Supra Comp, Born 1986, Reborn 2015

[Jetlink]

I am now wrapping up my restoration on my 1986 Comp and I did my best to document the process along the way. Bear with me as I upload the pictures and add info where needed.

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The before shot at day 1 of the tear down.
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The end of day 1...

[Jetlink]

After a day or two of small items getting addressed, the progress got kicked into high gear the night we did this...
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[Jetlink]

The third night of tear down started by removing the rub rail which was nothing special and then drilling out the rivets to split the top cap from the hull.

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Which yielded some fun surprises, like a screwed up wiring harness, if you can call it that for the stern.

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[Jetlink]

And that is when the first big round of fun started...

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Yummy!!!

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And there was more...

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Really solid, clearly.

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Floor came out after these pictures and we continued...

[Jetlink]

We then set about removing the "factory installed ballast" from 1986...
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[Jetlink]

Now with all that ballast out and weighed, we set about measuring and then cutting out the old stringers and anything else that was rotted.

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[Jetlink]

After all that, I got a quick lesson in fiberglass work from a fellow Supra owner and member of the forum.

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Shout out to CJTPilot for the quick lesson.

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Then the "fun" began as we ground everything down to get ready to form the new stringers, backing plates and whatever else I was replacing which ended up being pretty much everything except the divider between the ski locker and the helm on the top cap, but we will get to that later.

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My first fiberglass patch work.

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Removed a previous owners patch of just a bunch of "JB Weld" where the fuel vent used to be.

[Jetlink]

Old and busted, next to new hotness. The weight of one side of the old stringers weighed more than all the new lumber going in before we cut any of it down to size.

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I took the opportunity while I had it apart to give the hull a good wet sanding because it was easy to maneuver the hull around and get at it.

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Then the fun began. I started by building the engine mounts of the stringers first...

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And then work back towards the transom before working my way towards the bow.

[Jetlink]

At the end of the night, this was as far as I made it.
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I also took the time to beef up my transom.
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Working on getting the stringer height right so that the floor is essentially level between the two main stringers.

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[Jetlink]

Forward stringers went in next.
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My wife asked me where I was so I sent her a picture saying I was sitting in our boat.

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All cutting and shaping done.

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Sealed and treated the lumber.

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[Jetlink]

Next was the fiberglass work which was spread out over a few days.

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Here is the last picture I snapped before I finished the stringers, got excited and started flooring.

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Which lead to this...

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[Jetlink]

Then came carpet.

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Everything happened fast after this and I didn't slow down to take any pictures but...
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Everything torn down...

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Because it was time to move it closer to my house so I could work on it more frequently.

[Jetlink]

Here it is back in the garage at the lake.

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My new PSS dripless shaft seal waiting to be plumbed in. I also added a second bilge blower to the boat which is more difficult than I thought due to less real estate in the boat.

[Jetlink]

Doing some float and leak checks.

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I was blown away by the fact that my platform was in the water before to now resting above the waterline.

Even though I have three open items to finish to call this job complete, all this work paid off when we were able to go out as a family in our boat for the first time this morning.

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Don't chastise me over the driver seat, I had that laying around and it fit and was solid enough that I felt comfortable enough driving the boat without it bolted down. I am going to be getting a more appropriate seat for the Comp and then getting it upholstered to match the rest of the interior. That is one of the three open items remaining and the other two will be kept under wraps until next spring...

Stay tuned!

[NoWake]

Jetlink, what was the weight before and after?

[cjtpilot]

I still say that boat has the most beautiful wood work nobody will ever see since its all under the floor!

[Jetlink]

Jetlink, what was the weight before and after?

The weight before the overhaul with trailer, the whole thing tipped the scales close to 4,000 pounds right before the tear down. I haven't taken it back across the scale yet but rough estimates based off of material weight removed plus new material weight going in I would think I shed at least 1,200 pounds out of the boat between all the water logged foam, saturated floor and stringers and such. It is scary when you think about how much extra weight I was hauling around both on the water and on the road. I have pulled my boat behind three different tow vehicles, a Lexus RX350, GX470 and my Denali. You would sometimes "notice" the boat when stopping with the Denali but not much, you would also notice it more frequently with the GX and the RX left no doubt that it was back there. Now, only the RX will let you know that you are towing something and it is only when you stop, none of the other two even lead you to believe that you are towing something back there.

[Jetlink]

I still say that boat has the most beautiful wood work nobody will ever see since its all under the floor!

Ha! Isn't that the truth?

[lively]

so how long total on the rebuild ?

[Jetlink]

so how long total on the rebuild ?

Total time, late October '14 until well, not really 100% done yet. But in all, only about 3 weeks of 10-12 hour days working on it I would say. There was about a two to three week period where I just had to let everything breathe and dry out after I got everything out of there. Even after all the foam and old wood was out the boat was still damp for at least a week. Also found some pretty awesome black mold down in the bow as well and had to take care of that. I would take a week and work on it about 2-3 days, then come back another week and so on. November was the big tear down month where I took all the floor and foam out in one day, left it to dry out and then came back and removed all the rotted wood another day, let it dry out again. I didn't do any work on it in December and early January. Worked on it a week in January to get the boat back together and haul it to the garage at the lake in the middle of a snow storm. Then didn't touch it again until early May I want to say because my son was born in March.

[chris young]

Nicely done! Looks so much nicer without the tower, are you putting it back on?

[Jetlink]

Nicely done! Looks so much nicer without the tower, are you putting it back on?

Nope, that tower could very well be containing your adult malted beverage. After looking at it, I began to realize that the previous owner had cut the rear legs at the top to make it fit the boat better and did a crummy weld job and the welds were starting to fail. That coupled with seeing Kent's gorgeous Comp at the TN reunion last year had my mind made up that the tower just had to go. The holes have since been glassed over/under and gel coated over though I am not too happy with my first attempt at patching gel coat so I will be remedying that soon.

[NoWake]

Glad to be of inspiration! I really like your radio. Pure combustion.

[Jetlink]

Glad to be of inspiration! I really like your radio. Pure combustion.

Yeah, it's stuck on repeat though. Not that I am complaining.

[TitanTn]

Great job Ben. I know it's a great satisfaction to see this done. I hope to see it again at a Southern Supra Reunion!

[Jetlink]

Great job Ben. I know it's a great satisfaction to see this done. I hope to see it again at a Southern Supra Reunion!

It will be back again for at least one more appearance, though it might be a few years before I drag it all the way down there with the land barge again. Laura says the kids have to be a little older before that trip will happen again.

[mabbore]

JetLink, can I ask you what your budget for your build was?

[Jetlink]

Well, I did both a rebuild and a sort of "Resto-mod" on it at the same time. If you are talking about doing just a restoration which is just floors, stringers, fiberglass, resin and carpet then I can give you a ball park. I budgeted about $4,500 for the materials and tooling I needed to do the items listed above. That also included the cost to build my two gantry style cranes to pull the engine/trans and top cap as well. All the extras that I did along the way pushed this total job above the $4,500 I budgeted for just the stringers and floor though.

[mabbore]

Did you rebuild the engine as well? was that in the budget?

[BigCity444]

Nicely done. I'll get back to IL one of these days to see it.

[Jetlink]

Did you rebuild the engine as well? was that in the budget?

In regards to the engine and trans, all I planned on doing and all that I did was clean it up by getting all the built up grime off of it. I did install a new raw water pump as the old one was beyond shot and the repair/rebuild kit did not fix it. I also installed a new engine wiring harness and that is about it. The reason I elected not to overhaul the engine is that everything works on it and it is rock solid at the moment therefore no need to go "fixing" something that is not broken.

[Jetlink]

Nicely done. I'll get back to IL one of these days to see it.

You know where to find me and the Comp is staying in a lift next year going forward too so I can be really lazy and selective with my use of it.