1980 HydroStream Vamp resto-mod

Alright, more of the sides of the top hull have been sanded down, got a little bit on the left front and a little bit on the right back to do. Should be able to wrap that up today and be ready to block the sides. Weather is going to be bad this week, right now its 30 degrees, but we are getting 1-2 feet of snow from tonight to tuesday.

But, battery cut off switches showed up today, radio should be here tomorrow if the snow doesnt get in the way, I got my templates and mounting hardware for the sonar units. Going to put both templates up and see what fits the best.

 

Testing out the templates, the smaller unit just fits better, the bigger one gets a little too close to the edges. But while testing out location I decided to put the unit where the voltage gauge hole currently is sitting. This will let me put 4 smaller gauges to the right of the steering wheel instead of being stuck with just the single small gauge on the right right.

 

It looks kinda crooked due to how the bottom of the panel swoops down, but its level with the side of the stairs. I think once the black gelcoat is down, it will blend in more and not look tilted.

 

Left side of the boat is now all stripped and sanded, top is stripped and sanded, lounge is stripped and sanded, just have a little bit on the right side to do then I can block out the whole thing.

I also ordered more gauges, since I will want to fill up the space between the steering wheel and the sonar, I ordered trim gauge, fuel gauge, and temperature gauge. the 3 new ones wont be hooked up until I have a new motor and a new custom fuel tank. I will have the back lights for them hooked up, but not the senders. But I will be running the wires for them so all I have to do is plug in the wires and be good to go.

 

Right side is like 90% done now, I ran out of batteries for my DA so I had to stop for the night. Going to start again tomorrow, get that finished and then start blocking with the air block.

Radio may or may not show up tomorrow, so if it does I'll be cutting that into the dash. Also going to measure out the area to the right of the steering wheel and mark the holes for the new gauges that will be showing up soon. Not going to drill them just yet, I want to get all 4 gauges together and make sure I actually want to run all 4 of them.

Will probably measure out what I need for the rear seat build up and the trim panels too, going to be snowed in for a few days so I might as well get the rest of the interior built up.

 

Radio is here! Its pretty cool, bigger than I thought, but should still fit nice. Going to cut it in this afternoon.

 

Just tested out the speaker in my basement, holy shit this sounds amazing... This was a good choice and I am very very very happy with it. We will see how the bass is out on a lake, I can always add a subwoofer later if needed.

 

Radio installed! this thing rocks pretty good. Might look into a small 6.5 inch subwoofer just to round out the bass on the thing when out in the open lake.

There is a small trim ring that goes around the radio to cover up the screw holes and give it a nice finished look.

 

Also I should note, I had to cut the radio in at an angle instead of perfectly level. These 2 pictures show the difference. Putting the radio at a slight angle lets it follow the body lines, its so long that making it level results in it looking really crooked. The sonar is level, so its slightly crooked in the panel, but since its tall and narrow you dont notice it very much.


This is the radio parallel with the sides of the steps making it perfectly level.



This one shows it parallel with the top and bottom of the dash, so its slightly tilted with the left side being lower than the right

 

Cut in the front hatches, but there's a problem, the hole is too small for me to make the turn to get my whole arm in there, I might be able to get the cleats on, but not the bow eye. So, I ordered some 6 inch hatches and some 8 inch hatches. Going to enlarge the holes to 6 inches and try, if I still cant reach then I will boost them up the 8 inches... if I still cant reach then I will have to figure something else out. I can probably put one of these 4 inch hatches in the front center angled part, that would give me the space I need to get to the bow eye, but I just hate the idea of a hatch being visible.

I have a 6 inch hatch from my kayak, and I am able to stick my arm all the way up in that inside my kayak, so thinking the 6 inch hatches will work for me.

 

Alright, I cut in 6 inch holes and I can now reach the cleats, I wasnt able to reach the bow eye, but I also was wearing a thick canvas jacket and didnt want to rub my bare arm on raw fiberglass before bed time. Ill try reaching the bow eye tomorrow, if I cant then I guess I will have to cut in a 4 inch hole in the front center part that Im not happy about.
There is also a chance I can get to the bow eye by making a hole under the nav lights. It would be just big enough to fit a socket with the nut on it, but its possible.

I do need to mix up a little bit of resin as the holes I cut went into a little bit of balsa core, so I have to reseal that back up.





Since I had already cut a 4 inch hole, there was no where for the pilot bit to go to cut the 6 inch hole. I was able to stack the 4 inch and 6 inch bits to allow the 4 inch to ride inside the hole I already made and keep the 6 inch bit centered.

 

Front and rear cleats have now been drilled and test fit, I can get to the bolts on the backside of all of them. I used one stock hole for each one, then just drilled a new hole for the other bolt. I could of just used the screws instead of the bolts to mount these cleats, but I really wanted to have the strength of the big backer plate the cleats came with to prevent them from pulling out and causing more damage.

Also got the bow eye figured out, I was able to cut a hole big enough to fit a socket down with the nuts. Then the nav lights will cover the hole, I do plan to silicone the holes so that water cant go into the light and then into the hole.

So, really the only holes left to drill are for my 4 gauges in the dash.

But, I have to make a choice on the float pods. Right now I just have the rear 3 feet cleared out, I didnt feel any wet foam past the 3 feet that I cleared, but Im thinking about cutting open the float pods, cleaning out all the rest of the foam and pouring new foam in. But part of me also says thats a waste of time and money. The foam thats in there is dry, so aside from being 45 years old, there is nothing wrong with it.
It will take me about 3 days to clean out the foam and fiberglass the holes I cut back together. But also the float pods can be done at any point between now and when I glue in the carpet, carpet being one of the last steps on the boat.

 

Alright, its cold and rainy out, so I'm spending tonight restoring the nav lights that I have. They dont sell ones that really fit my boat, and the quality of new ones is trash.

So, right now I am cleaning the lenses from the front nav light, the red lens is clear and the green lens is green with yellow paint on the back for some reason.

Im going to try to clean up the lenses, but there is some cracking in them that I dont think I will be able to fix. So I am also making a silicone mold of one of the lenses. Going to mix up some red and green acrylic resin and cast my own. Going to drop off the housing with the chrome shop down the road and get it plated, there is some minor pitting and corrosion on it, but they should be able to fix that up.

The anchor light I might have to custom build a new one using parts from the broken one I have. I have the top, a bent pole, and the bottom. So just need to replace the pole part and should be good.

 

New plan... Im going to buy reproduction lenses on ebay because for $25 each its still cheaper than the supplies I need to cast my own. But first I want to drop the housings off at the chrome shop to get done.

 

New new plan... I found a new old stock unit, the listing says "cover only", so I emailed them to find out what cover only means. If its the chrome housing and the lenses, then im sold!

 

New new new plan.... fuck it, I ordered it, Ill find out soon enough what I just paid for.

 

Got an update from the seller on the nav light, he says its the chrome housing with lenses. No wires or bulb holder. Perfectly fine for me, I have a bulb holder with wires.

Did a little shopping today for trailer parts. Winch with tower, tail lights and new wire harness ordered, going to measure the axle and leafs soon so I can get that ordered too. I should be able to do most of the trailer work with it right there in my garage. I need to jack up one side of the boat anyways to paint where the bunks go, so Im going to jack it up, remove the old bunk and paint that area, then while the paint is curing I will build the new bunk for that side then bolt it in. Then I can switch to the other side and do the same. Rollers will be done kinda the same. Plan is to jack up the rear and remove the rollers that are not touching and paint under them, then lower the boat and do the same to the front rollers.

I do need to go out and measure my rollers so I can get the correct ones ordered and ready. For bunks, I want to go with the cool LED light up ones, but due to costs right now im going with carpet and some 2x4s...

Also need to really get out and measure my rear bench.

 

Alright, so I went under the trailer to get some axle measurements. The axles actually not in as bad of shape as I thought. Leaf springs seems pretty decent too. So, bunks, rollers, wire harness, lights and winch tower will be my start. Need to get wheels and tires (really just need tires, but the wheels are spray painted red and are rusty). Might need hubs, but wont know until I can jack up the trailer to check them. So going to hold on wheels and tires until I check the hubs. If I need hubs I will see if I can get some 5 lug ones that will fit.

I did find some concerning "paint" and chipping off fiberglass though. So, going to have to clear out the area under the boat and get sanding on it to see whats there. Im like 99% sure that its a keel guard thats flaking off, but I want to make sure.

 

Alright here are some close up pictures of the fiberglass that was hanging off. Looks like old weathered carbon fiber thats been underwater for the past 30 years.... But its way too symmetrical to be a hull repair, so I think its some old keel guard that was under there.