BA Freak (155 conversion) & carbon circus

[brapperdoodle]

Yeah, thickened epoxy with chopped strand and then lay some small strips of S-glass over the seam. That hood liner weighs nothing, it will be perfect. When the thickened epoxy really starts to flash, you can wet the tip of your finger with some fresh resin and use it to smooth the thickened blob. Be careful though, if you use too much resin on your finger, it will make the thickened epoxy start to run. Just a tiny dab of fresh resin on your finger will keep it from sticking to the flashed resin and allow you to blend it. I can get my thickened epoxy real smooth doing that. Plus, when you lay a small strip of S-glass over it, you can shape the blob a bit and get it to look nice and smooth!
Your build looks great though! You'll be flying upside-down and forgetting about that liner in no time

 

[Storbeck]

I'm watching this with great interest because I have a fiberglass freak with a similarly separating hood liner. Last season I tried to peal the crack apart as much as I could and slather thickened epoxy in there but its separating again so I'll need to take more drastic measures soon.

Could you post up some more close up pictures of the joint, how the two pieces fit together isn't obvious to me looking at the complete hood

 

[DylanS]

I'm watching this with great interest because I have a fiberglass freak with a similarly separating hood liner. Last season I tried to peal the crack apart as much as I could and slather thickened epoxy in there but its separating again so I'll need to take more drastic measures soon.

Could you post up some more close up pictures of the joint, how the two pieces fit together isn't obvious to me looking at the complete hood

yessir I’ll post some more pictures
The way I separated it was not the way I intended but the carbon was sooo cracked that I really didn’t have a choice.
Ideally you’d want to cut around the outside where the epoxy is and when you got up to the “horns” if you were somehow able to get between the liner and shell to cut you’d have two perfect pieces. Mine cracked under the right horn so I went ham and cut it at the other side and split them. I’ll post some pictures when I’m home. If you look up Sanomans Circus thread you can see how the hood comes in pieces and it’ll help you visualize what you need to do. And you can also just bug sanoman a bunch too thags what I do at least

 

[DylanS]

Circled In blue is the area that will give you trouble. I used a airsaw/sawzaw to make my cuts but that area is thin and has a ton of epoxy on it. You can see where mine cracked and where I made a matching cut.

 

[DylanS]

Put a single layer of 6oz on the backside of the breather holes for reinforcement and to use as material to guide my 2” holesaw.

Inside the hood itself I did two layers at the corners of the “horns” and a single large layer that spanned most of the middle and up to the edges. This hood had a lot of spiderwebbing in the paint and It may have been a paint issue but I’d rather not take the risk of it being a hood flexing issue. This should help stiffen it up a little bit, maybe not enough but we will see

 

[fastgtfairlane]

What's your address so I can send you my hood to repair next? Haha nice work

 

[DylanS]

What's your address so I can send you my hood to repair next? Haha nice work

You can send it over but I can’t promise it’ll come back as pretty as it was

 

[Storbeck]

If you haven't already, take a look at where you want the breather hoses to be, if you're running a lay down pipe you might not want them in the same place as previous owner had them with a B pipe. My opinion, for what it's worth, is you want those hoses to be long so when the ski is flopped upside down they keep the opening above water level.

With a lay down pipe that means they can't be near the front of the hood, and depending on what you are using for a tank there might be only a small area that they'll fit right in front of the motor.

 

[DylanS]

If you haven't already, take a look at where you want the breather hoses to be, if you're running a lay down pipe you might not want them in the same place as previous owner had them with a B pipe. My opinion, for what it's worth, is you want those hoses to be long so when the ski is flopped upside down they keep the opening above water level.

With a lay down pipe that means they can't be near the front of the hood, and depending on what you are using for a tank there might be only a small area that they'll fit right in front of the motor.

Yessir, I’m hoping the two at the front will sit between the 2 gal cart tank and fw cover. I saved breather toobs off a b2 for whatever reason so they’re plenty long!
The front most breather hole I’m on the fence on, might block it off and make a new third hole or make a holder to run it through so I can group it with the front two tubes!

 

[long beach local]

I’m following your work as my hood is cracked also but hope mine doesn’t get much worse. It is really thin huh Tem really built it a little too light lol.
I drilled (2) 2” holes in the front of my liner and used something called a Frogskin it has 3M glue around the edges ,it lets air in but water runs off I got it from Blowsion they came in various sizes. Both are still on there today working good. Keep up the good work.

 

[DylanS]

Made up my general shape tonight with a single layer of 5.9oz, this will serve as a template for me to reinforce from the inside then sand into desired shape.

Pics of the hood scarfed so I can blend before paint, I took the top side angle down past the finishing cloth to bare carbon so I hopefully won’t have any delaminating


Then.. hotglue lol
Built myself a nice thick blob of it to fill in that big void then used a torch and spoon to form it into a rough transition.

Mold release was applied to every area BUT the shell of the hood, plan is to have two pieces so when this layup sets I can split it, remove the glue, and reinforce the unsupported areas underneath the shell before bonding hood to liner.
Epoxy resin was applied to all scarfed edges etc and I laid up a oversized single piece

When it’s setup I will trim the excess and sand all the edges down to blend my tapered sides in. The layup isn’t perfect, far from it, but once the inside is reinforced I can sand the outside to my desired shape and fill with thickened epoxy.
This will leave me with my two halves, once the weather warms up I’ll bond the halves and do a final layer under the horns to create a smooth surface.

 

[DylanS]

Went with 4 layers in progressively larger sizes. You’ll see where I stopped the edge short at the bend, this is because the liner actually begins to touch the shell at that line. This will give me 5 layers at the unsupported radius to get into shape.
trench gets ground out tomorrow and I should be ready to connect my two halves.
Thickened epoxy around the outer shell, between the single flap layer you see here and shell, then a finishing layer from shell to under horns before paint. Will also be throwing a layer over the entire inside of the liner. I most likely won’t be winning the lightest hood competition but it’ll never have to come apart again!!!!

 

[DylanS]

Unfortunately grinding a v channel into the existing epoxy isn’t going to work, in order to get the “channel” I have to cut through the very very thin top carbon layer and this leaves me with no backing and no guide to how the hood was shaped.
When I get the hull back I’m going to see if the shell fits nice on the ski without liner, and if that’s the case it’s a matter grinding it all out and finding a way to reepoxy to liner. If that isn’t the case I’ve gone over all of the epoxy with chisel and hammer and removed anything that wasn’t stubborn. I’d have to leave it in, to retain shell shape, and epoxy the existing epoxy back to shell. Very tricky stuff here, praying shell by itself has nice fitment on the hull.

Just checked fitment, doesn’t look terrible but there is slight overhang at the sides. Thinking I’m going to find a way to set the liner on and mock it up temporarily then fasten together

 

[G-Body]

@Storbeck my hood liner was separating when I picked my freak up probably 9 years ago. I used 3m scotch weld ec-2216 and haven't had an issue since. Knocked the loose chunks out and v ground it a little.

 

[DylanS]

Finally back from paint, time for hood work!
Paint came out a little darker than I wanted, almost a purple/black indoors, but in direct light it has a blue purple hue.

 

[DylanS]

Put the hood on the ski and marked what spots needed pressure to match the body lines of the ski.
First step was to put panel bond on all the solid areas and squeez her back together.
Once that was setup I just had that huge 1 1/2” gap where there was no old epoxy, just liner and hood.
I ended up mixing up a batch of epoxy with cabosil and carbon strands to form almost a snotty paste. Used my booger hooks to pack the gap and then used tape to make flat surfaces so I could let the hood sit flat and have the epoxy settle for a good bond.

this is leaving me with a somewhat flat surface that I’ll be sanding flat and doing final pin hole filling on before wrapping the inside in a layer of 6oz.
Will post some pics once the tapes all the way off.

 

[Sanoman]

Getting it done Dylan!

 

[DylanS]

Little bit of reinforcing being done today, bondline filling came out OK, next time I’ll use more micro balloons.
Hopefully this will help keep the ski in one piece while I’m gorilla smashing it

 

[DylanS]

Pic of edge that was repacked, ready for final filling and touch up sanding.
It actually came out a lot better than I thought it would, the edge looks pretty decent minus a slightly thinner spot on the inside lip.


Here’s the worst part.. lots of blending will need to be done here. The edges are tapered out and I’ll have to blend my carbon in before a final thin skim coating of epoxy to sand out.


The top section actually blended very well, there’s a high spot I need to correct on the bend but the shape came out nice.

 

[DylanS]

I like to mix up a batch of epoxy and cut up about 1/2 strands of carbon fiber, lots of them, and mix them In with cabosil until I get almost a peanut butter hair ball like substance. You’ll see where I packed my big voids with it, I just take my hands and press as much of it into the gaps as I can. Once it’s hardened up I’ll form it into shape.
Learned that trick from the Sanoman himself.