WIDE TRACK PREDATOR "In the making." Check it out!

[Predator Airboats]

First, we gel coat the mold in the camo pattern (brown, tan, black).

Then, after color dries you chop the boat and lay material.

Hull is laid up with 4 layers of 24 ounce roving with chop in between each layer. This is where we ended today.

Tommorrow the 2x6 runners will go in with pads under each runner. More pictures will follow tommorrow. You all found the previous posts of the mold building process interesting, so here is the boat building process. Enjoy!

We will be at "the bus" on Lake Kissimmee this Saturday 1/28/06. Come on out and check it out.

 

[c chardt]

Those boats look awesome and is neat how they are constructed I need one for this area as a project they look like they would hold up well for the type of running we do here look forward to see more progress

would love to learn the fiber glass process of how they are done.

 

[SwampMatt]

Thanks! I never saw how a fiberglass boat is made before. This is extremely interesting

I'm sure you would not give out any of your "secrets" - and no one here would ever ask for that.... but the general idea of the process is fun to see - having never seen it before, stuff you think may be dull or boring is fascinating to a guy like me!

Thanks for sharing!

matt.

 

[Whitebear]

Nice looking mould. I know the hard work that went into that !

How much is one of your hulls weighing in at ?

Folks, pastic boats are 99% hard laborious work. The secrets are in the 1% in paying attention to minute detail and getting it all done on time, you have a fixed amount of work time and its all over.

They look SOOOOOOO nice though ! Plus you can do complex and compound curves.

Scotty

 

[COLD]

Thanks so much. I might be wrong but that mold almost looks like the mold was built female. Instead of a plug being built and mold coming off of plug. Don't know for sure if thats what you did but that's what i'm planning of doing for my hull. I'm doing a one off but I might want to build more and I want to install poly so I dont want holes to allow a plywood hull structure to absorb water.
I can get some good prices on corcell but if I can get a good looking mold I can decide to add the corcell after or cheaper stuff just for flotatiion. I think Canadian laws require you to float the mass at least, Not sink! I must really be a cheapskate to do this if I can, Well my best bet would be $5000 and undr trader, I would have so much fun!

 

[Predator Airboats]

Here is the updated progress:

Now you can see part of the process of how the runners are measured and centered. Note the material under each runner. This boat will have material under all 4 runners.

Here is another one of the runners glassed in.

And last but not least the deck mold.

More to come tommorrow....