1997 super sport nautique resto-mod

[orzech]

Couple coats sprayed... only another 50+ hrs of work ahead of me. FWIW gelcoat is a pain in the *** to work with/spray. You mix the gel and the hardener and its like spraying glue. You need to do that for the first couple coats. Then you spray with additives which finishes the curing process and allows you to sand the orange peel out. After that its the final coat and then more sanding and some polishing. The fun part is that you only have 15-30 minutes to work with the gelcoat before it starts to gel and gum up your gun. So it goes mix up some gel, spray your *** of as fast as possible, clean the gun and containers etc, and then repeat. Overall I am happy with how everything is turning out. I seem to have kept the orange peel to a minimum because this stuff is like spraying syrup so its tough to get a smooth finish. If anyone wants to read a good write up on gel coat, this is a pretty good article of the process involved:

http://www.bertram31.com/proj/tips/re-gelcoating.htm

[Brichter14]

Wow great work! Thats looking awesome!

[orzech]

2nd gallon of gel comes in tomorrow so in the mean time i cleaned/painted my windshield frame. Looks 100 times better.

[orzech]

Got the 3rd coat sanded and removed all the orange peel, sprayed the final coat thinned out which turned out pretty good, still some orange peel but far less than the first few coat. So once this sets, its back to sanding. I cant wait to be done with this... Sooo labor intensive.

[s_kelley2000]

Wow I can't wait to see the finished product. You will end up with a really cool and unique boat I think. Good luck getting it finished up and thanks for sharing.

[orzech]

Thanks... cant wait to be able to start buffing and see the black really shine. After thats done, its onto making a composite swim platform and an electric NSS. So i still have my work cut out for me this winter.

[orzech]

1000 grit sanded, snapped a pic while the boat was still wet. Going to go 1500 and then buff. New rub rail ordered, SS cupholders are in. Ordering a center T handle drain plug to put in the ski locker so I can actually drain all the water out while its in the hoist. Some thru-hulls and misc parts to finish up the bow ballast should be here soon. But anyways heres a quick teaser pic. Cant wait to get her all back together.

[Brichter14]

Thats looking really good! Cant wait!

[orzech]

Finally hit it with 1500 and then a quick round of buffing. There are a few spots I need to go over again but overall I am very pleased with the outcome. Cant wait to start putting everything back together to see everything come together.

[grkero]

Looks pretty sharp! Nice work.

[flipflop]

Great Winter project and probably perfect timing to have everything ready for the Spring.

[orzech]

Thanks guys, its been a project in the works and been planned out for a couple years now. Part of the reason why I stuck with the gray interior, finished off all the chrome with black powdercoating, and then the carbon trim stuff. Hoping to get it all wrapped up this week.

[orzech]

So I got her waxed up and most of the interior in... progress is being made. Rub rail is going on tomorrow, modding the bases for the cupholders too and a few other misc things. More updates to come with other changes.

[Brichter14]

Dude that looks amazing. I am really jealous. I really like the added cupholders and the recessed speakers by the way!

[grkero]

Fricken awesome work. One day if I change boats again and I want to change my deck, this may have inspired me to do so. But I can hardly fathom the man hours into a project like that.