Resurrecting the past

[Hotshot]

I joined here what seems like ages ago, then life kinda got in the way. Now that I'm somewhat back on an even keel, I'm going to try and bring an old friend back to life. In her day, some 20 odd years ago, she was the fastest boat on our pond. Powered with a modified K&B 3.5 outboard she was reliable, precise, and a real joy to run.

First will be gutting the inside, cleaning, and refinishing the outside. I'll be working out a new paint scheme so she pops on the water. A lot of sanding, smoothing, and squaring up the sponson's should make her slick.

Second, the outboard will be disassembled, cleaned, polished, and converted for electric. I found an adapter to convert the nitro to use an electric engine. This is where I'll need some help as I have no idea what engine I should use to keep the performance at or better than it was in the past.

Last but not least, I'll need to get the electronics for the rest of the conversion. Batteries, again which I know little about, and an appropriate speed controller. Since the RC equipment is also over 20+ years old, that's probably in need of an upgrade as well.

Well, here she is and where we'll start:

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Let the fun begin!

[hughb]

Nice! Should be a fun project, don't see many F1 tunnel hulls.

[30nitro]

Nice..!! Makes me wanna dig mine out and do an overhaul...!!

[Hotshot]

Thanks, I hope it turns out as well as I think it will. If it does, I have two others to update. My Lap Cat II just needs some paint and a new radio as its 7.5 still runs strong. I have an ABS hull, but its 7.5 is toast, so an electric conversion for it will come in the future. For now, the little boat is first in line. I tried to get the electric adapter purchased last night, but they're either out of stock or the shipper servers can't figure out how to get my order out. I'll give a phone call to the vender today and see if I can shake one loose. I'll also be looking at a new compressor and paint gun setup so this gets done right.

[Hotshot]

I finally got a chance to make some progress today. Removed the old outboard, separated the engine from the lower unit, and started cleaning things up while figuring out what parts I'll need. I test fit the electric conversion adapter and everything lines up just right. I'm going to need a new water pickup, but now I have a concern as the prop runs so close I'm afraid it may strike the pickup. I also noticed there's significant play in the prop shaft, so that's probably going to get replaced. This is a K&B lower, and I began thinking I may want to trim the lower unit and remove the exhaust section. Having said that, it might be less work with a better result if I just bought a new angled lower and built an outboard from scratch. I'll see how it goes, because I really want to make this work. Here's a few pics from today.

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