Glass Boats Rule too!!

[Jr Branham]

Here are a few pics of my new projects. I'm building 2 Patriot hydros for myself (how selfish!!!).
One pic is where I just laid up the hull and did a rough trim, the other is of the hydro joined and body filler applied getting ready for paint.

[Jr Branham]

Here is joined hull

[Avenger]

NOT TO SHABBY! that is gona be a nice boat! -Jeff

[Doug Forrester]

Jr Branham
You have Andy's Patriot molds - right?

Could you please give us some details of your layup - resin, # of layers of what cloth, etc. What's the filler that I see?

[Jr Branham]

Doug,
I'm using West Systems epoxy. I wax the mold, shoot on pva with an airbrush, next goes on one coat of epoxy. Let this sit, then goes the cloth. I use a light weight cloth next to mold to prevent "print-through". The schedule of lay-up is up to the individual. I spoke with Andy about this several times. I try to shoot for around 4 layers. I tried different lay-ups on these two hulls. First hull has 3.0 oz cloth then 5.0 oz cloth. Using two layers of each. That hull came out a little heavier than Andy's Orange/yellow boat. It weighs about 1 lb 12 oz's. The second hull is much lighter, but, may be weaker. Not sure yet until I join it. That is where alot of the strength will come in. I'm gonna experiment with the two hulls to see the differences and the durability of the different lay-up schedules. If I find the "perfect" one I will tell ya. The filler you see is made by 3M. It is sold at auto body stores. It is called Piranha Putty. This is good stuff. It goes on silky smooth and is easy to work with and sand. Just like bondo...you have to mix cream hardener with it. Costs a little over 10.00 a container.
Jr. Branham

[AndyKunz]

Jr - I'll take the heavy one!

The prototype hull was made with cheap stuff from Home Depot and the mix wasn't 100% so it gets soft if too warm. It was also only intended to check out the mold, not actually be run, so it came out a bit light. After changing the ride pad on the right side it ran really well - videos are on my CD, and possibly still on the website (I have 47M on my 10M site!)

Doug - Jr turned me on to that Piranha Putty. I'll never go back to Bondo!

Andy

[Paul]

Hello Guys,

This is good stuff. I have a set of molds for the T-Plus which I want to make and I have no clue how to lay one up. Keep the info coming.

Thanks for sharing Jr, Paul.

[AndyKunz]

Tell us about the T-Plus mold, Paul. Which year T-Plus? Who built it? Size? etc.

Andy

[Jr Branham]

Paul,
One word of advice....if the T-Plus mold is new, don't skimp on the waxing. Wax it real good. (wax on...wax off....LOL) After you have made some pulls off it, then you can slow down on the waxing. Use a high quality mold-release wax. I also use pva on each pull, it is cheap insurance. Just make sure pva is fully dry, it usually takes longer for it to dry in the lower areas of the mold.
Jr. B