1976 Hydrostream Vector

[HSChadd]

Picked up this vector last February. More pics and progress to follow.

[HSChadd]

Here’s some pictures of the tear down, unfortunately someone did some “repairs” so the port side required a lot more grinding. Yes. That is about 2 inches of resin someone poured there. Also pictured are the patches the previous owner put on.

[HSChadd]

Here I start cutting out the transom. I decided to do away with the splashwell so I can run bigger transom knees and carry more fuel.

[HSChadd]

All of the balsa and old glass ground out. Since this is a early vector 2 the build quality is very poor so I decided to leave the bow support and front core (whats left of it) intact until I get some structure back into the boat.

[HSChadd]

The first round of patching done with 1708. More glass will be added later to tie all of the smaller patches together. Since this boat is already so thin from previous repairs on the port side (down to the gelcoat in some spots) an extra layer of glass will not hurt.

[HSChadd]

Couple pictures of the transom going in. I used two sheets of 3/4 marine ply to get the stock 1.5 inch thickness. They were stuck together with resin rich 1.5oz csm mat. The outer skin of the boat was really out of shape from the years of motors pulling on it so I clamped the transom core to the outside to hold it straight while the layer of mat dried on the inside. I bonded the ply to the skin with Bond A Lite (my local fiberglass suppliers version of core bond). For tabbing I used 5 layers of 1708 starting at 4" wide stepping up 2" with each layer on the sides and bottom of the transom. Probably overkill.

[HSChadd]

This brings us up to current day. I covered the whole bottom in 1708. Since this is a early vector the core does not go all the way into the wings. However I am going to add glass all the way up. Next I am going to grind out a couple air bubbles on the edge and fix those. I decided to put a 8 foot 50" wide section of 1708 in the length of the boat, I DO NOT RECCOMEND doing it this way as it is very difficult to get the air out of the chines and pad corners without a lot of patience.

[Hippie459MN]

Looking good. That's the good thing about fiberglass, it can always be fixed. Glad to see another stream being saved. Can't wait to see more.