Blazer Lauterbach Build Thread

[Rich Jones]

I’m using the slow cure MAS epoxy that mixes at a ratio of 2 to 1, resin to hardener. I get it from Jamestown Distributers. I buy the quart resin and pint hardener and use the Total Boat pumps so the mix is accurate every time. It’s a slow set epoxy which gives you probably 40 minutes or more to apply and clamp up. The epoxy is always hard as a rock the next day. It also dries nice and clear. It is very comparable to West Systems and is used by boat builders.

 

[Rich Jones]

Ok, on to the recovery pads. These are one of the more challenging installs when building a hydro. It’s not so bad until you have that severe bend in the last couple inches to the tip where you really have to get some clamping pressure on there. These were a step above because of the dropped sponsons on this boat. I just could not get anything to bite at the tip. In addition, on this boat, there’s some real careful fitting you have to do to get multiple intersecting surfaces to meet in some reasonable fashion. After sanding and fitting and also getting the bottom nose pieces trimmed and sanded to fit, I still had the issue with the tip on the recovery pad. So I got one of them clamped up to the point where just an inch or so leading to the tip was sticking up. I turned the boat over and looking down into the sponson, I flowed some Thin CA into the joints toward the back and worked up to the tip. I let it wick in then I wiped the excess out. I then used my thumb and cranked down on the tip and flowed the CA in, gave it a couple seconds and hit it with some accelerator. This worked pretty well. You’ll see in the pics that I got a little sand thru on the ply. Again, not an issue, because this area gets painted. I did the other one and then worked on them with a Dremel and finished up with a sanding block. The next steps will be the bottom nose pieces and the ride pads.

 

[Rich Jones]

Got sidetracked by the Bengals yesterday but was able to get the front bottom nose pieces on last night after watching the NFC game as well. Ride pads aren’t on yet, had some other stuff to attend to today.

 

[Rich Jones]

Ride pads added and sanded flush. Just as with the Recovery Pads, there were some clamping challenges here and I wound up just taping them up nice and tight and attaching with thin CA. Epoxy will lock all this in before decks go on. Nosepiece trimmed and sanded flush. The confluence of pieces at the sponson tips, bottom and wrap around nose piece turned out pretty decent. Bottom is now complete!

 

[rhomodel]

Whoop whoop

 

[Rich Jones]

For the last couple days I’ve been working on the hatch covers intermittently. The rear is tacked up with support blocks added and support rails installed in the boat. The front is just clamped in and shimmed right now. This part is going kinda slow, as there’s a lot of little tweaks to make sure the tops of the hatches match the top of the rails in the boat so that the hatch decks and main decks are as close to even as possible.

 

[Wasted wages]

Rich, are all those small pieces of wood precut in the kit or do you have to hand cut them all from straight stock?
Not a big deal, but with such a nice laser cut kit I would hope that as many pre cut parts are provided as possible...

 

[Rich Jones]

Rich, are all those small pieces of wood precut in the kit or do you have to hand cut them all from straight stock?
Not a big deal, but with such a nice laser cut kit I would hope that as many pre cut parts are provided as possible...

The hatch rails both lengthwise and crosswise are provided and are laser cut. You do need to supply some thicker stock for cutting the blocks for corner reinforcement and for the blocks to attach the magnets if that is indeed how you elect to attach them. You also need some strips that can be cut from scrap pieces from the kit in order to attach to the insides of the hatch rails where they are arched to bring them down to the flat surface you are clamping to when attaching the deck pieces to them. If you didn’t have this support, the clamps would skew the shape of the frame out of whack when clamped down. Once glue is dry you just trim them to the shape of the rails. I found I needed to trim the notches and length of the front hatch rails a bit for best fit. They were a bit long but that’s way better than them being short! Its likely from the transom winding up leaning forward a little when I tacked the frame. I was able to true it up with a sanding block so it’s completely square in the back.

 

[Chuck Mason]

It is looking good RJ
I did get some CA. Thin, Med and Thick. What a HUGE difference it had made in fine assembly.
I have a few pieces coming in over the weekend for the cowling and mounting my Engine. I do like the way the Teak
is looking.
Build Build, Play Play
Chuck

 

[Rich Jones]

It is looking good RJ
I did get some CA. Thin, Med and Thick. What a HUGE difference it had made in fine assembly.
I have a few pieces coming in over the weekend for the cowling and mounting my Engine. I do like the way the Teak
is looking.
Build Build, Play Play
Chuck

Thanks I have an update I was about to post but wanted to check out your thread first…

 

[Rich Jones]

So I’ve spent some more time making sure these hatch frames are lining up ok. The support blocks are installed for the front hatch which took a lot of lining up and clamping, unclamping, reclamping, etc… Then out came the Forstner bits. I took a small regular drill bit and drilled through the blocks on the hatch and in the hull simultaneously to locate where I needed to drill for the magnets In the hull and the round metal pieces in the hatch. I carefully drilled the blocks in the hull with a 1/2” forstner bit checking along the way for the correct depth. I wanted them flush with the blocks. I then turned over the hatch and drilled out those blocks with a 5/8” Forstner and screwed those in with wood screws. Lastly, I roughed up the magnets and glued them in with epoxy and clamped them in until dry. The alignment is spot on and hatch clamps down tight! You can see in the one pic that I’m holding up the hull with one of the hatch rails! I’m now working on the side support pieces and then I’ll get the hatch skins on.

 

[Rich Jones]

Decking put on the front hatch and sanded to fit like a glove. The main decking should match up well height-wise so the extra fitting time I took with this step should pay off. The rear hatch and it’s deck are clamped up and drying and will be shaped tomorrow.

 

[Rich Jones]

Rear hatch complete. Everything looking pretty tidy. Also the top has been trued up all around with my sanding beam. I haven’t done this on the tops of the sponsons yet, but I’ll get to that soon.

 

[Dan Skay]

Looking good Rich, As usual, Outstanding work.

 

[Rich Jones]

Looking good Rich, As usual, Outstanding work.

Thanks Dan!

 

[rhomodel]

You are teasing us with such nice work. Man, that deck will look nice after some coats of clear and polishing....

 

[Chuck Mason]

Man that is looking so good.
I am learning that you either love this part as much as the driving. Well almost as much.
There is a sense of accomplishment every step completed. Ya gotta be smiling at that work.
Trying hard not to sound cliché coming from me the newbie 1st builder, but its the truth you all are some outstanding builders hands down.
That cowling is very nice, is it the one supplied by B. Blazer with the kit?
It will turn heads for sure, on and off the course.
Great work

 

[Rich Jones]

You are teasing us with such nice work. Man, that deck will look nice after some coats of clear and polishing....

Thanks man! The decks will go on soon. After that, I plan on doing one more coat of thinned epoxy, wiping, and scraping when dry. I will see where we are on how level it is at that point. It may require a heavier, unthinned coat for filling purposes. The veneer is a maze of high spots and low spots. I’ve run into this on guitars. It looks like a mess when sanded or scraped but when you wipe down with Naptha, you can see how awesome it will be with a nice level surface with clear over it.

 

[Rich Jones]

Man that is looking so good.
I am learning that you either love this part as much as the driving. Well almost as much.
There is a sense of accomplishment every step completed. Ya gotta be smiling at that work.
Trying hard not to sound cliché coming from me the newbie 1st builder, but its the truth you all are some outstanding builders hands down.
That cowling is very nice, is it the one supplied by B. Blazer with the kit?
It will turn heads for sure, on and off the course.
Great work

Thanks Chuck, I do enjoy building. Finishing, not so much. This one may get done at a body shop, not sure yet. There’s gonna be a fair amount of masking on this, so logistically it’s hard to mask, take it up to shoot color, bring it home to do graphics, pinstripe, scrape bleeds, then take it back up for clear. I think my Backlash had 10-12 hours of just masking alone (I don’t work fast). On the cowling, yeah that is a Blazer cowl.

 

[Rich Jones]

Before doing any sealing on the inside of the boat, I thought it would be a good idea to mount up some hardware. Yesterday I epoxied in a piece of aluminum on the inside of the right sponson transom that will be drilled and tapped for the turn fin bracket. Tonight I located and mounted the strut and rudder and marked drilling locations for the 1/4 inch pins for the rear hatch. I will get these pieces cut and drill the inside of the transom for them tomorrow and then drill matching holes in the rear hatch for it to slide onto the pins. I also plan on locating the position of the turn fin bracket and drill and tap for the #10 screws. Once I’m finished with all of that, I’ll remove the hardware and start doing my filets on all internal joints and follow with thinned epoxy for the areas in between.