Lauterbach GP Special.

[b0atnutz3]

I recieved my cowl from Mike Yesterday and my jaw dropped his work is flawless. The cowl is perfect there is nothing to do to it. Once it is fitted to boat scuff and paint or better yet if you are looking for a white cowl fit it to boat and go to town. Mike never seeses to amaze me with his products you have to give him kudos as he take pride in everything he puts out there. As most know you dont get that kinda quality anymore. Jerry

[cybercrxt]

Wow, Thanks so much Jerry. I really enjoy this stuff. It has its moments when I get stressed and need a break, but nice people and comments like yours keep me going for sure!

Paul, your friends Lauterbach order has been placed btw, and I hope to lay up the cowlings this weekend.

Mike

[785boats]

Thanks Mike. I'' let them know.

Cheers.
Paul.

[HydroMike]

So I'm guessing it can be ran in both namba and impba ?

Yup, it fits the master hull roster numbers! Mike

[olwarbirds]

Paul, looking good brother as always with your builds. I'm see one of these 1/8th scale M&L hulls in my future.....DJ

[785boats]

Thanks DJ.

I'm see one of these 1/8th scale M&L hulls in my future.....DJ

Your future looks good then.

[olwarbirds]

Paul, how is your build going ?

[785boats]

Unfortunately I had to shelve it for the last couple of weeks while I worked on a fellow club members 1/8 scale for him. And a few other projects that needed attention & prepping race boats for myself. etc.
But with the Easter holidays coming up I will get stuck into it again.

[cybercrxt]

Hey Paul, get ready, 2 more kits just got shipped out this morning! I will PM you the tracking number on OSE. Thanks, Mike

[RandyatBBY]

[785boats]

Thanks Mike.
That will make the boys at the club happy. Even though they are both building an 1/8 scale already, they had to have one of these when they saw mine.
USPS sent me the tracking number too.
Cheers.
Paul.

[olwarbirds]

Unfortunately I had to shelve it for the last couple of weeks while I worked on a fellow club members 1/8 scale for him. And a few other projects that needed attention & prepping race boats for myself. etc.
But with the Easter holidays coming up I will get stuck into it again.

Understand that brother, my GP400 and 335 shelved till parts I need yet are ready for shipping (Dick Tyndale turn fins) and I can afford other parts like a Neu 1527 .....DJ

[785boats]

Found some time during the Easter break to do some on this boat.

So, after shaping all the stringers & chines etc to the correct angles, I found that the side skins would leave a gap to the bulkheads because the sponson chine stringer was a lot wider than the bulkheads.
It was either plane the chines back to the bulkheads & possibly ruin the shape of the sponson, or add a small wedge of wood to the bulkheads. I chose to do the latter. No biggie. It only took 10 minutes. ( photo #1)

So now it was time for the skins.
I added the inside pieces first, & trimmed to shape.
Then the step piece on the port sponson (photo #1) & the chamfer piece on the starboard sponson (photo #5) were added. The step piece needs a bit of shaping first to fit snugly along the step chine.
The edges were then trimmed & sanded to shape to match the bulkhead & stringer angles.

The joint of the step ply to the step stringer was just a 1/16" butt joint & I thought it could do with a bit of strengthening, because the bottom of the sponsons will take a hell of a pounding at 60mph. I don't want it to crack.
I simply laid some matchsticks along the joint & dribbled some CA glue along them.
When the epoxy resin gets brushed in along that joint it will be strong enough for me. (photo #3)

Next was the side skins.
I carefully held them in place and released the main part of the ply just holding onto the very leading edge at the front. Making sure it didn't move. A few drops of CA glue were used to tack it there. When that was cured I added more CA all around the front section to fully bond & seal that area. ( photo #1).
When that was fully cured I applied Epoxy to all the bulkheads & stringers, then bent down the ply & clamped it in place while it cured. (photo #2 & 3.)

In the kit there are a couple of long triangle pieces to fill in sides of the tunnel where the main floor pan raises up at the transom. I glued them on but they weren't quite long enough so a bit of scrap ply was added for the last couple of inches. Too easy. (photo #4)

Then I brushed in the Epoxy resin all in & around the sponson area to fully seal all the wood. Also did the main hull too.

I hope to get a bit more done today.

Here are a few pics to explain it a bit better.

[785boats]

Got a bit more done this afternoon.
The first thing was to cut & fit a piece of 6mm Aluminium to the heel of the starboard sponson, for the fitting of the turn fin bracket later on.

Because I'm not going to put any fibre glass in the sponsons ( just Eco Foam) I decided to notch in a piece of 1/2" x 1/4" wood down the centre of the sponson bottom. Just to strengthen the ride pad a bit.
I also added a bit of wood at the the front edge of the sponson & sanded it to shape to make a larger gluing area for the front of the ride pad.

Then the ride pads were glued on. Same as the side skins tacked with CA glue at the leading edge & then with epoxy on the frames & stringers, the ride pads were bent down into place with weights to hold them flat until the epoxy cured.

The ride pads have a unique shape at the front edge because some of it stays on the main hull while most of it bends further to the front of the sponson chine piece. Although they come already cut, they do require a bit of final shaping to make them fit nicely, which is understandable.

The edge of the port ride plate that forms the 1/16" step must be shaped before the pad is glued on as it would be impossible to shape & sand it after.

Then it was just a matter of planing, filing & sanding all the overhangs & edges to shape.

The last job was to mix up a bit of epoxy resin & coat the inside of the ride pads.

Here's the pics

[785boats]

Did a bit more today.

Just mixed up some Eco Foam & poured it in. After cutting & sanding away the excess, the sponson decks were epoxied on, But first, the underside of the ply was given a coat of epoxy resin.

A couple of pics.

Cheers.
Paul.