Homemade Tower for '83 Ski Nautique 2001

Man, I hope I can finally post this pic...

I finally got a post to upload! I had to change the size of it, so it's not nearly as clear as it should be. It looked A LOT better before I had to resize it.

Anyway, some of ya'll may remember me posting last year on fixing up my '83 SN 2001. This is the newest "upgrade". Me and my buddy Paul built the tower and painted it with some Dupont Imron. We're too poor for powdercoating. We also built some board racks for it. Hopefully I can get them to post, too. Unfortunately, we didn't have a milling machine (which really sucks, seeing as I come from a machining background) but I still think they look pretty good.

We also fiberglassed in some support for the tower. We were both a little afraid that the gunnels weren't quite strong enough so we built some boxes out of XL and fiberglassed them into the floor and the sides of the boat. We also fiberglassed some under the gunnels to distribute the load better. Come to find out, they also serve as bad ass speaker boxes!

We tested the tower out a few days ago and it is solid as a rock. No flex, no squeaks, no problems.

Now let me see if I can get the other pics to post...

more pics...

and more pics

and more pics







In these pics, the racks are not quite complete. We painted them to match the boat and since these pics, we've put some 1/2" rubber on the plate to keep the boards from hitting the bolts or the plate. We also used clear tubing for the padding on the racks, so you can still see the blue. We also added some bungee cords.

Oh yeah, and the "knobs" to latch the bungees to are the heads of old railroad spikes!

Looks good, you have alot more skills than I

You did an awesome job!!!Old skool is always cool.

Fuel, excellent job plus you got to cheat correct craft out of there royalty check.

Thanks, guys. I couldn't have done it without my good buddy, Paul. He deserves a lot of praise for working his ass off!

Where did you mount the radio for your boat?

Brian, we mounted the stereo in the middle of the dash in that "Chevy-bow-tie-thingy." Sorry, I don't know what else to call it. It used to have a sticker that said "Ski Nautique 2001" right there. We took a rotozip and used it to cut out the hole, but you could use a die grinder as well. It was a very tight fit. You have to be really sure to center it properly, but when it is in there it looks like it was made for it. The only probelm is sometimes the passenger moves around in the seat and hits it. It usually happens only once everytime we go out. No big deal really.

I will try to take some pics and post them in the next couple of weeks.

thanks, fuel, I would appreciate seeing some pictures when you get a chance.

wow, you did a very good job with building that tower.