Ongoing Progress

I finally was able to un-bury the Rodeo today. Here are some pictures of the whole where it was and of the house.

 

Also, the foot pedal. It was on E-bay a couple of weeks ago for BUY NOW for $15. That was a good price because new they are nearly $200. Others on E-bay have been going for around $80. It didn't sell, so the guy put it back up with a starting bid of $3.99. I bid on it and got it. Now I will attach Don's shoe to it and have a gas pedal that should work great...

 

It is all the way UP TO 28 today, so I moved inside to do some gluing. I glued the butt blocks together. They will be used to attach the new bottom section. The seam of the old bottom and the new bottom needs something to attach to, so butt blocks are made so that you have something to screw to.

 

After they dry, I have to bevel an edge so that any trapped water has a way to get over the lip and then drain out the back after the drain plugs are removed between heats.

 

The other day when it was ONLY 20 degrees out in the shop, I measured  and cut the blocks out of 1/4" marine plywood. Then West System glued the two halves together to make up  the 1/2" 10 plywood blocks.

 

The blocks will be glued between the battens and the old/new bottom edges. Should be pretty secure.

 

Today the NEW correct connecting rods arrived. For those who haven't heard the story. I bought a set of rods from Jeg's. When they arrived, I took the calipers to them - and found out they are the WRONG size for this engine..... They would be correct for our OLD V6, but not our new V6. The new V6 has a larger diameter on the big end. Our new EAGLE rods are super strong compared to the rods we built yrs ago.

 

Quickly made a panic e-mail to Jeg's. They said not to worry, just send them back and we will exchange them for the correct ones - the correct ones were more expensive, BUT boy are they nice. MUCH nicer then we ever ran originally. One of the pictures is of an OLD connecting rod that we built ourselves for racing. The new ones are COMPLETE and don't require any extra machine work....

 

On one of the rods has a custom made original piston - we haven't purchased any pistons yet because I won't know what size to order until I have the block inspected and maybe bored. But it shows how the piston and connecting rod will be VERY SOON..

 

Work outside has slowed down some because of old man winter (all though I have been out there and getting to use the heater Kathy bought me for my b-day). Last night it was 9.9 degrees. THINK SPRING!!!!!!!!!!! I did go out and remove the clamps from some gluing I did a couple of days ago and minor clean up.

 

The aluminum piece at the back of the boat I installed to help support the strut when it is installed to the new bottom. It is West System glued to the other aluminum box. Large grade bolts will go through the strut, wood bottom and then into the aluminum frame.

 

Some years ago the original piece of aluminum was removed (I think when the rudder was temporarily moved to the other side of the transom). That piece of plywood had decayed.

 

The bottom is almost ready to have the new wood installed. I still have to make wood gap filler. They will be used to allow screws to secure the bottom to the frames. Then cut the new wood, glue and screw it. I'm very proud of that straight cut at the end of the old bottom. I haven't been very successful in the past making a perfect strait line cut. The new piece of bottom has to butt up against the old one perfectly for strength and to keep water out.

 

The pictures also show the temporary templates for the transoms of the rear and the back of the sponson.

 

Today there was an unlimited hydroplane in town. I went up and took some pictures. It isn't every day we get to see one of the big boys in Coeur d'Alene.

 

And in the mail, we received several APBA sticker for the boat (they are required by APBA) from our friend Carol Dodge. Thx Carol.

 

And Dick Neeson sent us some of his uniform patches. That is so coooool Thx Dick. One (well actually two) of the patches is called an Overboard patch. You are REWARDED one of those EVERY time you exit your boat on the race course. The rule is, you have to get wet, if you fall out of the cockpit and land on the deck, but not in the water, you don't get one. The frigid regatta in April was always the best time to stay in the boat - but NO Dick had to go overboard at that race. He shivered for three days after that patch winner event... LOL

These pictures may clear it up some or fog it even more... LOL

 

I took all the other stuff that isn't being used out of the picture image.

 

The propeller shaft goes through all this stuff and one end is the engine coupler, the other end is the prop itself.

 

Now NOTHING has been cut yet, so it is still way out of proportion. The rubber hose will be shorter, the inner tube will be shorter and the shaft log will need to be bored out for the tube to fit into it (and maybe another bearing??). I put a piece of the old bottom between all the pieces to hopefully help illustrate.

 

Since it's back DOWN into the 20's, it's back inside the house time. I have been trying to engineer the strut, shaft log and stuffing box.

 

Years ago I bought some VERY thin walled aluminum tube from Boeing surplus (Jim our generator exhaust extensions). Usually you put LOT'S of sealer on the wood between the two pieces of aluminum and hope all the water drains out. In the pictures is what is left of the original strut. It is not being used at all. The shorter aluminum tube is a piece of the old strut that I was kicking around having it welded to the new strut for a bearing and the tube to attach to (the jury is still out on this idea and the jury will decide during the final installation process).

 

My current idea is to run the aluminum tube between the outlet of the shaft log to the outlet of the strut. Usually you put a bearing in the shaft log opening, but one of my boat racing friends thinks that we could eliminate that bearing support and check the bolts over time to make sure there is no vibration or movement - if found, then install a bearing at that point. There will be at least three solid support areas for the shaft along it's length.

 

There is a bearing at the end of the strut. There is a floating bearing in the stuffing box with all the water seals. And there is a bearing in the thrust box and the front end of the shaft is supported by the engine coupling.

 

The rubber hose (which will be cut shorter as needed, is clamped to the shaft log. The other end of the black hose has the stuffing box, with two seals, a grease fitting for the seals to get grease and a water in fitting to get water to the shaft for cooling.

 

My idea with the tube should eliminate any water being exposed to the wood between the strut and shaft log. The shaft should get enough coolant.

 

Yesterday I glued the loose rear battens, glued the last sponson batten and applied filler to the sponson battens to make sure they are level (it was already close enough, but I'm just being a perfectionist.... as if I had to much time on my hands... LOL).