Darin's H&M Intruder S Update

[Darin Jordan]

Hi Gang... I received my Intruder S yesterday, and promptly went to work making it a little more ME!

I'm doing some things that others might be interested in seeing, so I figured I'd document the updates I'm doing to it here.

The first thing I did was remove all the graphics, and all of the structure that had been added inside. Most of the epoxy just simply popped off, so getting it cleaned up wasn't really an issue... took about 1/2 hour or so of careful chipping away with an Xacto...

I would have removed the wooden battery trays to make some new ones, but they are held in with shoe-goo, and I'm afraid I'd likely do more harm than good trying to remove them... so I'll just remove the velcro, put a coat of laminating epoxy on them to seal them, and apply new velcro... they'll be fine then...

[Darin Jordan]

I'm going to laminate in some 5.7oz Carbon weave to strengthen the tunnel area and get rid of the unwanted flex... It's fitted in place, but I haven't applied the epoxy yet as I'm awaiting the answer to a question I have about how important it is to have the tunnel flat from side to side... This one is slightly curved downward... If it needs to be flat, then I'll have to do some additional work before I laminate the carbon in place...

Brian Buaas coached me on how to go about doing the carbon work, and I'm very thankful he did... This is something I've always wanted to know how to do, and, well... now I think I do! One step closer to producing my own boats...

[Ub Hauled]

That is a niiiiice hull Darin... congrats.
Nice CF work as well... good luck with your boats

Is the hull legal?

[andym]

I am watching with interest Darin, whats the secret on the CF old mate. You can tell us we won't blab!

[properchopper]

I'm going to laminate in some 5.7oz Carbon weave to strengthen the tunnel area and get rid of the unwanted flex... It's fitted in place, but I haven't applied the epoxy yet as I'm awaiting the answer to a question I have about how important it is to have the tunnel flat from side to side... This one is slightly curved downward... If it needs to be flat, then I'll have to do some additional work before I laminate the carbon in place...

Brian Buaas coached me on how to go about doing the carbon work, and I'm very thankful he did... This is something I've always wanted to know how to do, and, well... now I think I do! One step closer to producing my own boats...

As always, advancing the state of the art !

[Darin Jordan]

As always, advancing the state of the art !

Thanks... but hardly "advancing" anything... Just trying to catch up to where Brian and others do things...

Is the hull legal?

The hull is 31" long... It's legal for LSO, as well as P-Offshore... unless I'm missing something... LSO is what I'm intending if for at the moment, but I'd like it to be able to double as a P-Offshore at a taveling race... One boat, two classes... one less boat to travel with...

[Darin Jordan]

Update...

Have the carbon fiber laminated down, and installed the motor mount at the same time... I've been liking these types of motor mounts from OSE... They are easy to install and work great, providing easy access to the motor and good adjustability to different hulls... I know have them in both my 1/10ths and this hull now... I had to modify it slighly, as the opening at the motor isn't quite large enough to fit around the bearing housing on the SV or BJ motors, but it just takes a couple of quick passes with a file...

I then fabbed a servo mount... I prefer a removable servo as opposed to one that is glued down so I can replace more quickly on race day if needed... Also fitted the steering arm... And yes... for those of you who noticed... I WILL be getting some shorter mounting screws for the servo mount... I didn't have any shorter round-head screws that would fit this...

Time permitting tomorrow, I'll tear it down and begin the painting process... Going to keep it kind of simple, but it'll likely fit in with the rest of my fleet... "Oberto-ized" to some degree...

[Ub Hauled]

Darin, great work!
how did you cut and bend the servo mount so neatly?
I can never get it that clean...
About the color scheme, I think we had no doubt that you were going for the jerky colors, heheheheh.

[Darin Jordan]

...how did you cut and bend the servo mount so neatly?
I can never get it that clean...

The mount is made from a piece of 90-degree aluminum angle... no bending required...

As for the paint... I've actually been thinking of maybe switching some of my future boats over to DeWalt colors... but we'll see... I kind of have a Jerky theme figured out for this one, so it'll likely go that direction...

[Darin Jordan]

Made a little headway on the Intruder over the past couple of days... Have the paint completed. I'm going to let it set for few days, then perhaps add a few decals and shoot on some clear... or maybe just put on a couple of coats of clear for now, and figure out the graphics later...

I do like the way the paint came out... I just kind of started taping and tried to let the lines of the boat guide me and this is the result...

One question I do have for you Offshore experts... Do real Offshore boats usually have the tips painted safety orange or bright red or ???, or is that just some of them??

[RayR]

Darin,

Great paint design! What kind of masking tape are you using? Stickey Mickey?

All the best,

Ray

[Steven Vaccaro]

That hull design is very sharp. What a nice job you are doing with the restoration!

[Darin Jordan]

Darin,

Great paint design! What kind of masking tape are you using? Stickey Mickey?

All the best,

Ray

Thanks guys...

Masking... For the sharp lines and outlining the windows, etc... I use some rather expensive vinyl masking tape from our local Wesco Autobody painting supply store... Same type of stuff you see them use on American Chopper when they are masking off flames, etc. on the tins... I put this down for the outlines, and then use 3M blue tape to hold the paper down and to fill in in between...

One of these days... I really would like to step it up and start painting with real automotive paint and a good spray gun, but for now, and frankly for race boats, the Krylon or Duplicolor is fine... They're going to get a little beat-up anyhow...

[Darin Jordan]

About ready to start bolting hardware on for final assembly. I'm keeping the decals kind of minimal at this point and may add some more in the future. I'm going to let it sit and cure for a few days, then I'll start the final assembly. Too bad racing season is already over for the year!

[ED66677]

Really Nice Darin!

[Darin Jordan]

Really Nice Darin!

Thanks... I like it too... I'm saving some room on there for maybe some real sponsorship spots... just in case...

[Flying Scotsman]

Thanks... I like it too... I'm saving some room on there for maybe some real sponsorship spots... just in case...

Darin, as usual you are the rattle can master.

Sponsorship in these times might be REPO MAN.COM or DO YOU HAVE CREDIT PROBLEMS.COM

Douggie

[Spot Me 2]

Very nice looking!!! What type of masking tape do you use??

[Ub Hauled]

When is maiden voyage?

[Darin Jordan]

Very nice looking!!! What type of masking tape do you use??

The fine lines are done using vinyl masking tape from the local autobody store... it's a 3M product and costs about $12.00 a roll for 3/8" wide, for example... I have it in several sizes... Works pretty well...

For holding on the masking paper and for larger areas in between the finer lines/edges, I use 3M "Blue" tape from Home Depot...

On this boat... I didn't use any primer before applying the white base coat over the original gelcoat... I sanded the whole thing down with 400-grit first... then wiped it with Mineral Spirits, let it dry, and painted away... I'm not convinced yet that skipping the primer was a good idea... When removing the tape, especially around the window area, the white paint started pulling up a bit... I THINK that is because this area wasn't sanded down as well as the others, and there doesn't seem to be a problem anywhere else, but we'll see... the real test will be when I pull up the hatch tape for the first or second time...

As for a maiden voyage... we'll see... Hopefully in a couple of weeks... I really don't get out to just test or play much these days... but hopefully I will in the future... Testing in the heat of a race doesn't work that well...

[Flying Scotsman]

On this boat... I didn't use any primer before applying the white base coat over the original gelcoat... I sanded the whole thing down with 400-grit first... then wiped it with Mineral Spirits, let it dry, and painted away... I'm not convinced yet that skipping the primer was a good idea... When removing the tape, especially around the window area, the white paint started pulling up a bit... IAs for a maiden voyage... we'll see... Hopefully in a couple of weeks... I really don't get out to just test or play much these days... but hopefully I will in the future... Testing in the heat of a race doesn't work that well...

Darin, believe me the primer is important. I did the same procedure once and had the same peel problems.

Douggie

[Darin Jordan]

Darin, believe me the primer is important. I did the same procedure once and had the same peel problems.

Douggie

The it won't be too hard to strip off the old paint to redo it I imagine!!

We'll see... I've done it before on this type of hull and it worked alright... Only one way to find out!

One of these days... I'm going to figure out a good way to seal off the components inside without having to rely on taping the hatch down... I can get everything out of the water at this point except the batteries and the ESC, and with the AQ ESC, there isn't really a worry about that... For the batteries... maybe a set of those carbon battery boxes that the car guys use, or something along those lines... would be nice to just pin the hatch down and go run...

This is one area where the Nitro/Gas guys have it a bit better, in my opinion... though having the big 'ol motor and pipe haging out there doesn't always look the best...

[Flying Scotsman]

The it won't be too hard to strip off the old paint to redo it I imagine!!

We'll see... I've done it before on this type of hull and it worked alright... Only one way to find out!

I love the wink, as Darin knows to strip off old paint is a real pain in the ass. I hope it works out Darin. I have had to strip a few boats and use chemicals with caution. The best way is sand...sand...sand.

Douggie

[Darin Jordan]

I love the wink, as Darin knows to strip off old paint is a real pain in the ass. I hope it works out Darin. I have had to strip a few boats and use chemicals with caution. The best way is sand...sand...sand.

Douggie

OK, I'm going to STOP all this stipping of the paint talk in just a second... No bad MoJo on this project!!

But... if I ended up having to... I've had good luck with Citri-Strip... it's pretty mild and seems to do the trick, plus cleans up easily...

But I'm NOT going to have to strip it... "Stop it with the negative waves, Moriarty.... Think... the bridge is going to be there, and it'll be there..."... (name that movie )

[ghostofpf1]

Good Job Darin..really liking the color scheme and the hull...
Ghost

[Flying Scotsman]

"Stop it with the negative waves, Moriarty.... Think... the bridge is going to be there, and it'll be there..."... [/I] (name that movie )

It is certainly not The Bridge over the River Kwai. Darin I jest. I was just offering advice to people who may suffer a peeling problem with their paint problems, as I have been there

Douggie

[Diegoboy]

It was a clint eastwood movie the name escapes me...

[Doby]

It was the Kellys Hero's

[Darin Jordan]

It is certainly not The Bridge over the River Kwai. Darin I jest. I was just offering advice to people who may suffer a peeling problem with their paint problems, as I have been there

Douggie

Yup... I know... I was just playing around... and trying to think POSITIVELY! It's going to SUCK if I have to strip this and start over...

I'm thinking it'll be fine...

[teach]

"Stop it with the negative waves, Moriarty.... Think... the bridge is going to be there, and it'll be there..."... (name that movie )

Kellys heros? I'm sure it was an Eastwood flick. I want to say it was the tank driver, name eludes me.

Oh ya, wow nice job on the boat.