On July 4th I took it out for the first time, it performed great and hauls ass (not so much a top speed machine, like 55mph but tons of acceleration and fun).
I used to ride this jet-ski (1994 Kawasaki 750xi Supersport twin carb) back in the day for a couple of years, but beside that it sat for about 12 years in a barn, until they just gave it to me at the start of the summer. I worked on it off and on when I had time for a couple of months, luckily the engine is in great shape, but the entire rest of it was in bad condition, paint literally just falling off of it. So I stripped it down sent it off to a friend to be painted, while I worked on some parts at my house, got it back, installed a floor mat kit, rebuilt the jet pump with a brand new skat-trak impeller (the old one was chewed the fuck up), replaced all the hull hoses and such, installed a nice ride plate (the metal plate on the back bottom, its what the ski rides on once you are up and going), modified the intake grate (removed the center grate for more water pickup) and bought a trailer.
All in all, it looks much better (not going to impress anyone, but doesn't look so much like a 1994 falling apart POS), and moved the top speed from about 45 to 55, and acceleration of 0-40 from like 7 seconds to 3. I have a grey/sliver seat cover kit that I need to borrow a friends air staple gun to install sometime, but I am in no rush.
You may ask why I did this, the reason is, the mid 90s to early 00's were the best jet-skis made, they no longer make lightweight 2-strike high performance ski's anymore, what are sold today are all 4-stroke engines (mostly derived from sport-motorcycles) that are fragile, heavy (mine is 300lbs, while the new ones are 800+), and expensive to operate (my engine last longer, is simpler and cost $600 for a new one, instead of $4000). Mine also has little to no electronics, I can flip it, sink it, submarine it, and it keeps going. The new ones tend to go a little faster top speed, but handle like a tank, they are more like small boats. So everyone is buying up the old ones, and restoring them, since they are cheap and more fun to ride. I live about 400 yards from the water, so I can ride anytime. All of that, and I enjoy doing stuff like this
