PING PONG BALLS / defoam / tray widening / #zero SJ sponsons plus more

[SurferSmurf]

so here is what ive been workin on lately. im sure it will draw some controversy over some of my ideas, but its to late its all ready in progress. so here is what i have goin on.

 

[SurferSmurf]

i closed up the stock exhaust and my original scupper location. after that i cut in drain plugs and cut the side exhaust outlet.

 

[SurferSmurf]

i also pump dumped the scupper.

the final plan will have the tray widened to around 16.5 inches and it will be filled with ping pong balls. a few friends of mine and myself had a discussion about this and came to the conclusion that the amount of space that the ping pong balls do not take up would be relative to the amount of water that wet foam would hold anyways. so in the end we decided that it would still retain bouyancy in the event of taking on water. i am using a plastic crush proof ping pong ball that is 38mm in diameter. a standard ping pong ball is 40mm and is made of celuloid which over time will absorb water and is also crushable. the drains are in the back in case waterdoes get into the tray area it can be drained out. the hard part will be making the tray from scratch but i have plans to give it structure that the foam would have given.

 

[Pwgsx]

interested to see what you do!! nice work so far.....

 

[Captain PegLeg]

Nice ideas! I love watching builds when people step out of the beaten path!

 

[SXIPro]

I think for flotation, the ping pong balls will be fine. I ust wonder about strength under the tray and around the footholds. I will follow this thread, as I'll need to defoam this winter and I want to make it so I never have to do it again.

 

[SurferSmurf]

the structure portion is coming soon. but i have come up with a way to make it strong under the feet and still maintain a relitive light weight layup.

 

[superwetbrett]

lucaumpits did this..

 

[SurferSmurf]

i believe i saw thata while back. but he also used foam i think. and eventually that foam will break down. this is going to be a life long maintinance free tray as long as nothing catastrophic happens.

 

[Lucaumpits]

i did the sabe, make sure u get alot of balls
go on ebay

 

[SurferSmurf]

i have 1152 38mm plastic beer pong balls. they are not crushable. i think it will take most of them. i will be postind info and pics tomorrow of bouyancy testing. i actually have a fairly acurate measurement of how much weight they can hold up in the event of a sinking.

 

[the WaTeRhAwK]

what do you think about installing a couple of tire inner tubes with valve stems sitting out somewhere instead of ping-pong balls?

 

[FlightRisk]

58vwragtop did the beer pong refoam.... turned out really well. He also poured some 2 part in to help hold them in place.

 

[djkorn1]

Stoked...more pics!

 

[blaster800]

Lookin good Smurfy!

 

[SurferSmurf]

here is the R&D sponsons removed, a pic of the tray with the pump dump scupper and the exhaust installed.

 

[SurferSmurf]

i also did experiments with the ping pong balls and the same volume of balls will float the same amount of weight as the same volume of foam. its pretty close. but the bottom line is to have it be maintinance free. i refuse to have any foam in this build. the balls will be helt in by the tray alone.

 

[SurferSmurf]

here is the reinforcement of the engine compartment. i also did glass reinforcement on the inside sides of the gunnies. for my layup i am using 5.7 oz 2x2 twill glass and 5.7 oz 2x2 twill carbon fiber.

 

[SurferSmurf]

here is the install of the #zero SJ sponsons. these things are amazing. i give him serious props, he does some killer work. the fit was awesome and mounting was easy. i decided to fill and feather the edges instead of just gluing and screwing.

ok here is the story on the exhaust. darren had some issues with his side exhaust (it was closer to the bulkhead) stopping the flow of exhaust in a hard turn. other people reported no issues having it toward the rear. but just in case i made a build up on the leading edge of the exhaust that will act as a kind of diffuser to give exhaust some room to escape. its kinda hard to see in the pics but i will get clearer ones as it is prepped for paint.

 

[djkorn1]

smurf balls!