Ongoing Progress

First off, the new 6 mm Okoume airtrap wood has only been cut on the critical seam edges. The other edge will be planed down after the wood has been glued and screwed into place. This was so exciting (to me and Del, I just had to share). The angle of the wood at the seam (where to bottom and airtrap meet) is 30 degrees, The bottom is level for about 11' and the last 4' has a 3" elevation difference. 

On top of all that, Del and I hand made 6 heavily beveled seam joints. They have a 2" overlap where the wood will be glued together so that I can get the 18' total length of the airtrap. The overlap bevels are around 90 degrees on each side. Plus we had to make sure the bevel overlaps were going the correct direction. If we didn't, the water could peel the wood off when we are on the water. 

So many things to think about and only so many brain cells (left).

 

The pictures are what the boat looked like when we brought it home and with the new airtraps wood. The airtraps had aluminum (that we added yrs ago when a crack developed), glue and water stains. The new wood will take care of all problems generated by time.

 

Thank you Jeff Richards for the bevel drawing and thank you Del for coming over for two days to help me. It was a HIGH FIVE day when we saw how the beveled seams fit together.

To help you see why we (I) will be installing new airtraps on the boat. This is the first of 6 pieces of wood that are being cut and fitted. The first piece hasn't had the end splice bevel edge done yet (that beveled overlap makes the wood as strong or stronger then the plywood), but it will be shortly. Del is coming over tomorrow to help be cut the rest of the pieces. There will be two 18' airtraps cut, glued and screwed in place. I think the boat will look pretty close to what we have in it now - a MILLION bucks.

 

The before and after help show the difference. The old airtraps have old screw holes, water stains, and some stress cracks. The new wood should correct all of the above.

 

Here are some pictures of the next step. I will be making new full length 6 mm Okoume air traps. First thing is to make a paper pattern (thank you Don for the HOW TO - that really really helped). After the new air traps are cut, glued and screwed into place, the sponson runner (bottom) paper patterns can be made, and the wood cut.

 

Jeff Richards showed me how to make the wood splices (thank you Jeff) they will as strong or stronger then a continuous piece of plywood. As far as I know they don't make 18' long pieces of plywood (and if they did, I couldn't afford them anyway... LOL).

 

Motor status - all the internal components have been acquired. The block is bored and is being honed to the correct size for the new pistons. The crankshaft has been ground and polished. The keyway has been cut on the end of the crankshaft to accept the prop shaft coupler gear. The cylinder heads have been machined for the screw in rocker arm studs and push rod guide plates. A valve job is done and the new valve spring seats have been cut to accept the bigger and stronger valve springs. The next step is to balance all the reciprocating parts correctly.

 

Enjoy until the next update.