Comp Vector thread

[JoshP1]

Just ran across this thread. Great so far. Just to speed you up on a few things. First, theres ton of local knowledge down there in the Morgan City, Houma, DesAllemands area. Alot of those guys have or had some fast streams and some still do. In Harahan there was a place next to Cummins. I dont know if its still there or not. I bought sheets of Coosa from there years ago. Far as getting the transom out. I scored my Viper with a skilsaw and chipped it out. Set the depth and just went nuts. Never did finish my viper, still in the backyard. You want to get some knowledge on streams. Go to the Thanksgiving ride in Morgan City the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Also, I've been around this site for a few years, some very very knowledgeable guys have already commented, listen well! There's tons of ways to redo these boats, you're on the right track. Keep pushing, looking forward to seeing the updates!

D, I'm thinking I took out too much material from my transom to use the circular saw method. I'll have to post some pictures tomorrow of the progress I made today. I used that on my Viper as well. Also, never finished mine. I ended up giving it away to make room for other stuff when I moved my family from Assumption to Ascension Parish. I wish I still had that boat. The more I read, the more I want to keep my Vector in as close as factory spec as possible. There's absolutely no way I can keep it stock, but it'll still be a race boat when I'm done. I considered converting it to run a full interior, but the wife says she thinks I need to keep it with just a single seat in the middle. I will be changing colors though. Blue is my favorite and I want a white interior with (possibly) some yellow or silver accents. I have/had another profile on here too. I lost access to that account from the move and started this one. I'm not sure that profile is still floating around or not. I had tons of information from other people posting on my old rebuild thread from the Viper. Hopefully, I don't have to worry about that with this profile.

[FlowMaxx]

You can always do an inline 2-seater. Then you can take a passenger and 1 extra seat doesn't add too much extra weight if you are out solo. Plus, it doesn't alter the configuration of the boat much. Weight balance on these boats is so critical. I wouldn't ever want to drive a side steer Vector without a passenger. Center steer with everything in the center is my preference.

[VkingMike]

Center steer and inline seats were some of the best mods I did on my build.

[JoshP1]

I thought about ripping out this transom last night after I posted. I have a shed full of tools at my disposal from years of being a millwright and playing around with woodworking at home. I just started using a 2" wood chisel to cut the wood off. Don't worry, all you woodworkers, the ones I'm using are from Harbor Freight. Plus the glass layers between the wood are less than 1/8" thick. I'd be surprised if they were even 1/16". Still pretty rough on my hands with cramping, but blows through the plywood fairly easily.

[JoshP1]

[JoshP1]

[JoshP1]

The picture taken from the port side at about midship shows what's left of the transom right now. To the left of the picture on the transom is the outer skin and it gets thicker as you look to the right of the picture. The fiberglass looks really thick in the pictures because it's torn and cut in a filet. I really wish there was a way to make all the wood break like paper without burning the boat and thus, my whole house down!

The other picture is from the top down with me standing at the back of the transom and was just for reference. One day when I'm done with this thing or get discouraged, I'll be able to look back and see all of the progress I've made since I brought it home.

[rjdubiel]

Not a short story, but I will try to create the setting and then give explanation:

Years ago, we had a boating group with a bunch of local friends that had Hydrostreams and would get together at mostly local lakes and have fun. That expanded and more and more boats joined. Then we got the opportunity of a lifetime to meet Howard Pipkorn and found that he actually wanted to join us! We waited in eager anticipation and really did not know what to expect, as our knowledge of him was limited.

Well, he showed up with a boat and a van full of goodies to give to us. This was certainly unexpected, but it was so cool that it is hard to describe. He brought Dick Kojtetin with him whom he referred to as his right hand and marketing guy. They had worked together a very long time at Hydrostream. They brought out boxes of old brochures and, after we went boating on the Mississippi for the day, spent the evening telling stories and sharing memories with all of us. They seemed to be as thrilled with us as we were to have their presence. This developed into a long relationship and Howard came to several more gatherings in subsequent years. He later brought his wife, Susan along and we would go to the beach and BBQ and have a great day together. He would tell stories, sign memorabilia and autographed many of our boats on the dash. After his passing a few years ago, Susan shared that he really enjoyed being with us and never really realized the significance of his work and the lasting impact it had on so many people. We explained to him that Hydrostreams are similar to a classic car. Hydrostreams are the quintessential Muscle Boat. It is certainly hard to disagree with that one.

Now back to the point of this story. I just needed proper context. Howard loved to tell stories. He was full of interesting facts and loved to tell a good story. He explained that there was a guy down in Alabama somewhere that had a Comp Vector and he was pretty much destroying everyone in all of the drag races. So, another guy wanted in on the action and told Howard to build him an extremely light Comp Vector so that he could be the new king of that racing circuit. So, Howard built him a very light Vector and the guy proceeded to rig and race it, but he was getting beat handily and was upset that he wasn't getting the results he wanted. He called to Howard and complained about the boat and expressed his disappointment with the hull. Howard thought about it and calmly asked the guy to attach 5 or 10 pounds of weight to the bow eye. The guy thought he was crazy. How could adding weight possibly help? Anyways, after some convincing, the guy followed Pip's directive and, to his surprise, the boat began to launch perfectly straight and dominate. Now, he was now he was the guy to beat. He shared his results with Howard and subsequent boats were built with that piece of plywood at the foremost part of the center keel. Guys were then able to affix weights to the frontmost part of the boat. Howard referred to this as "the moment of inertia." It's a phrase burned into my memory. He explained that the moment you hit the gas, the boat has a certain trajectory. You want that to be forward and not up. Light v-bottom boats have a tendency to be weight centered very far back. That 5-10 pounds in front is multiplied exponentially if it is brought back further and then becomes counterproductive because it is more weight. So simple, but yet so genius, such was the mind of Howard Pipkorn.

I share this story with the utmost respect of Howard and Susan Pipkorn. Given his generosity with us and his love for a great story, I can only assume he would be ok with me sharing this one in honor of his legacy and a great memory I have of him. May God rest his beautiful Soul. I look forward to seeing him again someday and to hear more great stories that have had such an impact on the lives of many of us.

Oh my. What fun Howard had with all. I was not at the first one but the last one or two he came to I was fortunate enough to meet Howard. And he was fun. And to my surprise he would stay in touch with me every other month or two with a phone call out of no where. Usually trying to sucker me into moving a boat to MN for free at work! But thank you for that story Mark, was great to hear it again and relive in my mind hanging out with him. I just grabbed a picture or two of Howard and Susan in the boat. The best is the one where he was telling me what I was doing wrong driving my viper before he even got out of his boat! haha. He was great, a true nice guy. A guy that wanted to get the gallon of bondo from the auto store and fix our boats for us in the hotel parking lot! haha. Sorry to clutter this post. But had to share this as he is missed every day by all of us that have been fortunate enough to meet him.

[VkingMike]

Cut this top section of fiberglass off and your life will get so much easier chipping downwards to remove that wood. You are going to have to wrap new glass back over the edge anyways.

[XstreamVking]

16 grit disc on a 7'' grinder and about 2 hrs and it's gone.

[JoshP1]

Cut this top section of fiberglass off and your life will get so much easier chipping downwards to remove that wood. You are going to have to wrap new glass back over the edge anyways.

That's the plan! I caught some kind of alcohol induced stomach bug on Tuesday, so I didn't do any work on it. I'm planning to get back at it this afternoon.

Xstream, I don't hav a 7" and have never seen anything less than 40grit flap wheel for a grinder. I'm about to buy stock in 4" flap disks to get at the inside of the hull. It's about to get really messy around my carport.

[XstreamVking]

Yeah, flap discs won't cut it, use some fiber backed aluminum oxide ones. They will work well. Even the 4'' discs come in 24 grit and will cut fast.

[LakeFever]

Cutzall disks also make quick work of wood. Useless on glass and will dull fast if you try.

[Deznuts3570]

Express composites and I believe Harbor Freight sell a wheel with diamond stones or rocks I believe that I know a few others have used. From what I've heard and read people love them to grind the boats out

[rjdubiel]

Express composites and I believe Harbor Freight sell a wheel with diamond stones or rocks I believe that I know a few others have used. From what I've heard and read people love them to grind the boats out

I tried to find it on Express Composites but don,t seem to be on their site anymore. I just used the flapper disks and find the 24/36 grit which should be ok. When doing your last grind, do it very light and quick with new disks and should be good to go. You can use these disks for a long time when removing material at the beginning, just remember to do another quick grind with fresh disk before you start laying up glass. The rpms on an angle grinder with a warn out disk doesn't leave a good finish for fresh glass. Seems to heat up and makes it too smooth, but a new disk with light pressure leaves some tooth for the new glass.