Crossing of two Streams (1974 Hydrostream Vector restore)

[Quinten]

Just a quick tip, I didn't realize until I was half way through final grinding that my knee pads and/or knees had put a few cracks in my gel cote pushing toward the outside on the bottom. I'm sure because it was so thin, or I'm a fat ass. Any way, I started keeping a small piece of plywood in there with me to kneel on as I was crawling around. It saved me from doing any more damage. God job, keep,it up.

[zstyle]

Haven't updated this in a little bit even though I have been keeping up with working on it. Got it finally all ground out the Sunday before last.


I then even gave her a bath for the first time since I have owned it. She looks good and photos. She is a flawless 50/ 50, at 50 mph from 50 feet away she is a 10!


Today marked a huge milestone in this journey, she went to Performance Fiberglass in Louisville so the owner Chris and I could start glassing her back up!


In the short work day that we had, being that Chris is down with not too much customer work (lucky for me). We cut and glassed together two pieces of 3/4" marine ply for my transom. Then the amazing happened, we put it in the boat! I am beyond excited to see it going back together.


As you can see Chris suggested that being the transom needs to be glassed over anyways to use some screws and big washer to pull the old glass to the new wood. This acted as a relief and you could see the resin coming out. We pulled the clamps off and it seems we have an amazing bond, she is of course more solid than she ever was.


We will be mixing up cabosil into a filler to fill in the areas around it, alternating two layers of 1oz chop and two layers of 1708 that we already have cut up, and then tabbing it in. He kind of took over today being that he heard of my very short deadline of the end of this month so I just kind of did whatever he told me to do and watch. He assured me that there is plenty of glass work that I will be more involved with.

We finished the day with cutting up a large section of 1708 and trimming it for half the area of the boat excluding the bow. Plan is to do one layer of 1oz chop and a layer of 1708. 13 4'x4' sheets of 1/2" balsa core gets delivered tomorrow. Double what I needed, but his supplier Advanced Plastics in Tennessee only sells it in bundles and was half the price of everyone else. Figured I would just get twice as much and I can barter with him for it because he is going to need it when he redoes the Vking I am trading him for helping do this.

Well going to try to knock out a bunch more tomorrow.

[Aaronhl]

Progress looks good its nice that you are having fun

[roadkill636]

What resin did you decide to go with?

[zstyle]

Just generic polyester.

[rjdubiel]

Just generic polyester.

If I ever do another boat rebuilding that's what I will do. Epoxy is just too spendy!

[zstyle]

Put in another couple days with Chris at Performance Fiberglass, he even puttied in a strake and the transom on Friday to help me out. First thing today I cut the last two pieces of 1708 and two pieces 1oz mat for the bow area. Chris wetted them out outside the boat and handed them to me under the bow so I could place them and squeegee all the air out for a good bond.

This photo shows that back side of the transom that we got glassed and filled all the screw holes we put into it as well as the transom hook holes.


We layed down one layer of 1oz mat and one layer of 1708 over the ground hull. Did the cockpit area in halves and the bow in smaller pieces so I could work it.



Chris mixed up some putty for the strakes, being I am moving my floor up like the newer boats, and for around the edges of the transom. The putty consisted of polyester resin, balled fiberglass dust, microspheres, and cabosil; I would have just probably used microspheres myself but he said this will be much stronger than just straight microspheres or just straight cabosil mixed into the resin.


Got the transom glassed over and tabbed in. Staggered the tabbing for more strength.

[zstyle]

My case of 13 4'x4' sheets of scrimmed balsa showed up Friday. This stuff is weird and even after reading countless threads it is a lot different than what I imagined it to be. I thought it would be far harder to work curve areas than it was.


I cut two 7" wide strips off the sheet posted above and fit into the pad of the boat. Really excited to get some core down. We wanted to do this area first and then I will build my stringers next so the blocks has something to rest against for the larger side areas. Laid down an extra thick coat of resin down first, Chris mixed up some of his putty concoction, and then I troweled it onto the back side of the pieces of core. After we were happy with my trowel lines; more like after Chris told me to add some in places and change the direction of my trowel lines to his liking I got the approval to lay the core to the hull. We used some 2"x2" strips of wood to help with the convex pad. Seemed to set in there real good, getting a good squeeze of resin and putty out from the sides.


We spent the last hour of the day bsing about what the plan is on the Vking I am giving Chis; such as the fiberglass wrap around windshield he is going to do, which flake is going to go on the boats, and if I am going to climb under the dash of the Vking or if we are going to separate the top cap from the bottom. Chris has helped me out more than I could imagine so I guess I will be spending many hours under another Hydrostream bow. I am just glad I found an enthused owner for the boat and know it will be a top notch restore on that one as well. He really wants to do some great work to promote his business. He keeps on asking when the boat is coming to the shop, can you tell he has the fever, but sadly I have been waiting for weeks to get my tech that boat with my 2.0 to go through the carbs and motor. Every week I get told next week. I told him Chris wants the boat, he was a little shocked to here that my boat already has a new transom. He didn't believe me that I was going to try to get this thing done by the end of the month.

[zstyle]

From where I left off on my last update we set some core through the pad.


The core bonded up nicely, I ground the edges down up front to make the glass lay out better.


I glassed over the core, but the edges kept coming up; so Chris told me to drop my stringers on it real quick. Then he told me to tab them in. After that I glassed the inside of the stringers to the core with the same schedule I did over the hull and core, a layer of 1oz and then a layer of 1708.


I got my core cut for the rest of the boat and fitted.


We tried to do a big section at once and the binder separated in one area. Pieces were rolling under and it just became a mess. I pulled the pieces out, were able to save the large section, I cut out the section so it was rectangle, and then scrapped the putty off the hull to make less clean up to fix it later. We are definitely not going to do such a large section again, I will probably cut them down in half. My pieces of core came in 4x4' sheets, I though it was a blessing, but now I feel it is just too large a section to wet out than set into place. Another thing that was learned is just the amount of thickened resin that is going to be needed to be mixed up to bond the rest of the core material.

I have officially failed at meeting my goal for being done. I may get one more day next week to work on it, but it won't be going with me on my vacation to Michigan. I was really bummed. Progress might slow some now with school starting next month. Just hope I can finish it to get her in the water this year.

[rjdubiel]

Did the original core go that wide? Never seen a vector rebuild. My vking only has half that amount of core. But my floor also acts as a core where it sits and attaches to the hull along the sides. Keep it rolling! Good progress

[zstyle]

Yeah. The core is cut and fit as it was originally.

[rjdubiel]

i wonder if i have a light layup 1978 Vking? lot less balsa and there is no way i can walk on the deck infront of the windshield. But your vecotor will be bullet proof man!

[zstyle]

I can't walk on the nose of my Vector either. It is see through, I am going to lay core up there to stiffen it. I will take pictures soon and post them up of the Vking that is in line next.

[zstyle]

Well this year I have finally refired up this project, the glassing over all the core material was finished at Performance Fiberglass in Louisville, KY before I relocated to Charlotte, NC and put this thing in storage for two years.

I gel coated under the floor here.

Here I used insulation board to easily shape a template.

Used the template and cut my shape out of 1/2" marine ply, then coated the undersides in resin.

Put a bead of putty on the stingers and set the sections in place, used batteries as to weight down some ares, and also drove drywall screws through the floor into the stringers to suck it all down. I then went back and puttied the edges, seams, and screw heads (which were all predrilled and counter sunk).

I was going to continue my floor all the way to the bow, but after sitting a seat down and putting my legs at straight out that way there was no way I was going to be able to comfortably drive this thing with a hot foot. My solution came after reading on the Hydrostream facebook group that many Streamers drive with their left foot. That was kind of the eureka moment that caused me to end the floor at the dash, then create a drop down area to mount my hot foot on in the center of the boat.

I have started glassing in the floor, but had some issues with some old glass not absorbing into the resin and trying to tackle to large of a section. I am going to have to grind a large section and reglass it, yet progress is moving.

[Capt.Insane-o]

Bill and I were just talking about this boat today.