Foots/TimBobs New 72 Mustang

Damn Tim. That's impressive. Nicely done.

Tim,
All that boat needs is a runway and it just may take off! Your work is nothing but the best.

Good work Paulie....of course we wouldn't expect anything different from you bro! you've been a busy boy.

Test fitted the fresh air plenum in the boat this week to make sure I wasn't going to need to modify them. Looks like I may have to cut some off once installed so that's a good thing. Work is still slow so I decided to experiment a little bit and try to make some fiberglass elbows for the transitioning thru airbox.. Scratched my balding head and came up with the idea of using a pool noodle as the form. Had to wrap some batting around it first to add some girth to it them wrapped it with some blue release plastic we use in composite repair. Cut multiple strips about 2" wide to wrap the elbow once I impregnated the cloth with epoxy resin. The following pics show the process I used to do the job. Working in a commercial environment is a HUGE fringe benefit to say the least and once I got it all the layers on, I put it in a 150'F oven to expedite the cure. It came out WAY better then I thought although its not too pretty. A few of the crew were impressed as well and said wow Foot...that's smart thinking out of the box. Once cured I needed a second set of hands to twist and pull out the pool noodle. Once the grip of the layup was popped loose....it came right out. Wasn't sure if it was gonna work or not so I did not add too many layers for strength. Went back and added more so its strong and lighter than PVC.
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Form ready cloth cut, 60 grams of epoxy resin poured on top.




Squeeging resin thru out the cloth which is lying between a folded sheet of plastic



Resin/cloth penetration complete



Finished product test fitted on the duct previously made.

Sure is nice to see some near finished boats. Keep it up!

you see why I hate wet foam now Tim......

I'll post some pics and move to a new thread so not to highjack Tim's thread.

Bfn cradle is an impossibility, you'd be miles ahead starting from scratch with some new angle and a welder. Cradle shape is waaaaay different due to the wildly varying stringer vs floor heights in the 2 boats in question.

A 2gen or 2001 cradle might work but probably not without significant changes made to the floor and stringer area all around the engine compartment. Probably not a great option if you're trying to keep things simple.

Tearing that area of the floor open and then beefing it up in a manner similar to (but an improvement over) the factory style would probably get my vote. Keep the repair localized and you may even get away with piecing in the carpet rather than doing the whole floor.

If you don't trust your repair wholeheartedly (or if you want to skip the repair altogether) then SDBM and a fly high will keep the stress off the pylon/floor area.

I am working on a revised pylon support as well. Last year, my pylon took on a lot of play. I overtaxed it in terms of loading it (a few four mans). In hindsight it all could have been avoided if I used my fly high for extra support, but live and learn. In first digging into it, I learned that my support had been modified, I think probably at the time of some PO floor work. What he did was add an aluminum frame under the floor to provide extra support. Pictured here.



I think he did that because he modified the floor in a why that would no longer support the pylon. So this wasn't a bad idea, until I bent it as can be seen in this photo, probably about 1/2 inch. I did a quick remedy by redrilling the holes in the wood above it, so it would relocate everything back that 1/2 inch. I then used some metal strips to shim the gap between the pylon and aluminum frame. Well that was all good for a while, and I was pretty careful to use my flyhigh whenever loading up after that. But then I may have missed a time, because it loosened up again. I reinforced the bolting of the wood to the metal frame because I thought there was some slop between the wood and the frame and tested it again. This time I found out that it was the frame that was moving. There was slop between what I assume are lags, not through bolts, that hold the frame to the stringers. OK, so maybe my stringers are starting to soften a bit, at least where those bolts/screws were. So I needed a better fix, and since it was the middle of the summer made a temporary fix. I peeled up the carpet and found not much at all. I finally found what had been done.



The original system had been replaced with the two boards with the holes to the rear of the pylon. Since there was nothing forward of the pylon to hold it in place, he added the metal frame. In front of the pylon, completely unattached from the two boards was this mess of rotten wood and resin. So I cut/tore all that mess out. For now, I have a 2x8 in place with a snug hole for the pylon. It is held in place with angle brackets and lags. Seems pretty sturdy, not sure how long it will last. I was thinking of a replacement set up and I came up with something like this. What about cutting "troughs" into the tops of the stringers to allow a 2 x 8 or 2 x 10 to lay right down in. That way you are not relying on any kind of nut and bolt system, but the strength of the wood.

Snap a pic Bruce and post it here so we can see whatcha' got and come up with a possible plan of attack on the problem.

Floor structure is quite different 72 vs 78. 72 was still using the vinyl wrapped ply installed over the thin glass floor. By 78, the ply (front area only) was incorporated below the glass.

Tim, was that a section of glassed over plywood you cut out in the front of the engine? I'm guessing the construction is similar as a '78 Tique? What kind of saw did you use to make the cut? Was the pylon difficult to remove?

Used cab-o-sil over microballoons basically causse thats what I had lying round the house. I didn't want the resin to run everywhere so I wanted to thicken it up. Vinyl Ester Resin doesn't like it though....took forever to get it mixed well enough to use. I was afraid it was gonna kick off before I got it mixed properly.   MB's mixed in easier and worked a whole lot better as a filler when I bonded in the rudder box support piece. Using Vinyl E as thats what I have laying round. A chat with Pete confirmed that I needed to use VE resin for the exterior damage as gelcoat was going over it. Pete said epoxy would work but Gel doesn't like it as well and it might disbond down the road. VE was what I used to fix the external glass damage. Epoxy Resin anywhere internal is the way to go cause it doesn't smell up the house like the CC plant.    Good thing the girls weren't home cause the boat is under their bedrooms.

I think you're in trouble, Tim- Greg's beast went 49!

Glass work is looking good!

Greg, I think you take the cake on style points though... 47 mph in a stang with rotten stringers, disenegrated floor, while sitting on a 5 gallon bucket!

Been hanging round, TrBenj, Joe, and Reid too much...... It's all about speed and how fast can 'Kermit go!

8122pbrainard wrote: Tim, One thing, did you prep the bilge by grinding off the old resin before setting in the new honeycomb?

I did Pete, in fact the mating surface was so unlevel and full of voids and valleys that I had to fill them with cab-o-sil/resin a couple weeks before I installed the new panel. Did the process outside and left the boat out for the rest of the afternoon to cure. Pushed it back in at dusk. Got home from work the next day and the entire house smelled like the Correct Craft plant. Wow that stuff is fragrent.

Sanded down the entire surface and still han a couple low spots but really 'buttered up' the panel before installing it. Weighing it down forced out all the excess compound and I just feathered it all out and used the rest I mixed up to really make a smooth transition for the glass to the panel when that day comes.