Tass 928

Sunday was to wet to do the outdoor welding so I worked on the hull again. I used some very carefully applied paint stripper to remove the dragon mural on the passenger side. That left me with a shadow outline of the dragon that could still be seen in certain light conditions. I hit it with 600 wet paper and most of the shadow was cleaned up.

Tass 928

I decided to take a shot at wet sanding and buffing a section to see if I could save the original finish of the boat. I spent a few hours doing the top right side and the result was "not bad". I could see spots where the compound did not cut the sanding marks and I would need to use some finer paper before buffing. I can see this working, but I'm not fully convinced I'll be happy with the end result. I decide to hold up and talk to a professional.

Here are a couple pics of how I left it. Better....but not there yet.

Tass 928

This morning I stopped in to see fellow 928'r and body man, Walter Black. While I was complaining about my mediocre buffing results, he collected up some wet paper, a polisher, and some squirt bottles of compound and said "lets go take a look". He hit a rough section with 600 paper then 1200, following up with a wool buff loaded with compound. The results were unbeleivable....it was super shiney before he even hit it with the swirl mark remover.

So the lesson learned is that I suck at buffing and more importantly, I won't have to do a costly repaint of the entire boat. There are a few gelcoat nicks that Walter will fix for me (he is also the guy that molded the glass dashes for me) and then I'll be accepting his offer to sand and buff the boat. With the exterior finish question resolved, I'll go back to working on the mechanicals. Next up will be motor mounts.
Here is a pictures of Walt's test area......After this, I'll bring my camera home and stop putting up crappy I Phone pics.

docmirror

Yummy. I wet sanded and buffed a 16' Schiada long ago. It was a hell of a job but came out like that. Doing the bottom is a chore, but you don't see that part much.

Geez, James did you have to bring up the PFM? What a monumental screw up that was. Almost put two companies out of business. Cost Porsche it's CEO, and sent Mooney spinning for years.

James Bailey

Sorry but I saw one at a POC event at Firebird Raceway in Phoenix when it was a new plane. They landed it on the drag strip portion of the road course. It was odd to see a "911" engine in a plane and gear reduction drive just seemed wrong...

U-928

Progress?

Tass 928

I was out there working on it but the progress I made is not anything picture worthy. My goal was to get the engine supported in the correct position so I could make motormount templates and then fab up the mounts this week. When I got the engine where I needed it, we had two contact situations. One was the starter hitting the side of the engine well and the other was my bell housing hitting the jet pump mounting bolts. I had the engine in and out five or six times while I trimmed the pump bolts and then finally had to trim a little off the bell housing itself. The starter issue was solved by simply rotating it 180 degrees.
I'm ready to put the engine back in and I know the angles and position I am looking for. Hopefully I'll make the mounts next week.

Also some trailer progress: I welded in the backing plates on the fenders, refit them on the trailer and then drilled the mounting holes. I picked them up from the blaster today and dropped them with powder coater. My phone dials were hanging in the booth when I got there and he was going to try and run the fenders at the same time.
I'm working on a slide-out extension idea for the back off the trailer that will protect the jet drive from light impact and stray pedestrians. It will also help me when backing into the garage. The rudder fin is pretty fragile and it looks like the PO had to have it welded once already.

DR

Yes Dave more progress, patiently waiting for ya......

DR

Commonly done for Race Boats (see below), although not removable since they are hoisted off the trailers....but easy enough to make a slip in frame held in place with snap pins for easy removal...think of the removable legs on an engine hoist, except with quick pins instead of "pinch bolts".

Tass 928

Oh thanks...your taunting me now

I'll take that as motivational

James Bailey

No surprise given the cost of those props and the racing lower units !!!!

Tass 928

Oh hey.....whats the name on the side of that boat...."r"-something...

Racer?

Terror?

Trouble maker?

Just wonderin...

Tass 928

Yes..like that ! I guess I didn't have an original thought but at least it was a good one.
Thanks for the pic..

DR

This Offshore Racing Hall of Fame Nominee knows...he named it, race rigged it and raced it to a string of APBA/NPBA A-Class wins in the 80s/90s... :-)

mallman

Really nice old racing boat, won a lot of races. I would like to have what the boat was named after.