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/eB...tem=2461245572)
20 foot speed boat mold (http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...EBWA%3AIT&rd=1) 21 foot speed boat (http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...EBWA%3AIT&rd=1)
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.
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.
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.
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.
by no means am i an expert. this is just info relayed to me from some boat builders i've talked to.
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.
[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
.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
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.
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.
Grrrr....I'm planning on buying the cat.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.
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