93 Sport restore

[laddski]

We purchased a 93 Sport in July. Had a ton of oxidation on it and needed carpet badly. Decided to due a relatively thorough cleaning/restore other than upholstery which was in good shape. Fairly happy with the result. Far from perfect but at least is not embarassing to ride in now. Took multiple wet sanding procedures to get most of the ghosting off. It ended up being impossible to find the correct decals so we changed the look quite a bit by moving to the 98 Sport lettering. I actually like how it turned out. Quite a bit cleaner looking.

The first photo is after we did a first pass with rubbing compound but it wasn't good enough. Plus my son burned a couple of the letters on the decal so that sealed the deal. We replaced the carpet with the 40oz. stuff and it is great. Very plush.

[cragginshred]

Looks great!!!! I have a 95 sport and just went out today.

[cgofort]

Looks very clean!

I purchased a 1997 Sport last month, so I'd like to use your new found experience to answer some questions. My boat is very sun faded, and the "Sport Nautique" letters are peeling. I know I plan to wet sand to buff out the dull red, is there any other pointers? I'd also like to replace the carpet. Current carpet has a musky smell when wet, so I figure it should be refreshed. Do you have any pointers for replacing carpet?

Thanks,
Charles

[laddski]

Thanks for the replies. It was a lot of work and it still isn't as "clean" as the 93 I sold a year ago but it will do.

cgofort - We ended up wet sanding a number of times because I didn't start low enough. I ended up going clear down to 800 and it was a ton of work but paid off. We took all of the stickers off and it made it a ton easier as you can imagine. We bought the decals from White Lake Marine. As for the carpet, we took everything out of the interior. Ours was not difficult to remove because it was so old that the glue was not holding at all in most places. We stripped most of the old glue that was left with a wire stripper and on the areas that are white, we chemically stripped.

There are some really good threads on here for both carpet and gelcoat refurbishing and that is what I used as reference. I am very happy with the 40oz carpet but it is probably overkill. I think I read the original was like 28oz or less.

Good luck on your project. Let me know if you have specific questions when you get into it.

[bscott]

The new decals turned out great. I think they look better than the old ones.

[cgofort]

Ever notice the large price difference for decals between

http://www.nautiqueparts.com/decals_emblems.aspx

and

http://www.n3boatworks.com/eshopitems_cat_5045-91683.Decals.htm

Any recommendations of other sources for decal?

Regards,
Charles

[laddski]

Thanks bscott. I like them better as well.

cgofort - I looked at both sites and didn't notice a huge difference other than the ones on sale. I went with nautiqueparts because they had the one I wanted. I looked everywhere for period correct decals and couldn't find any. I also didn't find any others that have supplies like the two sites you listed. I'm sure there is not much of a market for these old decals.