Over My Head? - Another FX Build

[gabeM]

Finally making enough progress to post something on this, so here goes.

I picked up an FX-1 hull a year or so ago with a handful of goodies. Probably over-paid slightly, but I've wanted an FX project for a while. This is my first 'big' project involving fiberglass, hence the 'over my head'. Please let me know if you see anything stupid going on.


To my knowledge this thing came with Tom's tubbies, wide tray, pump tunnel, and hood liner. It also came with a fiberglass ride plate... I'm not sure if Tom made fiberglass ride plates at one point? Anyways...

As received (after a light cleaning):

 

[gabeM]

Pump alignment time!

After some trimming, I used a mix of techniques I've seen on here, plus some additions of my own. I decided to go with the SJ driveshaft for a ~2" setback from the stock FX pump location.


I used an 'alignment fixture' I picked up from another build (insert citation). I also used a laser level to align the rear of the pump, driveshaft through-hole on the bulkhead, and the front center of the ski (in addition to a cold fusion alignment tool). I also made sure both the ski and new tunnel were as level as possible.

 

[Sanoman]

Looking forward to your build thread Gabe! My 2 year fx project is nearing the end.The hull is at a local paint shop.

 

[Harbor]

Fun stuff, sub’d

 

[brapperdoodle]

Looks straight to me

 

[gabeM]

Looking forward to your build thread Gabe! My 2 year fx project is nearing the end.The hull is at a local paint shop.

I wouldn't be surprised if this takes about that long, haha!

Yours is looking good. I've been keeping up yours and @brapperdoodle's for motivation.

Added a few more photos above... I was having issues uploading them last night.

Tacked it in place with chopped strand/cabosil mix. Alignment seems great after pulling the fixture off.







I'm not sure on the best route to fill in the large gaps from the offset pump yet, but I'll figure something out.


Questions...

- Shortly after I picked the ski up I glassed the tubbies on with a chopped strand/cabosil mix. Since then I've read it's probably best practice to remove the gel-coat in that area beforehand, which I didn't do. Is it worth popping them off at this point? They obviously aren't super structural, but I don't want any cracking in the finish in that area or anything like that.

- In search of a ride plate and intake grate if anyone has one lying around. I thought I had this figured out at one point, but I'm not sure now... If using the 2" longer SJ driveshaft, do most people run a SJ intake grate & FX ride plate? It looks like I'll need to shift the ride plate mounts back.

- I had no intentions of messing with the rails, but widening seems to be pretty popular. Thoughts on if this is worthwhile while I'm at it?

 

[hornedogg79]

I put my tubbies on 11 years ago. One with 5200 and the other with epoxy/cabosil because I didn't want to wait another week for 5200 to dry. I didn't remove the gel coat, only scuffed it up. Mine still look fine. Gel is part of the layup and way stronger than paint. When I got plowed by a bass boat, the bow eye cut straight through my ski at the carbs. It smashed up the back quarter of my right tubbie. I filled and sanded that spot but didn't have to touch the rest of the tubbie.

The big rail mod definitely adds stability to an fx1. Feels more like a modern style hull to me. One of the most noticable benefits is when moving my ski around. Having a big lip to grip onto makes life so much easier. Before I could barely fit my fingertips between the tubbie and rail. Loading 300lb with fingertips sucks.

 

[brapperdoodle]

You will need a SJ intake grate and an FX-1 ride plate. You will have to shorten the ride plate to fit on the shoe side, I purchased a composite ride plate instead of cutting the stock one. Widening your rails is another big heap of work, but I think it looks way better!

 

[gabeM]

I had a bit of free time this weekend.

I cleaned up the pump area. removed the last bits of foam, knocked down the high spots from the initial pump graft, and scuffed everything up in prep. for reinforcement. I did a bit of work on the bottom as well, but didn't grab any photos.

Is there a consensus on how many layers should be used around the graft perimeter?

 

[brapperdoodle]

I used 1 layer of 17oz cloth for the bottom, then 1 layer of 1708 biax for the gunnels. Bottom layer should cover pump tunnel and extend out to the gunnels, and up them about 1 inch or so. But that is just what I did, lots of different ways to do it. Flip through my FX-1 thread, there should be pictures of that.

 

[gabeM]

Small progress.

I decided to start with the gunnels as it looked a little easier than reinforcing the pump area. I did one layer of 1208 on each side (in addition to filling the bond line). I might do one more layer on each side when I do the pump tunnel area (I'm not super concerned about weight on this one)... we'll see. I think I had a little too much resin but tried to squeegee out as much of the excess as I could. Overall I think it turned out pretty good for my first larger glass job.








I also had some parts for the tray come in that should save me some time, as well as an email that a fresh B-pipe is on the way. I still need to figure out exactly what I want to do with the tray.

 

[gabeM]

My little brother picked up an old square nose that was pretty rough, so the FX is on hold while I help him out. Chances of getting the FX together this summer with everything else I have going on just went to about zero.

I won't make a full build thread for this one, but here's some photos for the hell of it. These are in process, but we got the majority of the old turf and rattle can paint stripped off.







Then found some water in the foam. Not too bad, but enough to cut into it. I'm going to make the tray a little wider for him while I'm at it.




I was almost going to forgo reinforcement of any kind (he won't need it), but I could probably use the practice. We wrapped up one side before running out of cabosil.






Has anyone seen a warped hood? The hood appears to be warped inwards by a half inch or so on each side of the engine bay. There's no way the rib is going to seal off on the hood seal as-is, so I'll need to figure out something to fix this, or find a different hood.

 

[gabeM]

It's been a minute, but I'm finally starting to look at the FX project again. In the meantime, we acquired these which had been sitting for 3+ years. I sold the sxi and trailer as-is, and cleaned up the SJ to ride until the FX is done.




Before:




Mostly done. I swapped out the filters for a stock air box, along with a few other odds and ends.






I also mostly finished my brothers square nose, minus a few items I'm leaving for him.


On to the FX questions. I' starting to think about how to drop in this tray (although I obviously have a bit of work to do before then). If I set the tray flush on the back of the pump tunnel I get a bit of an angle between the front of the tray and the upper E-box portion of the bulkhead. I think my options are:

1. Shim the rear of the tray upwards
2. Cut out the existing bulkhead and let the front of the tray form a 'new' bulkhead
3. Trim out the front corner of the tray so it can slide forward

I'm kind of leaning towards #2, but welcoming suggestions.

 

[gabeM]

Back at it.

I think this should hold? 1 layer of 1708 over the tunnel itself, and 2 additional layers over the graft site.



Can I run the exhaust straight back/parallel with the hull, or do I need to angle it upwards / get it above the water line?

 

[mikesx]

You can run that exhaust parallel with the floor, it’s mandatory when doing the wide tray mod.

 

[brapperdoodle]

Looks great, that’s more than enough glass in that area. When you lower the exhaust tube, don’t push it too low. You’ll want to make sure you clear your motor mounts!