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  1. #1
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    Hydrostream production, how long to build the hulls and how many men?

    I'm working out a plan as best I can to restore this hull I bought and I got thinking at the Hydrostream plant back in the day how many days did it take for them to build a complete hull? How many men did this take? I ask because I can pull out man power in solid numbers at short intervals so I was thinking if I prep all materials best I can and bring in a crew to lay it up I wonder how fast this can be done? Would REALLY like to hear from any of the guys who worked there first hand. Thanks gents
    Hydrostream dreamin

  2. #2
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    Dont know how many people at the plant but they were making 25 boats a WEEK at 1 time.
    24 Twister

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    Wow, that’s quite speedy. I wonder how many guys I would need to wrap up all the glass work in a week? Aside from refinishing gel
    Hydrostream dreamin

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    If you're talking about just the core (and it's fully prepped), I don't see why 4 knowledgeable people couldn't do it in a day.
    Living in the Freedom provided by Bud Conner and his fellow warriors.
    R.I.P. my Heathen Brother






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    I was curious to how they built them and with how many per boat and who did what and how fast etc. I was all set to attack this build last Monday but got busy and now I’m contemplating a whole different approach. I’ve had a couple nice ones but I enjoy building as much or more than driving so I had to do this. Might do it solo we’ll see. Things are always changing
    Hydrostream dreamin

  6. #6
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    I've done 95% of my build alone. Could probably cut the time in half or better if I did another one.

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    Experience certainly makes a big difference. What would you do differently if you could start over?
    Hydrostream dreamin

  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by LakeFever View Post
    Experience certainly makes a big difference. What would you do differently if you could start over?
    The experience would play a big part in it. Having a better feeling for the working time of the resin and how much can be achieved during a layup. Knowing how much more glass I could get down in a given amount of time.

    Some of the bigger things I would change that would save a lot of hours. Not making separate mounts for the seats and not laminating my stringers. For the seats if I do another one I will just put T nuts right in the floor and glass them in. Those mounts turned out to be a big waste of time and now will be very limiting if I want to change the interior layout in the future, although that most likely is never going to happen. All of my stringers are two pieces of 1/4" marine ply laminated with CSM to achieve 1/2". In the future I'll just use 1/2" marine ply and be done with it. This is probably stronger(heavier) having an extra ply since 1/2" is 5-ply and 1/4" is 3-ply for a total of 6 plus the layer of glass. That would save a ton of time and materials.

    Making use of peel ply. There's countless hours and $100's of disks sanding between layups. A lot of this could be avoided if peel ply works the way I believe it does. I'm sure theres more I'm forgetting at the moment, but those are the big ones. I plan a dedicated post on my build page once she's finished of things I would change if I stated over.
    Last edited by tnelsmn; 06-28-2020 at 11:24 AM.

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    Very helpful thanks. I have learned more from your build thread than all the rest I have read combined

    These kind of projects for me can be very challenging as im seldom in one place long enough to do this type of work over months and months but that has been changing recently so i might be able to pull this off mostly solo. I think I will do a lot of mock up layup first and when it comes time to glass things in bring out a couple extra hands for those days. I'll get a build thread going when i get to it I have way too much going on right now to start unfortunately but I will be building a cradle this summer for it and hang it from the ceiling. I have 14' to work with so I can raise it or lower it when I want to work on it or want it out of my way
    Hydrostream dreamin

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  12. #10
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    What a great complement, thank you!

    I'm no expert by any means, just an amateur trying to learn as I go. Sharing what I've learned along the way to hopefully help someone else in the future. Sadly many of the great older build threads have issues with photo hosting so you can't see any pictures. I enjoy documenting the project, it gives me something to due with down time at work. I just wish I would've started with the videos from the beginning.

    That will be handy to move it out of the way when not able to work. Thats my biggest complaint, my only garage is completely consumed by the boat. Both my daily drivers are parked outside, my Mustang is in paid storage, and my motorcycle is in my basement.

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  14. #11
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    Well restoring a hull will take more time than building one because you have to correct all the corners they cut pumping out boats at the speed they did!! Good luck with the restoration and keep us posted with pictures. You can check out my Virage restoration in the Fiberglass section...it has been taking me a lot longer than I ever thought because of the planning/designing every piece of wood that I cut because I dont want to have to rip it out again...


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  16. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by LakeFever View Post
    I'm working out a plan as best I can to restore this hull I bought and I got thinking at the Hydrostream plant back in the day how many days did it take for them to build a complete hull? How many men did this take? I ask because I can pull out man power in solid numbers at short intervals so I was thinking if I prep all materials best I can and bring in a crew to lay it up I wonder how fast this can be done? Would REALLY like to hear from any of the guys who worked there first hand. Thanks gents
    Prepping all materials/ aka ordering, planning designing, cutting, etc is what takes the most time. Laying up is an important step but is only like the last 10% of the job you need to complete.

    To answer your first question, your crew might help you save some time on the parts you have to layup, but that means you have to prep all the pieces like you said. It will take you a long time to cut all the wood because you dont have the templates (like the Hydrostream factory did). You are basically designing the parts as you go so you wont know exactly what size or shape some parts will be until you put in several others first. What I am saying is that everything is done in stages so it's not like if you have unlimited help you can just finish it up in a weekend. The Hydrostream Factory did not start on a boat at 7am and have it rolling out the factory at 4pm...They probably started it on January 1st and since there are 30 different stages of building the boat it was out the door a month later on January 30th. While one is drying they can work on the next. While yours in drying, all you can do is watch TV. Just think of how many parts need to be done before you put the next three in and keep thinking three steps ahead so you dont mess up.

    For example: After you rip out everything, you have a bare fiberglass hull (which might help to have a large crew because you can rip everything out without waiting). You don't know what size or shape the stringers need to be until the whole core is put in. So first patch all the holes in the fiberglass where you ground or cut through, let harden, and then spend a weekend with your team help to put the core in. Wait 2 days for the core (with fiberglass over it) to fully harden...Now you can jump in the boat to measure and cut the wood stringers. You also need to cut the floor to know where it will be sitting in the boat in relation to the stringers. Might take you a few days to get the courage to cut the exact shape you need in your 120+$ piece of marine plywood...Now your team comes over next weekend to glass in the stringers...two weeks in already just on the core, stringers, and oh wait you need to put the transom in, should that go in before the stringers or the floor?

    You bring up a good point to make a cradle, that itself will take you several days to complete and it has nothing to do with laying up, it's all the preparation, could your guys help you build that faster?... It took me a whole weekend just to make wood clamps to make sure the transom I was putting in could be secured in....It's like there are a million steps and you have to wait a day or two inbetween them, so a few years can go by pretty quickly.

    Maybe I am over-thinking it and want to make sure everything works perfectly, but that is going to make a solid boat that doesn't rot or come apart like the factory hulls...

    OK Im done hopefully that was helpful LOL


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  18. #13
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    Great tips thanks!
    Hydrostream dreamin

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