Old girl has got some meat on her bones now. YIKES she's a biggin. On a side note, in place of Bondo, I'm trying something I had handy, Durhams "Rock Hard" putty to fill the exterior surfaces and sand down to give me a smooth surface to glass. Its alot easier to work with not needing hardener or anything like that. Just powder and water to the desired composition and go. Has anyone tried that before? I know it will melt away when it gets wet which is fine, it'll make taking it and the foam out easier once I get the hull glassed.
are you going to build a trailer with a launch recovery system for that monster? if not hope you have kids to put to work.
Ish, I made the Mrs. the offer to bed down between me and "the girls" (Lex and Sara) somehow she took it the wrong way and opted out. So no kids. But I'll figure something out. A few pictures from the end of the day. A grinder with a sanding wheel on it left me here as I closed up shop. Once that water putty is 100% dry I'll see how it sands down for the cause.
I have about 50% of the port side Bondo'ed up and sanded. Another 20% or so is covered and drying. I'm doing five major sections. Both sides, fore/aft, and the bottom and bilges.
Due to the weather, and the fact it looked like a bomb went off in there I spent the day cleaning the garage up and making it a little easier to park the car when I wasn't building. A little detail of the port midships where the belt starts. Progress so far. Glob-o-Bondo, port aft.
wow that sexy beast in that back ground is looking hot , sitting out there in the sun. ,,, looking all yellow and stuff. ,,, oh yeah the boat is looking good too..
First layer of glass went down Sunday and dried. Busted me out some 36 grit on the belt sander and went to work. Going to put the second layer on this weekend. The sanding burned through the glass in some spots, made it mighty thin in others. No worries though I figure two more layers should take care of it. Once I get the second layer down I'll take to removing all that danged foam and Bondo from the inside. Lucky for me I can get some pretty aggressive tools between 6" spaced ribs.
I <3 36 grit sandpaper for digging out the keel/ribs. The helpers. Untitled by ace_austin1701, on Flickr
So. A long long time ago, I had the building bug to get Sara on the water. Since I've spent the last 10 months getting THIS build squared away (and living aboard) I've not had the facilities to move forward. Now with that knocked down and some leave coming I am slowly going to try to recommit myself to getting Sara squared away. My mission for next week when I go down to FL. My goal, since the great foam and fiberglass fiasco is to get the hull dug out/bottom coated with leveler, and to skin the hull with some 1/16th or so to act as backing for a proper fiberglassing. Her condition since then is as you can see above, framed but not fully filled in/sanded down.
So, after using Sara's industrial strength hairdryer (pictured under the stands)..... and knocking off the scaled up foam I finished digging out the majority of Bondo/Foam and after a trip to the store Monday I'll start the great resheet/glassing. Now as you can see where the shafts are supposed to run the question is do you think I can get away with two shafts on a single 550 with dual outputs?
What I started out with across the board. This is the back where the shafts will run. I didn't want to fill that in until I have the drive train squared away. Used high density Loc Tite foam to fill in the bulges, and the tried and true concrete leveler (6 large tubes in already) adding about 15lbs to her bulk. Next chance I get, I'll build up a shallow box in the middle, add another tube and voila, the water channel will be molded in. Once that is done I'll glass the inside and across the top of the foam to made the bottom a solid piece. Hopefully the weight down low, plus the extra float in the wings will help her stability.
