Blazer Lauterbach Build Thread

A couple more details worked out. After making a template out of cardboard, I cut out some 1/16 ply as a base material for the dash. I then laminated some of my walnut veneer to it. When dry I drilled for the steering wheel and test mounted that. I’m going to put stainless 2-56 screws across the top and outsides of the dash. It’ll look cool and it will hold the edges flush to the cowl. I got a coat of epoxy on it once my test fitting was done and it looks real nice. I also cut out a windshield from lexan off of a template a friend let me use. I’m now in the process of figuring out some brackets to hold it on.

RichJones said:

One of the nicest guys I know, unless of course you are talking about when he’s driving an rc race boat, well then yeah he is a scary mofo! Not even kidding. Great, great driver.

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After reading through the last few weeks I missed it is very kewl to see all the Pics of the Boat in all the different trim.

rhomodel said:

I intend to say: almost seamless Rich!

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Fitting the Cowling looks amazing

RichJones said:

1/6 Liberty Classics Hemi model.

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Ok this is SO Sweet!
I went for the same 1/6 scale but the 2x4 427 SOHC Ford.

RichJones said:

But as you I can see we have a driver now

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It has been a blast piecing and locating the stuff.. That driver is very Nice. I cant wait to reach that point.
It is one nice looking ride Sir.

Chuck Mason said:

After reading through the last few weeks I missed it is very kewl to see all the Pics of the Boat in all the different trim.

Fitting the Cowling looks amazing

Ok this is SO Sweet!
I went for the same 1/6 scale but the 2x4 427 SOHC Ford.
View attachment 302734

It has been a blast piecing and locating the stuff.. That driver is very Nice. I cant wait to reach that point.
It is one nice looking ride Sir.

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Thanks Chuck. Just plugging along. This stuff all takes time. Those Liberty motors are cool. I found another Hemi and bought it for maybe another build in the future. Just FYI, there are screws holding that thing together whether you can see them or not. Ie. To get the headers off, you may need to take off say that pcv valve from the valve cover. Point is, you don’t need to hack it apart to get the parts you want. I got the dash sealed up with epoxy and got the windshield mounted which I’ll post at some point. Glad to see you are still getting some stuff done on yours.

Got the windshield mounts made and mounted the windshield. While the mounts could use a little more filing and polishing, they don’t look too bad. I also got the hole cut for the stuffing tube, lined everything up and tacked it in place with thick CA. I will build an enclosure for it, tape the bottom off and put epoxy in next. The alignment is spot on. The shaft goes in dead center.

If you can, solder a small piece of brass tube to your stuffing tube. When you epoxy it in, it will stop it from spinning or moving back and forth. Locks it in place.

Ray Sametz said:

If you can, solder a small piece of brass tube to your stuffing tube. When you epoxy it in, it will stop it from spinning or moving back and forth. Locks it in place.

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I’d try that but I’ve since epoxied the tube in. When I get the stuffing tube bent and installed into the strut, before I do that I will drill a small hole in the tube that’s attached to the hull maybe 1/8 or so in from where the shaft tube comes in from the strut. I’ll put a dab of solder in that hole once the shaft tube is in and that will work as well. Some guys even put Red Loctite on the shaft tube before they put into the strut. I’m told it will release with heat but I’m trying to stay away from that method. Thanks for the tip Ray I’ll keep it in the bank.

The windshield looks so real, the Mounting brackets for it are class A. Great Job all the way.
Are u going to use stuffing tube marine grease or an oiler set-up. Whats your experience with it.
Can you show how your going to plumb your fuel system when you get to that spot .
As always
Great Build.

Chuck Mason said:

The windshield looks so real, the Mounting brackets for it are class A. Great Job all the way.
Are u going to use stuffing tube marine grease or an oiler set-up. Whats your experience with it.
Can you show how your going to plumb your fuel system when you get to that spot .
As always
Great Build.

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Thanks for saying that, they’ll do. I’ll shape them up with files a little more and polish them but the difficult part is done. I have been intrigued with the shaft oilers in the past and still may try one some day but for now and in the past, I just use grease. I put some in the tube itself and then coat the flex shaft and install. Makes a mess initially but seems to work fine. Everyone has their fave but you want to make sure to use something Marine grade if you can. I got Green Grease at Autozone, as Green Grease was recommended by Daniel Place here on the forum. It’s pretty heavyweight stuff so I may try something a little thinner to see if I gain any performance, but it works well. On the fuel system, I researched and fretted over the same thing last year. I use the single outlet bags sold by zippkits. I have both 250 and 500 ml but 250 is what I use for the most part. 500ml is a lot of fuel and I find it weights the boat down some. Get some of that yellow Tygon fuel line which is for use with gas. Get a fuel cell insert, a tee, and some plugs( just need one but good to have extras). Insert the fuel cell fitting into the bag. You’ll need some lube for this as it’s tight but put it in until the tip is just peeking out into the bag. Run a line from this to the tee. Run another Leg of the tee to the carb. The third leg gets a shorter length of line which is where you fill. Plug this line when not filling. Use enough line so you have some slack in order to stand the bag up when filling. This is so the bubbles rise to the top and you can work them out. No exhaust tap is needed with gas. You will get zero water in the bag with this set up if and when you blow over. Lastly USE ZIP TIES (small) on all connections (including around the bag outlet and insert) with the exception of maybe the carb. That one is tight af.

Got the stuffing tube housing completed and sealed after pouring in epoxy to lock in the tube to the boat. Made a bracket for the rear pipe mount and drilled the transom for the outlet that I got from Gizmo. The .625 aluminum tube fits perfectly into the .630 ID of the outlet piece from the back. Some pics Chris Herzog posted of his helped me out here. I already had the exhaust outlet and had planned on using it because it has a vintage look IMO.

In the last few days, I put the strut back on and then proceeded with bending the stuffing tube to line up and go through it. The stuffing tube was super tight at first so I honed it down a bit with 400 sandpaper and WD-40. Once it slid through nicely, I trimmed it just shy of the back of the strut. Then I slid the strut bearing and shaft in and measured between where the drive dog sits and the back of the strut and added 5/16 approx. and took the shaft out and applied that measurement to the shaft at the collet end. I made the cut and cleaned up the rough edges. All is well with the drive at this point. I then remounted the rudder, marked, and drilled for the pushrod with a Forstner bit. I finished that up with a Dremel sanding drum. Before I proceed with setting up the radio, I needed to address something that’s been bothering me. The front cowl was just way too **** heavy. With the headers and blower installed, this thing weighed 1 lb. 11 oz, 5 oz off 2 lb.! I think I may have saved 4oz or so by trimming the headers and possibly putting holes in them where they wouldn’t be visible but I’d still be looking at a pound and a half. I had recently bought another Liberty Classics Hemi motor and I took a look at it. I immediately noticed it was lighter. The headers and the blower are plastic on this one. I dismantled everything and installed the headers and blower from the more recent motor. The weight of the front cowl is now 1 lb even. The first set I used must have been from an older version of the Hemi model and they switched to plastic in later version. So, with everything reinstalled, drive shaft in, pipe, motor, etc…, I decided to weigh the boat with my fish scale. I’m getting around 15.5 . If you consider probably a pound in paint and epoxy and roughly 13 oz for radio gear, my new estimate for RTR weight will be around 17.5 lb. I was concerned in my initial estimates that I’d be somewhere closer to 19 lb and that was troublesome. I feel much better about things weight-wise after today. So on to the radio installation next.

Your choice of Header pipe and spring set-up, Is that something that you made?. Thats a Nice looking set-up. Bet it makes for easy adjusting the tube length.
Thanks for all the great tips RJ.
There is a HUGE Diferance in my top hats, The Cowling on my SLR is almost 1.45lbs alone, and the driver plus the extras are over 2lb.
I have a TON to learn about keeping the digits low. But that will come later.
I cant wate to fill the bag with fuel and make my 1st FLIP, or err Rooster Tail..
I will watch trim-min the Fat on the next build. LoL
One fine Boat.

Chuck Mason said:

Your choice of Header pipe and spring set-up, Is that something that you made?. Thats a Nice looking set-up. Bet it makes for easy adjusting the tube length.
Thanks for all the great tips RJ.
There is a HUGE Diferance in my top hats, The Cowling on my SLR is almost 1.45lbs alone, and the driver plus the extras are over 2lb.
I have a TON to learn about keeping the digits low. But that will come later.
I cant wate to fill the bag with fuel and make my 1st FLIP, or err Rooster Tail..
I will watch trim-min the Fat on the next build. LoL
One fine Boat.

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Thanks Bro! The pipe is a Gizmo Hot Pipe. You can buy it as a set with the header, springs, and spacers. I’ve been using on on my Backlash. The only difference is I’m using their 90 degree drop header on the Lauterbach to drop the pipe down in the hull.

The weight thing is a greatly debated topic. For me, its simple. If the designer and manufacturer of the boat kit says RTR weight is 17 lb., I want to be in the ballpark. Especially when it’s a proven race winner and world record holder. If it comes out heavy, it doesn’t mean it won’t be a good boat. Good setup and good driving plus the right prop can and does beat lighter boats. With that said, a well set up light boat with a good driver is pretty tough to beat. So, I try to build a boat as light as I can without sacrificing strength. I don’t stress too much on it but when some bling is going to add close to a pound, I try to find other solutions.

Chuck Mason turned me on to these gauges so I ordered some and they arrived the other day. I think they look good. The actual types of gauges didn’t matter to me as much as they come in a couple different sizes and are 3D vs just using stickers or decals.

They look Great, and fit your dash Spot On

Chuck Mason said:

They look Great, and fit your dash Spot On

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Agreed. Exactly what I was looking for…

Autometer clones,,, love it !!!
Those are the first ones I have ever seen that come close to looking real!! Nice job !

Just a little update, I had my knee scoped to deal with two tears in the meniscus on my left knee a week ago yesterday. While I’ve been laying around I ordered the main deck decals from a company called boatdecals.biz. You use their design tool and choose the font, color, size, etc… I had them in 2 days. I’d say a little pricey but they look good and it was quick. I will use my new Cricut to cut a Rolls Logo for the tail fin and other minor details for the cowl. In the future I’ll probably use it for boat graphics exclusively among other things. I also ordered some maroon and silver pinstriping off Amazon for fine detailing. The sides of the hull and sponsons will be a Burgundy color (GM Autumn Maple Metallic) and that will spill over on to the decks by 1/4 in. I’ll run some 1/16 silver pinstripe between the burgundy and the natural wood deck. The cowl will be silver with maroon trim down the center. These are the exact paint colors that are on the 64 Rolls Silver Cloud III. The graphics I laid on the hull in the pics are metallic silver with a black outline. I haven’t been able to get to the radio gear yet but I did get started on sealing the wood on the hatches with MAS LV resin and slow hardener thinned with denatured alcohol. That’s all I have to report for now. Moving along slowly but surely.

This is the logo that will go on each side of the tail fin. I did a test cut on my Cricut today and stuck to a storage container to test transferability. It transferred beautifully.

Looks good Rich, but some of the thin vinyl reacts with the clear coat. You might want to do a test first.

Bob Blazer said:

Looks good Rich, but some of the thin vinyl reacts with the clear coat. You might want to do a test first.

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I’ll definitely do that thanks Bob.