The 1979 Ski Tique Resto-Mod Story

It does look good on the water but cut it out till you check your timing or you may spend the rest of the summer looking at those pictures and wishing you hadn't blown it up.

JoeinNY wrote: It does look good on the water but cut it out till you check your timing or you may spend the rest of the summer looking at those pictures and wishing you hadn't blown it up.

+1

Mid Summer Update:

Skiing:
As planned I stared pulling for the local ski club. I drive 1-3 nights a week, everybody loves the boat & I love driving.

Lessons Learned:
Running out of gas sucks. According to my trusty bummin-stick we had 2/3 of a tank. Normally this have been fine, the 3 of us would ski 1 - 2 sets, get tired and call it a day. What I didn't account for was more friends showing up. With 2 more skiers we ran a few extra sets and on the last run she sputtered out 300 yds from the dock. Thankfully, sitting level in the water the pickup was able to find some fuel and we idled back to the dock. Needless to say I'm going to keep a better eye on it. Also I'm super disappointed there's no reserve tank on these boats. I mean is it that hard to put a 2nd pick up in the tank and a switch behind the seat? I considered installing on myself when I had the tank out, but didn't want to f-around with a fume laden tank.

Maintenance:
She still warms up during 2+ minuet barefoot runs, reading around 200 on the dash, however using an IR thermometer I'm getting 175-180 at the intake manifold and 125-130 at the water pump so I'm just going to keep an eye on it in the future. For a little piece of mind I did pick up and install an over temp / low oil pressure alarm. Pretty cheap insurance policy at @ 25 bucks.

I'm also investigating a rear main seal leak. If I run the boat in the water for 1+ hr I will get a little oil dripping from the bellhousing. For now I've just put some PIG oil-only sorbent pads in there to sop up the drippage.   I'm about 1/4" - 1/2" high on the dip stick (ya I accidentally overfilled it) not sure if that's factoring into it or anything, but it seems to only drip if were out on the water. Perhaps the steep motor angle of the Tique + the angle of the boat when pulling young skiers at 12-18 mph is resulting in that extra 1/2 quart sitting against the rear main? Idk it's a shot in the dark theory. Anyway unless it gets worse it's a winter fix.

My points are damn near shot. I have new points, condenser, cap & rotor sitting on the work bench. As soon as my dewll meter arrives they'll be getting swapped out

Upgrades:
I'm looking at installing a new speedo. The no-name brand one I installed Sucks. It reads 3-7 mph fast depending on how fast your going. I feel bad pulling skiers at the club and having to SWAG the speed all the time. I dug out & cleaned up the original air guide yesterday and I plan on giving that a shot this afternoon. I hope to narrow down if its the gauge or the pickup. Even if it's just the pickup I'm probably going to swap it out for a gps unit at some point.

July Update:   She's working great & I'm enjoying every minuet of it!

Problems, solutions & upgrades:

Miss under load when hot: A few weeks ago I noticed that towards the end of ski club (2+ hrs of driving) the motor would drop a cyl or miss under load. Ended up being the coil, it got replaced in no time.

Bad speedo: Originally I wanted to clean up the dash so I picked up a no-name brand dash mount speedo and replaced the factory airguide. I had luck with a similar speedo on a previous boat so I thought nothing of it. Turns out the speedo would read 2-5 mph different across the sweep. Pulling dozens of skiers a night this was unacceptable. I picked up a in dash GPS unit (Faria 33726 Chesapeake) from Overtons, with an internal antenna it was a breeze to hookup. Plus the blue matches my Teleflex gauges so it blends right in.




Seats: Unlike it’s big-boat counterparts my Tique came with 2 single seats, one for the driver & one for the spotter.   I was content with the 2 single seats until I saw some pictures of Tiques with a tiny rear facing bench, this got the gears turning. With foam, vinyl & plywood left over from my last boat project I was all ready to whip up a bench seat when I had a thought to Google “24 inch bench seat”. To my surprise I found one from BoatSeatStore.com for $120.00. I picked up a 24" benchseat + matching driver seat, shipped to the house for just under $195. They’re no factory sets, but they look pretty damn good if you ask me. My favorite part about the universal seats is they fold. I’m not particularly tall or skinny so hurtling the fixed-back driver seat or squeezing between the pylon and the seat back was a PITA, now I just fold down the seat and step right over it. Also having the spotter seat fold means easy access to the storage space under the dash. Again for 195 bucks I couldn’t be happier.








Lastly – Budget Ballast:
“Hey are those pool bags in your boat?”
“Damn right, I don't have the money for those fancy ballast bags."

When it came to adding weight to the boat I didn't want to spend the money on oversized fat sacs, plus I knew I had seen water bags somewhere else. One day it clicked - POOL COVER BAGS, I had filled dozens of them helping my grandparents close their in-ground pool as a kid. The 4ft bags weight between 45 & 50 lbs and can be easily moved, stacked or positioned in the boat to shape the wake depending on what we’re doing. 2 bags up front to keeps porpoising to a minimum while footing, 4 bags on the driver side helps level out the boat when footing on the boom, and 4 bags on each side of the engine cover adds an extra 400 lbs of weight for wakeboarding. Not bad for 30 bucks, plus if one gets a hole in it you only lose 5-6 gallons.



I fill them using a modified 3 gallon bucket; the bucket has a 1” PVC bulkhead fitting with a section of reinforced hose. Press the pool bag bung onto piece of hose, dip the bucket in the lake and in 30 seconds you have a 45lb weigh bag ready to be the boat.

Didn't need to, already a member of Overtons Tube Of The Month Club.

LeftFieldEngineering wrote: ... I picked up a in dash GPS unit (Faria 33726 Chesapeake) from Overtons, with an internal antenna it was a breeze to hookup. Plus the blue matches my Teleflex gauges so it blends right in. ...

These GPS speedos are a nice option. I believe they'll be a helpful part of the solution for owners experiencing the 2000-2001 gauge cluster problems.

I definitely enjoy the GPS speed readout on the my Perfect Pass.

My GPS Speedo is great.
One shortcoming is it shows speed over the ground, not through the water.
So, if you're skiing on a river, readings are sometimes not very helpful.
-=Grant=-

On the Mississippi at the Alton Pool, my log shows GPS speedometer read 15 mph at 1500 RPM going downstream; 2000 RPM required to maintain 15 mph upstream. Not sure of river's speed, but I'll guess 4 to 6 mph.



On the St. John's Cruise (FL), I'll guess 4 near Sanford. Of course it depends on many variables:





I think you'll find current speeds at U.S. Geological Survey websites, but then they're kinda hard to use for calculations while towing.

Once you have an idea of what RPMS correspond to what speeds in still water, you can use your tachometer as a guide.

TRBenj wrote: Please don't run at 1500rpm in any river or any lake or ever. Thnx!

What could happen?

fanofccfan wrote: Chevy350 wrote: TRBenj wrote: Please don't run at 1500rpm in any river or any lake or ever. Thnx! What could happen? A wake the size of texas that sends a never ending trail of rollers for one.....I see it all the time on our little pond....and it drives me crazy!

I thought it was bad for the boat... oops. I'll make sure to never do it.

Interior Update - New skins for doghouse & rear seat

New Skins