2005 Malibu V-Ride Project- home made surf gate
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Sold my 01 X-Star and got super obsessive for about 10 days and picked up a new project. Kids and wife are really getting into surfing so that was one of my main objectives, plus the ability to turn a profit as a reward for some hard work and innovation.
Found a 2005 V-Ride up in Sacramento and picked it up. Had been used in salt water and the trailer was thrashed. The seller had also picked it up as a project with a blown engine and dropped a brand new $5,000 motor in it, along with replacing the starter, alternator, pumps and ballast pumps. He got to a point where he ran out of interest, or energy and now its my turn. Here are some pics from before. -Since I was in Sac I had to hit Wake Island. |
I budgeted about $2,500 for projects and repairs. Here is a partial list.
Freeride Tower $1,650 Surfgate $400 Remove hard ballast tanks and add two 800# bags in the rear $280 Board Racks $150 New Blower, hose and chrome vents $100 Had to grind, strip, sand and repaint the trailer. (Lots of time and about $100) Lifters for the rear hatches. $40 Install of stereo (Tower speakers, amp and sub yet to come) Skull Shifter knob $12 Still to do... Wedge $660 Bimini $550 Stereo Upgrades $550 Maybe... Window tint ??? Heater $150 |
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Here are some pics from the surfgate install. Ended up costing about $400
Parts list and cost for the surf system. (Includes Shipping) Lenco actuators from eBay. $200 Two 18x12x1/2" Lexxan sheets $88 Hinges $30 Stainless steel screws, nuts, washers and bolts $50 Wire harness $26 Car power window switch from eBay $8. I want to give credit to my fellow wakeworlders for previous posts showing how to build this system. Made some cardboard panels first to test out angles. There were some interesting angles and spay pockets to figure out. Also I didn't want it to push down below the plain of the boat too much, also staying up so that it didn't interfere with normal operation. After the carboard I made some plywood ones and tried it out. Looked fine on the boat, but I headed up to Nacimiento and both sides failed super quick. (The screws didn't work) needed bolts. |
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For switches I decided to go with some power window switches I found off of eBay. Found a nice place to mount it above the throttle for quick and easy use.
Made a wire harness, cut the hole with a box cutter and wired it up. |
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After some experimenting I adjusted the angles of the surfgate and made my cuts in the Lexxan. Drilled the holes and mounted it up. Then used my angle grinder to smooth the edges and corners. Here's some more pics.
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Before I get on to that I also switched out the tower, painted the trailer, had to pull the windshield to change out the front speakers (Its way easier to pull the 3 screws from the front and 3 from the side and remove the whole thing as one piece, than it is to disassemble the windshield. (I tried both methods.)
By the way, I still have this Skylon Swoop tower for sale $800. if anyone is interested. |
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Also had to find a new place to mount the perfectpass motor (ended up drilling a mount on the intake manifold head where it should be drier) Had to wire up a new harness for the perfectpass because the old one was corroded. Replaced the paddlewheel for perfectpass too. Last, I had to disassemble and clean the throttle body and increase the spring tension on the intake because with the perfectpass cable it wasn't closing all the way and caused it to idle high.
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So its been a month of buying parts, installing them and testing them and yesterday I finally go to ride!. Let me say that I couldn't be happier! The new engine is super smooth and has tons of power. The surfgate system worked awesome and I love the controls. My wife is my driver and she had no problems operating it and dialing in the wake. The boat turns on a dime, takes off super fast. Love the look and feel of the tower as well. The wake is Soooo much longer and cleaner than my X-Star. The surf system looks, feels and functions super smooth and you immediately see a huge difference in the wake. Here are the pics of the surf wake.
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Wow! Good job, that's a bunch of work you did, how long did all that take you?
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From start to finish that is very impressive and that wave looks amazing. Well done.
Hard work goes a long way! |
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Rob ~ Grade A as usual. Never mind seeing a project boat show up that you are tackling.
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Nice! I saw that on Ebay back in september, anf the boat was in my town. Good to see someone is fixing her up. What did you get her for if you dont mind?
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Fabulous work. Really like the window switch idea... seems pretty intuitive.
That tower tho... was there something wrong with the skylon? That new tower is just ... well... I mean.... nevermind. |
Great good. Always like looking at the work you put into the boats. Why switch the towers? The Swoop tower was a great one....
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I really dig the tower I chose and when the time comes I think it will help with resale and while its not OEM, (I looked and couldn't find one) I think it really looks great on this boat. Boarder85- I don't mind sharing what I paid, text or pm me. 801-404-3744. |
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Very nice work on the surfgate! Wish I had the skill set to get that knocked out.
Agreed with above though. Really dug those swoop towers. |
Rob are you up in Paso Robles now? I thought you were in Utah but that is Lake Nacimiento.
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Nice! Have you been to VS Marine yet? My good buddy Shawn Wilson manages the shop, tell him I sent you! See you on the water!
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