Another BFN Rebuild

jbear wrote: What else can be said?john

Yep! Tim you and your dad could go into the composite business. Looks fantastic. Kinda like lewy said. Its a shame you gotta cover up all the beautiful work you guy's have done.   

If Delta is ever looking for a new composite guy in the Hartford area I'll put in a good word for ya!   

Almost forgot- quick update from last night. We glassed the doubled up floor piece and bedded the large 3/4" front floor section. We also bedded the rear spacers between the primary and secondaries and glassed the lifting ring assembly in.







Tonight I hope to get the floor glassed to the ribs/bulkheads at front and rear, finish filleting the floor to the wall, and finish trimming the floor to the bilge.

I can't wait to see that pretty blue BBC with those nice EMIs sitting in that boat. Should be a beautiful site.

TRBenj wrote: John/Tim- thanks, but we're no craftsmen... just a couple of hobbiests here! I dont think I could go into the composites business- I work too slow to make any money!

Hobbyists can do a great job, especially when it's their toy that they are working on.   

We may take longer but there is a pride in ownership that is beyond compare.


You BFN is looking great! I hope to be able see it at GL. I'm thinking I can get the boat out to GL either Saturday or Sunday of that weekend. I'm one of those ford loyalists as well, but I'm happy to hear you painted the motor ford blue.

Joel, the new lifting ring assembly is not all that dissimilar from the original. The backer is actually one large piece of 3/4" coosa, with 2 smaller pieces of 1/2" laminated to it (under the angle). Each of the pieces were preglassed on both sides, then laminated together with another layer of cloth. The angle is 3/8" thick 3"x3" stainless (the original was plain steel) and bedded with thickened resin to the coosa. The 4 bolts are 7/16" ss, which are bedded in at the rear. The edges were filleted on the smaller stack up, and 4-5 layers of glass were added all around before it went in the boat. Another 4 layers of cloth were added to each side once in the boat, then the whole thing was covered in biax. All bedding material was epoxy thickened with milled fiber- the strongest stuff I found.

That being said, I didnt go through the strength calculation for the bolts. The shear strength of the 4 bolts, plus the strength of the adhesion of the angle to the backer may very well be the weak point of the design. It would either be that, or the adhesion of the whole coosa assembly to the transom- or the ability of the 1/8" thick transom to support the load of the entire boat. Instead, I simply replaced old, rusted parts (probably not very high grade originally- I couldnt ID them) with what I deem to be better (SS) material of the same size, and use a healthy glass schedule for the whole thing.

Considering that I dont really plan to use the lifting rings- and certainly not on a regular basis- combined with the fact that there are many old CC's still hanging by their original rings (many of which are likely made up of well rusted metal parts and wet or rotten wood), Im not going to lose much sleep over it.

The angle on the transom is actually a "carryover" design from the wood hulls. Worked for years even when the transom frames started to rot at the bottoms!

My X55 has a brass 3/4" downrod to a keel mounted clevis but it's bolted onto the keel with only 2 5/16 bolts!! Yes they are in vertical tensile loading but it never bothered me!!

Quick update. This week we bedded the front section of the floor. Then we spent some time filleting the edges and seams, and sanding them smooth. We also got the battery box finished (capped drain hole, installed inspection port) and bedded. In case no one has picked up on my Dresdon Blue battery box, this originally came installed on Mr. Fennessy's '83 2001.











We also got the rear mini ribs glassed in.





We also got the rudder port backer, pylon cup/bilge pump base and all the transom backers (exhaust tips, platform brackets, airguide ballast tube backers) bedded down as well.







The next step will be to glass down all the backers we have bedded, as well grinding and glassing the battery box area. Then we can proceed to foaming the front compartments.

Tim, Its good to see some of my parts going to good use.Looks Great!!

Pgaski

Tim I was under the impression that when using the composite type panels like the board your using, that the entire panel needed impregnated with resin. It looks like a section isn't coasted and only where you added the glass over the edges and seems.

79nautique wrote: Tim I was under the impression that when using the composite type panels like the board your using, that the entire panel needed impregnated with resin. It looks like a section isn't coasted and only where you added the glass over the edges and seems.

Chris, Im not sure that the coosa is required to be covered in resin, though we arent leaving any exposed. Just the seams on the floor are taped on top for now (the back side of the floor panels have 2+ layers of glass), but the entire floor is getting a minimum of 3 layers of glass once its all in. I want to get the front compartments foamed before glassing over everything.

Yesterday I got the battery box area ground smooth and taped, as well as the rudder port and pylon base glassed down. Tonight will be a quick night- just going to shape and bed the side of the air box so we can foam later this week. Weather is good, so we're going skiing.

We got the final layers of glass on the floor over the weekend. Also got the bilge cleaned up and a few more strips of biax layed down. This should make for a pretty stout hull. We've started assembly of the removable floor panel as well... pics are on Dad's camera.

Foam should be here Tues so we can finish up the air box. Just have to glass in the supports for the rear panel, and do a bunch of final sanding- then its on to installing the hull hardware and finishing the assembly of the engine.

Here's a shot of the exhaust tips, original 3" on the left, new 4" on the right. The old ones have found a new home on my sister's '69 Mustang (replacing the original 2-1/4" ones).

Youve got a good eye, Roger. The new tips were available with and without flaps- I opted to go without. My '90 has the internal flaps but they make a bit of noise... hopefully I dont end up needing them.

Roger, those look familiar!



The flappers arent too noisy, but I do notice them sometimes at idle on my '90.

So far this week we have ground and sanded the floor and hull, cut, bed and glassed the rear panel supports, put a few more layers of glass on the rear panel, bedded and glassed the gas tank supports and cut/bedded/glassed the final mini-ribs between the stringers. The new foam showed up yesterday so I finished pouring the air box, trimmed it up and bedded the top down as well. Just a bit more foaming at the edge of the wall tonight and then we can glass it in. Dad put some time into building a mold for the side pockets- so those are built too.

Tonight we'll get the airbox wrapped up (hopefully), do a bit of trimming/sanding, and cut our holes in the mains for the drains. We're going to need the cradle back pretty quick so we can finalize the rear edge of the front floor section, as well as the final pylon location so I can bed/glass the hull cup and drill a hole in the floor. Otherwise, we're just a round of sanding and fairing away from being ready for bilge paint.

Then we're on to engine assembly... I ordered all my tools to check pushrod length this week. I had forgotten that we'll almost certainly need new ones- the new cam has a smaller base circle than the original. Hopefully this wont be a hold up going forward.

More pics soon.

Tim what are you going to use for bilge paint?

Thanks I'm on the '85 project again and getting close to laying the floor and painting the bilge.