96 Seadoo Challenger Project

[nickj718]

For a while now i have been keeping my eyes peeled for a seadoo jet boat so I could take the fiancé dog and some friends out on the lake. Today i finally found one for a decent price. Found it on craigslist listed for 1200 but got it for 600 bucks.

The pictures of the boat were great and so is the condition of in person. The owner says it will run after a carb refresh. He cranked the motor for me and my mouth hit the floor. No way it needs a carb rebuild that motor is shot. After some arguing i think he realized that it was so i got if for 600 bucks on the trailer which is mint a new battery and a couple of jackets. Best part about it was it was only 35 min from the house.

As you can see from the pictures the boat was garage kept has a crack in the spotters bottom but easy to recover. All other seats are soft and free of cracks.







Tonight ill tear the engine out and see what we have

 

[nickj718]

Home and in the garage.

 

[nickj718]

Well I think a carb build is a understatement. I noticed that the oil pump lines were new and their was extra line in the storage bin. So I'm thinking that broke on him he put new lines on it thinking it would be ok and wasn't but who knows. The good part is i have a brand new still in the crate sbt 787 I just picked up. I got it along with two 96 xp's one running one with a blown motor and some aftermarket parts for a good price.

 

[Clirry]

Steal deal u got!

 

[nickj718]

All assembled and ready to install

Installed!


Next i have to bleed the oil pump,install the flame arrestor and I'm ready to start!

 

[racerxxx]

Nice score, having the new mill on hand was clutch!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[nickj718]

Well I started it up and think I have a slight problem. Heres what I did. Installed new plugs, filled it with 12 gallons of fresh gas and 32oz of seadoo synthetic 2 stroke. Filled the oil tank, installed new oil filter, bleed the oil pump had my friend start it while I was holding down the oil pump watched it fill the lines completely no bubbles. Hooked it up to the hose and no leaks. Let it idle for a bit lots and lots of smoke go to give it a little gas and it falls on its face. It idles smooth and sounds great just when you accelerate off the throttle it stumbles so I quickly put it back to idle. I did go through the carb and cleaned the small filters they were super clean and badly had anything in them. Any ideas?

 

[nickj718]

Tanking a break from the motor and decided to strip the stickers since it was nice out. My neighbor kept teasing me that it looked like a barbie boat with the 90's stickers. So here she is stripped haven't decided what direction I'm going to go yet.

 

[nickj718]

Well after searching on the internet of all seadoo boats I found what I wanted to do to update the boat a bit. Today i painted my xp and this is what i came up with. Everything was shot with a base coat clear coat house of kolor paint.









Next step is black molding and painting the hood,steering wheel insert,and rear deck

 

[rjcress]

Dayum!
You move FAST.
I've been working through a 96 Challenger rebuild that is taking WAY longer.
The black on the hull sides looks really nice.
I hope you get it running nicely soon.

 

[nickj718]

Thanks rjcress it runs good now. I didn't relive that neutral restricted the rpms to only 3500 duh

 

[Clirry]

Any updates?

 

[nickj718]

Just finished installing the painted parts and hydro turf. I have to recover the middles of the bottoms and install the black bumpers an I'm done. I'm done. What do you guys think

 

[nickj718]

Also did a radio. I hated the fact that I would have to cut a large din sized hole in the side and also hated that i couldnt see or control the radio from the drivers seat. So some searching lead me to this radio. I moved the dess post to the side of the steering wheel and a new momentary switch that had better appeal.

 

[Clirry]

Great job so far! Cant wait to see it in action in the lake.

What kind of paint did yo use to paint your engine trunk?

 

[nickj718]

I painted the storage hood,throttle cover, steering wheel insert and rear hatch with 2 stage house of lol or paint. It's metallic also

 

[nickj718]

Thanks for the positive feed back. I started drilling holes last night for my speakers. Im doing 2 4" in the front and 2 5.25" in the rear. I will slightly off set the front speakers so that they don't just cancel each other out as well. The system should be nice and loud. If not i have a amp that is currently powering my speakers on my 97 gsx ill just use. Ill post pictures later tonight.

 

[nickj718]

This weekend I took it to the lake to get it broken in. Break in when great! Boat ran perfect no problems what so ever. All i have left to do is recover the middle on the bottom seats.

 

[Vindoo]

Nice job on the paint, boat looks great.

 

[nickj718]

Thank you i appreciate it

 

[nickj718]

I did the bottoms of my seats over the weekend and cleaned the teal and white back. The seats look like brand new everything is soft and nice and bright

 

[Waterluvr]

Man you got that looking sharp! These things handle better than I would have ever expected out of a 15' class boat, I'm heading for Lake Michigan next weekend if the weather holds out.

 

[nickj718]

Your right about that! I was impressed. Let me know how Lake Michigan works out. I wanna try it out myself

Where in indiana are you? Im looking for some lakes to go to

Thanks for the compliment much appreciated

 

[finn5033]

Hello, Nick I am going to be picking up the exact same boat tomorrow. Was it easy to take the decals off? That is the first thing I want to do. How did you do it?

 

[nickj718]

Removing the decals is easy. Just use a heat gun and be pacient. When the stickers are all removed use a microfiber towel and some acetone to remove the left over glue. Be careful not to tough the teal on the seats or the bumpers.

Another tip with the acetone is if your white seats are very dirty a quick while with acetone with make them look like new