My First FE Boat - SV27 Build

[midnightsabotage]

All my parts arrived, so now I really need to get crackin' on that paint scheme. The humidity is insane though, and it's really bad for spraying paint. The temp is going to drop down to low 90's this week, and hopefully the humidity drops too. I'll be shooting it the first chance I get when those conditions improve.

The floor of my garage was/is completely soaked from this humidity - in 99 degree weather.
Heck, my 5 minute epoxy I mixed up in my garage for my airboat never hardened!

Actually, I lied - My lipo shield was backordered I guess, so I'll be waiting on that. Otherwise, I have all the parts I ordered. All that's left is a motor. Still debating between Aquacraft's 1800kv or 2030kv motor. Any suggestions or info to help me make that decision? I'd like to keep running the stock 45amp speed control and stock props for a while.

[FastVee]

Sorry to hear about the flood, but atleast the floor is washed clean now, lol Low kv for low Amps would be my suggestion. If you can wait,and want to go cheaper way the hk 1800kv inrunner or 500 series outrunners are cheap and good.(~20 buxxx)

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...dProduct=11181
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...idProduct=6526

also the proboat 1500kv unit is extremely nice, and it is watercooled from factory.
http://www.offshoreelectrics.com/pro...rod=dh-prb3310
large__09_03_2008_14_42_proboat-PRB3310.jpg
What I have seen the pb motor is more reliable then aq ones, I have only tried the blue aq can and it was not that well build, the pins that hold endbell were somehow gone and... - no idea of the new ones.

[midnightsabotage]

Thanks for the suggestions,

That 500 series outrunner is 38mm diameter and so the 36mm cooling jacket I already purchased won't fit. And the other hobbyking motor you suggested is out of stock unfortunately. The waiting wouldn't have been an option anyhow, looking to get this boat done within a week now, with a couple days more for the paint to harden if necessary.
I'm sure the Proboat motor is great and probably worth the extra money, but $80 is just too much more for this build. I've already got over $150 into it, and I don't remember if that included paint. The Aquacraft 1800 for $65 is already more than I'd like to spend, but thank you Tower for their coupons and deals, I can always get some kind of savings on what I need.

[midnightsabotage]

stumbled upon the 1800kv AQ for $50 and had to jump on it. So no more motor dilemma, whoo!

[FastVee]

Glad you got good deal, the outrunners are air cooled so no water jacked used/needed. I used that on 1 of my sv´s and it was great. -but the 1800kv is good and you got that cheap so great.

[midnightsabotage]

Resprayed the yellow today, and of course there are a few imperfections. I sanded them out a bit and resprayed those areas. Really wish I had an air compressor for my HVLP spray guns, always end up with problems from spray cans. I have a feeling I'll need to do one last respray on those spots tomorrow and then it's onto the other colors!

Atleast the clearcoat later on makes the base coats' perfection less of an issue.

[FastVee]

I hate rattle cans also, too much paint off the nozzle or too little... -or something else... never perfect finish, but when wetsanded with 2k paper and buffing they are not too bad. -2k from a gun is better but not allways possible to use.

Looking forward of seeing the paint finished !

[midnightsabotage]

Well, I got the yellow laid down. Some lifting still happened on the sides, but I plan on scuffing that down for some sort of graphics anyhow so that isn't a problem. Taping out for the gold wasn't good, I just can't get my 1/4" trim tape to curve enough smoothly. So one end had to be a point. I also got some color variations in the paint and went too heavy in one spot to fix it while it was wet, which of course led to finish imperfections. I'm going to rely on some minimal scuffing before the clear to take care of that.

Also, it looks like my measuring for alignment with the gold parts was off a little, so there may be black pin-striping between that and the yellow to even things out. We'll see how far my nerves last on this one before I just clear it and go with whatever it looks like :p

sv paint 1.jpgsv paint 2.jpgsv paint 3.jpgsv paint 4.jpg

[midnightsabotage]

Of course, the colors are much different in person... I like how they look together, so that's a plus - better than in the pictures (but then again, everyone says that).

Didn't post a picture of the bottom, but the bottom of the hull is gold too.

On a much more positive note, got a new DX3c transmitter and extra MR200 receiver today! And I got a heckuva deal. I really like how it feels in my hand - it's much lighter than I thought it would be too. One thing I don't like is how the throttle trigger hits the plastic housing when you pull it back or push it forward fully. I don't recall if my other transmitters do this or not in the same way, but I have some small black sticky-back foam that should do the trick to cushion things just a little

[midnightsabotage]

Felt the need to outline the gold in a thin strip of black.
Haven't started the cowl yet, need to get some more fiberglass so I can delete the antenna hole and also reinforce the hull's seam.

Airboat is almost done now too, just need to make a seal for the electronics and battery compartments.

sv paint 5.jpg

[midnightsabotage]

Went to town on the airboat today, got my electronics and battery compartments hinged/latched and sealed pretty well. But I digress:

In between airboat work, I fiberglassed the antenna hole out of the hatch/canopy and then laid the yellow and gold.
Now it just needs the black pin-striping and the black window painted in, and then everything gets clear coat.... unless I decide the sides are too plain for my liking, which just might happen. It looks pretty clean how it is, but I feel like it's lacking that little extra something. Thoughts?

I want to have everything sprayed by Tuesday afternoon, because that's when the motor will get here and I can begin to bolt everything back in. It's looking like she'll see water on Friday - the clear should harden enough by then.
sv paint 7.jpgsv paint 6.jpg

[johnmaclean]

Awesome job. I refinished a couple of these boats last winter and put a ton of work into them. I was so pleased with the way my own boat turned out I had second thoughts about getting it bashed up. I guess at the end of the day, its only paint and time. . . and time is something I have a lot of once the lakes freeze up.

[midnightsabotage]

That's the only line of thinking that makes me sane after those stupid little imperfections and mistakes that always happen!
Like today with my clearcoat... I'm not even going to start. But the paint job is done. Unless I decide I just HAVE to go back and see if I can sand out a spot or 2 on the hatch, hoping that the bad spots are just in the clear. Then I take my chances re-clearing it of course. We'll see.

Motor actually came a day early, btw. Thanks hobbywarehouse.com - awesome prices and there was even a 10% off coupon I found on the net. Can't get the $65 AQ motor for $50 anywhere else! I'll be busy tomorrow reassembling things, and hopefully oven cleaner will take the anodization off the blue hardware well. Silver will look much better.

But here's a few pictures of the paintjob just before the clearcoat. I'm pretty happy with the overall look of it. The black windshield and scoop part on the hatch make it look 10x better!
sv painted hull 1.jpgsv painted hull 2.jpgsv painted hull 3.jpgsv painted hull 4.jpg

[midnightsabotage]

Easy Off oven cleaner works pretty well - see first picture. Did some rough sanding with 150 and then 330grit. Shined up enough for my liking, and sharpened the rudder and turn fin a little in the process.

Oh, and nobody told me what a pain and horrible source of frustration it is to get a cooling jacket onto a motor. Holy crap. Even with liberal amounts of oil, that 2nd half of it... the sucker just didn't want to go on. But I did finally get it, sweating bullets and with sore hands. Looks amazing put together imo. Perfect for my color scheme too :)

Hardware Silver.jpgHardware Cleaned 2.jpgMotor 2.jpg

[midnightsabotage]

Today I got a lot done with my limited time.

First I installed the motor to the mount and the mount into the boat.
Then came the trim tabs/trim tab adjusters.
After that I spent a lot of time getting the stuffing tube installed just right. Got her bent just right to meet the coupler so the flex shaft is centered right in the middle and slides right in smoothly. Scuffed up the entire tube and then laid quite a bit of epoxy between the tube and the hull and all over the wooden support along with some really thin fiberglass, almost like a tissue. In retrospect, I should have gotten some medium weight mat, but the tissue folded over itself 4 or 5 times should be overkill anyhow. The epoxy itself would probably have been sufficient. I also drizzled epoxy over the tube where it meets the transom. Stuffing tube isn't going anywhere.

SV27 Motor Installed.jpgSV27 Trim Tab Install.jpgSV27 Stuffing Tube Mockup.jpgSV27 Coupler Alignment.jpgSV27 Stuffing Tube Install.jpg