Gutted my Impulse....Here's what I'm doing!

[roadrashracing]

http://www.horizonhobby.com/pdf/PRB4...200-Manual.pdfHere check out page 36 and 37:

[ejimbo4]

I feel like a idiot I can"t even tell you how many times I have looked at the manual! LOL! Just figured out why I didn't see it though......I stopped reading when I run out of English!

[ejimbo4]

Back again!It has been all most 4 months and all I can say is WOW! First off I have to say that when I tore this boat apart it had just come out and I feel that being new to this hobby(Boats I have been into trucks for some years)and the only reason for me doing what I did was to learn as I all ready had a perfectly good stock Impulse 31 that all I have done is a prop upgrade and it runs great! I just wanted to learn the basics of what alot of what yall do,which is everything from laying CF, alignment,painting,epoxy,motor choices,battery and pretty much everything with out starting out with a bare hull and I feel like I have a clue now! I tried to ask as few questions as I needed and when I did they were usually not the the best ones like which side of the velcro do I put down! I did all my searching right here on OSE and you guys really helped me out with out having to answer to many questions(THE SEARCH FEATURE DOES WORK) So I just want to say thank you to everyone and know that I am hooked! So here are some pics of where I am at and it has been tub tested and actually floated the first time!

This has a Leopard 2150 with dual water pickups to feed esc and motor individuallywith a T 180 and 4s2p powering it and a m445 prop . All advice is greatly welcome! Well here are some pics!!!
Next day or so and we will see what the real deal is!!!

[ejimbo4]

Here are some more!

[Bullwink]

Beautiful job!

[ejimbo4]

Thank you! Now she just has to go forward with no smoke! LOL!

[veejo]

I like the dual water pickup ..... thinking about doing that to a few of my boats ....... should make the bends on water tubes less tight. hope you put some buoyancy back in the front.

[Darin Jordan]

WOW... that's a LOT Of work, but it turned out pretty nice! Love the paint!

Curious... WHY did you feel the need to rip and remove the interior, just to have to put all that back in (albeit different)??

When I designed this boat (keep in mind that it was as a Production boat that needed to be user friendly), it was designed to allow for these monster motor swaps, and you can fit about as much battery in it as you want, all nice and secure in a pretty sweet, and low/center-line mounted position??

Was there something that didn't work for you?

Consider your answer "market research"... Always looking for ways to improve the product.

[ejimbo4]

Darin! Glad you chimed in! First off...I meant no disrespect by tearing up a perfectly good hull that you designed.The Impulse 31 is a awesome boat and not a flaw in it! It is my first boat that I got last fall and I have enjoyed every run with it! When I received my first boat it had a leak and come to find out it was a hole way up inside the stuffing tube box and I called Horizon,e mailed them some pics and a vid of the hole and it leaking and they sent me out a replacement hull(with hardware) no questions asked and told me to keep the hull I had!I can't say enough about Horizon...they go above and beyond! Well after some thinking, I squirted some silicone into a plastic drinking straw and blew the silicone up in the tube by the hole and managed to fix it so I still had my stock boat ready to go! The hull Horizon sent me had been used a little no biggie! I can't even tell you how much respect I have for you and the other guys on this forum for the knowledge,skill and craftsmanship that you guys display everyday with your builds and designs not to mention you all seem like really decent people! I am a RC truck junkie and am new to boats so I figured here I had a chance to try and get a idea of alot of the different aspects of building a boat and if I screwed something up there would be no real big loss. Sure a few dollars but knowledge gained! And man oh man have I learned some things!

Patience
How to sand (with a light hand and not with a dremal or you may end up with unwanted holes in the bottom of your hull)
How to repair holes in your hull
How to lay CF and FG
How to mount a motor and make cool looking dams to go around the mount(thanks to propperchopper and a thread of his)
I learned about center of gravity and how you should lay everything out and double check before mounting
How to paint because this is definitely not like doing a lid on one of my trucks
electronics and soldering
Math (figuring it out slowly with all the calculations and what not)
Learning about props
The list is endless so I will stop now....

This was a great learning experience and I realize that it will not run as great as my stock Impulse 31 but I just want to see it go! Even if it don't I can move everything into the first boat and upgrade it or just get another Impulse hull and drop the electronics and hardware in it!End of the day....I had fun! So thank you very much to you and the rest of the guys on here!

P.S. NO improvement needed!!!

[Make-a-Wake]

Very nice......................now we need vid!!

[Rumdog]

Excellent job! Especially for your first one!

[dana]

Excellent job! Especially for your first one!

Seriously. Thing came out pissah!

[lenny]

Looks great,
Now lets see it get wet.

[SFC K]

It does look great and I like what you did to it. Love the paint scheme.

[POWERS]

Thanx Tim! As far as dremeling I started with one and a dremel flex cable adapter but found that if you just makes cut where pieces tie in and down the long sections make a couple cuts and I used a pair of pliers and twisted and broke most of it out and then when back with a sanding wheel and smoothed everything over. Just be careful not to go through the bottom of the hull. I did just barely....but I still did!
CF... I tape where I am going to cut then cut. Just don't push the tape down hard or you might screw up the weave and I pull the tape off after its cured. Don't think thats right because I have to pick at it and its a whole project just trying to get the tape up.

This is the CF kit I got off e-bay and it is plenty! I have layed the hull with a double layer and I could lay another two if I wanted but I will reinforce my hatches for both my impulses and still have a bunch left over!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/190450272975?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649#ht_500wt_1054

Don't know if you have layed CF before but I got all my info of this forum!

You actually don't need to pull the tape off before you lay it. As long as you plan ahead and make sure you only tape one side of the cloth, you just lay that side down. You will have perfect edges and no frays. I too learned a lot from the forums here on laying CF, and it is probably one of my favorite things to do, even starting to apply it to my car bodies.