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.