27" carbon cat black edition build

[kfxguy]

So I have this jig I made a while back to powder coat screws....because they are a pita. This makes it a snap.





And I'm not so sure if I like it. I'm on the fence about it. I'm thinking the rod ends have to be black and so does the collet. Eeeek.

[fweasel]

Rod ends black. I like the green hex caps.

[kfxguy]

Ok so....here's my plans:

Rod ends black
Small jam but on rudder and rod end by servo arm, black
Collet black. Screws in collet green
Hatch will be painted pearl black, green hatch bolts

[kfxguy]

7 bearings installed in the strut with a snap ring retaining them.

[kfxguy]

How's this look? I pced the collet and the rod ends. It's starting to blend better I think.

[Mxkid261]

7 bearings installed in the strut with a snap ring retaining them.

Do you have a small cutter you use to machine the snap ring groove?

[kfxguy]

Do you have a small cutter you use to machine the snap ring groove?

Yes. I had a carbide blank and I ground it into a very small groove cutter.

[Mxkid261]

Yes. I had a carbide blank and I ground it into a very small groove cutter.

Cool if you could snap a quick pic of it that'd be awesome. I was talking to my buddy thats a machinist about doing this to my strut but he said they definitely don't have a tool that small and would need to make something lol. Are you spinning the strut in a lathe while you cut it?

[kfxguy]

Cool if you could snap a quick pic of it that'd be awesome. I was talking to my buddy thats a machinist about doing this to my strut but he said they definitely don't have a tool that small and would need to make something lol. Are you spinning the strut in a lathe while you cut it?

Wait till this evening and I may have a easier solution for you. I ordered some parts that may delete the snap ring. Why not just send me your strut btw? I could do it one evening and send it right back. Now would be the time too because I have the lathe setup to do it.

[Mxkid261]

Wait till this evening and I may have a easier solution for you. I ordered some parts that may delete the snap ring. Why not just send me your strut btw? I could do it one evening and send it right back. Now would be the time too because I have the lathe setup to do it.

I suppose that works too. I may have to take you up on that offer

[Zondar]

Travis,
Send me your email address please.

bmcgrew1@sbcglobal.net

[kfxguy]

Travis,
Send me your email address please.

bmcgrew1@sbcglobal.net

I thought I did but I'll send again.

I'll post a pic late but I wanted to tell you guys about a discovery I've made. You can powder coat over jb weld. I filled in the pickup hole on the rudder with jbweld and powder coated right over it. No issues.

[kfxguy]

I got some new straps in the other day. Much nicer than the eBay ones I've been using. The eBay ones are heat pressed together, I haven't had an issue with them. These are sewn with a metal buckle. I figured this boat deserves the best I can find. I will be using thee straps in my builds going forward from here.

[fweasel]

Did you fill the hole in the spine of the rudder too?

[kfxguy]

Did you fill the hole in the spine of the rudder too?

Yes as much as I could.

[fweasel]

I was surprised to see how open that space was on my mini blade. Certainly filling it will add some strength.

[kfxguy]

I was surprised to see how open that space was on my mini blade. Certainly filling it will add some strength.

I could actually drill the jb weld back out on top and slide a piece of very stiff rod in there....hmmm. I have a couple pieces of some stuff stuff. Or even a tungsten rod. May be a bad idea since I'd rather the rudder bend than damage the boat.

[kfxguy]

Last week I had a snafu. Had to pull the transmission out of my gto and rebuild it. It was slipping on the 1-2 shift. The guy who had it before me abused it (according to some videos my son found he had posted on the internet lol). So I pulled it out and rebuilt it and put a 3400 stall in it for the cam I’ll be running. So I’ve bern slacking on the boats. But...

It’s time to start wrapping things up. I didn’t like how the hatch rails looked like poo. All uneven









Here’s after cleaning them up. Do note I will make them even thinner for battery clearance once I get the hatch seal done.






And I finished up the drive tube. Powder coated it black too.

[fweasel]

the black stuffing tube is a nice touch. What year goat are we talking about... Detroit or Holden?

[kfxguy]

the black stuffing tube is a nice touch. What year goat are we talking about... Detroit or Holden?

Thx. Brass always looks bad in short order. Almost did it green but wasn’t sure. I also want to add that I just got a new dx5r radio with the new telemetry. Supposed to work better than the previous generation, I ordered sensors for battery voltage and temp for the esc. Can’t wait to try it.


It’s a 2004 ls1 car. Super clean, got it with 85k miles on it. So far I’ve got a bunch of bolt ons and a tune done to it along with a built trans and a yank stall. Nitto drag radials on it. I have ported heads and a stage 2 tooley cam for it and a under drive pulley all waiting till I get time to install. Here’s a pic

[fweasel]

Sounds like the car will run like your boats. My back doesn't agree with modding cars anymore so I buy my horsepower in stock form with a warranty. I miss it though.

I really like my DX5R aside from the fact it has to be sent back to Horizon to be able to use the LiIon battery pack. Rumor is, the firmware will eventually support multiple temp sensors. Right now I'm just monitoring. motor temps with mine. I also popped on some wheel wedges from the DX6R to make it fit my hands perfectly.

[kfxguy]

Sounds like the car will run like your boats. My back doesn't agree with modding cars anymore so I buy my horsepower in stock form with a warranty. I miss it though.

I really like my DX5R aside from the fact it has to be sent back to Horizon to be able to use the LiIon battery pack. Rumor is, the firmware will eventually support multiple temp sensors. Right now I'm just monitoring. motor temps with mine. I also popped on some wheel wedges from the DX6R to make it fit my hands perfectly.

Eventually it’ll get there. It’s a bonding experience with my oldest son too. Teaching him how to work on stuff. He helped a great deal when we pulled the trans out and put it back in. Said he had fun doing it. I just wish he’d watch me build the transmission and take interest in learning how to build them. He did get interested when I was tig welding some resonators in the exhaust while it was apart. I let him weld a little bit on the exhaust and then I set him up with some exhaust pipe I had to practice on. He did pretty good too.

I hate to hear I’m gonna have to send the radio in to have it updated for lithium batteries. I guess that’s not a big deal to me anyway as I use high voltage rechargeable aa batteries. They last a long time and give a small boost in voltage.

Having more than one temp sensor would be pretty great. I noticed you can name the sensors what you want so that would be good to differentiate between motor and esc temp.

[kfxguy]

Got my battery trays in.



Got some holes drilled for the hatch. I’ve pretty much perfected how I do my hatch retention now. I was using rivnuts but jb welding in some flat nuts proves to be so much easier and better. It looks better too. Well maybe. Lol



And what I do is drill some holes in the flat nuts to help the jb weld bite as best it can and then coat some thumbscrews with graphite grease before screwing into the flat nuts with jb weld on them. That makes it to where I can unscrew the bolts of jb weld oozes out into the threads. I use some brass tube as spacers to keep from having to screw the thumbscrew all the way in.

[kfxguy]

Check out this nifty temp strip. Got this idea from one of the seasoned guys on here, can’t remember if it was Darin, tony or fluid. You can see how I had to mill the top of the esc to make it fit. Ugh.




And 5 layers of glass. I added black dye as an experiment to see how it would look. Well I’m pretty dang impressed how it turned out. Looks very similar to carbon. Any grease gets slung up on the hatch will not make it look all nasty. O and it being black goes with the name of the boat. Lol.

[martin]

Check out this nifty temp strip. Got this idea from one of the seasoned guys on here, can’t remember if it was Darin, tony or fluid. You can see how I had to mill the top of the esc to make it fit. Ugh.




And 5 layers of glass. I added black dye as an experiment to see how it would look. Well I’m pretty dang impressed how it turned out. Looks very similar to carbon. Any grease gets slung up on the hatch will not make it look all nasty. O and it being black goes with the name of the boat. Lol.

What type of dye did you use on the hatch also what type of dye do you add when your using your JB weld to make it black as well. Thanks

[kfxguy]

I used this dye http://www.ebay.com/itm/Pigment-Blac...item1a16c6a8b2

I order a lot from these guys. Quality stuff.


I use jb weld first because it’s stronger than just about any other epoxy and it doesn’t run. I have not been successful at dying it and it keeping its rigidity and strength. What I do is wait a couple days after the jb weld cures, scuff it up and then “paint” it with 5 minute clear loctite epoxy that I dye black. Best of both worlds. However, in this boat, the black epoxy you see here is just loctite 5 minute epoxy (used on everything actually except the hatch nuts...jb weld there) which has proven to be very close to the jb weld method but this is faster, easier and safer. Safer? Well if I have a major crash and the motor wants to come loose, it will likely damage the hull in the process. My theory is this epoxy would let go before damage happens, easy to glue a motor back in but not easy to fix a damaged hull or a hull with a hole ripped in it.....plus it could sink from getting a hole in it. I feel 100% confident this epoxy I’m using will stand the test of time and abuse.

[kfxguy]

Need some help deciding something. I like to wrap the motor cooler in a strip of carbon just for some detail. I think something with a little green in it would flow good with it. Which one do you guys prefer?

[Zondar]

Genius!! Add the green Travis.

[fweasel]

Less is more. #1

[cboggs]

Bottom, matches the screws.