1998 Ski Nautique

[NautiqueJeff]

I moved this boat over to the world-famous BBC here in Mooresville, NC today.

It is ready for the shift and throttle cable replacements, and there is actually room to work on it!

I think I will buff the dash while the windshield is off.

[NautiqueJeff]

I got a surprise text from one of the guys who helps us out over at the world-famous BBC here in Mooresville, NC today. He came in this morning, saw my cables sitting on the back of the boat, and swapped them both out for me. Now I will go over and remove the old tower mounts, buff out the top deck, install the windshield, and put it in the water!!

[Scooter G]

Good deal, you were dreading dealing with those cables anyways (although I know you can do them in your sleep).
Set the screwdriver, buffer and windshield out this evening, just to see if history repeats itself tomorrow morning, lol

[NautiqueJeff]

Not a bad idea. I may just try that!!

[NautiqueJeff]

My son and I spent the evening over at the world-famous BBC here in Mooresville, NC working on this boat.

We got the tower mounts and the other unknown mounts removed from the top deck. I am not going to try to patch the holes. I am just going to order pieces of SeaDek to cover the holes. I was going to install SeaDek on the bow anyway, so this will not look out of place.

We also checked over the installation of the throttle and shift cables, and found them to be less-than-perfect. The throttle arm was mounted in such a way that neutral was 90 degrees off, so that the throttle arm pointed directly at the back of the boat when it was in neutral. We took that apart and fixed it, but then when we fired the boat up, the engine revved way up, indicating that the throttle cable was severely out of adjustment. I adjusted it as much as I could at the engine, but it wasn't enough, so we had to pull the morse control completely apart and adjust that end of the cable. We finally got it adjusted properly.

I appreciate the effort of the guy who installed the cables, but next time I think I'll just do it myself.

Now I just need to clean it all up, buff out the deck, install the windshield, and drop it in the water!

[Scooter G]

If you want something done right...
That's usually how my, hey thanks for the help, projects go. Now what do I have to fix behind you?

It's the thought that counts I guess (as long as you don't get tagged with a bill).

[NautiqueJeff]

Ah, look at that straight throttle arm with new shift knob. And you can actually move the arm now with the cables replaced. That's a plus!

Now if I can just get the vinyl on that panel clean to match, we'll be in good shape.

[NautiqueJeff]

Ok, so I am waiting on parts or work by others on all of my project boats that will be for sale soon, so I spent today working on this boat (I am keeping this one).

I set an ambitious goal this morning. I wanted to have the boat in the water and go for a ride in it before dark.

I wanted to buff the entire top deck, mostly because I will be mounting a windshield soon, and I didn't want to install a windshield on an oxidized dash. The black dashes on the late-90's boats are hard to buff with a windshield installed, so I wanted to do this today.

I also had to mount the water pump (it was still off from my impeller replacement), and install a new water pump belt and alternator belt.

I also wanted to pressure wash the carpet and the bilge while most of the interior was out of the boat.

Then I had to put enough of the interior in the boat so that it was usable.

I also had to fix the high idle issue once and for all.

Ok, so I started with the water pump. That was easy enough, once I convinced myself that I was indeed installing it in the proper orientation. Knocked out the belts, too.



Then I started buffing the deck. That was tedious, but it turned out great. If I had more time, I would have done the whole boat, but that will have to wait for winter. I want to use this boat now.









Then I brought it home from the world-famous BBC here in Mooresville, NC and started the pressure washing. That went really well. It always amazes me how much a pressure washer will help the carpet, even greasy, oily carpet like this boat had. I can't believe I didn't take any "after" pictures other than these. It really did turn out nice. Here are some of the pieces, but I didn't get any of the whole boat...





Finally, I cleaned the vinyl and installed the engine box, rear floor, cooler door, and driver's seat.

I got to take a short ride just as it was getting dark.

The engine is not running great, but it is running. I'll have to play with it more tomorrow.

[bturner]

The last couple project boats I did were similar to yours on the interior, carpet was mashed down with oil and whatever in it. The bilge was horrible from years of neglect as well. The wife made it abundantly clear there would be no washouts in our driveway and the lawn was strictly verboten.

All the above taken into consideration and the fact I don't own a pressure washer, I took the poor boy's 2 step approach. I started with spraying the really bad areas with Purple Power and a quick scrub. I then filled the bilge with hot water with a high mix of Dawn dish soap, then took a 15 minute ride around town to mix all this up a bit and ended the trip at our local quarter card wash.

Once there I pulled the both the center and rear plugs. While that was draining I went to step 2 which was the soap pressure wash. With the boat disconnected from the truck and the trailer dolly wheel raised as high as I could get it to lift the bow, I started the driver's foot well and worked my way back. What came out looked like chockalott milk. I let it all drain and did a second session focusing on the heavier soiled areas until everything ran clear. Follow up with a quick lemon wax rinse which let the boat smelling lemony fresh.

As Jeff states, it's truly amazing to see the carpet just come back to life. Not only did the carpet clean up but it also got fluffy again. The bilge also looked like new.

To top everything off I did the teak platform while I was there as well. If you haven't tried cleaning your platform at the car wash, I highly recommend doing so. I stopped using the expensive and harsh chemicals years ago. About two bucks worth of quarters will knock just about anything off the platform and have it ready for sanding once it's thoroughly dried.

All said, I think I had about $7 into the car wash that day but came home with the carpet, bilge and the platform ready for the next step of the detailing process. The teak clean/brightener alone would have been about $25.

[Scooter G]

Cool! Still not sure how you get so much done in a day?
Loved the video, nice test run. Hope you were wearing your navigator goggles with no windshield, lol

[SilentSeven]

+1 for quarter wash solutions! Rinse all your problems away....and then drive off!

I've come to really dislike any oil scum in my bilge. Anytime I have a reason to be in there, I shoot some spray nine into the corners and make a point to hose it clean. Over time, you chase out the accumulated scum and man everything looks and smells nice. A little recurring maintenance goes a long way.....

Sent from my Pixel 7 using Tapatalk

[Scooter G]

I keep hearing "Spray Nine". Never used it.
Is it all that?
Are we using the green label, or the blue label marine?
Active ingredient is Sodium Hydroxide, but I can't see the quanity differences between the 2. Maybe I'll try them both...

[NautiqueJeff]

Yep, I use Spray Nine Marine on my upholstery, followed by 303 protectant. Great stuff! I have used it on carpet too in the past, but it wasn't necessary this time. I had it ready though!

[Scooter G]

Excellent to know, thanks. Great, now I've got to look up 303 Protectant, lol.

Nerdy stuff, I found this:
Two cleaners tested best: MDR Krazy Clean and Marine Spray Nine, Practical Sailors Best Choice picks for general-purpose cleaners. For a green cleaner, we recommend Spray Nine Bio-based Earth Soap for vinyl and rubber, and to tackle Formica, we suggest Biokleen.

Marine Spray Nine showed the highest pH level and should not be used on glass or LCDs, but the product is chlorine free and has proven itself over the years in our tests. It can be found online for a good price. Regular Spray Nine is basically the same product as its marine-market sibling, but it is less expensive and can be found at stores like Ace Hardware and True Value. We found it online for $4.18 (for a 25-ounce bottle), which equates to 17 cents per ounce, earning it the Budget Buy title. March of 2020 Report.

[NautiqueJeff]

I had a few minutes to work on things this evening. It still seems to be running on 7 cylinders. I looked at the normal suspects, like the plugs, wires, distributor cap and rotor. Plugs are new, so I doubt that's it. Found the cap to be loose! Tightened that up and thought for sure that would fix it. It seemed to idle better after that, but when I took it out it still seemed off.

When I was coming back to the dock, the whole boat just died. No power to anything. The Ignition breaker had tripped, and would not reset. Luckily I had a paddle, and I was only two houses away from home. I paddled back to the dock.

I took the dash panel apart when I got home, and found that the wires going to the Ignition breaker were VERY corroded. I touched one, and the connector broke in half! I replaced the ends on all of the wires going to the Ignition breaker, and put it all back together. Power is restored! I'll pull the whole dash off this winter and rewire everything.

Tomorrow I will check the timing and make absolutely sure the firing order is correct. This weird running issue has to be something simple like that.

I did want to report that a concern from earlier in this thread, the possibility of a cracked block due to water in the oil when I first got the boat, seems to not be a concern. I have run it multiple times now, twice out driving it and numerous times tied up to my dock, and the oil is still perfectly clean with no water intrusion.

Here's a shot of the back side of the Ignition breaker before I rewired it.