RESTO Two new X-4 restoration projects

[Minnetonka4me]

The pump extension does force the nose down just a little. For jumping...not the best although it doesnt kill jumping like trim tabs do.

The biggest downfall is the driveshaft can bend fairly easy, and the steering cables are easier to break.

 

[PGHMAN]

Hey Dan, I was wondering when the next project was coming about. Nice score on the skis....now you have something to keep you busy . It's been a long winter for many of us. Got tired of looking at my ski each time I enter the garage for the past several months and decided to replace the oil injection cable on Sunday since we had 65 degrees. Enjoy your project and look forward to the posts. Ready for spring.
Rob

 

[Minnetonka4me]

This guy is parting down a 95 787 motor. Its not an X motor, but I do see those eyebrows are not in the intake ports. Guys asking prices are ridiculous, but its got a make offer tab.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/B-1995-sead..._Watercraft_Parts&hash=item5afa64af49&vxp=mtr

 

[dan87951]

Dan,

Welcome to the club. I have two 95' XP 800's and a buddy of mine Matt bought a fixer upper as well. I bought my first one off the original owner (non X motor) and still have all the original paperwork from when he bought it including the original dealer invoice. The ski has 232 hours on it and runs 58-59.6 on my GPS depending on weather conditions. The engine is all original and has never been apart and still runs great. The previous owner did have the head shaved (165psi compression) and the carbs re-jetted. I have since removed those carbs and added a brand new set with accelerator pumps. My 2nd XP800 I bought in Jackson (paid $500 with crap trailer), and it does have the X motor. This ski is my current resto project and is coming along nice. I do believe this ski was raced as it had some very interesting "Skat-Track World Tour" stickers on it from 1995, 96, and 97. The ski was bone stock when I got it but the rear cylinder let lost compression. The engine still turns over but appears to have been apart at one point in its life. I haven't hooked up my MPEM tool to see what the hours are on this ski but its probably in the 100-200's as well.

To be honest I didn't know about the cylinder for the 95' modem year 800 or the intake ports. Very interesting. I just my X motor and I do not have the "eye brows" in the ports like my 96 does. Just an FYI but PWCgraphics makes a nice replica decal set for our skis, so if you need a set shoot him a call or email.

 

[dannyual767]

....... Just an FYI but PWCgraphics makes a nice replica decal set for our skis, so if you need a set shoot him a call or email.

Are you talking about custom decals or replicas of the OEM original decals? I went to pwcgraphics.com but I didn't find any that looked original.

 

[racerxxx]

They make replica of the OEM ones, check eBay. They look really nice but my hang up is they are shorter than the original ones are and don't wrap around the back as much. This is just my hang up, I'm a stickler for details. I have not decided how I'm going yet, I do have a line on a possible nos front and nos rear that I could have duplicated exactly if in fact the guy has them. If these won't shine up good I'll be exploring all the avenues. I'd almost rather not so perfect original decals, but that's me. I'm not knocking the replica ones, just making guys aware that they're not 100% exact. I think that the ones Suke put on his Resto are a tad shorter, iirc.

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[dan87951]

They make replica of the OEM ones, check eBay. They look really nice but my hang up is they are shorter than the original ones are and don't wrap around the back as much. This is just my hang up, I'm a stickler for details. I have not decided how I'm going yet, I do have a line on a possible nos front and nos rear that I could have duplicated exactly if in fact the guy has them. If these won't shine up good I'll be exploring all the avenues. I'd almost rather not so perfect original decals, but that's me. I'm not knocking the replica ones, just making guys aware that they're not 100% exact. I think that the ones Suke put on his Resto are a tad shorter, iirc.

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There is no way you can have "100% exact" unless you get them from Sea Doo, which by my understanding are all sold. Believe me, I have checked all my sources multiple times. Even the methods by which Sea Doo made the original decals back in 1995 are no longer being used today so even your replica's would show inconsistencies. IMO the work that PWCgraphics does is down right awesome and to be honest I'm thankful we even have options to purchase a set for our skis. To each their own, but I will be going with a set from PWCgraphics, Mpower's ski speaks volumes about their work! He made some reproduction decals for my SPX that I was really pleased with as well!

Suke's decals are not from PWCgraphics.

Below is the eBay ad for the XP 800 decal set. Check MPower's for sale thread to see what the decal's look like!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Sea-Doo-XP-..._Watercraft_Parts&hash=item233181c1a7&vxp=mtr

 

[racerxxx]

Like I said, I'm not knocking their work one bit, they do look great and might have to go that way. I also get that they can't do them 100%, it's just my hang up. I'm used to working with cars where you can get the exact replica. If the guy I know actually has the 2 nos decals I will be investigating having them reproduced in the proper length, locally. There is a place that reproduces ski doo decals out your way that I contacted before to repo the 99 spx decals and they said that sea doo will not give them the rights to do it, but ski doo has no problem doing it on the sled end. I actually helped them on some Moto-Ski decals, their work it's top notch. They were allowed to make the 88-89 sea doo decals only, but who's restoring them, lol. Doodecals.com is the place I helped.

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[suke]

There is no way you can have "100% exact" unless you get them from Sea Doo, which by my understanding are all sold. Believe me, I have checked all my sources multiple times. Even the methods by which Sea Doo made the original decals back in 1995 are no longer being used today so even your replica's would show inconsistencies. IMO the work that PWCgraphics does is down right awesome and to be honest I'm thankful we even have options to purchase a set for our skis. To each their own, but I will be going with a set from PWCgraphics, Mpower's ski speaks volumes about their work! He made some reproduction decals for my SPX that I was really pleased with as well!

Suke's decals are not from PWCgraphics.

Below is the eBay ad for the XP 800 decal set. Check MPower's for sale thread to see what the decal's look like!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Sea-Doo-XP-..._Watercraft_Parts&hash=item233181c1a7&vxp=mtr

man those are sweet! Too bad those weren't available when I did mine last year, would have saved me some money. Mine were from exotic signs and were very high quality vinyl, but yup they're MUCH smaller than OEM.

 

[racerxxx]

man those are sweet! Too bad those weren't available when I did mine last year, would have saved me some money. Mine were from exotic signs and were very high quality vinyl, but yup they're MUCH smaller than OEM.

Yeah, they are much cheaper and would have lessened the sting. I'm not sure if they do it for copyright issues or it's a limitation of the film width or printing machine width etc.... but they are the only ones out there, except for hidden NOS ones that haven't surfaced yet. They both make really nice stuff and Mpowers ski does look MINT with the fresh decals as well as yours Suke. I see they will make them in custom colors, a nice black and gray would look sweet on my 96 XP. I could have three skis with matching style decals........

 

[dannyual767]

They do look great. It appears that they don't offer 96 XP original style decals though, right?

 

[suke]

Yeah, they are much cheaper and would have lessened the sting. I'm not sure if they do it for copyright issues or it's a limitation of the film width or printing machine width etc.... but they are the only ones out there, except for hidden NOS ones that haven't surfaced yet. They both make really nice stuff and Mpowers ski does look MINT with the fresh decals as well as yours Suke. I see they will make them in custom colors, a nice black and gray would look sweet on my 96 XP. I could have three skis with matching style decals........

everytime i've been at the lake i've had people stop me to talk about my ski. Most want to talk because they had/rode/know someone that had an xp just like mine and wonder why it looks brand new. Had an old codger in a bass boat flag me down the last time I was out. I thought he was gonna bitch at me cause I was riding like an asshat( mind you I was in a cove all by myself so he had to come to me). But nope he had an xp like mine he bought new many years ago and it sat under a tarp and hadn't been run in years. Seeing mine made him want to go home and get his running.

 

[racerxxx]

That's what it's all about.

Saw this today and it made me think of you [MENTION=59515]suke[/MENTION]. We were in China town in Philly



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[suke]

l

That's what it's all about.

Saw this today and it made me think of you [MENTION=59515]suke[/MENTION]. We were in China town in Philly



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LOL! That's funny.

 

[dan87951]

They do look great. It appears that they don't offer 96 XP original style decals though, right?

I would email him to find out. I know he has the 98 SPX decals but don't see them listed either. I actually sent him my new OEM decals for my 98' SPX to copy as I didn't want to use the originals just in case another batch needed to be run.

As for the 95' XP800 decals I have 3 new OEM decals, the 2 bottom hull decals and the dash decal. I bet if we were able to get him OEM decals for the upper deck to measure length he could probably make them much more accurate but then again we are talking about a very small discrepancy in length (probably a couple of inches if that).

Suke, the stuff PWCgraphics uses is of very high quality (3M) as well. 3M is one of the leaders in the vinyl industry and lets face it their products are far from cheap!

 

[Bnelson]

I like the idea racerxxx.... I would love to have a black and grey set for mine as well!! Would look great with my color scheme.


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[jkur10a]

racerxxx first off - love seeing restore threads on the XP800's. Such an awesome boat and they deserve to be restored. I see too many being parted when all they need is a little love. Yours looks very clean overall, can't wait to see how the build ends up. Mines nowhere near that clean, but it does run (It has the "X" motor!) so I'll be enjoying it while slowly bringing it back to where it should be. Unfortunately I am missing the factory seat cover, someone painted the yellow single gauge hood black and they stripped the factory decals, so I have my work cut out for me.

I am curious about the exhaust hose and why the one for the XP800 is different than the other X4 Hull hoses? Since I only have one X4 Hull boat (The 1995 XP800 mentioned above), I don't have anything else to compare to, so I actually did a bit of research to see what I could find. Sure enough the 1995 XP800 has a completely different part number for the exhaust hose (274000177) verses a 1996 XP or 1997 SPX (274000355). Does anyone know what I would loose, if anything when replacing that hose with something more like the newer models that go up much higher, instead of being as short as possible?

Good luck again on the build! Looking forward to reading more about it.

-Matt

95 short exhaust hose (compare it to the 96 down below)

This is the 96 exhaust hose, much taller than the 95.

 

[dannyual767]

I just sent PWC Graphics this email:

Good morning. I've been following/participating in a thread on the Sea Doo forum (seadooforum.com) and your products came up. Someone posted a link to your ebay store where you have OEM similar decals for those wanting to restore their 1995 XP 800 skis. Many, many of us have the much more common 1996 XP skis and we'd like to restore them as well. I've got two and both have faded, scratched decals that really need to be replaced. I'm not looking for custom decals but rather decals that are very similar to the original, stock 1996 Sea Doo XP decals. Please let me know if you have them and if so, a picture of them would be appreciated. Thank you.

We shall see.

 

[dan87951]

I just sent PWC Graphics this email:

Good morning. I've been following/participating in a thread on the Sea Doo forum (seadooforum.com) and your products came up. Someone posted a link to your ebay store where you have OEM similar decals for those wanting to restore their 1995 XP 800 skis. Many, many of us have the much more common 1996 XP skis and we'd like to restore them as well. I've got two and both have faded, scratched decals that really need to be replaced. I'm not looking for custom decals but rather decals that are very similar to the original, stock 1996 Sea Doo XP decals. Please let me know if you have them and if so, a picture of them would be appreciated. Thank you.

We shall see.

Keep us posted. I'm curious as well..

 

[TheMachin0]

from your pics im guessing the pump extention has been removed unless someone just used the boot from a 96+ the exhaust hoses are diff u will want a 96+ hose they loop higher making a better water trap to keep water out of the exhaust

 

[dannyual767]

Keep us posted. I'm curious as well..

Will do as soon as I hear something.

 

[TheMachin0]

oh ther diff machines the 2 pics my bad deff want the big hose on both

 

[racerxxx]

from your pics im guessing the pump extention has been removed unless someone just used the boot from a 96+ the exhaust hoses are diff u will want a 96+ hose they loop higher making a better water trap to keep water out of the exhaustView attachment 23905

Not quite sure who your quoting? My ski has the pump extension. As far as changing to they later hose, not happening, I'm keeping this ski built as it came from the factory.

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[TheMachin0]

was quoting jkur10a about hose differences sorry was my first cup of coffee. if I had an x I would do the same.

 

[jkur10a]

Not quite sure who your quoting? My ski has the pump extension. As far as changing to they later hose, not happening, I'm keeping this ski built as it came from the factory.

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was quoting jkur10a about hose differences sorry was my first cup of coffee. if I had an x I would do the same.

Sorry for the confusion guys and didn't mean to side-track racerxxx's post - I was simply trying to point out that there is in fact different part numbers for the XP800 hose and a 1996+ X4 hull exhaust hose and was wondering what the performance / functionality difference was, as there had to be a reason SeaDoo used that hose on their flagship ski back in 1995. I was going to go with a silicone reproduction hose, but the only one I know of copies the later version, not the one found on the XP800.

-Matt