outonsafari

the boat was originally rigged w/ a #5 and extension box.

i would love nothing more than to put a speedmaster back on it,
or an arneson as both are primo in my book.
however with the speedy and arneson as well, power is a 496 mag ho

icededppl has a pair of #4's, someone wants the right, i'd take the left and a transom,
but w/out spacers it would have to be mounted balls on, no idea what that x would be
plus my luck says boat wants a right or needs tons of tab

so i'd need
a driveline transmission
a 496 inboard fly wheel, torque plate and top mount starter.
the block would need longer locating dowels as both require a rear offshore engine mount.
god knows what else would pop up
and the props are out of my budget especially since i wouldn't know where to start.

but i thought about it and wore out a pair of shoes pacing out the pro's and cons

i stopped working on boats back when the bravo first came out, my only experience with them is
they break, if you say bravo drive it breaks if you look at it or touch it, busted.

transmission boat is best, but NLA parts are held for a kings ransom

i'll say it, the hope is the boat will crack 70, but if it only went 60-65 w/ a speedmaster on it i'd be way happier
and then theres the cool factor which adds 10 mph, 20 when it's on the trailer and people can see it

rak rua

Many years ago, a mate of mine wet sanded the lower of his bravo back to bare metal and ran it like that. To the uneducated, it looked really cool, like "something off a race boat" and to those who knew about it, he maintained it picked up 1-2 mph over a painted Bravo.... . Win : Win....?

Great looking resto, thanks for posting.

RR

outonsafari

like it was mentioned , earlier on the boat had 2 hatches. the extra hatch gutter was cut off and cut down to the needed length.

the deck changes angles as it goes forward, simply put from the side it's like a boat coming up on plane,
the deck from the transom to the front of the original engine hatch is coming out of the hole, then the deck from there forward
is like coming over the hump and on plane; if that makes sense ?

the change in angle is only a few dgrees but it's there and had to be delt with since the hatch needed to be straight.

first picture is how i got it.
second pic is a good example of whats going on, the blue tape shows the original hatch over the cockpit and the rear of the original bolster.
at this point the extension was just getting fitted

outonsafari

a repeat pic for the first, but it's how it got bonded in place.
so i cut a pair of shims from 3/4 marine ply, they were around 12 inches long 3/8 in front and 1/4 in the rear (in height), with just a little trimming for width.

the deck was ground the original hatch gutter was trimmed and everything fit nice so it got bonded on/down
put a layer of 1708 on the deck then the shim then another layer of 1708 then the extension piece.

from the first pic it's got that flap that is on top of the shim, well underneath and down the seam 1708 went on but because the boat also gets a little wider
it turned into that u shaped pieces, thats the back side of the gutter and the combing wall in the cockpit

outonsafari

the original extra gutter had wood in it that was bare so it stayed and made up the joint for the fire wall
bonding it in with 2 layers of 1708 front, back and top where it mates up to the extension.

outonsafari

the new firewall is bonded in all the way up and around where the pvc pipe goes that holds the rigging

vintage chromoly

I have to say, your glass work and layout/engineering is awesome.
makes me want to do another one myself.

outonsafari

glassing down the top, i have to re post this pic again, if you look close at the 1st pic you can see what looks like a stress crack in the fairing.
what it turned out to be was a little tail section bonded on to make the fairing go all the back to the original engine hatch.

this was a mistake for me, if more time was spent snooping around i would have found that out and just removed the tails instead of were it got cut.

so glassing it down theres about 9 layers of 1708, i did it like patching a hole, the first layer is on the deck and runs up and onto the
extension that was ground down towards the back.
the other 8 layers or stack get shorter as you add them. then some cabosil gets slooped on and the whole stack gets put in place

the deck was masked off with wax paper and after the stack gets set the wax paper was pulled over it then it got sqee gee'd down and shaped
the mess came out the back and just got wiped up right away

outonsafari

the fire wall is 1/2 divinycell h80 w/ 1708 on the engine side and mat on the cockpit side so it matches the original look,
it's also on hinges w/ quick pins so it's removable
so from this to this

outonsafari

thank you, but i expect it to come apart like the minnow did after it was patched w/ mary anns pancake batter that the castaways thought was an adhesive.