Here’s what my “thunderboat” looks like now

[Jeffrey Hammond]

Craig
Yup, I see that but the front cowling holes look like an invitation to get a motor drenched with a rooster tail. Q I was going to ask the guys in this forum if they thought the front cowling holes were really necessary. I was going to put some holes in the cowling on the flat deck part with some scoops on them, and then add some air exits in the flat cowling deck towards the rear. I used to run nitro boats that were fully cowled and they didn’t have any air cooling. Do these big gas motors get so hot that air cooling is necessary?

 

[osracer]

Craig
Yup, I see that but the front cowling holes look like an invitation to get a motor drenched with a rooster tail. Q I was going to ask the guys in this forum if they thought the front cowling holes were really necessary. I was going to put some holes in the cowling on the flat deck part with some scoops on them, and then add some air exits in the flat cowling deck towards the rear. I used to run nitro boats that were fully cowled and they didn’t have any air cooling. Do these big gas motors get so hot that air cooling is necessary?

I did not open the nose of the cowl and had no problems. I did have problems getting watered down when I ran with an opened up nose. If you’re not racing you can do it either way.

 

[Rich Jones]

I think if you go further forward into the cowl deck, like you were talking about, you won’t have an issue. You definitely want a source for fresh air to get in and also for heat to escape further back. Those steel pipes generate a lot of heat.

 

[Jeffrey Hammond]

Thanks os and rich for your inputs. I think that I’ll try to keep the cowl front closed, and if I decide that the engine gets too hot, then I can open up the front of the cowling.
Tonight I mixed up a small amount of finishing resin and coated the steering servo mounts, and a couple other small pieces. I also scraped the bottom of the hull with a new razor blade . Tomorrow I’ll put another coat of finishing resin on the bottom of the boat after I cut off the extra part off the stuffing tube.

 

[Jeffrey Hammond]

The life jacket showed up today! I just put it on Max Deeds, my driver, and took a couple of glamour shots. I may have to increase the elevation of Max a little, but in general, it’s not too bad. I may try it on my Arnold muscle-bound driver…….it’s that big.
All small epoxy jobs came out fine from yesterday. Ordered some additional finishing resin, and some cheap 1 inch paint brushes for the rest of the epoxy coating. It was just taking too long with the little acid brushes, and the foam brushes left little bits of foam in the epoxy.
Taking the night off. Clean up time in the shop.

 

[Ray Sametz]

Looks good! Love my driver.

 

[Jeffrey Hammond]

Looks good! Love my driver. View attachment 327434

Ray awesome driver! This is great stuff! Here’s Arnold with the jacket. Fits him pretty well, but he might be too big.

 

[Jeffrey Hammond]

Tomorrow I will be receiving some more finishing epoxy and some 1 inch paint brushes. As I look at my drivers, I realize that the cowling would look much better if there was a “cockpit” with some depth where they sit. How to do that? I have no idea. I did look at the area under the cockpit and it is pretty much empty hull space. But we might be talking about some major fabrication to get this done. Maybe I could just cut out the bottom of current cockpit. Need to look at some old pics of these hydros to see how low the driver should sit…..

 

[Jeffrey Hammond]

Looked at a bunch of old hydro pics. The drivers almost always have their head above the back seat rest. And they confirm that my Arnold is too big. The smaller driver is much better, size wise. But the life preserver is too long for the cockpit. Not sure what to do.

 

[Jeffrey Hammond]

More finishing resin and my 1 inch paint brushes showed up today. After scraping the bottom again with a razor blade, I put another coat of epoxy on the bottom of the hull. The rest of the time was spent cleaning up the shop. Tomorrow, I’ll be cutting off the stuffing tube, and scraping the bottom with a razor blade.

 

[Jeffrey Hammond]

I scraped the bottom with a nice new razor blade, and then I sanded the bottom with 80 grit and then 220. It was looking pretty smooth. Then I got out the dremel and cut off the stuffing tube pretty close to the bottom of the hull. Then I flipped over the hull and made preparations to use finishing resin on the inside.
I put the hull flat on my table, and it has not been flat on the table for a couple of weeks. I clamped the transom to the edge of the table, and the sponsons sat very nicely on the table with no rock. Yay!, the hull is still square and flat! I have it square and flat again while I epoxy the inside and put on the decks.

 

[Rich Jones]

I scraped the bottom with a nice new razor blade, and then I sanded the bottom with 80 grit and then 220. It was looking pretty smooth. Then I got out the dremel and cut off the stuffing tube pretty close to the bottom of the hull. Then I flipped over the hull and made preparations to use finishing resin on the inside.
I put the hull flat on my table, and it has not been flat on the table for a couple of weeks. I clamped the transom to the edge of the table, and the sponsons sat very nicely on the table with no rock. Yay!, the hull is still square and flat! I have it square and flat again while I epoxy the inside and put on the decks.

Make sure the hull is clamped to your flat building surface when you are putting your decks on. Spread your epoxy, and then clamp it down to this surface. This way, everything is locked in square and flat once the glue dries. Even a hull with a twist can be righted in this step. Conversely, a hull without a twist can be twisted if not clamped down to the flat surface or jig.

On the driver, I don’t think it looks out of place. Put a helmet on him and send it. I’m sure someone could maybe print you one. This isn’t a scale class so as long as he looks like a hydroplane driver, you should be good. You had bigger guys, smaller guys, and any build in between driving these things. In the old Lauterbach pics, some of the guys sat substantially higher than the head rest. Here’s a pic of what my guy looks like. This driver was produced at one time by Blazer Marine but they no longer do them.

 

[Jeffrey Hammond]

Beautiful pictures of that boat running! And yes, your driver is sitting up fairly high, but he looks fine….I think I’ll make a spacer that makes my guy taller in the seat, but makes the life jacket look better. Right now the jacket is too long.
Cleaned up the garage yesterday, so I didn’t get downstairs to do anything on the boat. Still have a couple of hours left in the garage, then it’s back to fiberglassing!

 

[Jeffrey Hammond]

fiberglassed the topside on Sunday. Scraped it yesterday. Thought I had already posted these pics, but I guess not. Next step is another coat of finishing resin.

 

[Jeffrey Hammond]

Took a few days off. Back to it today……this is an easy one. 2nd coat of epoxy on the top side today. Then Monday, I will start putting in the running shaft, the second last critical building step, with top decking being the last.