of tracing paper. I appreciate the great powers of rot making it so easy for me to pull out of there.
Got it all pulled out and a rough clean done. You can also see the stringers
Finally, it was time for the dump run. 250lbs of junk in a 10lb car.
That's where I sit today. All the parts for the engine got here last week so it is time to start putting everything back together. Bring on the criticism and/or advice. Can't thank everybody on this site enough for all the information that is shared here. Lots of great projects to learn from. Thanks to everybody for sharing them.