Ongoing Progress

Enclosed are picture of the dashboard I'm starting to mockup. Yrs ago (the picture of the boat on a tilt - delivery day 1982) we had an aluminum post that was between the drivers legs and radius rods then attached to the engine rail for support. If we had an accident, the post could cause big trouble and the radius rods could be like spears. The only good thing was that I installed all the switches to that post, so that was convenient and the steering wheel was solid. I think the new dashboard will work just fine.

 

So, I'm making a big change, that I think will be safer and hopefully better. I will be making a fiberglass dashboard and the steering post will be support on the bottom loop, with  plywood glassed into the dashboard for support. The over all shape may change after I sit in the seat and see how the legs align and if the steering wheel has the correct height.

 

The gauges and switches will surround the steering hub.

 

You may also be able to see the new strobe light. We were one of the first to use one. It allowed other drivers and us to see where we were on the race course. The unlimiteds use it today. The drivers will turn it on if there is an accident, if they are okay, they turn on the strobe - the rescue people have a better idea that the driver is okay if they see the light flashing. Maybe that is the way we will use it these days (less battery discharge that way).

 

The enclosed pictures are the pictures I was going to take last night before I dropped and broke the camera. Now that we fixed it. I got brave and finished taking the pictures. I thought the ones from above were neat. We are very near to rolling the boat over and working on the bottom for a while.

 

But that won't happen until we finish SANDING the battens smooth (they are very close to being correct), I still need to replace a couple of battens that Ire cut for pie eyes years ago and need to be put back as original so that there are no breaks full length of the batten.

 

Also the exhaust headers still need to be fit and aligned and I need to take the oil pan back for one small modification to let me bolt the starter motor up with interfering.

 

The rudder is out to the machinist being fitted for the steering cable and a water pick up is being added for the speedometer (it uses water pressure to record the correct speed - hopefully... LOL).

 

Steady progress and it is still a gas working on this dream.

 

Next week we will continue bottling wine. We did one day last week and we will do two days next week and another two days the next week after more wine is filtered for bottling.

 

Some good news and some bad news. These will be the last pictures for a while - good news for you people who might be saying NOT MORE PICTURES and bad news - I dropped and broke the digital camera tonight. There goes another $700 down the drain.... dang!!!

 

These pictures are of the final fitting for the modified oil pan and engine in the boat. I can't believe it. It fits wonderfully. Lot's of room under the oil pan and the belly pan of the boat. It also fits wonderfully between the battens within the belly pan.

 

I was going to take ONE more picture with the cowling and check the height. You will have to take my word that it also fits very nice.

 

Only thing missing now are the headers (Zoomies). They should be coming SOON???? and that will be the final fitting before I start final assembly of the engine with all it's racing components installed.

 

Kathy said I could run the prop in the picture since I can't seem to find a good used one. We may have to BITE the bullet and get a new one. The good news about a new one is, at least you starting of with prop that MIGHT not have any hidden flaws, compared to a prop that may have been raced hard and be bent or have a hairline crack and brake right at the wrong time...

 

Good news - for us!!!!!!!!! I worked and worked and worked on the camera and finally got it working again last night. Nothing was working, the lens wouldn't retract. Around 10:00 I finally got all functions working. YIPPEE.

The NEWLY modified oil pan came back home today. I will put it back into the boat to make sure fit as planned. I was very pleased to see the starter motor fits wonderfully above oil tray.

 

There is one slight modification I will have to make to the newly modified oil pan. Every appears to fit, except I can't get one of the starter motor bolts in if the oil pan it on and if the starter motor is on, I can't get three of the oil pan bolts in with my fingers. So I will take it back and have them make a tiny modification to one corner of the new oil reservoirs. No biggie.

 

The spark plugs wires finally arrived, still waiting for the spark plug wire holders, oil pan and Zoomies to arrive.

 

You can see the spacer between the carburetor and intake manifold that allows the distributor to clear the carburetor float bowl - finally. It took two to find one that fit.

 

Plz keep in mind I'm no where close to being done. I'm still removing some of the old deck (getting very close to being done with that task). What we are doing right now is measuring and aligning engine parts to boat parts.

 

The new engine is slightly taller then to old engine and I want to make sure it fits under the cowling before I repair the fiberglass. The oil pan is still out being welded to it's new shallower depth and the Zoomies are still being made. Re-installing (I had removed the engine rails and had to re-install them) the engine was primarily to see where the exhaust ports are in relationship to the deck height and to see how the engine and cowling fit.

 

I have to stop being such a smartly. The welder asked me if I needed the oil pan ASAP, I told him I didn't need it for a couple of yrs, he took me verbatim... it was still sitting on the shelve waiting for another 23 months to go by... So if I'm serious the next time we talk, I've learned my lesson... 

 

If you look closely at the engine you will see wood between the carb and intake manifold, that is to simulate the height of an aluminum spacer that is coming from Ohio. I needed to add that height so that I could see where the carb will be with the top of the cowling. Below that level, the spark plug wires ARE to close to the carb float bowl and I don't want to launch this boat to the moon.

 

Also I made new wood engine mounts because I added MUCH more metal to the engine for testing and that weight would of broken the patterns I made. Those patterns will be used to make aluminum engine mounts and the skid fin (the skid fin allows the boat to turn on a dime and give you 9.5 cents change, it is aluminum also).

 

Thank you to Shirley and Dave Hanke for picking up a piece of Lexan we need to make a new windshield. Thank you to Jim Waddle for picking up the aluminum at Boeing Surplus. Jim is then bringing the aluminum and Lexan to use in August when they come over for a visit.