CRACKER BOX

[steveh41]

Fergal,

Congrats on a fabulous build!

Enjoyed the video... very solid looking on plane.

Regards,

Steve

[Benj269]

I got some cloudy patches in the fiberglass that I was not happy with, as I'm working outside it's very hard to control the weather that was with 205 hardener the second time I did it with 207 and covered it with peel ply and that kept the dampness out.
For reinforcement I glassed in wooden blocks under the frames you can see them here.

That certainly looks much better than the standard bolted in blocking. Did you by chance get any pictures of the glassing? I'm trying to think of how I would do it and tie all three elements together. Glassing the gusset to the motor stringer would be easy, but I'm not sure about tying those into the frame member.

I had never heard of peel ply before so I looked it up. Interesting. I will keep it in mind when I get to that stage.

Benjamin

[fergal butler]

I don't have any other photos of it but I just used fiberglass cloth, this is just the way I did it and I wouldn't recommend changing from the plans to anyone when it comes to things like this as my way is not tried and tested.

[Benj269]

How many operating hours do you have on her so far? Anything you would change?

[fergal butler]

I have about 20 fun filled hours on her If I had to do it again I would build it the 10% bigger than the standerd I'm 6'4" with big long lanky legs so a few extra inches in the cockpit would be nice it would also have made the engine and gearbox setup a lot easier. I'm still playing around with the engine hatch and should have gone for low profile exhaust risers I still might yet if I can find them on this side of the world as it will make the hatch a lot lower, all in all I love her and get very excited when I know I'm going out for a spin if it wasn't for fuel and nighttime I'd never come in

[Benj269]

If you stretched it to 16.5 feet I suppose you would need to join three pieces of (4'x8') ply to be long enough for the sides.? Speaking of fuel, where did you get your tank and filler cap?

[fergal butler]

Yep I can't get bigger than 8x4 here, The fuel tank is from the local marine shop I think it's made by "golden ship" the cap I got on ebay something like this http://www.ebay.com/itm/VW-Buggy-Sand-R ... a1&vxp=mtr

At the moment I'm working on a hatch that looks like the Century thunderbolt but I'm not sure if I like it or not as it's a bit high

[Benj269]

I really like this style:



Or I may go with a hatch that has a small cutout for something like a shotgun air scoop:

[fergal butler]

This is where my problem is the risers are just a bit proud of the deck so it makes the dome very high.

[Toopilot]

What did you ever do for the engine hatch?

[fergal butler]

I decided to save up and go for the low profile headers in the meantime I just used a leatherette cover stretched over the engine, hopefully one day I'll get to finish the hatch just need to find the boat first .

[Toopilot]

What do you mean find the boat first???

[fergal butler]

It's all here viewtopic.php?f=11&t=27124

[Toopilot]

Man... so sorry to hear. Really hope your new crazy cool project allows you to find you're first born!!!