Let the fun begin....1986 Sunsport Skier

[bmtsupra]

After quietly browsing the forum for over a year and wishing I could find a late 80's to early 90's Supra, it finally happened yesterday. I found a 1986 Sunsport Skier about an hour away from where I live. I took my buddy with me because he knows this boat in and out. He has the same boat and did an amazing job bringing his 86 back to life. He took one look at it and said "dude for that price, you shouldn't pass this up". It's parked at his shop and I'm going over there today to start pulling it apart. The plan is to do a top cap off rebuild. So here she is....think my $900 purchase has potential? I think with some $$, sweat, and blood, we can get this boat on the water eventually.

[michael hunter]

The trailer is worth that . Good find make sure you take a lot of before and after pics.

[TitanTn]

Awesome! Great deal, and yes, please take lots of pics and keep us informed. Did that boat used to be red?

[csuggs]

Yep keep us posted! That's a great find!

[bmtsupra]

Here's a larger version of the picture I attached yesterday. I think it used to be red or maybe maroon. Right now it's pink, lol. Made some progress yesterday. Got all of the interior out. Next will be drilling all the rub rail rivets and pulling the motor. Then it's time to split the hull and rip out that floor. I'm eager to see the condition of the stringers. Everything around the motor/transmission/drive shaft area looked good and felt solid. On another note, I'm on the hunt for a Borg Velvet Drive 1:1 and a bell housing. The bell housing is missing from the boat and the existing transmission is in bad shape.
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-mb73ixRUwRU/TzZj21lMlYI/AAAAAAAABJ0/L0RCTTJnlK8/s800/880.jpeg
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-3HmolArrSgg/Tzes3pIMreI/AAAAAAAABK0/BhaSNOK4RYE/s640/2012-02-11%252008.25.08.jpg
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-f0iIV8skfSA/TzesKc05vII/AAAAAAAABKc/whySOFdYWNw/s640/2012-02-11%252015.59.50.jpg
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-iq0MeDV2YLI/TzesWVRzD4I/AAAAAAAABKk/v-ZOs2DnNO4/s640/2012-02-11%252015.59.27.jpg

[TitanTn]

Looking great. You've jumped right on it.

You may be able to find a used transmission somewhere, but these guys might be able to help you as well. http://www.marinegears.com/

[lively]

Pm ben about the trans he has one for sale , that would work

[bmtsupra]

Pm ben about the trans he has one for sale , that would work

I don't know who Ben is. What is his screen name so I can PM him?

[Jetlink]

I think he goes by Bens250ex on here or something really close to that.

[bmtsupra]

I was about to ask if that was the "Ben" that Lively was talking about. I sent Ben a text last night to see if he still has that transmission and he said that a guy was supposed to come buy everything today. I sent him a text earlier to see if the deal went through, but havent heard back from him.

[lively]

his screen name is bens250ex , look down a couple threads and you will find his rebuild thread , i have his number but im not to say if thats cool to throw out ...

[Hagman]

Here's a larger version of the picture I attached yesterday. I think it used to be red or maybe maroon. Right now it's pink, lol. Made some progress yesterday. Got all of the interior out. Next will be drilling all the rub rail rivets and pulling the motor. Then it's time to split the hull and rip out that floor. I'm eager to see the condition of the stringers. Everything around the motor/transmission/drive shaft area looked good and felt solid. On another note, I'm on the hunt for a Borg Velvet Drive 1:1 and a bell housing. The bell housing is missing from the boat and the existing transmission is in bad shape.
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-mb73ixRUwRU/TzZj21lMlYI/AAAAAAAABJ0/L0RCTTJnlK8/s800/880.jpeg
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-3HmolArrSgg/Tzes3pIMreI/AAAAAAAABK0/BhaSNOK4RYE/s640/2012-02-11%252008.25.08.jpg
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-f0iIV8skfSA/TzesKc05vII/AAAAAAAABKc/whySOFdYWNw/s640/2012-02-11%252015.59.50.jpg
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-iq0MeDV2YLI/TzesWVRzD4I/AAAAAAAABKk/v-ZOs2DnNO4/s640/2012-02-11%252015.59.27.jpgThe Velvet drive trany is almost bullet proof . From what I’ve herd there’s not much in side to go wrong. A rebuild kit might be the way to go at least you would know what you have when your dun. You made a grate buy. Stay with it. All of us here will encourage you as much as possible. Keep the camera handy take lots of pictures of everything. We like pictures!!!!

[lively]

lol i was about too add to that , Im rebuilding mine this weekend i got the rebuild kit off ebay for 156.00 shipped , it looks fairly simple with the manual at the aid in hand , just gaskets , seals , reverse clutch plates , and forward clutch pack , unless you have some teeth broke off , you should be ok just rebuilding it with some mechanical knowledge and a bearing press , add beer afterwards

[bmtsupra]

I'll take a picture of the transmission when I get off work. I don't think a rebuild kit is going to cover everything the existing transmission needs. :(

[bmtsupra]

Well no picture of the transmission so I could show you guys how bad off it was, but I did take these pics.
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-ODhy-j0oqVE/Tzm-u8vr1EI/AAAAAAAABMA/eEXG4AKPzS8/s640/2012-02-13%252018.01.54.jpg
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-uQ7wRil92io/Tzm-3mi7uII/AAAAAAAABMI/s72Ex-t5NTs/s640/2012-02-13%252018.01.17.jpg
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-UDpMJHpLSUU/Tzm-kTsN2NI/AAAAAAAABL4/pv8I9rGkqKI/s640/2012-02-13%252018.02.15.jpg
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-h8I79e5Osb4/Tzm-80nf6qI/AAAAAAAABMQ/uQwz3vgfKKo/s640/2012-02-13%252018.01.34.jpg

[bmtsupra]

And these pics. The engine also came out this evening. Tomorrow I'll be cutting out the old floor.
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-rrOD89PlBiI/Tzm-ZJ6ef-I/AAAAAAAABLo/0GhjIZahUtw/s640/2012-02-13%252018.03.31.jpg
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-1VbYB0nruXk/Tzm-ePNopQI/AAAAAAAABLw/j7E-HNgL0ho/s640/2012-02-13%252018.03.15.jpg
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-nbSvG9haYnk/Tzm-KUHf6qI/AAAAAAAABLY/SAyMYdFoDm4/s640/2012-02-13%252018.10.10.jpg
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-xlQIO2TXNxU/Tzm9-NhmOmI/AAAAAAAABLI/g1krFoqvWVQ/s640/2012-02-13%252018.10.56.jpg

[bmtsupra]

And the last picture of this evenings work.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-qGmQyb-BCi8/Tzm-D5I6xqI/AAAAAAAABLQ/2_GSF_dQwNA/s640/2012-02-13%252018.10.29.jpg

[bens250ex]

Nice work movin along fast sorry I couldn't have helped you with the trans wish I could have. Check eBay I saw a couple on there not to long ago

[TitanTn]

Wow! You are moving at the speed of light. Its nice that you have that great space to work in.

[chrisk]

Man keep up the determination, great progress so far. Are you planning on putting a tower on it eventually? I dont know the answer to this but do you guys think you could add the tower to the cap while it's removed to make it easier to get to the bottom side?

[bmtsupra]

Yes I plan on adding a tower. That's actually a pretty good idea. The top cap wouldn't support the weight of the complete tower but I could at least mount the four brackets that the tower mounts to. Looks like before the top cap goes back on I'll be ordering my tower. I'll be a little while before that happens though. More pics to come as the work progresses. The dirty work is about to begin, I can't wait to get that part over with and get this boat in my friends paint booth. I think once there is some paint on it my wife will be able to visualize the final product the way I do.

[bmtsupra]

Nice work movin along fast sorry I couldn't have helped you with the trans wish I could have. Check eBay I saw a couple on there not to long ago
It's all good Ben. Story of my life, day late and a dollar short. Hopefully I've got one in Houston lined up that I'll be able to get. Just waiting on the guy to email me back. I was able to pick up a bell housing on ebay yesterday.

[bmtsupra]

Wow! You are moving at the speed of light. Its nice that you have that great space to work in.

No way I would even attempt this project if I didn't have my friends shop to work in. When I showed him a pic of the boat before I went and bought it, I said "Only way I'm going to buy this thing is if you'll help me out with it, since you know the in's and out's of this boat and I can work on it up here" It took him about an hour and a half and a lot of "I don't know man. Do you know what you're about to get in to's" before he said "okay, let's go look at it". I'm just thankful I have good friends and an understanding wife.

[sybrmike]

Chrisk brought up a good point. You'll need a good idea of locations, but gluing/glassing some wood/aluminum/plastic backer plates might be much easier while the cap's off. Glassing upside down was a pain & I couldn't have done it with the cap on due to the locations of my feet. I also went ahead and cut additional holes (that'll be hidden behind interior trim panels) to access the underside to tighten em down if needed later, but looks like you might already be covered by what looks like 6x9 speaker cutouts in the side panels.

Sounds like a great find for someone that can see the potential. Congrats on the access to a shop, crane, & space to work.

Great work - at the pace you're going, you'll be on the water in no time...

[bmtsupra]

Picked up the transmission yesterday from a guy in Houston, bell housing should be here next week. Got the foam removed from one half of the boat on Wednesday, headed to the shop in a little bit and remove the foam from the other half. Then it will be time to cut the fiberglass top off of all the stringers and see which ones (probably all of them) are going to be replaced. I haven't been able to decide on the route I want to take with replacing the stringers. Wood or SEACAST. Wood is going to be less expensive and will probably last as long as I own the boat, but on the other hand composite would be nice and I would never have to worry about it again.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-IgubSBlC7OY/Tz-zDjDROGI/AAAAAAAABMs/p5d43T5tAkU/s640/2012-02-18%252008.15.21.jpg

[bmtsupra]

Finally, all the foam is out. Hopefully I'll get to pressure wash the inside tomorrow and then get to work on those stringers.
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-jrhMutAhXk0/T0AyeO-IQhI/AAAAAAAABM4/zF2XJmgqc6I/s640/2012-02-18%252016.25.55.jpg
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-1tcy172XGEg/T0BAkUgBeiI/AAAAAAAABNE/BGCBSFEeagQ/s640/2012-02-18%252016.26.09.jpg

[TitanTn]

Nice work. Have you decided how you're going to tackle those stringers?

[bmtsupra]

I going to leave the good parts of the existing stringers and put new wood in. I wanted to go with Sea-Cast or do a complete stringer replacement but I'm not going to spend that kind of money. So I'm going to patch it up and reinforce the hell out of it. I'm sure people on here will disagree with my method, but I think the way we're going to do it it will work well. I'll add more pictures as the work progresses.

[TitanTn]

Not everyone who has done a restoration here has done a complete one. I'm sure if you think out the whole process and what you need to end up with, you'll be fine. There are plenty of rebuilds that are documented very well on this forum, so just take some time and read through them. At the rate you're going though, you're going to need to read fast! Keep us updated.

[csuggs]

I going to leave the good parts of the existing stringers and put new wood in. I wanted to go with Sea-Cast or do a complete stringer replacement but I'm not going to spend that kind of money. So I'm going to patch it up and reinforce the hell out of it. I'm sure people on here will disagree with my method, but I think the way we're going to do it it will work well. I'll add more pictures as the work progresses.

If you don't mind my saying, you've got the worst part of the stringer job done! Why not go ahead and make the job complete? Unless you're planning to "flip" the boat, I think you'll be happier knowing that you've got all new materials below the deck. Just my .02 cents.

[lively]

I think if you take out a piece of your rear main stringers and just inspect the rot and see that the wood was never coated with Resin or rot doc , or just how old the wood is .. I know I'n my 86' sunsport the wood got cut out and went to the burn pile , it
Was so rotted that ass I took the sawzaw blade against the hull sections of the stringers were folding off and braking like rotted wood does , I am by no means rich and I have managed to save a few bucks here and there on my project but for the sake of knowing that what I glassed I'n was solid and was coated with resin to waterproof it .. Was well worth the 1100 I'n material ...

But you have made great progress , but where's the trash bags full of foam and the baby powder for that itchy ass glass lol keep Trucking and good luck

[bmtsupra]

I think if you take out a piece of your rear main stringers and just inspect the rot and see that the wood was never coated with Resin or rot doc , or just how old the wood is .. I know I'n my 86' sunsport the wood got cut out and went to the burn pile , it
Was so rotted that ass I took the sawzaw blade against the hull sections of the stringers were folding off and braking like rotted wood does , I am by no means rich and I have managed to save a few bucks here and there on my project but for the sake of knowing that what I glassed I'n was solid and was coated with resin to waterproof it .. Was well worth the 1100 I'n material ...

But you have made great progress , but where's the trash bags full of foam and the baby powder for that itchy ass glass lol keep Trucking and good luck

Half of the trash bags full of foam went to work with me last week so I could throw them in the dumpsters here. I got the rest of the foam out Saturday and all those bags are sitting next to my trash can, which should all get picked up this morning. This isn't my first go with fiberglass either. I wear boots, jeans, long sleeve dickies work shirt, and G-Tek rubberized work gloves. That combo helps with the itchy ass glass :)

[bmtsupra]

Sketched up the existing stringers yesterday after work so I could lay them out in CAD when I got to work today. I laid them out in a 1:1 ratio and then broke the stringers up over 24"X36" sheets to plot them out since I couldn't do one 16' and one 13' continuous print. Going to piece them together and cut out the template tonight. Then trace the outline out on a piece of treated lumber and cut it out. We'll see how well this idea of mine works If I'm successful, then there will now be a digital copy of the stringers for this boat that other people on the forum can use.
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/--oR2I0mgRG8/T0VLnSwlKUI/AAAAAAAABNc/4NVz-OmQMYA/s640/inside%2520stringers.jpg
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-s9TNOWuYQ0U/T0VLnaPibNI/AAAAAAAABNY/uwLE6QmINYI/s640/outside%2520stringers.jpg

[TitanTn]

Those are some fancy CAD drawings! It's nice that you'll be able to be so precise right from the beginning, and it's awesome that you can share solution with others here.

What type of lumber are you going to be using? From what I've read, it's not recommended to use treated lumber of any kind unless perhaps it's been dried for a year or two. Treated lumber is wet almost by definition and it's not good to fiberglass over wet wood. At the very least it can twist if it does eventually dry out.

[bens250ex]

Where you work?

[bmtsupra]

I'm a piping designer. I work at one of the local refineries.

[lively]

it is nice to have the x and y cad to design the templates .. but you still have got to get the angle finder to get it to lay nice and flush against the hull , it starts and the rear
of the motor mount area and progressively angles to the bow .. deck height was a big challenge for me and having that extra 2'' of old deck really helped once i snapped my line... i must say that it was fun to figure out and trip over string lines lol .. hell it took me 3 months just to get my deck glued N screwed .. take some pics !

[bmtsupra]

it is nice to have the x and y cad to design the templates .. but you still have got to get the angle finder to get it to lay nice and flush against the hull , it starts and the rear
of the motor mount area and progressively angles to the bow .. deck height was a big challenge for me and having that extra 2'' of old deck really helped once i snapped my line... i must say that it was fun to figure out and trip over string lines lol .. hell it took me 3 months just to get my deck glued N screwed .. take some pics !

Don't have to have an angle finder. Just pull dims ever foot or two, lay the sections it into CAD, pop a line between the two ends in each section, then CAD will figure the angle for you. I left about an inch of the old deck around the edge of the interior. Every where I've matched the new against the old with a level. So far everything new I've cut out has fit pretty well.

[bmtsupra]

Moving along. I'm looking forward to the day there is a deck on top of those stringers.

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-pQgbpyOloLw/T1qPFuvHY1I/AAAAAAAABNs/wp5R72CRSLk/s640/2012-03-09%252015.51.43.jpg
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-_hMeMWFWPdU/T2IIBrMDAAI/AAAAAAAABOE/ja4yKavvJqk/s640/2012-03-14%252018.35.17.jpg
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-y4pvR9VP7Us/T2ILL0JfKTI/AAAAAAAABOQ/RryeuT22_YY/s640/2012-03-14%252018.37.05.jpg

[lively]

looks good man , do you plan to cut the rear of motor area for the exhaust to come through ? also u might want to design a way to hold the pipe off the floor of the hull , i use pipe hangers and use a pan head bolt to fasten , what did your inside measurement come out too ? 21 1/2 ?

[bmtsupra]

looks good man , do you plan to cut the rear of motor area for the exhaust to come through ? also u might want to design a way to hold the pipe off the floor of the hull , i use pipe hangers and use a pan head bolt to fasten , what did your inside measurement come out too ? 21 1/2 ?

I believe my inside dim came out to 21", though it could very well be 21-1/2". I'll have to check again. I haven't made any plans on the exhaust yet, but I'm glad you mentioned that. I'll have to put one of the exhaust pipes in and see if it runs into the motor mount area. Thanks for bringing that to my attention.

[lively]

well the rear of the motor mounts is where they enter and the blocks you have at the end will either need to be cut or removed , make sure you fill the whole underside of the motor mount just like you bedded the stringers , for a non wood/fiberglass contact .... are you going to use foam ? if not i wood put some limber holes in after you glass
everything and insert resin to coat the exposed wood ... good luck and keep the pics coming