1983 vector

Got the boat in July of 2021 and started gutting to rebuild. Built a jig to set it on and started cutting out transom, old core, stringer box and foam boxes and ground entire hull down with a brazed cup wheel and 36grit wheels on a 4 inch grinder. For transom replacement i used 3 half inch thick pieces of marine plywood bonded together with a wet layer of csm. Then put in a layer of 1808 where transom will fit then bonded the new transom in with a layer of csm. Covered that with 3 layers of 1808. Was going to delete the splashwell but being i kept the piece i cut out i decided to put it back in for its functionality. Once that was done i laid a layer of 1808 threw out the hull. Now im putting 1/2 inch balsa core in, started up in the wings and then did the pad. Bonded everything in with 2 wet layers of csm and covered with 1808. Thats where im at now, hopefully i can get the rest of the core in soon!

Good stuff! Be very strong and will fly right. Nice neat glass work.

Thanks! Hope she flys and is safe.

Awesome work, keep posting pics. We love these build threads

looking good, nice and clean glass work.

did you connect the top cap stringers to the top of the transom? circled in red, if you did not cut some plywood that fits in there and glass it up and put it in there from the inside. That is an oversight the factor never connected the top cap stringers to the hull transom top.

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Thanks fellas, debating weather i should put stringers in now then put the core on the outside of them or do the core first then bed the stringers in. I was worried without the stringers there the core may want to slide down some once i bed it in and put some wait on top of it.

So for that area rj, i wetted out a piece of 1.5 oz on a flat table with clear wrap on it the. When that hardened i cut out pieces to fit in that gap and classed from both sides, then went from the back and tied in what i cut out in the wood with new wood bonding it to the transom and existing wood under there. Only thing i want to do is cut out another piece of 1/2 inch about 6 or 8 inches longer then the patch and laminate it over that

It helps a lot connecting the cap stringers to the top corners of the transom. I would go stingers first as your not bagging the core down, it may slide like you said.

Nice!

I was gunna mix up some resin and milled fibers into a paste to bed stringers in. Is there a better way to do it then that?

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Originally Posted by BrononC

I was gunna mix up some resin and milled fibers into a paste to bed stringers in. Is there a better way to do it then that?

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may have to put some cabosil in also to make it thicker, or saw dust or some sort of filler if the milled fibers do not thicken it enough. But that's what I did. Bed them in and then once that starts to kick put 1808 over that fillet and it is strong!

Sounds good yeah i have cabosil also

Me thinks this guy likes his boat......;)... Nice job.

Project looks great. Those things are a blast to drive.

Rock

Does anyone have any experience with 2.0 v6s. A buddy of mine gave me a 81 that im going to tear down and freshin to put on my vector. Thought about maybe cleaning up exhaust chest and switching to horizontal front half. Would any of that be worth it without touching the port heights?

Loop charged V6 thats very reliable. It depends how fast you want to go. I loved my 2.0L i have a couple now not in use just because i couldn’t resist lol. This just came up in another thread but basically if you go full mod you can wring about 200hp out of them although bottom end will suffer. Most common mod is mill the heads to 145 psi and run premium fuel. Leave the rest alone, save the money to put towards a 2.5. A really good set up on this hull with a healthy 2.0L should run 80ish

Yeah i brought the heads to work to cut, ill prally just leave it alone other then heads, maybe reeds and stuffers. I have a fingerported 2.4 with 7 petal front half and wh-15 carbs when im ready for more power. Figured the 2.0 would be a good starer motor to learn the boat. I have heard some wicked 2.0s im guessing they we cut on a lot tho to sound like that

Nitro Rat on here is the 2.0 guru.

sounds fun.

Seen a few of his post on here, gunna look him up thanks!

Haven't had much time to work on the stream lately but took a few days off of work and got stringers and some of the core in

Very nice work!

Your glass work is pertier than my glass work. :D

Lol thanks rgsauger, but pictures are deceiving! Got a few air bubbles i need to grind out and patch but im happy with it! Its not perfect but i think it will be a solid boat

Got bulkhead in and floor just about fitted, getting pretty hot over here. Haven't built up the courage to go do glass work in the heat! Did pick up another vector for 100 bucks. Ive spent more on dummer things! Attachment 520287Attachment 520289

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Got a shop built so im hoping to make some good progress on the boat now. Started sanding the automotive paint off just to see what im working with and man theres is a lot of stress cracks. From the tip of the nose to the transom just about! Not sure if its worth grinding each one out and glassing over them or just putting a layer of csm over the whole surface

I feel that one. I ran 1708/1ox csm over the entire hull to solve mine. Faring that took a looooooong time. When the core goes the hull flexes all over the place puts stress cracks everywhere. Plus there were plenty of softish areas. When you strip the paint and gel down to raw glass any areas that are whitish are toast

Yeah and whats crazy is i dont see many stress cracks at all on the bottom. A few around the pad area. Everything is on the top cap! Unless its just the gelcoat that has a lot of small cracks in it

For the top cap. If i were to grind all paint off and get it to the gelcoat then cover with a layer of 3/4 oz or 1.5 oz csm. Would that prevent the cracks from coming back out? My idea was to cover with a layer of csm then roll on a layer of waxed gelcoat or duratec primer then start fairing from there.

Thats what i did. Iirc i used 1oz csm and laid it over most of the edges. I did grind out the bad ones and filled them with kitty hair first to speed things up. On the hull i layered csm to fill ground out areas but it took a lot longer to fare. I didnt have any stress cracks on the middle of the deck so nothing there other than duratec and the splashwell i glassed over most of it with the transom work. Did the exact same layup process; i ran the csm and hit it with a single coat of waxed gel then block sanded the hell out if it. My arms still have knots from all that sanding

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these are some of the cracks im talking about, basically the whole top cap is like this. Im thinking just covering the hole deck with a layer of glass then rolling some waxed gel over to fair it will be a lot less time consuming then grinding all them out to fix individually. Just wouldnt want to do all that work and they show up again in the new paint job

Mine has a this cracking as well. It was my understanding that these hairline cracks are in the gelcoat, not the fiberglass.

Yes it looks like the smaller cracks that are a inch or so long seem to be in the gelcoat but the longer ones are in the fiberglass. Still need to finish the inside of the boat before i start on the cap. Just trying to get a good game plan together.

With crazing the only way to know for sure whats what is to sand down until they are gone. In my case they were all in the glass there was almost no gel craze cracking that didnt also reveal in the glass when I got down through it. Heres a couple pics I had from my build. The cracks are on the hull I didnt get any pics of the cracks on the deck before glassing but the second pic the green stuff is the kitty hair. Its so fast and easy to grind out cracks and use this stuff to fill. Cheese grater flat and then run the csm. Cracks completely gone and nothing but glass in there felt the best way to me


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I tried to rush the deck because the project was dragging on and I had to grind off some of the duratec and run CSM along the edge because the cracks which I thought I had sanded out revealed through the duratec. If you look close you can see whats left of the kitty hair under the csm. I did all those repairs in less than an hour. Running the csm and faring that takes quite a bit of time

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Well! Here we go again! Boats been on the back burner for a while now and even went up for sale but my wife talked me out of it. Finished up the core under the bow, got the floors and foot well bulkhead glued down and gelcoated everything under the main floor. Starting to feel like i have something now!Attachment 546065

That looks really tight! You’re on your way now for sure. Your wife sounds like a very solid woman to push you forward on your dream like that. You’re a lucky man. Thats going to be a sweet ride when it’s done.

Sanding and shaping. Feels good to stand on a solid floor in here! Tabing in with a couple layers of 1808 next i believe.Attachment 546197