650/X-2 X2 build help!
- Thread starter RookieOTY
- Start date
Vumad
Super Hero, with a cape!
- Location
- St. Pete, FL
You can cut about 1" off the back because the bond line in the back being at the bottom deck. As long as you don't take too much it is a quick cut and back to the water. Anything past that and it the standard process as shortening any hull. I cut 2 inches off one of my hulls, flatten the original area, added hull inserts and used the part I cut off to make hull extensions.
Tom21 sells a nose fill and sponsons, if you so choose to change the front end.
Cutting the hood is relatively simple. Cut off the hump, add foam, wrap and glass, body work.
Use 3:1 laminating resin and glass. I prefer 1208 biax for most work. You can use other cloths as needed excluding chop, which is not compatible with epoxy.
I use Talc as my primary thickening agent for body work, glass microspheres as a filler for non-body work (causes pin holes, but is lighter) and fumed silica for high impact areas (such as bottom of the hull, but is much harder to sand).
One big hull upgrade I did and am very fond of is switching out the seat latch for a GP1200 latch. You bolt the seat side to the seat and the hull pin to the hull. Grind some of the lever and seat for clearance. Pretty straight forward upgrade.
I believe the best solution for the exhaust is a right sided front/rear exhaust with a stock or similar superjet waterbox.
The rest is personal preference and part availability, such as which pipe you can find or afford.
- Location
- Charlotte, NC
all good information in post above. just differnce in opinion and what youre working with doing fiberglass. i prefer building up laminate with more thinner layers rather than something like biax becuase it takes soo much resin to properly wet out. example- 2 layers of 1208= 24oz, 3 layers of 8oz cloth= 24oz total weight of the fiberglass not counting the resin. the 3 layers will be lighter and more flexable. and biax doesnt like to go around curves. but for flat surfaces its great. just do plenty of research on fiberglass materials especially the different cloth applications. using proper material for the job makes it go so much easier.
Last edited:
Vumad
Super Hero, with a cape!
- Location
- St. Pete, FL
One advantage of biax not mentioned is that it is more structural than the weaves. There are advantages to the random orientation of the chopped fibers in mat. Chop can not be used with epoxy due to the lack of styrene to dissolve the starch which bonds it together. Two layers of 1208 biax is effectively 4 layers of fabric, 2 cloth and 2 chop. There's also no reason not to mix fabrics, such as a layer of biax with a layer of woven laid on the chop side.
An advantage to multiple lighter layers not mentioned is that more thin layers makes it much easier to overlap and feather in a repair.
The take away is that neither of us is right, and neither of us is wrong, that different layups are best for different orientations and applications. Don't be afraid to try different fabrics. It never hurts to wax a piece of polycarbonate / acrylic and layup some test swatches. It's a good way to see the differences in flex, strength and thickness of different layups.
An advantage to multiple lighter layers not mentioned is that more thin layers makes it much easier to overlap and feather in a repair.
The take away is that neither of us is right, and neither of us is wrong, that different layups are best for different orientations and applications. Don't be afraid to try different fabrics. It never hurts to wax a piece of polycarbonate / acrylic and layup some test swatches. It's a good way to see the differences in flex, strength and thickness of different layups.
1208 is used because its cheap. Jetski hulls are subject mainly to bending loads. The finish treatment of the fiber is most important since the primary load is interlaminar shear. A plain weave tooling cloth with the proper finish is easy to use and next cheapest compared to 1208. 7781 cloth is a common dense weave and will make strong, light, parts if its vacuumed down and the excess resin bled out.