1983 Vking rebuild

[VkingMike]

Alright guys, I've already started by rebuild a few weeks ago. But I have been taking photos of as much as I can during the different stages. I have found so much wrong already and it amazes me the shortcuts people will take to just patch something that needs a full restoration.

I picked this boat up In May of this year after looking at a LOT of old Hydrostreams in desperate need of repair or maintenance. I could tell the transom and floor had been replaced at some point in its life, but the owner was not sure of when. Hell, he wasn't really sure which model of Hydrostream this even was. But it ran really well and I saw the potential.

I started with the obvious tune-ups and services to get it on the water and make sure it would float/run at minimum before going much further. First water test it was taking on quite a bit of water, so I pulled it back out to inspect. I found what appeared to be empty screw holes in the bottom of the hull (on the outside of the core material). Not sure what they were doing under there, but I properly repaired them and solved that issue. Installed a Seastar pro for safety and started running the boat regularly. Once I got more comfortable and learned how to drive the boat a bit better, speeds started getting faster and faster. Which then had me thinking more and more about safety and integrity of the hull. Last thing I want to do is have a failure or accident due to rolling the dice.

I'll start with a few pictures of the boat, before I started cutting.

[tnelsmn]

Starting with a good looking boat! Looking forward to seeing this come together.

[LakeFever]

Nice looking stream! Keep posting up pics and updating. Build threads are the most fun to follow so I’m looking forward to seeing you progress with this

lol tree’d by Tnels

[VkingMike]

Thanks guys, I'll be adding more pictures of what I've done already here shortly. I Though I had a lot of questions before, but now that I'm into cutting I have SO many more lol... I'll definitely be looking for advice through this process.

[VkingMike]

First day was removing seats and seat mount, then fuel cell battery and basically everything on the floor. I cut an access hole under where the fuel cell was mounted in the rear to test drill a few spots of core. It started off looking good, as the floor was Divinycell in between two thick layers of fiberglass. Honestly would have though it was wood with how sturdy it was. The core on the outer sides of the stringer was first, it was dry foam, so I think Awesome! Next was a drill into the center of the pad near the drainplug, well I struck oil (water) It came bubbling out of the drill hole along with soaked but clean balsa wood. From here is where I had that feeling of "well, I've gotta do it now"

[VkingMike]

I started with setting a circular saw blade to a depth that would just barely cut through the floor and taking strips out of the middle. I wasn't sure how close to cut towards the edge, so I went a little at a time.

[XstreamVking]

Doing good so far, proceeding with caution is the best method. I see you have an 83, same yr as mine and same const it appears with the glass U shaped stringer. Low floor in frt. and footrest. Big boxes full of foam in outer wings at stern. Nice looking boat and old Mariner is nice too....

[LakeFever]

The core looks pretty dark. Restoration was a wise decision

[VkingMike]

Doing good so far, proceeding with caution is the best method. I see you have an 83, same yr as mine and same const it appears with the glass U shaped stringer. Low floor in frt. and footrest. Big boxes full of foam in outer wings at stern. Nice looking boat and old Mariner is nice too....

Thanks man, form all my searching and looking at layups and advice I got from asking Tnelsmn a few questions, I felt a bit more comfortable going forward.

[VkingMike]

Once I got all the floor cut out, I went straight for the front foot area and bow. It was done poorly and I found lots of water being held in this area, along with a pressure treated wood brace. It appears they just laid it down and glassed over it.

[VkingMike]

The core looks pretty dark. Restoration was a wise decision

This is where the pictures start to get good!

[VkingMike]

Next was on to cutting the fiberglass around the outer edge of the core all the way up into the bow. I started prying up the fiberglass and removing it in chunks and there it was, rotten wet core. some spots missing, some still adhered down. You can also see how thin the hull is where a flashlight was laid under the hull on the ground.

[LakeFever]

I hear ya on thin skin. I’m still shocked how thin the outer skin is on these things. I added lots of glass to mine but weight wasn’t my primary concern, strength was.

[VkingMike]

The fun really began when I started removing the balsa core. I used a oscillation saw and it worked quite well to get most of the wood removed and ready for grinding. I started way up in the bow with grinding and worked my way back. It still needs a bit more, but its getting close to bare hull. I found standing water in the foot are, it started seeping out when I was cutting around the outer layer of core fiberglass.

[VkingMike]

That's all the balsa that's still in this boat besides the pad, Everything behind the front area is 3/8 Divinycell core. However, it is not bonded properly from the sections I have started to remove, which basically make it useless and its all coming out as well. But before that, I cut the fiberglass stringer out and opened up the pad to expose the core (or what was left of it) This is where I stood back and said out loud "WOW"