Building a boat

[Ranz1]

I see there a some molds on e-bay for speed boats and one tunnel. But what is realy involved in building a fiberglass boat? Could anyone give a step by step? Ant
E-bay tunnel mold (http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=26455&item=2461245572)
20 foot speed boat mold (http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2461250175&category=50443&sspagename=STRK%3AMEBWA%3AIT&rd=1) 21 foot speed boat (http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2461249533&category=50443&sspagename=STRK%3AMEBWA%3AIT&rd=1)

[victorfb]

a step by step? you may be asking for alot more than you realize. im not sure how many (if any) actuall boat builders come on here, but if i was to guess, id say your best bet would be to get ahold of "Oldrigger". he worked for alot of boat manufacturing companies and im betting he has more knowledge than most.

[OkieDave]

Basically you wax the mold, shoot the colors, lay out whatever mat-cloth laminate schedule you need, wet it out with the appropriate resin and catalyst, lay whatever balsa or other core, lay another layer of desired mat-cloth combination, put in stringers, pull bottom and top parts and tab them together. oversimplfication but not rocket science. very hard to get good quality unless you have experience. relatively cheap tho. a barrell of polyester resin is only $500-$600. the mat and cloth is only $2.00-$3.00 per pound. a 400 pound hull has 1/2 barrell of resin and 200 pounds of glass.

[cyclone]

if the mold has been sitting outside for an extended period of time i'd bet that its going to need some work. heat tends to alter the dimensions of a mold which is why the first boat out of a mold is the straightest and then its all downhill from there. each boat pulled out of the mold from there on isn't quite as good as the previous. So if this mold sat out in the sun all summer long then it might not be straight at all now.

[MudPumper]

Originally posted by cyclone
if the mold has been sitting outside for an extended period of time i'd bet that its going to need some work. heat tends to alter the dimensions of a mold which is why the first boat out of a mold is the straightest and then its all downhill from there. each boat pulled out of the mold from there on isn't quite as good as the previous. So if this mold sat out in the sun all summer long then it might not be straight at all now.
Just an observation, I've noticed that Howard has his molds sitting outside on the side of his shop. It gets pretty damn hot here in the summer.

[cyclone]

by no means am i an expert. this is just info relayed to me from some boat builders i've talked to.

[MudPumper]

For sure, I wasn't calling bullshit or anything. Just reading your post made me remember that I had seen the molds sitting out before.:)

[spectras only]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by MudPumper
[B]Just an observation, I've noticed that Howard has his molds sitting outside on the side of his shop. It gets pretty damn hot here in the summer. Moulds shoud be stored in a controlled temperature environment .Moulds suffer only in places with huge temperature fluctuations like the great white north;) :p .It's fare to say moulds should be thrown away after certain number of hulls made from it. It's more noticable on larger yachts when a mould is overused :eek: BTW ,I would rather find a proven blank hull/deck to work with than start from scratch ,unless you're knowledeable with fiberglass work. Howard Spectra Hondo etc.... used to sell stage I II III kits long time ago ,I'm sure there are still some companies doing that.

[cyclone]

the reason i brought it up is because I listened to a boat owner tell me that the manufacturer told him that since his boat was the first one out of the mold, that it was the straightest one ever built. Ive seen lots of yards full of molds just sitting in the sun and uncovered in the rain over the winter months. that cant be good for them. the entire mold isn't supported by the framework around it so the places in between the tubing supports must move with extreme temperature fluctuations.

[dorC]

Grrrr....I'm planning on buying the cat. :mad: I'm gonna take a look at the other two when I get out there. I'm proably not going to buy the bigger one, but the smaller one could be a day cruiser. If it is, I'll proably pass, if not I'll buy it. I never was fond of the day cruisers.
The one smaller v-bottom mold you can see that it has sagged at least 2". The bigger one is has some significant damage to the frame. The one wheel is missing and I see some bent tubes.

[old rigger]

That 21 mold looks like it could be an old Hawaiian mold. We tooled up that deck there, it had a built in swimstep (which by the way was a real mother ****er to work with. Couldn't fit my hand inbetween the deck and hull molds a that point, to bond them together. I remember how we ended up doing it, but don't ask) If memory serves me, that the old Spectra bottom on that one too, not counting swim step part.
The tunnel and the other mold, I don't have a clue. Hard to tell from the pictures the guy provided, plus he used one picture for both molds to show the insides. On the 20 mold, you can see how it's reinforceds with plywood to build the framework. I never worked at a shop whre it was done like that. Always had frames made from pipe, so I don't think that one came from Hawaiian.
I'll have to disagree with spectras only about throwing away a set of molds after a certain number of parts are pulled from it. There's no reason molds can't last a life time when taken care of properly (read that 'Rogers' molds.......big time). Pushing them out in the sun, burning your parts in them, sure, you're gonna ruin them. But done the right way, the molds will go out of style (in theory) long before you'll wear them out. Some never go out of style, IMHO....Rogers, Spectra, Sanger, etc.
One good thing about these molds on e-bay is that they were at least stored the right way with the deck sitting on the hull. The deck mold should be tits. There might be some print from the framework, but it should block out OK. The hull will need some more attention to bring it up to the point where you'll want to pull a part from it. But anyone that can fog a mirror should be able to take care of what's needed there.
DorC, I got your PM, hope this helps.

[old rigger]

I should say we tooled a deck 'like' this one on e-bay. I don't know if it's the exact same one, but we did do one with the built-in swim platform. Could be the same one.

[565edge]

That tunnel mold looks like there little cat mold too.I think they are all hawaiins.

[old rigger]

Originally posted by 565edge
That tunnel mold looks like there little cat mold too.I think they are all hawaiins.
565edge,
Hawaiian never had a tunnel mold. We did build about 4 tunnels and sold them under the hawaiian name, all jets, but we bought the hulls already built, and just rigged them. I'll be damned if i can remember who built them for us.
Maybe Team Hawaiian built tunnels, but they weren't involved, or a part of the old Schuster/Groom Hawaiian Boats from the 70's.

[dorC]

You guys think that 21' would be the boat in forground of this pic?

[HavasuDreamin']

I dig the tri-hull in that picture. ;) :D

[dorC]

Gaud, isn't it atrocious!:yuk:

[565edge]

Originally posted by old rigger
565edge,
Hawaiian never had a tunnel mold. We did build about 4 tunnels and sold them under the hawaiian name, all jets, but we bought the hulls already built, and just rigged them. I'll be damned if i can remember who built them for us.
Maybe Team Hawaiian built tunnels, but they weren't involved, or a part of the old Schuster/Groom Hawaiian Boats from the 70's.
Here is the hawaiin tunnel.They used to be accross from tom papps shop and i did see a couple.If you enlarge the pic you can see team hawaiin on the side.http://www.hotboatpics.com/pics/data/1/4855boat9.jpg

[dorC]

Old rigger. Thought I'd post this pic for you. As you pointed out, there is no way you could get a engine in that sponson.

[dorC]

565-boy, those sure are the same lines. But that boat pictured, has to be a 21'. This one is listed as being a 17'.

[old rigger]

565 edge,
that's a cool lookin boat, but like I said above, Tean Hawaiian and Hawaiian are 2 different deals. I'm not sure why anyone would want to re-vive the Hawaiian name anyway? They didin't have the best of reputations, especially when compared to the image that Team Hawaiian was trying to project in their adds I use to see in the boat trader. Hawaiian were great family boats, but high performance, nope.
Did team Hawaiian go belly up? A guy around the corner from me has a huge team hawaiian boat. Must be 27-8 feet long, v-bottom, with that euro look to the transom. He's running a jet in it.

[old rigger]

DorC,
I was more concerned with setting the intake in between thoses tunnels. It looks pretty narrow in there, but it could just be the pic? Like I told you about the Advantage party cat, which looks to have more room than this one, the block was to wide to fit inbetween the tunnels. It was a bitch.

[spectras only]

OR , I've seen a team hawaiian offshore boat [about 40'] a few years ago up here in vancouver.Wonder if it was the same company ,or name splashing;)

[dorC]

I think you were looking at a "Super Hawaii". These were some really big boats. The stern had a molded in swim platforms with rounded corners. If you squinted a little, they look a little like a black thunder.

[spectras only]

dorC , you're probably right it could have been super hawaii .It fits the description you've given.

[dorC]

Well, I bought it. Let's see where it takes me from here....

[Jake W]

DorC when do you pick them up ?It is intresting to me to see if it is the same tunnel that Edge posted.
Jake:D

[Ranz1]

I heard about the Shooting of color then the glass work, but i dont see how this works. Could someone explain......When you say "wax" the mold, what wax are you refering to?