Darin's ProBoat Miss Elam Race Prep

[Darin Jordan]

I decided to fab a new servo mount... Nothing special. Just a piece of 3/4" x 3/4" aluminum stock, cut and drilled up to fit...

[Darin Jordan]

Once the mount is made, I marked the location... as far forward as I could get it and inline with the rudder arm, the used 6-minute epoxy to glue it initially in place.

[Darin Jordan]

Once that was dried, I used some light glass cloth and some laminating resin to really secure it in place.

[Darin Jordan]

Alright... after some pondering on the best approach, I decided that, due to the amount of blueprinting needed to get the sponson geometry where I wanted it, that adding ride-pads was the way to go.

I fit some .020" G10 to the existing ride surfaces, and it was obvious that more was going to be needed... So, I used some 1/16" x 3/16" birch strips along the inside edge and aft edge to build it up. I CA'd these in place.

[Darin Jordan]

Once the CA had dried, I carefully sanded in the angle I wanted. I used a strip of tape on the outter edge to keep it from getting sanded down.

For the angles, I have the outside sponson (Left) at near Zero Dihedral, and the inside sponson (right) at 1 1/2 to 2-degrees (estimated... I'll measure actual from the pictures later). I used a block sander and some 180-grit to carefully sand then to shape, making sure to keep the length of the sponson as flat as possible.

Willingness to take your time here and a lot of patience helps a lot... Get it right...


After test fitting the ride-pads and making sure they fit properely, I sanded the leading edge of each at a taper to get it to blend into the front of the sponson with as little filler as possible.

I also trimmed up the ride-pads to that they overhung the aft edge by about 1/16" or so, and they overhang the outter edges by a similiar amount. They are flush with the birch strips on the inside.

[Ub Hauled]

Darin, are you going to fill it under the G10 on the side the strips are holding it?

[Darin Jordan]

After a final check of the angles, I carefully epoxied the ride-pads on. I taped them down from the front to back, using electrical tape (it doesn't stick to the epoxy that runs out)...

Make sure the pads are securely taped in place, then let the epoxy dry.

Next... I'll tackle the turn fin and strut...

I'll post some more pics tomorrow after I remove the tape and clean things up...

[Darin Jordan]

Darin, are you going to fill it under the G10?

By the time I was done sanding the angles in place, there isn't much of a gap under there... The epoxy filled in what there was... I think this is going to work out SWEET... The angles are looking really good thus far... and the G10 will hold nice, sharp edges... and will be a nice clean ride-surface...

[JimClark]

Did you level them out and take care of the dihiedral before the ride pad?

[Darin Jordan]

Did you level them out and take care of the dihiedral before the ride pad?

Yes... I tried to just sand the factory surface, but it was too out of whack, so I added the birch strips, then sanded the angle I wanted. After that, the ride-pads layed perfectly flat onto the surface...

[Ub Hauled]

Why do you want the inner sponson with more angle then the outer?

[JimClark]

Done that before for sure
Where do you get G10? Off stealth bombers/?
Jim

Yes... I tried to just sand the factory surface, but it was too out of whack, so I added the birch strips, then sanded the angle I wanted. After that, the ride-pads layed perfectly flat onto the surface...

[Darin Jordan]

Done that before for sure
Where do you get G10? Off stealth bombers/?
Jim

Nope... McMaster/Carr...

[JimClark]

Cool stuff I may have to get some. How does it sand?

[Jeff Wohlt]

Excellent job. You should see a big increase of speed and handling with those sponsons mods.

Can't wait to see you get it wet.