X-9 needing a little TLC

[FlyHighorDie]

Found this boat in Northern California. I was expecting a much cleaner boat but after driving 19 hours to get it. This is what I encountered. After stepping on the dock after sleeping only 2hrs that night my eyes started glowing with anticipation to jump in this machine and throw the hammer down and start doing some power turns. I was hoping to scare the crap out of the seller!!LOL That wasn't my case. I did throw the hammer down and boat sputtered and puked, and Was was like oh crap and the seller had the same look. So we went back to the shore station and I started looking it over and determined that maybe this is either a compression issue or needs a tuneup. So after close inspection, I saw that 2 of the plugs were fowling and extremely rusty. We ran up to the parts store and grabbed cap rotor, plugs and MC D's. I was starving. So i scarfed the burger and ran on the dock and pulled the plug back out and low and behold wrong plugs. Forgot to mention that it was 9:00P.M and the store closes at ? Yah 9:00pm. So I ended staying the Night In the seller B&B. I woke up at 5:00 am and headed to the dock and started replacing cable and testing the compression as I swapped each one. So the store opened at 7:30 and we got new plugs and I was in Business again. Put new gas in the boat and additive. It then started raining so hard you couldn't see anything on the lake but who cares. Lets go. The boat started right up and Idled it out to a safe place and yes you guessed it. I warmed it up pretty good before starting the abuse I intended for the test drive. Great out of the hole and seemed quite fast but now steering on a dime. Cable is shot and no speedos. Ok not a deal breaker. I rode the boat around the lake for an hour and not a hiccup from the motor. I was grinning ear to ear in relief. BTW I was able to throw the caretaker around in the boat even with the crap cable. "I love these boats" even an IO can't compare with Power steering! Went back to the dock and deal was sealed lets get the trailer. I grabbed my truck got the trailer hooked-up ran it down to the loading ramp and we spent 20 min trying to get the boat on the trailer. My neck was hurting form watching the seller trying to trailer it. The caretaker got soaked form falling in the lake trying to help.LMAO So I got out of the truck and asked if they would like me to put it on and said its pretty easy. So he let me drive and I had it locked in .2 seconds. Pulled the boat out of the water. Took her back to sellers house and packed up. Then off to the bank and DMV. After purchasing then down the road I go. First stop gas station. Then I realized Brother said check the wheels to see if they are getting hot these trailers are known to have issues. Sure nuff 2 were pretty warm. I did a little inspection and ran it down the road a few miles. ohno!! They were boiling the grease in the hub. So I did a few more things not knowing what to change, so I ended up taking it back to town and parked in front of the parts store and pulled my blocks out and pulled the trailer up on one wheel and a time and proceeded to pull the brake pads, after an hour of prying each caliper and pulling pads and putting wheels back on I was set. No more hot wheels. After a while pulled over to see if the pistons were moving inside the calipers, which they were not. Ok off to home.

[Rossterman]

Was this the boat up at clear lake i saw on craigslist?

[f925]

Welcome to the boards, and Congrats on your new purchase! Sounds like only chapter 1 of an adventure. How is everything else on the boat at first glance?

[gotta_ski]

That is a crime that this boat was so neglected. The PO deserves to be beaten with foam bats until he repents and promises to quit abusing hand-built ski boats.

[LYNRDSKYNRD]

Congrats! IMO the X9/209 is one of the sexiest looking boats MC has ever made. Great story too thanks for sharing.

Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk 2

[ricford]

I'm assuming you got a great deal on it. Looks like a good find. Hope you don't find too many more problems.

[Ski-me]

Looks like you've got some good bones there so in the end, it will be great. I assume a good deal, too?!? Especially after all the work you did to get it running......

Nice color, nice ND tower, dual axle trailer.....

[FlyHighorDie]

After I got the boat back The hull got a thorough cleaning and a round of buffing. Used a 8' wool pad. I started with Maguires Heavy Cut but it didn't cut so fast and I went to 3m heavy duty which ripped through it in half the time. It took about 5 hours for round one. Here are some photo of what happens if a boat just sits in water. My brother has a heavy duty steam cleaner and it would touch this stuff and then I bought another something Slime not sure the name it worked barely. Then I saw somewhere toilet bowl cleaner. Amazing and I did two round with that.

Boat came from Clear Water. Not so Clear

[mzimme]

Nice work... the X9 will be my next boat. Hopefully exactly like that one What year is it?

[CC2MC]

Nice work, and a ton of it too. Random, but is the thru hull on the bottom bent?