1980 HydroStream Vamp resto-mod

Hatch covers made and covered in carpet, going to pick up some hinges tonight after dropping my daughter off at dance. Also glued on my transducer mount for the fish finder, then finally I took a old fishing rod sleeve and ran the wiring for the motor in it to clean those up a bit.

 

Front carpet all done now. I was thinking of just making the foam cushions for this area, but in the end decide carpet and people can sit of throwable life pad things. This ended up being the easy solution that I dont have to worry about flying off on the highway or while on the lake.
But I got the storage hatches installed with some hinges so they open and close to keep ropes and stuff in the storage bins.

 

Wired up the trim switch waiting for the new harness for the trim motor. I put some EVA foam decking onto the splash well to make it not so slick when its wet. Turned out pretty good honestly.

 

New tilt and trim harness is in and wired up to the factory trim switch on the throttle, I did get a external trim switch too, it will get used when I finally get around to swapping out the hand throttle for a shift knob and hot foot pedal.
Batteries are mounted and all wiring secured up and out of the way.

Last thing I need to do is build a quick rear bench for the kids to sit on and its ready for vacation.

 

Built a temporary backrest for the kids so they can sit and not hit the fuel tank or batteries. Also added some wood trim to the back, its just pine stained to look like teak. I am going to order a beam of teak when I get back from vacation to replace the pine.

I think I am going to not have a back seat at all, having the back open makes fishing and transporting the tube 100 times easier. I am going to build a "curtain" to go back there so I can get to the batteries and fuel tank, but still hide them.

I also ordered a gas buggy for my vacation. Its 14 gallons, has wheels and its own nozzle to transfer fuel to the boat. I did this because the nearest gas station is 10 miles from where we are staying, and I really dont feel like loading the boat up on the trailer every time I need to fill the tank.
I just need to decide if I want to premix my fuel in the buggy, or do it in the boats tank. I can get a better mix ratio in the buggy because I will know how many gallons I add to it at the gas station, but I also want to be able to use the gas buggy for the lawn mower, my mini bike, and a few other gas things I have. So I might just premix in the buggy for this trip, then when its empty I will be mixing in the boat tank.

 

Really looking nice now!

 

^^^
Agree, looking great!
This has been a long road - now is the payoff - time to enjoy the ride

 

Alright, 14 gallons of non-ethenol premixed 50:1 gas with my own personal pump for the dock. I should of gotten one of these long ago, this is great for filling up the random gas things I have.
And if I take a long road trip, I can strap this into the truck and nearly double my range.

 

Just tried to put the cover on the boat to trailer it, yeah thats not going to happen.... The cover fits ok for when its parked, but in no way will that hold on the highway. So, guess I will have to change my packing plans a little bit. Fishing gear will all have to go into the truck, and I will have to figure out a easy way to strap the kayaks down that are sitting in the boat.

 

Alright, first big trip with the boat was a great success with mild failures.

Boat ran great, towed the kids, and everyone had a blast. Thursday night while driving the trailer to the boat ramp to load up the boat, one of the U-bolts holding the axle to the leaf spring snapped and the whole trailer dropped to the ground. I had to ratchet strap the axle to the trailer to get it back to the cabin, from there I was able to bend a random u-bolt I had sitting on the floor of the truck to get the trailer road worthy again to get it to a shop, the bolt was too long so I used a 15mm and 14mm sockets as spacers, the shop got a good laugh out of that. We smoked one of the bearings on the trailer too, so $200 and 3 hours later the shop replaced the bearing and the broken u-bolt.
Here is my band aid fix to hold the axle together. The far u-bolt you can see is not even close to being right, but it held 30 miles to the shop.


Otherwise, we caught fish, tubed, and just cruised around. Boat topped out at 40 mph, 30 while towing the kids.









https://www.youtube.com/shorts/uOVeranqoFQ
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/dYb5WDjyax0

 

Looks like a great time was had by all.
The engine sounds nice & smooth.

Is 40 & 30 what you expected?

 

Yeah, I could of gotten more out of it if I had the 3 blade prop on there, but I ran the 4 blade for the extra grip towing.

3 blade offers less water resistance, so it can spin fasting giving you a higher top speed.
4 blade has more "traction" when pulling.

Next time I go out, I will be trying the 3 blade and seeing what it can do. I also need to measure my motor to make sure its sitting at the right spot in the water for best performance.

 

Great fun!! And I agree that engine sounds really nice and smooth. And by the way, nice field fix.

 

The boat looks and runs great and really nice work on the band aid fix! Reminds me of when I was a kid on my folks boat. We spent hours fishing and skiing.

 

Alright, spent some quality time with my trailer today. I replaced the u bolts that I did have holding the bunks on, they were 3 inch and I needed to have 2.5 inch. Unfortunately 2.5 inch square u bolts are hard to find. So I made my own with 1 inch box steel and some bolts, now the bunks are good and solid.

I also tried to bend and weld the part of the frame that got ripped off when the axle fell off... its pretty banged up, so I am just going to cut the step pads off and make some mounts for the fenders.

I installed some guide posts in the rear to make loading the boat in wind a little easier. Right now the boat is under the mercy of the wind and waves, and when my only help is a 10 year old boy, the boat can get out of hand fast.

 

Got a question for you all. My dog loves the boat, but he is also stupid and tries to jump off the sides and bite my lures.

So I have to keep him leashed, right now I tie the leash to the seat, but would love a more elegant solution. I was thinking of getting a flip down cleat like I have on the bow and stern already, and just mount it to the wall of the entrance to the front lounge area. The cleat would be out of the way when folded down, and I can easy strap his leash to it when he is on the boat.

Right here where the red circle is, thats where I want to put it.

 

Not a bad idea. Our dog would jump off of my folks boat at speed if any one of us were on water skis. One of us would always have to hold him on his leash when we were on skis. I guess he thought we needed saving. LOL

 

Alright, lets get the power up on this old girl! Swapping out the 85hp 4 cyl for a 115hp 6 cyl!

 

More smiles per hour!

 

This thing is heavy, and big.... its like 10 inches taller than the motor I have now.

But the straight 6 should give me a nice boost in torque and power over my 4 cylinder. The hp rating is not much higher, but the the extra 2 cylinders should help me pulling the kids.