Tyler Zane
Open Your Eyes
- Location
- Panama City Beach, FL
it will all start coming together in october.
im really digging the footholds, very creative. i cant wait to get some experience with glass/fiber
My Freshwater Surf Blaster Build
- Thread starter Dustin Mustangs
- Start date
it will all start coming together in october.
im really digging the footholds, very creative. i cant wait to get some experience with glass/fiber
Dustin Mustangs
uʍop ǝpıs dn
- Location
- Holland, MI
A flopping update with good news and bad news...
Had some decent waves last weekend so I decided to keep my eyes peeled for a backy caliber specimen. I had a nice shot at what could of been the right wave but completely blew the approach. Way too much speed. For every other type of aerial around these parts you want as much speed as possible so I find it pretty hard to tone that back for these backy attempts. Anyway, it turned into a 12 or so foot flop with the boat landing a little off axis to the side. So no luck on the backy but I did get a grade A chance to test out these reinforced hoods.
Here I am taking a look around and realizing this is not going to end well and then another one just before impact. The ski rotated off axis when I abandoned ship.
After the landing the ski stayed capsized. Luckily I got back to it really quick because the impact had shifted the hood over about 1/2" in the rear. This lifted it off the hood seal and that was letting water in pretty quick. It also bent the latch pin but I've got hood hardware out the yazoo so no problems there. File this under yet another reason to keep that hood latch as tight as possible. Otherwise, the reinforced lower hood held up just fine minus a few minor paint chips. The crack in the rear by the rubber bumpers also grew a bit. This crack was there before and I didn't bother fixing it with the other work because it is purely cosmetic and bound to come back. This is very good news because my prior experience tells me a stock hood would have been toast after something like this.
The reinforced upper hood however blew out worse than I have seen before. Along the lower edges in the middle again but also up at the top just in front of the steering. Not too sure what to make of this new crack location. Did the top cave in a bit during the impact? Or did it bend like before and this is a compression failure? I'll have to take it apart for a closer look but for now I am just going to keep the ski together and stay on the water. By the end of the season this upper hood will probably turn into dust but I have one on standby to fix up for next year anyways.
PS - The failure shots gave me a perfect chance to try out my new ring flash. Felt just like Dexter at a crime scene. No blood!
Had some decent waves last weekend so I decided to keep my eyes peeled for a backy caliber specimen. I had a nice shot at what could of been the right wave but completely blew the approach. Way too much speed. For every other type of aerial around these parts you want as much speed as possible so I find it pretty hard to tone that back for these backy attempts. Anyway, it turned into a 12 or so foot flop with the boat landing a little off axis to the side. So no luck on the backy but I did get a grade A chance to test out these reinforced hoods.
Here I am taking a look around and realizing this is not going to end well and then another one just before impact. The ski rotated off axis when I abandoned ship.
After the landing the ski stayed capsized. Luckily I got back to it really quick because the impact had shifted the hood over about 1/2" in the rear. This lifted it off the hood seal and that was letting water in pretty quick. It also bent the latch pin but I've got hood hardware out the yazoo so no problems there. File this under yet another reason to keep that hood latch as tight as possible. Otherwise, the reinforced lower hood held up just fine minus a few minor paint chips. The crack in the rear by the rubber bumpers also grew a bit. This crack was there before and I didn't bother fixing it with the other work because it is purely cosmetic and bound to come back. This is very good news because my prior experience tells me a stock hood would have been toast after something like this.
The reinforced upper hood however blew out worse than I have seen before. Along the lower edges in the middle again but also up at the top just in front of the steering. Not too sure what to make of this new crack location. Did the top cave in a bit during the impact? Or did it bend like before and this is a compression failure? I'll have to take it apart for a closer look but for now I am just going to keep the ski together and stay on the water. By the end of the season this upper hood will probably turn into dust but I have one on standby to fix up for next year anyways.
PS - The failure shots gave me a perfect chance to try out my new ring flash. Felt just like Dexter at a crime scene. No blood!
Attachments
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I thought a ringflash was meant for shadowless shots of macro objects, you have no background to cast a shadow on and it certainly isn't macro. Not that I should be saying anything, the most advanced photography I do is stuff with my hacked canon a540 (CHDK). I've always believed ambient lighting is best when it is possible
As for the ski, you don't just have a modified blaster, you have a customized blaster to fit your ride style and ride location. Props to you!
If you try fixing your hood again (i bet you will) you probably don't need to add new layers to the entire inside face of the hood, just the rim where the cracks initially begin.
As for the ski, you don't just have a modified blaster, you have a customized blaster to fit your ride style and ride location. Props to you!
If you try fixing your hood again (i bet you will) you probably don't need to add new layers to the entire inside face of the hood, just the rim where the cracks initially begin.
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Dustin Mustangs
uʍop ǝpıs dn
- Location
- Holland, MI
Ring flash can be used for a number of things, typically at short range, but macro is certainly one of them. That was the reason I got it actually. I also picked up a macro rail at the same time and already had the 100mm canon macro lens. I pretty much have a full blown macro rig now and it is one of my favorite forms of photography so I'm pretty stoked. If you notice tho, almost all forensic dudes use a ring flash (ie Dexter) but they don't limit the use to macro. It gives you a shadowless effect at any range which can be good or bad depending on what you are going for. For them not hiding anything with a shadow is obviously a good thing.
That is what I did the first time for reinforcement on the top hood if you missed it (post #18). I'll have to figure out a modified plan of attack this winter...
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Dustin Mustangs
uʍop ǝpıs dn
- Location
- Holland, MI
Transom Jobbie pt. 1 of 2
Time for some more fun with ole red. My transom finally blew out during the latter part of the 2010 season. I've lightly hit bottom a few times with the back end of this ski but it never showed much if any damage afterwords. So this carnage is primarily from going big and landing on the back as is pretty damn standard with these. I guess I am making a point to mention this because I was previously under the impression you had to hit bottom to destroy a blaster transom. Well that was before Art ported my motor. Seriously, the extra power I got from that added enough air underneath me to destroy what was a perfect transom in one season. Anyways, here is what it looked like before I started. Oh just a couple of small cracks here and there you say. Ha, just wait...
Although most of the damage was to the bottom deck and shown in the previous photo, I did have some cracking on the top deck as well. Here you can faintly see it between the two solid sharpie lines. In the foreground of the picture is the deck cut off of another blaster, flipped over and lined up with the deck on this one. The dotted black line shows a rather hard to see line where the pile they laid in the corner ended (from rear heading forward). Lines up pretty good with my topside crack, eh?
Here is the deck cut open with internal reinforcements applied (all of which done with the ski on its tail). Notice where I cut in relation to that topside crack, ie as far forward and away from it as possible while still leaving myself enough room to work. Also notice that you can see the tip of my reinforcment sticking out that covered that entire lip that is obviously a weak point. I used 17oz biax with epoxy resin from uscomposites for everything. I ran individual pieces covering each side of all edges, big pieces on either side shaped just like the transom, and small 4x6 inch squares with one corner nicked off kitty corner to each upper corner of the pump tunnel. This area is where you typically see the most damage and I noticed that yamaha placed small squares like this in the original layup. I just made them bigger and doubled them up. So with all of that I am looking at anywhere from 2-8 layers of glass depending on the specific area and you can kinda see it is lighter in certain areas which is where it is the thickest. Bottom left corner you can see some purple goo (microballoons and resin). I smoothed every corner or crevice that was too small to get glass into with this stuff to avoid any voids. In hindsight the goo was much more important than I thought.
This shot shows how much I had to grind off the outside to get rid of all the damaged glass. Yeah, it was a lot worse than I thought it would be too. If you notice the entire top part of the rear lip on the bottom deck is gone. It had completely delaminated from the top deck. The face of the transom was also heavily ground down along the edges where there was previously cracking that you commonly see on these. Notice the purple goo (or maroon here) poking through in areas, ie I had to grind all the way though! The pink foam is a mock up I did of a new rear hold down I designed using the front tie down bar off another b1 hull. Below it is obviously the rough cut hole that will soon be the tie down point.
Here is the extruded polystyrene foam core I carved to fill the rear lip. IMO the shape of the rear lip and how it scoops the water on a landing is what makes this area fail. So it's curtains for the lip but that also means bye-bye to the rear bow eye hence the new tie down point. Notice the foam is not a tight fit, I left room for glass around it. This shot also gives a view of the rest of the transom after grinding, and grinding, and grinding some more. The previously flat face of the transom now has a 3D compound curve to it (high points being the white D shaped areas). I am going to leave it that shape because curves are inherently stronger than flat parts and so the water gets ushered out of the way as apposed to that face caving in a bit and trapping water (ie pressure) in the middle.
External reinforcements laid up. 3 layers of 17oz on the face and 5 layers around the foam core. I used cabosil and resin as a bonding agent for the core and for filling any voids around it. I let it cure like this, the edges will get cleaned up later. You can also see that tie down point coming to life!
Trimmed up edges and roughly sanded.
Here it is after a float of purple goo, some hela-sanding, a squirt of some rattle can high build primer, and some more sanding. Masked off and ready for paint...
Time for some more fun with ole red. My transom finally blew out during the latter part of the 2010 season. I've lightly hit bottom a few times with the back end of this ski but it never showed much if any damage afterwords. So this carnage is primarily from going big and landing on the back as is pretty damn standard with these. I guess I am making a point to mention this because I was previously under the impression you had to hit bottom to destroy a blaster transom. Well that was before Art ported my motor. Seriously, the extra power I got from that added enough air underneath me to destroy what was a perfect transom in one season. Anyways, here is what it looked like before I started. Oh just a couple of small cracks here and there you say. Ha, just wait...
Although most of the damage was to the bottom deck and shown in the previous photo, I did have some cracking on the top deck as well. Here you can faintly see it between the two solid sharpie lines. In the foreground of the picture is the deck cut off of another blaster, flipped over and lined up with the deck on this one. The dotted black line shows a rather hard to see line where the pile they laid in the corner ended (from rear heading forward). Lines up pretty good with my topside crack, eh?
Here is the deck cut open with internal reinforcements applied (all of which done with the ski on its tail). Notice where I cut in relation to that topside crack, ie as far forward and away from it as possible while still leaving myself enough room to work. Also notice that you can see the tip of my reinforcment sticking out that covered that entire lip that is obviously a weak point. I used 17oz biax with epoxy resin from uscomposites for everything. I ran individual pieces covering each side of all edges, big pieces on either side shaped just like the transom, and small 4x6 inch squares with one corner nicked off kitty corner to each upper corner of the pump tunnel. This area is where you typically see the most damage and I noticed that yamaha placed small squares like this in the original layup. I just made them bigger and doubled them up. So with all of that I am looking at anywhere from 2-8 layers of glass depending on the specific area and you can kinda see it is lighter in certain areas which is where it is the thickest. Bottom left corner you can see some purple goo (microballoons and resin). I smoothed every corner or crevice that was too small to get glass into with this stuff to avoid any voids. In hindsight the goo was much more important than I thought.
This shot shows how much I had to grind off the outside to get rid of all the damaged glass. Yeah, it was a lot worse than I thought it would be too. If you notice the entire top part of the rear lip on the bottom deck is gone. It had completely delaminated from the top deck. The face of the transom was also heavily ground down along the edges where there was previously cracking that you commonly see on these. Notice the purple goo (or maroon here) poking through in areas, ie I had to grind all the way though! The pink foam is a mock up I did of a new rear hold down I designed using the front tie down bar off another b1 hull. Below it is obviously the rough cut hole that will soon be the tie down point.
Here is the extruded polystyrene foam core I carved to fill the rear lip. IMO the shape of the rear lip and how it scoops the water on a landing is what makes this area fail. So it's curtains for the lip but that also means bye-bye to the rear bow eye hence the new tie down point. Notice the foam is not a tight fit, I left room for glass around it. This shot also gives a view of the rest of the transom after grinding, and grinding, and grinding some more. The previously flat face of the transom now has a 3D compound curve to it (high points being the white D shaped areas). I am going to leave it that shape because curves are inherently stronger than flat parts and so the water gets ushered out of the way as apposed to that face caving in a bit and trapping water (ie pressure) in the middle.
External reinforcements laid up. 3 layers of 17oz on the face and 5 layers around the foam core. I used cabosil and resin as a bonding agent for the core and for filling any voids around it. I let it cure like this, the edges will get cleaned up later. You can also see that tie down point coming to life!
Trimmed up edges and roughly sanded.
Here it is after a float of purple goo, some hela-sanding, a squirt of some rattle can high build primer, and some more sanding. Masked off and ready for paint...
Attachments
Dustin Mustangs
uʍop ǝpıs dn
- Location
- Holland, MI
Transom Jobbie pt. 2 of 2
Now when most people I have seen close up the rear deck they just scab in the piece they cut out through various means. IMO you are not doing yourself any favors with that approach. That old piece is dead weight and you'd be lucky to get it as strong as it was to begin with, let alone my goal of stronger. So in an effort to complicate this build any way I could I decided to lay up a single piece of 17oz in a compression mold between two sheets of that foam. Once cured, that sheet was slid into the hole and shimmed from below (yep, you guessed it, more pink foam) until it was snug against the underside of the deck and ready to be used as a form for my deck patch. You can also see how I feathered out the cut lines as much as I could. They say 12:1 slope but rarely do I get that carried away.
5 layers of 17oz filled the hole which was also compression molded as shown here. So from bottom to top you have that sheet form, the feathered edges of the hole, the biax, a garbage bag, a piece of pink foam cut to be slightly larger than the hole, two 2x4's to distribute the load and then two 5 gallon jugs of water.
Finished shot top and bottom before turf and reassembly. Notice the lack of drain plugs. This is a couch feature people. I know some standup guys use them but for good reason. The rear area in a blaster has large drain holes in the bulkhead connecting it to the main compartment. Tip your trailer forward on its tongue and all that water runs forward ready for sucking by your bilge pump. It is no coincidence that the cracks you see form on blaster transoms go right through the drain plug holes!
Turfed and back together. Filling the lip also means no rear plastics which is kind of bitter sweet because now the turf back there is a bit vulnerable. And I made it worse by covering the entire rear deck and sides with 5/16" foam first. My knees and thighs are very happy I did this but the bead of 5200 I had to run to keep it all together bothers me a bit. Not sure if I will put that foam back next time I turf. I am kinda picky about eyesores like that, even on the underside of a ski. Kinda hard to tell from the pick, but the ride plate sticks out about a quarter inch now. Oh yes, a shortened hull...
And Bob's your uncle!!!
Now when most people I have seen close up the rear deck they just scab in the piece they cut out through various means. IMO you are not doing yourself any favors with that approach. That old piece is dead weight and you'd be lucky to get it as strong as it was to begin with, let alone my goal of stronger. So in an effort to complicate this build any way I could I decided to lay up a single piece of 17oz in a compression mold between two sheets of that foam. Once cured, that sheet was slid into the hole and shimmed from below (yep, you guessed it, more pink foam) until it was snug against the underside of the deck and ready to be used as a form for my deck patch. You can also see how I feathered out the cut lines as much as I could. They say 12:1 slope but rarely do I get that carried away.
5 layers of 17oz filled the hole which was also compression molded as shown here. So from bottom to top you have that sheet form, the feathered edges of the hole, the biax, a garbage bag, a piece of pink foam cut to be slightly larger than the hole, two 2x4's to distribute the load and then two 5 gallon jugs of water.
Finished shot top and bottom before turf and reassembly. Notice the lack of drain plugs. This is a couch feature people. I know some standup guys use them but for good reason. The rear area in a blaster has large drain holes in the bulkhead connecting it to the main compartment. Tip your trailer forward on its tongue and all that water runs forward ready for sucking by your bilge pump. It is no coincidence that the cracks you see form on blaster transoms go right through the drain plug holes!
Turfed and back together. Filling the lip also means no rear plastics which is kind of bitter sweet because now the turf back there is a bit vulnerable. And I made it worse by covering the entire rear deck and sides with 5/16" foam first. My knees and thighs are very happy I did this but the bead of 5200 I had to run to keep it all together bothers me a bit. Not sure if I will put that foam back next time I turf. I am kinda picky about eyesores like that, even on the underside of a ski. Kinda hard to tell from the pick, but the ride plate sticks out about a quarter inch now. Oh yes, a shortened hull...
And Bob's your uncle!!!
Attachments
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- Location
- Jackson MI
clean write up man...love it!
- Location
- Oceanside, Ca
I might have missed it but what did you do about your drain plugs for the rear? I like the filled in rear and the anchor point/loop. Looks good.
- Location
- sunbury ,ohio
Nice ... thanks for the update !
Dustin Mustangs
uʍop ǝpıs dn
- Location
- Holland, MI
I did go over it but let me just say it again so it is not buried in my ramblings...
The drain plugs played a sizable role in the failure on this ski and all the other ones I have seen go for that matter. The cracks that form on the lower part of the transom go right through the drain plug hole and screw holes. This is not by coincidence. Unless they were 100% necessary I was not going to put them back. And they aren't. We have big holes in the lower part of the bulkhead that connects the rear area with the main engine bay. If you set your trailer tongue on the ground any water back there will drain forward into the main compartment where it can be siphoned or pumped out by your bilge pump. Here is a pic that shows it:
The drain plugs played a sizable role in the failure on this ski and all the other ones I have seen go for that matter. The cracks that form on the lower part of the transom go right through the drain plug hole and screw holes. This is not by coincidence. Unless they were 100% necessary I was not going to put them back. And they aren't. We have big holes in the lower part of the bulkhead that connects the rear area with the main engine bay. If you set your trailer tongue on the ground any water back there will drain forward into the main compartment where it can be siphoned or pumped out by your bilge pump. Here is a pic that shows it:
Attachments
- Location
- Oceanside, Ca
I'm going to have to go check mine tonight to see if I have cracks going through them. That's crazy. Thanks for the recap.
- Location
- Nashville
I wish i would have seen the new pics with the loop in the back before i glassed up mine i would have totally copied that. its a brilliant idea!!
Dustin Mustangs
uʍop ǝpıs dn
- Location
- Holland, MI
Thanks man!
PS - This ski is unofficially for sale now (no ad yet). All the aftermarket stuff is coming off and will be sold separately. If you see anything you want feel free to shoot me a pm and call dibs.
PS - This ski is unofficially for sale now (no ad yet). All the aftermarket stuff is coming off and will be sold separately. If you see anything you want feel free to shoot me a pm and call dibs.
- Location
- Oceanside, Ca
I'm interested in the ADA head when it becomes available. PM me your price.
Dustin Mustangs
uʍop ǝpıs dn
- Location
- Holland, MI
I am going to try to sell the motor complete but if that doesn't go over well I would be willing to split it up.
Dustin Mustangs
uʍop ǝpıs dn
- Location
- Holland, MI
Vacuum bagging is a form of compression molding that is commonly used on curved or complex parts. Generically speaking, compression molding is done to reduce voids in the layup, compress the piles together, and get you closer to an ideal resin to glass ratio. In other words, it makes for a better performing part. I made a point to use it here mainly to avoid any voids in my layup which would of otherwise been a major issue given the complex shape on the underside of the hood.
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