Super Jet puddles in the foam?

[dezzerts10]

i am in the process of installing footholds and de-foaming my sn. when i cut out the foothold and began to de-foam i found my ski has a little tunnel full of water in the foam. the puddle is about a half inch deep. its right at the bond rail. the foam in the gunwale is bone dry but below that its soaked. is this a normal thing?

 

[Cannibal]

Yep, the ones I've de-foamed were like that too. Looks to me like they pour the bottom deck foam and the gunwale foam while the decks are separate and then glue them together leaving a void.

 

[dezzerts10]

well that sux. i gess i was planning on taking it out anyway so.. no differant. just wontering if that was normal or not. thanks!

another question. anyone ever do a good wright up on how to re-inforce for no foam? i searched and searched but cant seem to find one

 

[Cannibal]

Don't run without foam. Just too risky and there is no reason not to have some sort of flotation in there. The most popular solution is to use the pink (or sometimes blue) polystyrene rigid foam at Home Depot or Lowe's. Cut it up and install it in there with as few air pockets as possible. People have locked it together with a little 2 part foam or even some Great Stuff foam in a can. There is just no way to keep 100% of the water out of your tray, but filling the bond area and 5200ing around the bulk head and tubes will help.

Also, install some drain plugs or run some versi-plugs in the rear of the ski to drain the tray.

Matt_E's rebuild has some good polystyrene foaming pics if I remember correctly. http://www.x-h2o.com/threads/24196-Matt_E-Roundnose-Rebuild-Thread-Motor-Update-for-2009

There was also a recent ping pong ball "re-foam" thread that was interesting as well. Seemed like he needed like 1200 or so balls to fill the area.

 

[dezzerts10]

what i wanted to to is fill it with polystyrene beads, like from a bean bag chair. seems easyer than cutting foam up to fit. but i think the beads will offer little to no support so i want to reinfoce.

 

[Cannibal]

Someone else was going to do that too. You will still get water in there and need to drain it, so you will need to figure out a way to affix a small mesh screen and make sure that doesn't clog up with beads. It's not uncommon for people who have done the poly (or other) to get half gallon or more water after a ride under your tray area.

 

[BruceSki]

Reinforce the back the same way you reinforce the engine compartment if you aren't going to use an expanding foam in the tray. I used only the pink foam(packed very tightly on the sides) on mine but reinforced the sides in the back also.

The foam pieces on the side had to be knocked into place with a rubber mallet. So i'm thinking I have a little support back there from that.

 

[Cannibal]

Reinforce the back the same way you reinforce the engine compartment if you aren't going to use an expanding foam in the tray. I used only the pink foam(packed very tightly on the sides) on mine but reinforced the sides in the back also.

The foam pieces on the side had to be knocked into place with a rubber mallet. So i'm thinking I have a little support back there from that.

That looks like a job well done there. A very trouble free tray. Did you end up getting the sides and bottom out in one piece? I know some people have, but after disassembling a few skis, I can see it must be a real PITA.

 

[BruceSki]

I tried to pull the whole tray in one piece. Started prying on it and realized it had to be cut. I cut it right down the center and then just cabosil and glassed it back over. it leveled out surprisingly well. Better than an untouched 96 tray i just added footholds too last week. That one was wavy as hell.

 

[dezzerts10]

how much glass to reinforce? one layer of 12oz biaxial enough?

 

[BruceSki]

I usually do a 4-6 inch piece of thin stuff(sometimes carbon) depends what I have lying around. Then I will cover it with one layer of Biax. The stuff I used in the rear of my ski was thinner stuff though since there is some foam jammed in there. I think it was 8oz cloth.

 

[Patrick Star]

You might want to grind/chip out your excess glue around the bulkhead. I'm also doing a refoam on a SN and found that over half one side had no glue where it was supposed to be. Also I pulled out the exhaust, water pipes, and though hull PVC due to they were in very loosely. Came out with an easy twist and a slight pull. Made it very easy to finish defoaming too. Got a second stainless cooling pipe from onlinemetals.com or something, was like 22 bucks shipped. Fast shipping too.

 

[orangefinger]

if you run a square dont do it...there is always water inbetween, the foam never gets wet and soaked like on the RN, just put a drain plug in and drain the ski after riding if you are worried, the water often just sits on top of the lower foam basically inbetween the tray and foam below

I cut open 3 SN's and dug out the foam cause i thought it would be wet...nope all 3 dry as a bone all the way to the bottom , just some water inbetween...unless you are up for a horrible job save yourself the energy

 

[dezzerts10]

really? so the sn doesnt have the problem like the round? i alreadly dug out the gunwales, dry as a bone. but i could fill um back in with 2 part expanding foam. the lower foam also seems dry as a bone. just had the water on top