Finally joined the inboard club!
 

Well the old seaswirl finally bit the bullet. After cashing out with the insurance company and some slight generosity from my pops I ended up with an '89 ski nautique. The interior is in great shape and the floor is solid. She has perfect pass, shower, and heater already installed and now just needs a tower. Was a little rough on the outside when I picked it up, but with the help of some of the guys at the2001.com I have shined it up and am ready to hit the water. I would also like to thank Brett Yates for being willing to personally help out a complete stranger while I was searching.

Here are some before and after pictures.

Nice find! I know you will make a lot of great memories in that boat. Good to see that you gut some help from a fellow wakeworlder. I know I enjoy helping people out with finding boats, there are definitely some great deals out there right now. Just need to be able to see through the neglect and oxidation sometimes. :)

Looks good bud. Con grats!

Wow. That is amazing. Congrats on the inboard. And nice work on bringing back to life.

nice! i had a 82
i take it its not a 2001 series?

Nice work! and congrats.

Cory, SN2001s were 82-89. 89 got a lot of drivetrain upgrades with the std rotation motor, 1:23 reduction trans and muffled exhaust (if you call that an upgrade).

Very nice bstphen, I didn't see the before shots on sn2001.com. Very nicely done. You know the black on the dash can be restored the same way.

Nice boat and great buffing job. Enjoy it.

It cleaned up that much with just buffing? Our boats gel coat is faded (not quite as bad though) and we were considering wrapping it in vinyl but that looks like it worked great. What all did you do to it to get it so shiny?

my guess is that he wet sanded it first.

Rodney is correct, I wet sanded with 1000 and 1500 grit. Then used a rubbing compound, finesse-it II and finally a good waxing. I did all of it in one day and it was not as bad as I thought it would be. All of my buddies were busy so I ended up doing it by myself so with a couple of people I imagine it would have been even easier. This was my first experience in restoring anything and was kind of worried about messing something up. But after diving in I realized it wasn't that bad and kind of hard to screw up. If I did have any questions, bremsen and others were very helpful at answering them for me over at the2001.com.

I should have the teak all restored by the end of the week. Then I have to take the boat to my friends house and his dad is going to help me make removable brackets for the platform. So with any luck I will be ready for the water by next week.

Nice job! Looking real good compared to the before pics!

nice work, sweet boat.

Did you use a buffer with the rubbing compound or apply it
by hand? Our boat needs the same treatment but buffers can get expensive

Go buy a buffer from Harbor Freight, works great for a lot less.

I used a variable speed buffer for all of it. The only thing I did by hand was the wet sanding and waxing.

I also got the windows tinted last night with 20% and it looks great. I'll try and get some pictures of it when the sun decides to come back out.

Wow man, you did a beautiful job bringing her back to life. Congrats on the sick ride.

Wow, thats amazing how much it came back to life, looks really good! Did you paint the rope in the rub rail too? Looks good.

Cleaned up nice. I like the red on gray.

Nice work! It really turned good.

Thanks for all the compliments. It has been fun to work on it and bring it back. Now I really want to get out there and load her up. I am just waiting so that I can get some removable brackets made for the swim platform, which will hopefully be done next week!

The rope was replaced with a black braided nylon one. I was going to replace it with a twisted rope like the original, but the cheapest black one I could find was $120. So I figured for $25, I could just see how well the braided one worked out. I really need to get a picture of it with the windows tinted now.

congrats dude. Ive restored a 79 MC stars and stripes and now am in the process of a 89 mc tristar. I update mine though with towers and new decals that are for newer models and what not. Yours looks great. Im have to struggle to get my 89 looking that clean. great job. go hit the water in that thing. its the best feeling knowing that you made it look that good while runnin up the water.

Can you explain your wet sand process? Thanks in advance.

also interested in what kind of buffer you used. I searched harbor freight but only found a couple really cheap ones and from what ive seen the cheap ones dont do much...

Wet sanding is really pretty simple. I used one of the black rubber block sanders and a bucket of water with some soap mixed in. Also tried turning the hose on really low, but found the water bucket worked best for me. Started with 1000 grit, a lot of guys start lower, and then finished with 1500. Just make sure to be very liberal with the water and not make circles while sanding. I used the method described by Froze (a member here I believe) to get me started. http://www.leftlaneends.net/sn2001/page1.html
There is also tons of information over at the2001.com if you search wet sanding.

After wet sanding, I used a heavy duty rubbing compound from 3M. I then cleaned the boat and used Finesse-it II with a foam wheel on the buffer. Once that was done finished it off with a good cleaning and waxing.

As for the buffer, It was borrowed from a friend and I'm not exactly sure on the brand. I do know that it was a very nice and probably high dollar item as he has used it for repainting his cars. It had variable speeds and looked like a large grinder.
Tonight I was able to finish up the inside by getting the teak trim pieces installed. Now all that is left is to finish oiling the platform and getting the removable brackets made, as I don't want to put the platform back on and seal everything up just to take it off and redo it in a week or so.

The buffer I used was very similar to this one.
http://www.detailking.com/content/view/79/187/

Here is another great thread I found with some good info. It also has a variable speed buffer listed that is much cheaper than the one above.
http://www.correctcraftfan.com/forum...-or-punishment

Congrats on the '89. I have one myself thats seen alott of hard work to get her looking good since i bought her.

I'm impressed you did the wetsand in a day, It took me several nights over about two weeks to do mine, and thats not counting the polish and wax. Thats mainly bacause my shoulders and arms were acheing after a few hours.

Teak deck
 

How did you go about restoring your deck? Did it turn out good? love to see a pic. Boat looks great, its amazing what a little TLC can do, enjoy. Cheers from California!

Great find! you got her looking good too..

Teak is pretty easy to restore as well. Pressure wash it, sand it down. Finish with oil.

if you search, i'm sure you'll find more info than you need. One of the mastercraft guys is obsessed with his teak. I'd search over there as well..

awesome boat man!! Now load it up with some weight and you'll have an unreal wake!

Great job, nice ride...

With the platform unbolted off the back, I would lift the gas tank up about an inch with some wood and drill through the bolt holes and bolt the swim step mounts through the transom and seal it with 3M 5200. Make sure to use all stainless steal bolts and washers and I would go with nylock nuts. I had a 1988 2001 Nautique and the lag bolts would come loose exposing the transom. It took like 2 hours to do, but it was worth it. You don't want water leaking into your transom and rotting it out.

Those boats are sick btw! have fun with it!

Thanks for the tip Kyle. We should be installing the swim platform next weekend I hope. Here are some pictures of the interior, tinted windows and my daughter who is very excited to go out. Progress will be slowed for a few weeks as my wife and I go in tomorrow to have her induced for the birth of our son! So we will now have a complete family to enjoy the boat.

That boat looks awesome! I had one for a while. They are great boats. Awesome wake too. You will have so much fun with it! Here are some pics of mine 1988 Nautique 2001. I made a custom back seat that held a 400lb fatsac. I ran 540s on the side of the engine and about 200 lbs of lead plus stereo stuff up in the bow. I had a custom fiberglass 12in sub box in the bow too. The prop was a ACME 542 which gave it a crazy hole shot no matter how much weight was added. Best investment I ever made on it was the 542 prop and converting the engine from points to electronic ignition.

Kyle, I think I might have ridden with you one time at Dexter reservoir outside of Eugene, your boat looks really familiar. If it was you, your buddy was in one of my classes and you came down for the day to go ride. We had drysuits, but the seals ended up breaking and we had to trunk it. It was cold but I remember having a great time.

On a side note my son should be here in soon hopefully! Momma got her epideral and is taking a rest, so I am messing around on the computer for now. Should have him here by tonight though!

HAHA no way I totally remember that! Yeah that was me because I've only been to Dexter once. We planed a trip to Fall Creak Reservoir, but it never happened. Is that a cool lake? My buddy that was in your class was Chris Gray. Well if you ever have any questions about those boats, I was a total SN 2001 nerd, and I was a boat mechanic for quite a while, so feel free to hit me up. I know a lot about them. They are really awesome boats! Now that I'm temporally boatless while I'm finishing up school, all I ride behind is my roommates 1994 Malibu Echelon. If you are ever up here in the Vancouver/Portland area, hit me up and we will ride. Congrats on the baby!

360-798-8245

nice ride man! we'll have to hook up out at the ditch- i've got a sanger and am typically out on tuesday's/thursday's...not yet tho- still a little cold. congrats on the new addition (both of them!)

Thanks both additions have been awesome. The boat has turned out great and my son and family are doing great! If you see me out flag me down and say hi, my name is Brad. I see in your profile that you go to Green Peter as well? I love that place, in high school that was the place we always went. It is such a hidden gem, I always called it the Shasta Lake of Oregon. We should be out periodically starting next week. Hope to see you out there.

Looks very nice. What percent tint did you go with?

Went with 20%, it seemed to be the most popular suggestion on here from the guys that have done theirs. We also have 20% on our cars and I have no issues with it and figured that with the amount of open space and light in the boat it would be fine.