'94 Malibu Response Resto- The good, The bad, and The Ugly

[Raimie]

Great work so far!

[Fabricator909]

Now for the reason I called this thread the Good, (the price I paid for it), the  Bad ( the boat having a truck motor instead of a true mercruiser motor, and now for the Ugly, and straight up pain in the a**....

Somewhere along the the line, the black gel must have faded pretty bad, needing some serious wet sanding and polishing, but what is a hack to do when you own a spray gun but apparently not a buffer? Spray some good automotive paint on top of the Gel!! And that's exactly what they did, and it has orange peels for days....

 

 

So time toget it back to gel, started off wet sanding with 220 at first, it did ok, loaded up the sandpaper and was taking forever. Stepped it down to 180 grit, didn't load up and worked much faster. Next steps will be to dry sand with 220, wet sand 220, move to some Mirka Abralon discs on the Porter Cable DA until about 2000 grit. The bring out the Dewalt polisher and wool pad to make it shine,,, this is going to be awhile..

 

Made some head room on the windshield as well, tint shop is almost done, aswell the powder coater. Ordered new glazings, and screw covers from Taylor Made.  If anyone needs the parts numbers in the future to redo the glazings for the response, and assuming echelon,

 they are: 41100092 , 41100022 , 8229040, 4110020, and 41100093

[Cap305]

On 7/4/2018 at 10:39 AM, Fabricator909 said:

Finally had some more time to work on the boat last night. Got the gas tank pulled, and looked at the blower and routing, new hoses are in order for sure for the fuel tank and blower. It also looks like the blower only connects on one side of the engine bay, then blows out the transom? The other hose looks like it connects on the other side and just goes through the transom, which seems kind of pointless, unless it has some kind of draft effect on it.  Also, might be a stupid question since I'm used to working on PWC;s, but should the vent hose have some type of check valve on it, so air only gets in, and no gas can get out?

The gas tank was custom made, at least it was made by marine tank manufacturer.

Blower hoses

new

Looks like new exhaust hoses too while everything is out. Also going to take some  foam and fill up the transom tie down cavity's for a removable filler, they were filled with water, and keystone light cans lol.

Got the windshield off, going to send it out to anodize or powder coat. Anybody know where to get the foam that hides the mounting screws on the exterior of the windshield?

Finally, I ordered a sheet of wide groove Hydroturf with 3m adhesive to make some trailer step pads, and to make a decision on flooring....

I believe you can contact Taylor Made (http://www.taylormarine.com/windshields.html) for any of the windshield rubber.  I inquired with them regarding the replacement rubber for mine when I was doing the windshield framing.  They have a profile chart for all their rubber products but unfortunately I don't still have the link for it.  Sweet project and good luck!

[Gavin17]

I had a joystick tower once and liked it.  I've recommended it a few times.  Glad to see they're still at it.  

[ahopkins22LSV]

Nice work! These threads are fun to follow. I can’t believe someone used automotive paint!

[Fabricator909]

Finally making some head room on this project. Got the auto paint sanded off, and finally tot he final steps of buffing the gel coat. Using Meguirs M67, but most likely switch over to aqua buff. The M67 might be good for oxidation, but it doesn't touch sanding scratches. Also thanks to Peter at Smooth Water Sports for helping out on the soon to be new rub rail and insert, it will def make the outside look new again.

 

 

 

Also got some pics from the upholstery guy    and Domed Numbers is going to tie the exterior to the interior.....

 

 

[tvano]

good stuff, keep it coming 

[kbsuperjet]

Really excited to see this come together!! Great job so far!

[Michigan boarder]

I just realized my wife still hasn't sent the hoses out.  I am off work tomorrow and will hit FedEx and get them heading your way.

[Fabricator909]

Finally got this thing back in the water, still have the tower, add a battery, amp, sub box to do, should get most of those in over the next few weeks. Going to polish the bottom of the hull over the winter. Sorry for the hazy pics, the cover on my phone does that.

 

[Michigan boarder]

Looks great!!  Nice touch on the spotters seat design.

[Fabricator909]

2 minutes ago, Michigan boarder said:

Looks great!!  Nice touch on the spotters seat design.

Thanks!! Can't wait to get everything done, it's already much more enjoyable fixing the HDS leak, and getting rid of the carpet

 

[powbmps]

Can't believe the gel coat shined up that well.  Looks awesome!

[Chappy]

Looks great, classic boat! Nice work.

[dlb]

Very nice...!

keep us posted on the finishing details.

[UWSkier]

I love happy endings!  Looks great!

[JDoidge92]

Beautiful! great work buddy!

 I'm looking at updating my echelon. By chance do you remover where you got the "Malibu" decals for the side of the boat? I do realize this post was from 2018 but thought id try. Thanks for the help!

[John I.]

4 hours ago, JDoidge92 said:

Beautiful! great work buddy!

 I'm looking at updating my echelon. By chance do you remover where you got the "Malibu" decals for the side of the boat? I do realize this post was from 2018 but thought id try. Thanks for the help!

 

On 7/29/2018 at 12:12 PM, Fabricator909 said:

Also got some pics from the upholstery guy    and Domed Numbers is going to tie the exterior to the interior.....

 

 

 

 

 

 

[bfpierce]

Beautiful boat. Doing partial restoration on my ‘94 Malibu Echelon. I found a hose running down out of back seat of pilot chair. Disconnected from a drain. Why would they put this there? Also anyone know contact info for “Chee” the Malibu skin maker?

[Woodski]

@bfpierce - the hose is probably the lumbar air hose.  There is a button under the seat for inflation & deflation.

Chee has vanished.  Threads dedicated to that story & the new upholstery specialist.