MRP Fountain - steps and outdrive(s)

[Jesse J]

Couldn't wait until I get the hull to start the thread.

I have been stewing on the step question... I was thinking of polystyrene plates shingled to make multiple steps. In addition to the obvious, this would also add strength to the hull. Anybody have a better idea on the step question? will it need them? is a question that matters, but then again if this is scale, then the answer is a blaring YES! I can always add them later I reckon. I was thinking 4-5 steps starting about 1/4 from the bow?

I am thinking glass on the inside of hull, just because I want to use my tactic no-antenna rx and I have experience with it.
What weight would be best? medium or heavy?
and best Epoxy resin?

Then the outdrive. I am thinking the MHZ Blackhawk should be sufficient - thoughts? If I were infinitely rich, I would go twins... but that may have to wait for an aeromarine hull down the road. I also drooled over their Speedmaster S6 drive.... but I think $500 for a drive is definitely out of my question.

[Make-a-Wake]

Nice...............i've been working on mine for several months now............got the stinger in and ready to mount it..............i'll share a few pics if you dont mind.

[Jesse J]

thats sweet man, welcome to the thread, please post what you are doing - it can be a parallel thread. I just blew some of my tax returns at MHZ getting ready for the monday arrival of my hull. here are some pics of what I ordered for MR. Scale.

join in the fun - I'd like to see what others are doing with this hull. I'm gonna start with one of these outdrives for now... may have to get the counter-rotating one before long.

[Jesse J]

Boat showed up and went directly to the main workbench. I started by gently prying off the deck... I need to reinforce the hull. Not only is it ABS, but it is probably 30 yrs old. I don't want to spend too much time on this, but want to see what I can do with some limited resources. I may save the outdrive and the nice hardware for my dream mono - an outerlimits 45" with twin outdrives. Not sure that outdrive will fit this one without significant mods to transom... will see.

Anyway, I am prepping the hull for a fiberglass session. I am thinking of filling the inside with Greatstuff spray foam overtop the resin finish.

Hey Make-wake, how is yours coming?

[Make-a-Wake]

I just found the flexdrive shaft and tube that I lost for two weeks............under the computer keyboard that I type on daily.............duh. Holding the stinger up the back and eyeing what I want to do in the mounting and so forth.

[Jesse J]

So, I rolled up my sleeves and got her out onto her display stand. I expected her to be floppy and was prepared to do some serious work on her. So, I got out my little angled chisel and gently worked off the deck - wasn't too hard but did end up with some ragged edges. No worry, only I (and those of you who remember this thread) will know that they were there.

Tore out all abs mountage crap and got my medium and coarse sanding sponges. Once I got her pretty cleaned out, I took some 45deg styrene angle stock from my LHS and glued them into the lift strakes, hopefully you can see on some of the close ups. Then I siliconed in some press board for the transom - will probably double up with ply, but this will be good for now.

I got some heavy fiberglass (I think its at least 5oz) and some west system epoxy. I cut me out a piece - was going to be for just the floor, but ended up perfect for the whole bloomin thing. It will probably even end up being a lot simpler and better.

The next step in the plan is to line the inside with spray foam not only for flotation but also for stiffness (if it were only that easy). I am still stewing on whether to glass the underside of the deck, but probably will. I am picturing the whole hull full of foam and then sanding it down to fit the form of the deck... maybe a little excessive on the spray foam?

[Jesse J]

I am still toying with either the stinger strut or my new outdrive as a drive system. If I go with outdrive, I will need to beef up the transom some more and modify the curve up to the deck under the overhang.

[Make-a-Wake]

Wow...........complete restoration! When are you gonna slice the old shaft bulb off? Its a pretty easy fix as i posted above.

[Jesse J]

Wow...........complete restoration! When are you gonna slice the old shaft bulb off? Its a pretty easy fix as i posted above.

Ya the bulb will come off after I have the hull glassed - I won't have to plug it that way. I have to work another job to save enough for the big 45" Aeromarine hull, and need to learn fiberglass anyway. Man that west system epoxy is expensive!!

[obrien]

Just a suggestion, but why not make a quick mold of the hull and build a new hull out of glass that you can make various changes too.

I liket he looks of this boat for sure. How long is the boat? I bet it will run pretty good since it has a pad bottom and full lenght strakes.

[Jesse J]

well, mold is not a bad idea.... but I don't know how/have materials/time to do such a thing. If you wanna come over this weekend, we could talk about it.

Ya she's a looker. She is just under 40" wet, probably more like 38".

[Make-a-Wake]

Yeah...............they are nice boats, they are 42" long and are feather light. You just posted before i got mine up Jesse......they are 42" from the tip of the bow to the back i guess.............

Like your signature Jesse, very true..... "cheap, fast, reliable...choose any two"

[Jesse J]

hull is glassed!

well I did it. Warmed up the shop and got messy. Actually it wasn't too bad. I roughed up the abs with my coarsest sponge sander, wiped her down with ample acetone (it seemed to etch the abs some) and then slapped it on. I painted a coat of West System 105 mixture then laid in the glass. She settled in pretty nice and boy am I glad I put those little styrene triangles in there, really reduced the amount of air bubbles. I probably did 6 squirts of each by the end - didn't want to over do it. Now the hull as pictured here weighs in at 1lb 9oz.

I am still stewing on techniques to glue/seal the deck back on.... Any/all ideas very

[Make-a-Wake]

Nice work! Cant you just epoxy the deck back on........thats what i would do. Do you still have the factory styrofoam molded around the canopy and up under the front deck?

[Jesse J]

Thanks Wake, I am hesitant to epoxy the deck on cause of the bonding issues with the ABS. Its one thing when you have all that surface area, but for a joint... I would like to find a way to "make" more surface area.

The idea that keeps coming back is to use spray foam and run a bead along the top of the hull where it will join the deck. then when it cures, hack saw and sand it flat for the deck to mount onto... this will be a messy dastardly task and thus why I am still hemming and hawing on what could be more elegant.

Also, bad news good news. Black Hawk drives from MHZ are no longer - they didn't even have enough parts to make me one last one. So they refunded me all that cash, and you guys know what its like seeing $300 sitting in your Paypal acct already allocated to the addiction - er I mean hobby? So I gots me a bunch o batteries. 2, 3,4, and 5S all 3650 mah to run in parallel.

Continuing on the good news, the Medusa motor I sent in will be traded in on a brand new Neu 1524 1Y (1350 KV). So, this will be in the Fountain.... I got all those batteries same brand, same mah so I could mix and match for 7 or 8S if needed to get that motor movin. I doubt 8S, but I could see 7S runs