Quick foreward - a sincere apologies to everyone for disappearing from the forum completely. It seems starting and running your own business is a full time job and then some...and I had to put boat building on hold for a little over a year. On that note, a *massive* and humble shoutout to Gayle and John for everything they do...it isn't easy, and they do a great job!
Now, onto the project - I'll use this post to keep a running tab of my work on my Rampage, "No Limits", for this summer. There's a chance I might actually get it in the water and on to dry land to drop in the engine...and only 9 years after I started
At the end of 2015 I'd completed the flip, and framed in the coaming / carling / dash / deck beams...the decking plywood had also been framed. For some reasons the pictures stopped working, but to see the *entire* build from start to finish,click the following link (no facebook account required)https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1007656525867.2003777.1658550263&type=1&l=410d0be633 All pictures will appear there as I go, so if I leave any out from the post or they stop showing up, just go there to view them!
So far I've only gotten a few weekends in this year, but the "to do" list is getting shorter and shorter! All that's left are the floor, seats, hardware (fuel, electrical, instruments, controls, etc), decking, and engine...in roughly that order. I'm going to try and post an update with pictures every weekend for the rest of the summer...we'll see how that goes, as I'm already combining three weekends in one in this update!
Weekend 1 - Took stock of things. It had been a while since I worked on the boat, so I mostly wanted to know what I did and did not have left, what I'd need to move forward, etc. Did quite a bit of work on measuring things for engine / exhaust clearance, seats, etc. Nothing photo worthy in week 1, sadly.
Weekend 2 - This is where the work started. I realized I hadn't actually quite fit my front decking yet, and hadn't done *any* of the fairing on the sheer line for the decking. So I spent pretty much the entire weekend doing this. I did finally decide exactly how I want the decking, coaming, and dash to all mate...but haven't quite finished getting it done yet. And, I realized that now would likely be a good time to route a gap for the bow light wires - this weeks only picture:
Weekend 3 - June 18th - Don't worry, I wouldn't post a new topic without pictures! This weekend is where the real fun started. I decided that before I went forward with all of the "final" work like seats, floor, engine mounting, etc, it would be ideal to actually mock in the engine. The problem is I can neither afford nor lift a real big block chevy at this stage, so a foam mock up worked as the perfect substitute. It will be used to rig up the cooling lines, exhaust, engine mounts, pretty much everything. Here's a shot of it mounted in the boat, about where I'm planning on having it sit:
It's quite a bit further from the pump than I would have liked, but between fitting in wet exhaust and clearing the coamings, I didn't have much choice. On that note, if anyone knows where to get a proper double u-joint shaft of that length that's splined for a jet pump on one end...
Two more shots, showing the rough fore/aft spacing and the view from the back. In the first pic, the floor (see later in this update) is visible on the far right, and the single member spanning the stringers is where the *back* of the rear bench should align. This spacing should leave enough room for both exhaust at the back, and all of the spinning stuff (there isn't much on a jet as there's no water pump) up front. The other shot from behind just makes me want to finish this thing and get it in the water
The next major step this weekend was the floor...or at least getting started on it. A lot of people have asked why I'm not just using plywood or carpet...to cut down on weight and cost, and make it simple. While it's an attractive option, I wanted to do something special for "No Limits" - and decided some mahagony slats would add a very nice touch to the rest of the boat. The "floor" will only exist for where passengers feet might be - in front of the bench seats. The engine compartment and under the bow will be left "as is" and varnished to show off the frames, etc.
First and foremost, I needed a *lot* of mahagony slats - roughly 1" square. The scale model I made came in handy as I'd forgotten to measure exactly how much wood I'd need, but was able to use the model to find out I'd need exactly 24 square feet - in 6' x 6" sections - to make the plank. The folks at Noah's Marine in Toronto helped me out and I found myself with exactly the wood I needed. Thanks to a thickness planner and table saw I had the rough strips - exactly 0.82" square (20 mm), which combined with my 0.5" gaps is the golden ratio!
I didn't want any sharp corners, so each and every member was routed on it's top edges with an 1/8th inch roundover bit to give it a subtle curve and smoothness, which I think will really shine through when the floors are finished. It's all in the small details! The pictures below show a jig I fastened that exactly held the members to the router - making the work very, very easy - and the finished product. The routed strip is on the left, compared to the "sharp edged" on the right:
With all of the members ready to go, it was time to cut them to length and start spacing things out. I'm going to have 6 sections in the end, all removable - a "center", "left", and "right" for both the front and back bench. The "centers" are between the stringers, and the "lefts/rights" go between the stringers and the chines - all at the height of the bottom of the stringers, i.e. the setup level for this boat, which matches very well to the chines. The center sections are much easier as they're square, with consistent 26" width...the sides will be more difficult.
Once I'd cut 26" off each 6' strip, I had 42 strips of 26" and 42 strips of ~4 feet, which would later get halved and trimmed to length for the side sections. I didn't have them yet, though, because they were wider than the stringers and were perfect for "visualizing" the floor. Below is my first attempt at spacing them out, though it was later re positioned slightly. Ultimately the "front" section gets an extra 4 strips - 23 vs 19 - because, well, that's where I sit, and most cars have less rear legroom than front anyways! There's also an overhead shot, showing the rough spacing and how you can "see through" the floor to the underlying work, something I wanted to keep. I still have one layer of epoxy and varnish on the inside, but I've decided to save that until *everything* has been mocked in, so I don't end up having to re do it.
Once I'd settled on the spacing and everything, I decided to bite the bullet and make the two middle floor panels. I'm still not 100% sure what they'll rest on to keep them off the floor...likely some thicker lumber "legs" with rubber "feet". But, I do know that each panel will rest on three lengthwise members underneath. Only epoxy would be used as screws would take forever, add weight, detract from the look of the planks, and not really serve any purpose once the epoxy has cured anyways! Unfortunately, trying to get ~20 strips to lie evenly on three other members is damn near impossible when each and every one has the slightest curve. So, I decided on just the outer two for now, and I'll add the third at a later date.
Here's the first step - squaring up the outer most strips on the two support members, and clamping everything down to ensure it stays square. Then the two support members get a nice liberal helping of epoxy everywhere.
Ok, here's where it might get a tiny bit confusing...each and every plank was spaced by sliding the half inch scrap (the light wood) between it and the preceeding strip. This meant the preceding strip needed to be clamped firmly so it wouldn't move itself...but I only had so many clamps. So what I did was "leapfrog" the blue clamps and then use a "real" C clamp every 3rd strip. The strips that didn't get a C clamp would rest in place through gravity, allowing the epoxy to cure, and the c clamps every so often would ensure no matter what I did, I'd only ever mess up a maximum of three strips. In this picture, both blue clamps have been used twice already (the two strips they're currently on, and the two "un clamped" strips from earlier), and I'm about to clamp the next strip with a C clamp. Then the blue clamps will be taken off and used for the next two strips...etc etc.
The next two pictures will hopefully clear everything up. They show me halfway through, and the final, completed section (this is the "front middle" section). Note how every third strip is clamped with c clamps, and how the two blue clamps are temporarily used to hold the remaining strips as I work my way up the support members. I checked it the next day, and all of the strips were firmly glued to the floor - and that will only get stronger as the entire thing gets encapsulated!
That was all I managed to get through this weekend...next weekend I'm likely going to try and finish the floors, and see if I can make some measurements for control cables, etc. I might mix things up and finish the deck fitment, or if I'm really lucky, I'll manage to get all of it done (unlikely, though). Another huge apology for disappearing for so long, both in my own updates and in participating in the rest of the forum - I'm going to try catching up now that I've got a tiny bit more free time!
Last but not least, the standard "overhead progress shot" - I'll try and get one of these every week at the end of each update, so you guys can get a birds eye view of what has / hasn't happened.
Thanks!
Denon
