Custom/Hybrid The making of my "Feral" hull...

[McDog]

R.E.S.P.E.C.T

You made it all seem so easy. Everything was all laid out and ready to go. Smooth.

 

[Aircraftsalz]

Nice Job.... Should be a cool project

Get it to Daytona

 

[spork]

Did you brush the resin or infuse it in while pulling the vacuum? I'm very slowly getting around to doing a similar build and can't wait to see more. Nice work!

 

[Waternut]

Definitely brushed the resin on. I'm not that knowledgeable with resin infusion but I have seen the prices on basic starter kits and for the price, I'd rather build a pre-preg hull.

 

[tom21]

I think infusion is easier, you have all the time in the world to make the bag seal perfect before you mix the resin.

 

[deftons56]

Looking good!

 

[Waternut]

Ok I went ahead and cut out the top deck to it's final form. The hood lip isn't perfectly straight on the forward or right hand side lip but oh well. It's my hull, I can over look that. I didn't spend much time making the tray smooth either when I made the mold because I knew it would just get covered by turf and thick padding anyway.

The plan is to scuff sand this deck, install footholds, and prime it while I do the grueling process of making the bottom mold.

 

[GIL]

John, will you be running 0* or 2* pistons???

I AM JUST KIDDING!!!

I have a whole new level of respect for you!!! The top deck looks GREAT and you sir ARE the MAN for taking on a project of this size!!!

Congrats on the progress to this point! Keep up the great work!!!

 

[Big Kahuna]

Ok I went ahead and cut out the top deck to it's final form. The hood lip isn't perfectly straight on the forward or right hand side lip but oh well. It's my hull, I can over look that. I didn't spend much time making the tray smooth either when I made the mold because I knew it would just get covered by turf and thick padding anyway.

The plan is to scuff sand this deck, install footholds, and prime it while I do the grueling process of making the bottom mold.

You could straighten that out with some excess Carbon.

 

[sjetrider]

This is awesome to see but the pics do not do the amount of work into this justice, you make it llok like a 2 day venture LOL!

I am curious about the rear bond lne, is there one???? If not what is the plan for assembling and how will it handle (do you think without one).

I am by no means demeaning this projuct I think it is cool as shiot! Something I wouldnt take the time to do simply because by the time I was done tinkering my ideas would be old news and newer better ideas will have been out for a year LOL.

So this thing is 6' long? or is the plan for the ride surface (bottom) to be 6'? Is the hood opening and overall width wider than an SJ or the same? I noticed no rocker to the top deck, do you plan for rocker on the bottom?

Sorry for all the questions, just curiosity killin me.

 

[Waternut]

This is awesome to see but the pics do not do the amount of work into this justice, you make it llok like a 2 day venture LOL!

Yeah you're right... I started the top deck mold back in October. Granted I did have some motivational issues here and there but there were also a lot of things that I wanted to change and was struggling on the best way to do it. I think/hope the bottom deck mold will be a lot faster. The mold takes all the time and I even took a lot of shortcuts on it since it wasn’t ever intended to be a production mold.

I am curious about the rear bond lne, is there one???? If not what is the plan for assembling and how will it handle (do you think without one).

There is no vertical bond line at the back. There will just be a flat horizontal mating surface. I will have a fairly conventional bond line on the sides. The back half on the side will still have the shape of a bond line on the bottom deck but in order to widen the tray, the back half angles out to the edge of the hull. The plan, at this time (you know how that goes), is to wrap the bond line with carbon and then epoxy the halves together. I took off the rear bond line on my SJ and the stunt didn't have one either. Both hulls handled great. I wrap the turf around the edge and put a plate over the bottom to eliminate turf pull up.</SPAN></SPAN>

So this thing is 6' long? or is the plan for the ride surface (bottom) to be 6'? Is the hood opening and overall width wider than an SJ or the same? I noticed no rocker to the top deck, do you plan for rocker on the bottom?

Right now the top deck is 6' 3" from tip to tip. The hood tapers differently from a SJ hood. The opening is longer for sure but it’s definitely narrower at the front due to the contour of the hull. The back is a little wider than normal though. The bottom deck will have some front rocker in it but I don’t really like the feel of the hulls with rear rocker. The overall width of the hull is a little wider but I don't know how much exactly because I don't know how wide a normal SJ is. The actual chines are pretty much in line with a SJ but the outside/vertical edges angle out a little more so there is some extra surface area that will give the effect of a slightly wider hull. The bond rails should be a little wider as well. </SPAN></SPAN>

The other aspect that I plan to incorporate into this hull is a sliding engine mount. This isn't for hull balancing though. My hope is to quickly and easily slide the engine forward and backwards to facilitate maintenance. I don’t know about you guys but I can’t tell you how many times, I’ve wanted to just slide the engine forward an inch or two to make working on something a little easier such as pulling the midshaft or working on electrics. The other purpose is so that I can get my Speedwerx pipe in and out of the hull which I wasn’t able to do in the other hull. Still designing that part...</SPAN></SPAN>

 

[509freerider]

Great job, keep up the good work! Glad to see your ignored the haters on here and went ahead with your project!

 

[sjetrider]

As for the sliding motor mount area, Rickter has one but it is more of a hinderance than an asset, maybe you can draw some ideas from it though. We may have some pics laying around of them.
Maybe with the Speedwerx Pipe its different, but 4 bolts on the mounts and the motor slide forward, I would have to beleive your design will incorporate at lease that many bolts to loosen??? My mounts with b-pipe are easily accessible though.

 

[Waternut]

The problem has always been the kenny keepers for me. I could never move the engine forward without lifting it and jacking it all out of position. If it gets down to crunch time, the sliding engine will be one of the things that gets left out for future potentials since I will inevitably run the b pipe for the first few rides just because I know everything work with that setup.

I will do a little searching on the Rickters and see if I can find what they do. Thanks!

 

[Texan33]

Updates??

 

[Waternut]

Nothing really to show. Cleaning up the bottom deck mold but I've barely touched it. Got one friends ski repaired after a big crack, finally finished setting up my old hull to sell to a friend and dialing in his motor, next I will be cleaning up Jetmaniac's old hull that another friend bought and installing all of his stuff in it. So basically...it's winter, I'm in no rush, and have way too many other things that I'm working on instead.

This will happen though since I'm now hull-less until I build this.

 

[Tmart]

We all bombarded him with our newbie projects at one time! Its amazing to see how John has this whole project setup and planned out to the T. Its going to be unbelievably light and hopefully ride like nothing anybody's ever seen. Keep up the good work John and thanks for helping us out!!!

 

[chad]

you sold your hull?

 

[McDog]

To Tmart.

 

[Waternut]

Yep...even had two guys call dibs on it after casually talking with friends about possibly taking on this project. It's staying local and I had a buyer lined up immediately. Thanks Tmart!