THOR - FLAT BUILD / CORELOCK

[Carl Van Houten]

Next, you will laminate the spanner ribs. Instead of having eight individual 3mm ribs, the Thor uses only four 6mm, 6-ply spanner ribs. These ribs are designed to be light and super strong.

You may have noticed that the transom and front rib both look a little strange. These two ribs have temporary braces made onto them to ensure that they remain at 90 degrees during laminating and until glued into place. They will be removed later in the asembly. These are and are the key to the super thin center airfoil profile of the Thor. These ribs can be laminated using a straight piece of angle aluminum covered with wax paper and held down using a few spring clamps.

Notice the temporary scrap stringer material used to keep the parts aligned during clamping. These make this step easy. Once the parts have settled for a few minuets while clamped in place, brush away any excess glue from edges and notches then remove the scrap alignment pieces and allow the glue to cure.

 

[Carl Van Houten]

Start building the top by dry fitting the transom spanner into place. Position it so that the center slot faces forward. Find part "TL" and position it so that is lines up with the center slot of the transom rib. This part acts as a leaf type support to the transom rib and is locked into the frame with notches and tab construction.

Using a pencil, mark the outline of these two parts onto the core-plate. As any laser cut kit, remember to lightly sand or scrape the edges with an xacto knife that are to be glued. Apply glue and using a piece of angle aluminum covered with wax paper, clamp the tramson rib and leaf support into place as shown.

Note: There is an assembly square provided with your kit. Use this square to check your angle aluminum for square.

I just noticed that these pictures are not coming up in the order that I attached them...sorry. I will try to fix that.

 

[Carl Van Houten]

Use epoxy to glue the transom and leaf brace into place using a piece of angle aluminum and spring clamps to hold it at 90 degrees. Allow them to completely cure.

 

[Carl Van Houten]

Next, dry fit the front spanner rib into place and using the same method as before, glue the front rib into place.

 

[Carl Van Houten]

Now things will start to move along. Dry fit the two remaining spanner ribs into place. Then dry fit the control box sides onto the ribs making sure that all parts will completely seat down onto the core-plate. Before removing, use a pencil and mark the location of these parts on the core-plate inside and out.

 

[Carl Van Houten]

Apply glue to marked areas. I like to use epoxy on the center frame assembly but some hot rod builders may want to use super glue. If so, the next photo will show how to quickly build the center fame assembly.

 

[Carl Van Houten]

Place the four parts back into place and secure the ends using rubberbands as shown. Use temporary scrap 1/8 x 1/8 stringer material in spanner rib notches to keep control box sides in their proper place. For fast assembly, super glue the assembly into place and remove the temporary scraps. The joints will be enforced later when the interior wood is waterproofed with epoxy.

 

[Carl Van Houten]

Next will be the deck formers. These will go in quick and easy.

 

[chris1088]

wow looks good

 

[rumrunner]

Very nice Carl .

 

[Carl Van Houten]

Thanks guys.

The rear deck former goes on next. It is small but the trailing edge of the boat is thin for good reason. Glue the rear deck former in place and then prepare to put the gunnel rail down. Slip the 1/4 x 1/8 rail under the end of the spanner ribs and mark the inside with a pencil. Glue the tip former and gunnel rail in place together. This extra sponson tip reinforcement will give the model a tip that will survive a lot of punishment.

 

[Carl Van Houten]

Use a small saw to cut the temporary braces off of the sponson and from spanner rib. Sand flat any remaining material.

Next dry fit the center foil former so that these four parts can be put in all at once.

 

[Carl Van Houten]

Use a small saw to cut away the temporary bracing from the transom and front rib.

Dry fit the parts used to makeup the center foil assembly former.

 

[Carl Van Houten]

Sand to fit the end cap and also glue in the rear sponson deck former and transom laminate as shown.

 

[Carl Van Houten]

Dry fit sponson deck former and glue into place.

Next dry fit in place all four of the center foil former assembly. Glue in place.

 

[Carl Van Houten]

Build the leading deck former assembly as shown. All these former parts are identical and slip into the slot provided. They will only fit one way. Fit the remaining sponson deck former and glue it into position. Set the leading deck former assembly in place and check the fit. Glue this assembly in position using epoxy and weight to hold down securely. Wipe away any excess glue from edges.

This part increases the leading edge strength tremendously. The boat requires some nose weight to trim correctly and by adding the weight in a fortified part instead of dead weight is just some of the added features you will get in this model.

Once both sides are built to this point it is time to seal the inside of the boat and get ready to add the foam and decking.

 

[David Moyle]

I'm liking what I see Carl! Great work. I appreciate how much work you have had to put in to get the design to this point. Keep up the updates!

 

[Carl Van Houten]

Thanks David. There has been a lot of things included in this model. It brings a lot to the table.

As a matter of fact I am getting a lot of emails about a feature that I haven't gotten to explaining yet. I guess that proves that people are really looking at these parts closely. The most frequently asked question so far tonight has been about the holes in the front assembly. Those holes are optional and serve as two of the four the mounting points for the Mod-VP Pod option.

If you want to run this boat in the Mod -VP class, before the deck is put on, these holes will be used as pilot holes to drill through the bottom of the boat. Blind nuts would be installed and the backside (inside the boat) will be sealed using silicone. If you look back at the leaf brace when the transom was being put in you will see the other two holes used.

I will post a build of the pod after I finish this post. It builds up quick too.

 

[Carl Van Houten]

I don't plan to show a picture of each stringer that is put into the frame or how it looks after qualifying because I am sure most everybody knows how that is done. After the inside has been sealed it is time to add some decking. This picture is actually of one of the Nitro versions but it still shows the bevel decking being put on. I like to weight the center when adding decking as the decking will lock the frame into place. This piece hangs slightly below the edge of the jig surface when in place. It doesn't take long before it is dressed and ready for the split decking.

 

[Carl Van Houten]

Load the cells with foam and be sure that they are dressed to fall just below the decking grid. Leave the tip and rear cells empty.