My First Ski Nautique

This topic has been something I've wanted to do since I have substantially completed my project but I have been waiting to create it until I could organize all the photos and consider the best layout. After much consideration, deliberation, and delay I figured I just better get on with it lol. 

Thank you to all those who post on this site and help the newbies. I am on this site regularly lurking in the background, soaking up information and I learn something new all the time. I can honestly say this site and those on it gave me the knowledge and confidence to complete this project. I know there is still a lot to learn about these boats but with this site I know about 1000% more than what I did when I started. Cheers to all of you! 

This topic is about my introduction to Ski Nautiques and my journey to restore the boat I ended up buying that I wanted to share.

I have always loved boats/boating/tubing/fishing etc. I previously had a 1984 Bayliner Capri Cuddy Cabin which was in very poor shape. Mechanically it was pretty good, but the floor was rotting, the interior was in poor shape etc. The wife was always worried about taking it out with irrational fears (or maybe not so irrational) of it catching fire or sinking, that’s the kind of shape it was in lol. 

 I started looking for another boat that meet some critical criteria: would fit into my garage, did not have a complicated outdrive system that was difficult to work on, was worth fixing, was worth keeping for a long time, and was in my budget which was pretty small at the time.

 I am no water skier and could never get up on a wakeboard, but I found this 1980 Ski Nautique on craigslist and fell in love immediately. It was just waiting for the right person to come along and get it back to water worthy condition. Not sure if it was the best decision financially because during and after I completed most of the work, I saw lots of similar boats for sale for about half of what I ultimately spent on fixing this one up. But... I prefer to work on and build my own stuff because during the process of fixing them, I learn all about what it is I'm working on, and I can more easily diagnose problems down the road. Also, I enjoy bringing stuff back to like new condition.

I pulled the motor out to check the condition of the main bearings and all were in pretty good shape except the rear. It had significant scoring as well as the crankshaft for that bearing so off it went to the machine shop. The carburetor was not rebuildable either. Intake manifold was full of rust on the inside and not usable. I also found a broken tooth on the distributor.

I also picked up a used set of GT40 heads out of a 1997 Explorer. One of the heads had a broken intake manifold bolt so I used the mill at my work to get it out and installed a helicoil.

I sand blasted and powder coated or painted anything and everything I could including the engine mounts, transmission, transmission mounts, new Edelbrock intake manifold, steering cable arm and bracket, timing cover, all water pump/thermostat pieces etc. Nothing was left with the original paint. I even went as far as taking the alternator apart so I could paint the housing black lol. 

I also stripped all the black so-called epoxy from the entire bilge area. In the process I realized that some of the fiberglass was delaminating from the wood substrate at the corners where the floor meets the exhaust channels.

I decided to cut the fiberglass out and just address these areas. I know there is some wood rot going on the exterior stringers, but I was not ready to do a full stringer job yet. The main stringers seemed to be in good shape, so I proceeded just fixing these areas. I cut out the old delaminating fiberglass and covered with 3 layers of biaxial 1708 fiberglass cloth and Isophthalic Polyester Resin which after reading on this forum doesn't seem like the best choice...but it was already done so maybe next time lol.

After I was satisfied with the fiberglass repairs, I finished stripping the bilge and I applied 2 coats of Total Boat Bilge Epoxy. 

It went from this:

To this:

To this:

I couldn't fit the boat in the garage without removing the swim platform, so I had to buy or make some removable mounts. I made several attempts to contact Alloy Marine to get a custom set of brackets made but I never got a call back. So, I decided to make my own using some stainless flux cored MIG welding wire. Also I had to make a swing away tongue for the trailer to fit as well.

Assembled the motor and reinstalled everything with stainless hardware anywhere I could and used some anti-seize on all the bolts to try and prevent future rust issues.

I installed a new stereo, mono channel amp, 4 channel amp, 2 5.25" marine speakers, and a custom subwoofer box for 2 6.5" subwoofers that I mounted under the bow above the drivers footrest. New yellow top optima battery and all new DLO battery cables with crimped on lugs.

First time in the water and running the engine. Didn't even disconnect it from the trailer because I wasn't sure if it would float or not lol.