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MODVP22
06-22-2003, 03:56 PM
3 years ago my father and I headed south to purchase another boat, a 1998 STV RiverRocket. This boat was in beautiful shape (at least we thought at the time), ran great, had the trailer we wanted, almost perfect. What we didn't realize was that we asked all the right questions about the boat, but not to the right people. We later found out, after the monies had been exchanged, that this boat was not what it was said to be. It was wrecked at high speed, sank, fished out and repaired for a quick sell. We found this out after the previous owner slipped and mentioned it to us, so we did some more investigating and it just kept getting worse. Turns out that this boat should have been taken to the dump it was so bad. After stripping the boat completely of the rigging and paint that was put over the repaired areas, we found that the knowlage of those repairing the boat was inadequate for proper strength, performance and most of all, saftey.
Here's the boat when we first got it.

MODVP22
06-22-2003, 03:57 PM
here's stripping the paint to reveal the old gelcoat and bondo that was used to repiar the hull.

MODVP22
06-22-2003, 03:59 PM
check out some of these cracks that were almost the entire length of the boat

MODVP22
06-22-2003, 04:00 PM
the trailer that was said to have never been in salt water, here's what was left of it, getting ready to head to the scrap yard. We managed to save the rims/tires, the springs/axles, and the winch

MODVP22
06-22-2003, 04:01 PM
stripping the old gelcoat and bondo

MODVP22
06-22-2003, 04:16 PM
here's the areas that the bondo covered. Yes, that is the coring showing through.

MODVP22
06-22-2003, 04:19 PM
here's another shot of the coring showing through that was bondoed over top for repair. Notice the hole in the middle of the picture, that's where the bulkheads are on the inside of the boat. There were holds everyplace there was a bulkhead (4 total) that were over an inch thick with bondo putty. The resin ran through to the inside when we started laying glass.

MODVP22
06-22-2003, 04:20 PM
Here's the first layer of glass for the correct repair. We laid a total of 3 layers completely over the outside sponsons, and actually 5 where there were holes in the boat.

MODVP22
06-22-2003, 04:23 PM
Here's a nice picture of laying fiberglass cloth and resin over the low areas and holes in the boat. We used resin from MiniCraft of Florida for this project. They make a product called MC putty that is actually fiberglass powder mixed with resin..that stuff is freakin' strong!

MODVP22
06-22-2003, 04:24 PM
this pic is of the second to last patch we laid on each of the 3 surfaces of both sides of the boat.

MODVP22
06-22-2003, 04:27 PM
here's the new trailer we built for it. Using the axles, tries/wheels and springs over. A good friend of the family, John, welded and fabricated everything on it, he even bent the tubing. This guy can weld anything, including blown apart Mercury and OMC blocks. Here's the day after we finished painting it. The paint is DuPont base coat clear coat, GM trucks Bright White with black stripes, also painted on.

MODVP22
06-22-2003, 04:29 PM
wet sanding the enitre bottom of this thing after we gelcoated the entire hull wasn't fun. But it came out really nice for a bunch of first timers. My dad took a gelcoat repair course at MiniCraft of Florida this spring and he shot the whole bottom of this boat.

MODVP22
06-22-2003, 04:30 PM
don't worry, more pictures to follow. Some are still in the camera. The boat is now right side up back on the trailer and I'm doing somemore fiberglass work on the inside to the bulkheads and other areas. I was ashamed at the workmanship of how the new deck was put onto this hull.

StrokerOMCSS
06-22-2003, 10:17 PM
you guys have done a great job on the boat and trailer so now maybe you will be happy boaters and enjoy the boat thanks strokerga

MTCM
06-23-2003, 07:48 AM
Real nice work. Looks like your Dad did real good............:)

MODVP22
06-23-2003, 08:03 AM
:)

beko21
06-23-2003, 10:50 AM
Tom, I thought I was having fun, looks good, lets hit the river next weekend, YEEEEEHAAAW I'm getting close, Kevin

Jeff "Yammer"
06-25-2003, 06:58 PM
Hey Tom ,

Is your boat a polyester boat or an epoxy boat .
What did you use to repair it ( I hope epoxy if it is an epoxy boat )


Jeff

PS ..... will be down this weekend at GARY's !! Man you gotta take me out to a bar or 10 !!!!!!!

MODVP22
06-26-2003, 10:26 PM
Here's the glass we used. This is a top view, its bi-directional with matting stitched to it.

MODVP22
06-26-2003, 10:27 PM
here's the back side where the matting is

Steve Zuckerman
07-07-2003, 08:12 PM
Tom,
It is a real shame that you guys had to go through all this **** to get a useable boat. Athough I'm sure you learned a lot about boats while completeting this project, and have the pride of ownership from doing it yourself, I would have to get some payback out of the asshole that sold it to you.
AT LEAST tell everyone who he is so that he doesn't get to f-ck sombody else. Don't protect an asshole that would put you in something dangerous!
By the way, GREAT WORK:cool: !
Regards,
Steve;)

MODVP22
07-07-2003, 08:19 PM
Steve,
Thanks for the nice compliments. Youw ouldn't believe how good it felt when it glided off the trailer for the first time. I'd love to tell everyone who the idiot previous owner is, but I just don't want any problems and Greg and I have discussed that. The people who did the repair work, however, I've mentioned, but I'm not alowed to say what I really think. After Larry died at Dale Hallow, we were not going to follow so we went over this entire thing.

MODVP22
07-30-2003, 03:10 PM
Here is the left side where the bulkhead was never reattached to the top deck when it was put on the boat. Notice the 1/2" gap between the top deack and the bulkhead.

MODVP22
07-30-2003, 03:12 PM
Same story on the left side. I used some resin putty again in the area to fill the void and then laid cloth/matting over top to tie it all together. With the strength of the resin putty it would have held fine, but we wanted to be sure.

MODVP22
07-30-2003, 03:13 PM
Here is the right support next to the driver seat. You can see the glass delaminating from the support to the deck :mad:

MODVP22
07-30-2003, 03:14 PM
same deal on the left. Had to grind all the delaminated glass out and re-lay more good stuff.

MODVP22
07-30-2003, 03:16 PM
Here is the center of the bulkhead. For the life of me I couldn't figure out why it was all bubbled out, then i leaned against it :eek:

MODVP22
07-30-2003, 03:18 PM
Here is what I'mt alking about. Notice the area circled where my finger is pushing against it. It's flexing like tin. I eventually cracked a hole in it with just my finger right after this pic was taken. :mad:

beko21
07-30-2003, 03:19 PM
Tom, didn't your dad teach you not to put your fingers in strange holes?

MODVP22
07-30-2003, 03:20 PM
Here we head to the scales to see how much weight we actually added to the boat after all the repair was done. My dad and I had a bet going...I lost. He said 80-100lbs. and I said 150-200 lbs. It gained approximately 100 lbs. total. The boat tiped the scales right around 700 lbs.

MODVP22
07-30-2003, 03:21 PM
Finally finished! Here it is as we pulled it out of the garage to head out for the first time.

MODVP22
07-30-2003, 03:30 PM
Have to give a bunch of thanks out for the help on this project.

First, to Paul at Mini Craft for all his assistance and advice with the different fiberglass questions and for when my dad took the gelcoat repair class. Paul is awesome! He really knows his stuff.

John for the wonderful welding and fabricating job he did ont he trailer. It don't get much better than that.

Gene Trichel for his awesome work in repairing the engine and helping us figure out some of the goofy problems this thing gave us. What a great guy. Afterall, we did add a bit of weight to the boat..so we need more horsepower to compensate :eek:

Brad Collins for all his advice and tips. And for helping me and my father not get discouraged when this project was really getting ugly. Brad you are truely a great friend :)

RL for all the pieces parts for the other motor we put together for it that we are going to use on this boats' replacement.

My good friend Tim for assisting when we needed more help with learning the body work on the trailer to make it look purdy. Man if ya don't know what you're doing and trying to teach yourself how to do body work, it can be really frustrating.

Dr. Nitrox,..Chuck Goodman for all his help and putting up with us changing our minds on which jackplate to put on this thing.

My friend Kristin for helping out with resizing all these pics at all hours of the morning because my computer hates me. Thanks Kristin! :cool:

MODVP22
07-30-2003, 03:42 PM
Beko21..there wasn't a hole there, until I pushed on it :rolleyes:

beko21
07-30-2003, 03:47 PM
Yeah, but you had your finger in a black crack and it became a hole, don't try to deny it, fess up Tom!

MODVP22
07-30-2003, 08:38 PM
oh man :rolleyes:

MODVP22
08-20-2003, 07:58 AM
Thank you to all those who had kind words to say about this boat when they seen it at the Rumble on the River. Rodney Nance, Steve Zuckerman, Bob A., KrazyKarl, Warlock, Unloaded Racing, FireWalker, Instigator, Mike Hurley, FastEddie, Jim and Denis from HydroStream, Yammer, Rob from Michigan, Tony Brucato, LaserModVee, LakeRacer99, SpeedRacer and the rest of the Michigan crew :)

heath brinkley
08-20-2003, 08:14 AM
glad to see you got it done.

LakeRacer99
08-25-2003, 02:38 PM
Hey Tom, It was nice meeting you at the Rumble. Your boat looks amazing, you guys did some fine work. I hope your trip home was less eventful than the trip to KY.

Later,
Jason

MODVP22
09-27-2003, 11:17 PM
on water

Techno
09-28-2003, 09:44 AM
What gives?
You have paint it black on your icony thing and drive a white boat:confused:

MODVP22
09-28-2003, 09:49 AM
Techno,
The "Paint it Black" came from Mercury's hi-perf catalog.

rl
10-28-2003, 10:04 PM
nice work guys, i know u busted your butts on this one, looks like the hard work has paid off. very nice job. looks very clean for sure, take care rl

beko21
10-28-2003, 10:41 PM
The Rolling Stones said "Paint It Black" also!

MODVP22
01-05-2004, 12:19 AM
This boat is still currently for sale.

Scream And Fly
01-06-2004, 01:24 AM
I'm locking this thread - I'll contact the people involved in this post.

- Greg