1980 HydroStream Vamp resto-mod

The carpet that was on there was actually hot glued on, hot glue! Total pain in the ass to remove. The back edges are from where the last owner put fishing rod mounts, Im thinking they mounted them too low, then had to move them up higher.
The first picture on the left side was where the throttle was mounted, so it had a bunch of screws to hold that on and bigger holes drilled for cables.
Not sure where the rest of the holes came from though

Some of the holes are factory. The bottom pair of large holes near the front and near the back are factory, I think from the tooling when it was built. Then the 3 holes together that look like bowling ball holes every 2 feet are for the trim clips (see picture) I need to keep the bowling ball holes so I can install clips, last owner threw them out so they could glue the carpet there, so I had to source original ones from someone on facebook.

BTW, I didnt include any factory holes in my count

 

While I sit here "working" I realize I need to get switches for my electronics. Also need to figure out a good place to mount them. My acc fuse box has 8 links and my ign fuse box has 4 links. Both will have main power switches in the back, and each box will run off its own battery (acc for radio and lights, ign for just the motor)

So, right now I have the following that need switches -
Nav lights
anchor light*
Radio
LED mood lights
bilge pump

(* anchor light will be tied to nav lights, but will also turn on by itself. nav lights should only be used while moving, so if I am parked at night, I only want the anchor light on)

Possible addition -
Underwater transom lights

I will probably get the 6 switch panel linked just for future expansion.

$36 IZTOSS 6 Gang Aluminum Marine Rocker Switch Panel - Pre-Wired with Blue LED Indicator, 12-24 V Multi-Function Rocker Switch - Ideal for Marine motorhomes, Yachts

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BFVJMSDP?_encoding=UTF8&th=1

As for mounting, I have a couple options I am working with. I think my favorite is the red location. Its kind of a dead spot that I cant use for anything. Yellow might be a issue if I add a fuel gauge next to the voltage gauge. Green would work also, but would require either sitting in the chair or reaching over the wheel to get to.

EDIT: I just measured the place I want to put the switch panel(red), the 6 switch one will not fit there, so I would have to go with the 4. So, I am going to order both the 6 and the 4, I will put the 4 port in the red for now, then putting the 6 switch on the other side of the steering wheel (green, but more to the left and spaced to match the 4 switch)

 

More fit and finish things ordered this afternoon.
Ordered switch panel, cleats, hatch covers (so I can put front cleats on) and engine/trim fuse links.

The cleats I ordered are the fancy folding ones, last thing I need is the kids getting a toe stuck in the cleat while trying to jump off the side.

So now aside from the radio, the only thing that needs to be purchased is the gelcoat for the final paint job... oh and rub rail, but I am still trying to find a good solution for that.

 

Holes mostly all filled. I need to block the whole thing then maybe put a little bit to touch up some spots.

 

Did some block sanding on the gunnels to get them nice and flat, and got the front of the beams bonded to the front bulkhead. I tabbed in part of them, but will need to come back in when they are cured to finish glassing them over.
Right now the clamps are in my way so I cant get a good angle to get the fiberglass in. Going to glass the ends in with a bunch of chop mat then a layer of 1808 over the top. The chop will get into the sharper corners that the 1808 cant get into.

 

Staging the fiberglass for the backs of the main beams. This is pretty light fiberglass, so there is a good chance I will have to go over it again with another layer, but being light it will stay up against the panel in larger sheets. So while I have to hang more of it, it will be easier to hang.

Also bonding the cleat backers to the hull. Used thickened resin and screws through the holes for the cleats to pull them tight. Once cured, I will glass a layer over them.

I also need to order a through hull fitting for the bilge pump to fit that big hole Its slightly larger than I would like for it to be, but im not going to fill it and redrill it. I will just get a fitting that fits close.

 

Well that was just as big a pain in the ass as everything else I have had to do dealing with these beams. Its not that its upside down that hard, its that I cant fit my head in there without rubbing my hair in wet resin...

 

I can sympathize.

Many years ago I was patching a wheel well in an old Wagoneer.
I had stuck a big square of sopping wet mat up and then stuck my head back under the fender.

Just about that time the square fell neatly on my head - on my Beatles style hair...



^^^^
Rusty

 

Here is the 1808 fiberglass thats holding the beams to the front bulkhead, there is also chop mat on the other side and a mixture of loose chop, cabosil, and resin bonding the surface of the beam to the surface of the bulkhead.
Also the fiberglass mat going all the way down the beams to the back.

I think this pretty much concludes my fiberglass work in here. Im going to do one last inspection tomorrow and if all is good then I will vacuum it out really really well. Once its all super vacuumed out, then I will go ahead and lay down plastic wrap to try to keep the dust out while I sand the rest of the hull.

I do want to get a gallon of gelcoat so I can cover the undersides of the gunnels, float pods, bilge and the transom area. One thing I am thinking of doing is spraying underside of the gunnels in white gelcoat, just the top surface and like 2-3 inches down. I am planning to put RGB lights under there to light up the floor area, I figure if I put white up there it would reflect the light better than if I left it black. But, I still need to spray the float foam up into the gunnels and refill the float boxes too.

 

Good idea on the white.

Do you use a special spray gun or nozzle to spray gelcoat?

 

Kinda, its more or less the same kind of spray gun I used when painting cars, but it just has a larger nozzle on it for the thicker gelcoat.

 

Fuel tank showed up today! Also the rear drain tube. Seat bases will be here later.

But fuel tank fits pretty perfect, I can get to the bilge to run the hose out of it. Plan is to put the fuel tank on one side then the batteries on the other side.

Trying to decide the best method to get to the fuel tank to fill it. The backrest of the rear seat will be covering it up, so im thinking either making the rear seat a split 50/50 so I can remove just the section covering the fuel tank, or putting a fuel filler spout on the hull and routing a tube down to the tank. I like the idea of having the fuel filler on the outside of the boat so I dont need to spill gas on the seats or carpet.

 

An external mount fuel filler would be a nice touch.

My first thought was a 1970s Dodge Challenger:



Thinking about you black/gray theme maybe a 2020 Challenger would be more appropriate:




I don't know if either of these are "boat grade" however the modern car fuel systems are all sealed up so perhaps yes?

 

I have a 1973 challenger Me and my dad restored it 27 years ago. For a external one, I need to just make sure that I put it somewhere water cant flow over the top of it.

 

NICE ! 340 powered car?

The little BMW would be a fun summer car too.

Vanishing Point (1971) is my all time favorite movie BTW.

 

Yep it's a 340, all numbers matching too. Dynoed the motor a 450hp.
The bmw is fun, it's 1 of 18 built in the whole world too, so super rare. Not fast, but handles like a dream.

 

The Challenger is just a bit hotter than stock then.

1 of 18! You can't just leave me hanging here...
What makes it so rare and how did you get it.

 

So its a special version that was only made 1 month in 1991, came with custom leather seats with special edition fabric centers, the door and console are also leather wrapped (all other ones are vinyl). It came with special suspension(springs, sway bars, struts) and 15 inch wheels (all others had 14 inch wheels). Then the best part was the factory body kit, while the body kit was offered on some euro models, it was never offered in the US or in combination with the seats/suspension.

Its a m-technic from 1991. There are 2 versions of it, there was the "appearance" package cars, those came in triple white or triple black, they didnt have the seats, suspension, or wheels. They were a little more common, but still pretty rare. Then there was the full m-tech cars like mine, they came in silver, red and dark blue. Most were automatics, but mine was a factory manual car making it even rarer. The holy grail though is the dark blue manual with heated seats. Ive never seen one, but heated seats and manual were pretty hard to find on their own, together they are impossible.
In terms of rareness, the red was the most common, then silver, then blue. Silver manuals accounted for only 18 of the total production run, blue had I think 6 manuals, and red had like 30. Automatics filled up the rest but still in the same order with red being the most common color produced. From what I remember, total production for all the colors in both transmissions was 150 cars.

Now, being from 1991, I would venture to guess about 80% of them are gone by now. Either crashed, rotted out, or sent to the junk yard.

I got mine in 2006, saw it on ebay for $9K, it was in Washington. Called the guy up, sent him a check and he put it on a truck to be shipped here. After getting the car I had a company in China reproduce the fabric that was used on the seats since BMW didnt make it anymore. I got 1000 yards of the fabric for $10k, took me 6 years to sell it all off, but I sold it for about $70 a yard (5 yards per car). I redid my car in the fabric and still have a little bit left in my basement. I also had the car repainted and all dents and dings fixed in 2009.

I got the car with 252,000 miles on it, and now after 18 years it has 257,000 miles on it.

 

Got a couple packages today, switch panel, cleats, hatch covers, fuse boxes, drain tube tool, and sotme marine glue.
I also grabbed some battery trays from fleetfarm. Got 2 trays, a group 27 and a group 24. The 27 is the starting battery, the 24 will be for radio and lights.

The cleats are pretty neat, looks like they will fit pretty well too and keep the kids from catching their toes on them.

 

Started patching the old holes in the transom skin this afternoon. I had completely forgotten about them until recently. Each one is filled in with like 8 layers of chop mat, then I will go over it with the grinder to flatten it all down, then block it and see how close to flat they are. Might have to put a little filler on them, but I am hoping to of gotten them built up enough that I can just grind them down flat.

My friend from up norths wife called me the other day, asked if she got a fly fishing guide for him on his birthday if I would go with. Hell yeah! so I ordered a fly rod so I can practice in the field behind the house. I also ordered a travel ultra light rod to finish rounding out my travel rod selection.

I now have a travel rod for every body of water and type of fish that I would commonly catch. Ocean - river - creek - lake