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perhaps I can help you out,..I'll reup it here in the next day or so if you're still interested. I know this post is sort of old now...

Thanks! Im hoping to layup the top deck as early as this weekend, but there is a slight chance it may be pushed out a week. The motor mount jig I just kinda 'winged it'. I knew I wanted something a lot lighter and easier to work with than an engine, and this jig provides a lot of working...

hahaha yeah actually I think that was him, their epoxy was pretty good stuff, great company, and the chemist sure knew his chit, but I actually found some stuff that ended up working a LOT better for me; lower cps, better material properties, and best of all I can buy it locally in 5gallon buckets!

here's my rig for aligning the motor mount plates in the carbon hull

Background? hmm well nothing too extensive,..I have done quite a bit of fiberglassing before but this project is my first with carbon. My supplier has also gave me a lot of great advice that you won't find online. I researched and talked with some professionals for a couple months before I...

Yeah that does make a lot of sense, although I suppose you can use a lowered bracket on this set up and it would achieve the same result,..maybe just not looking as nice ;)

Well I will have to add up the cost of supplies and stuff. In the end this hull should weigh in around 40-50 lb range. I may decide to actually sell this one if I need the funds, In which case id probably have to sell for around $4000-$5000. From there I may build another if I have time, or...

Yeah that's a good question, well I wasn't sure how far I was going to take this project, after I had the nose cone done I was under the impression that a lowered hood would not match the nose cone. So I just went with the original height. I removed some features from the original hood, and...

Next I had to mock up a bulk head for the carbon ski,...I used 1.5 or 2" polystyrene (cant remember) for the bulkhead. I traced the original on onto the polystyrene and used a hot wire (rigged up to the elements on a hot glue gun lol) to slice out athe shape of the bulkhead. Then mould...

Then I started up class in the fall again, and wasn't able to work as much on the project as I liked. Around christmas time, I really didn't feel like starting up the project again and was getting frustrated with 2-3 skis lying around the garage all in pieces. I decided to get 2 of my other...

thanks! thanks man, yeah I originally figured I could do this in like 4 months lol. However with finishing up my last semester and other stuff going on, and then winter! :aargh4: the process has taken a bit longer.

money shot haha, no but seriously I actually fought with this one in the mould for some time, the sound of it finally 'popping' from the mould was such a relief! lol Lesson:: never enough mould release! wax mould at least 5-6 times prior to layup!

Alright on the bottom hull,... I used an orange gelcoat this time, no specific reason other than I found a cheaper supplier and as a bonus I think It is easier to tell when your fabric wets out! Same process as before for mould,.. used the best composite I determined from previous tests. and...

The next step, and the one I was looking forward to was the bottom hull! I spent a lot of time researching composites and contacted two of the only software developers in the world that focused on epoxy mould flow analysis and composite engineering. I was able to obtain demo software for resin...

:::Second lesson learned::: Always make sure you have "all" necessary supplies before you begin to vacuum bag a part lol. I must have only initially bought a little bit of vacuum bag supplies because I didn't want to waste money if I decided to not finish this project. The result was that I...

After the success of the first part, I decided to attempt the hood next. You will notice in the first picture, the hood is actually primed and not painted yet. This was my first mistake. Even though I applied the release agent the the hood, after gelcoating and making the mould I was not able...

I figured I would experiment first with the smallest and thus if something went wrong, the least expensive part. So I decided to make a mould of the nose cone. Attached flanging to the part, applied release agent, gelcoated, fiberglassed, popped part from mould. Once mould was done, I...

After spending some time repairing the hull, I had to patch up all the holes for bolts, gas switches, chokes/primers, exhaust, oneway, pisser, etc... You need to make sure you patch these orifices because in the process of making the mould, resin would seep in these holes and you would never pop...

I also found out that the previous owner attempted to do a small reinforcement job on the underside of the side rail. The quality of his work was complete $%#@. So I spent a couple hours ripping out his reinforcement, using the dremel to carve out some cracks, apply epoxy and reinforcement in...

Once the hull was split I was faced with pounds of water logged nasty foam. I tore out literally 15+lbs of soaked foam. I then had to remove the bulk head, this wasn’t exactly an easy task either. Once again I am not sure if the glue was just aged for too long, or what. A heat gun didn’t...