1980 HydroStream Vamp resto-mod

Yep, I eventually plan to upgrade to a newer motor. But with winter coming I will be pulling the whole motor apart to clean and rebuild it.

 

Todays the day! Going to pick up the boat at 5 tonight.

Sold my wifes old lexus last night so I got a big wad of $100s, $50s, and $20s to get this thing restored.

 

Boats are awesome.
Expensive hobby, we had a flat bottom sky boat, Casale v-drive, 2 speed transmission and a tunnel rammed big block. Super fast and scared the crap out of anyone who rode in it.
Good luck with your boat, they are a blast.

 

Alright, got her all home! This boat is a wiring nightmare! luckily all the wiring is easy to get to, and there is not much of it. But there are probably 15 random wire ends cut off and sitting in there. Trailer is solid, but also the wiring is crack headed up.

So, first look at home I need a few things.
Trailer
- leafs its sitting with about 1 inch between the tire and fender
- wiring, some of it works, but its about 5 inches too short to plug in
- front boat stop/winch is bent up and poorly tack welded together. So remove the welds, straighten it up and reweld.


Boat
- wiring needs to all be redone
- throttle is taped together with a aftermarket trim switch on there
- lights need to be cleaned and repaired
- there is a small hole above the fuel tank (fiberglass area) that was poorly repaired, so I will cut out the patch and put in a new one
- motor turns over and has compression
- thunder bolt ign needs to be rewired
- Paint and interior needed


Overall, the hull is solid, no soft spots, everything is good and strong. The trailer needs some tlc, but is very sturdy. The tongue is super super short for some reason, its not a big issue as it allows me to fit it in the garage straight and not at a angle.

 

Spent some time with serial numbers and hull numbers tonight. So far I have learned that this boat was made in January of 1980, and the motor was made in 1974. The trailer is a whole different story.... Its been painted brown sometime between 1980 and 2007, I know this because there is a 2007 "invasive plants" sticker near the font and I can see parts of the last registration on the tongue under the winch mount covered in brown paint.

Im going to get this thing registered first thing tomorrow, then drag it out to my storage unit for the rest of the week. I want to get the trailer up to code first thing so moving it is less of a roll of the dice.
I need to put new leafs on it, replace the bunks, and straighten out the bent winch mount and boat guides.

I did get under the boat, found a few spots of JB weld on the hull, but otherwise it looks pretty good. The boat is sparkly brown, I thought it was dark gray, but its just that oxidized.

Took the motor cover off too tonight, lots of oil from the carbs that has not been cleaned in years, but everything else looks good. So, big cleaning job when I rebuild the carbs, and then a fresh coat of black paint for the whole motor.


Oh, also I found a small rattle crankbait stuck in the carpet so far. I am up 1 lure, 2 bobbers, and a small hook already

 

Alright, boat is registered! Trailer not so much. I have no title, no vin, nothing for it. They said they can force a title change on it, but need a vin. So its time to search the frame for that vin.

 

I found a old reg sticker on the trailer, is was under a thick layer of paint that I was able to gently clean away. So tomorrow I can get the trailer forced into my name.

In other news though, I went to put the boat in storage for the next 2 days, well I am 2 inches too long to fit in the storage garage I spent a hour pushing it every way possible to fit it in there and nothing. So now I am under the gun to get my garage cleared out so I can put the boat in there before the HOA starts yelling at me.

 

Did a little test bit to try to fix the paint. One of the last owners painted the whole thing with polyester resin, well its flaking off like sunburnt skin and turned yellow. I sanded it a bit with a DA and 80 grit, then hand buffed it with some finishing compound (I only have finishing compound)

Before


After




The trailer needs a bit of work too, I tried to straighten out the winch mount, but its not budging. So time to order a new one. The last owner bent it, then tried to reweld the broken welds. So its just all sorts of fucked. This is also where I was able to find a registration sticker covered in brown paint.

 

A boat in the neighborhood had a tongue that folds back on a pivot pin. Shortens the trailer by a good 18” and allows it to fit where it originally didn’t. May be a good add so you have storage options.

 

Swing tongues are great for fitting boats in the garage.

 

Before I even went to go look at this boat I was checking out swing hinges. When I got to the boat I realized the tongue was short.. like really short. That dolly wheel is pushed about 3 inches from the coupler.
I could do it, but I would have to relocate the dolly and the winch post.

 

That trailer has a sketchy past. Its the original trailer from 1980, but in 2005 it was registered as "home made". Then sometime between 2005-2007 it was spray painted brown with red wheels (2005 sticker painted over, 2007 invasive plant sticker on top of brown paint).
I have filled out all the forms to force transfer it to me, I got new registration and will be getting a packet of more forms to fill out soon.

 

Spent a little bit of time on the engine today. Was going to check spark as I was getting fuel, welp the last guy broke a spark plug wire and instead of spending money to get a new one, they just stuffed 2 lock washers into the hole and pushed the wire against them.

 

Have you considered looking for a new trailer?

 

No need, trailer is all registered to me now. Just takes some research and leg work and you can get titles for anything.

 

More testing this morning. Tested the ign system and Im getting spark, got the motor to fire a few times but I dont have muffs so I didnt want to push it more.
I need to swap the fuel tank with my other one that I know has good gas in it.

 

Got the motor all running!

https://youtube.com/shorts/--0cGCpo5-M

 

Alright, boat is in its winter home. I had to kick out my Dodge Challenger, so that and a bunch of seasonal items are going to go live in a 10x20 steal box for the winter. Then summer the Challenger will come home and the boat will go into the storage unit. I need to modify the trailer with a tongue hinge to fit in the storage unit, but I can do it.

 

Threw some new spark plug wires on last night. Waiting on the carb kits to show up, then I will be pulling the boat out to get it started and running then flush it with anti freeze for the winter.



Today I pulled up the carpet, I knew there was going to be trouble under there as there was some plywood under the carpet. So this is what I found, the last owner had cut out the floor and just covered it up. Its not terrible looking under there, but I do need to clean up the last owners cuts so I can put a clean sheet of wood down, replace the stringers, and fiberglass it all in nice. But right now its all open and I have the ceiling fan right above it on high to get it all dried out, I wont attempt to fix until its super super dry, so a few weeks it will sit like this.

 

More cutting on the floor, ended up taking a thick splinter into the finger right under the nail... I stopped there for the night. But I cut up the sides and followed the rot, looks like I will be doing floors and part way up the sides, but only halfway up to the front. Figure I should have the floors cut out and the new wood cut to fit by the end of the week. Then I can glass it all in over the weekend.



While at fleet farm getting new blades for the saw I picked up a pair of clearance musky rods. Got 2 fenwick elite predator 8f6i heavy rods for $67.00 each. Just need to get some reels and I will be able to cast the big big musky lures. My current rod is limited to 3oz, these new ones go up to 12oz lures. They are 2 piece rods, so the handles come off. I think thats why they were clearanced, the handles were jammed on there so tight you could not get them off. Took about 30 seconds with a 16mm box wrench and a hammer for me though.