1949 Chris-Craft 19' Racing Runabout by gjdale - FINISHED -Dumas - 1:8 Scale - RADIO

[cog]

56 minutes ago, Amfibius said:

That is truly spectacular! Now what are you going to do about Ken and Barbie? 

Keith,

Probably give them back to his wife

[rafine]

Grant, I have to say that the wheel is beyond anything that I would even think about doing. Amazing.

 

Bob

[popeye the sailor]

I'm thinking the lever in the center is for directional signals?????    ....or is that for NOS?    that is one cool wheel grant.......very well made!

[src]

That wheel looks amazing, thanks for sharing.

 

Dennis, that lever is for the 007 Hydrofoil/bullet proof shield/laser guided .50 cal rifle (WiFi capable)

 

Sam

[Sjors]

Grant,

I want one for my bus 🤣

@Sam, 👍😂😅

 

Sjors

 

 

[gjdale]

Thanks for all the nice comments and likes folks.

 

Denis - the lever is the throttle (though I like Sam's idea too).

 

Sjors - I'd be happy to make one for your bus, but I'm afraid it would cost more than the rest of the bus......

[mtaylor]

The detail on that wheel alone just blows my mind.  I won't even get into the rest of the detailing at this point....  Wow!

[Moonbug]

Dude - that's just ridiculous.  

 

[flying_dutchman2]

One word...... AWESOME!!

[Keith_W]

Two words ..... AWE SOME!!

[gjdale]

It has been a long time since I’ve been able to get back into the shipyard. Work and family commitments, as well as a new puppy in the house have all conspired against making progress with the build. While I've managed to stay in touch with others' builds, I haven't had anything to post in my own, until now...

 

Finally, this weekend I managed to find some shipyard time. Decided to use it to do the job I’ve been putting off for a while – polishing the hull. Not a particularly difficult job, though admittedly tedious. I worked my way through 9 grades of wet sanding, starting at 1,500 grit and going all the way through to 12,000 grit before finishing with some liquid polish (Micro-gloss liquid abrasive). (Special thanks to Keith (Amfibius) for putting me on to the Micro-mesh sandpaper).

 

The end result, while not perfect, is a huge improvement. I have managed to get rid of most (not all) of the “orange peel” effect and have achieved a nice high-gloss finish without going to the “boat-in-an-ice-cube” look.  It’s very difficult to take pictures to show the high gloss finish, but here’s what I got.

 

 

 

I wasn’t happy with the second attempt at my cutwater, so went back and re-sanded, re-polished, and re-chromed the original version. I'm happy with that now, so the next job will be to fit that to the hull. Hopefully, it won't be so long between posts now.

[Gerhardvienna]

Hi Grant

Did`nt hear much from your build, now we know why. Good progress with the paint and sanding job, waiting to see more!

 

Regards

Gerhard

PS.: Joined the woodworking forum today to see more from your stephenson model!

[rafine]

The work may have been tedious, but the result is wonderful.

 

Bob

[Rustyj]

Your finish is wondeful Grant!

[gjdale]

Thanks so much Gerhard, Bob and Rusty, and all of the "likes". 

[popeye the sailor]

hull looks nice!  

[src]

Grant,

That is one nice finish! Well worth the time spent.

Sam

[gjdale]

Thanks very much Popeye and Sam.

[keelhauled]

Hi Grant,

 

I'm just catching up with the build.  Unfortunately my jaw is hurting from it continually hitting the floor.  The work and the results are just amazing.  Love the wheel, the planking, the finish, the whole package.  Just amazing!!!

 

 

marc

[gjdale]

Thanks so much Marc

[gjdale]

I can’t believe a month has gone by without posting progress.  It seems to have been a month filled with small steps that suddenly arrived at a major milestone.

 

The next job was to make the Rear Fenders. Again, the kit provides sticky aluminium strips for this, but I decided to replace these with polished stainless steel, complete with 00-90 screws. I first created a template for the screw holes in CAD and printed this onto sticky label paper. The 0.5mm thick stainless steel was ripped to width by temporarily sticking it with double sided tape to a carrier of scrap timber and passing it through by Byrnes saw. The template was then attached to the stainless steel blank and the 1/16” screw holes drilled on the drill press. The ends of the piece were marked by scribing through the template and then cutting by hand with small hack saw.

 

 

The piece was then polished up prior to removal from the carrier and installation on the hull. Double sided “attachment tape” from MACK products was used to install the fenders. Holes were then drilled into the hull, using the pre-drilled fender holes as locators, and the 00-90 screws epoxied in place using 15 minute cure epoxy.

 

A similar technique for the screws was used on the cutwater, the difference being that the main cutwater piece itself was also epoxied in place. Here is a close up of the cutwater – although the photo shows that it has suffered a little from handling and needs another polish-up.

 

 

I then installed the rub rails. These run the full length of the hull at the sheer, with a second, partial one just above the water line that runs from the rear fenders forwards for about 8 inches. Instead of using the kit provided material for these, I used another MACK products item, which was very easy and quick to apply. It comes with a self-adhesive backing, although mine had suffered from heat and/or packing and postage, and was basically unusable. I stripped the remains of the adhesive off and replaced it with a narrow band of attachment tape, which achieve the same outcome.

 

It was then time to prepare for the maiden voyage in the domestic testing facility. In preparation for testing, lithium grease was packed into the shaft stuffing tube and the rudder tube, and the running gear re-attached. This photo shows the brass prop and rudder in place (both also in need of a polish). You can also see here the brass strut that I made to replace the solid plastic skeg to support the stuffing box/shaft.

 

 

I also decided that it was time to start installing the interior gear prior to installing the engine hatches, before space got too limited. This started with running the wiring for the bow and stern lights, through the conduit that I had previously installed. Here’s a couple of overall shots prior to tank-testing. You can see the ends of the wires for the lights in these shots, as well as the rub rails.

 

 

 

And finally, we got to the tank test – she floats!  And she doesn’t leak!

 

 

Next up will be to finish installing all of the electrics prior to fixing the hatches in place and commencing on the final trim pieces. We’re getting close!

[rafine]

Beautifully done Grant, and congrats on the tank test.

 

Bob

[Captain Slog]

Stunning finish Grant.  She'll look dashing when she's free from the test tank and on full power!

 

cheers

Slog

[mtaylor]

No leaks is excellent news a tribute to your craftsmanship.   She is looking sweet and ready to run across the pond.

[Dan Vadas]

Congratulations on a great looking runabout Grant. Your skills have definitely hit a new high - the steering wheel blew me away, among many other things .

 

  Danny

[gjdale]

Thanks for all the kind words and the "likes" folks.

 

Now that we’ve proved that she floats, it was time to (semi) permanently install the electrics and test functionality. I had previously built some racks to hold some of the gear, but it is still a very tight fit in that engine bay! Anyway, first up – testing the lights. I temporarily attached the bow and stern lights and gave all controls a test – all good!

 

 

Here’s a couple of close-up shots inside the engine bay. First the port side:

 

 

 

 

 

And the starboard side:

 

 

Although the motor/drive shaft and steering all worked, there was a considerable amount of radio interference from the motor, so I soldered in the three “optional” capacitors. That made a big difference. Here you can see them wired across the engine terminals:

 

 

 

 

The next job was to make the frames for the foot step-pads. Way back at the beginning of the build, I had some rubber stamps made up to use as inserts for a metal frame, rather than using the kit-provided cast parts. I made these by milling out the centre of some 2mm thick brass strip and then polishing and chrome plating it. It might be only a small job, but it took me most of the weekend to do this. Here is an overview of the step plates with the kit part provided for reference. In my custom built ones you can see the Chris Craft logo in the rubber.

 

 

And here is a shot with one temporarily placed on the boat:

 

 

As you can see, I’ve also drilled these to take 000-120 mounting screws. Some time ago, I orderd a gross (144) of these, along with the the 00-90 screws used on the cutwater and stern fenders. I will use the 000-120 on both the step plates and the engine hatch trim, so I spent quite some time individually plating 144 very small brass screws. Then I had another look at the number of screws on my engine hatch trim pieces….. it seems that my design calls for a total of 130 screws around the hatch trim, and I need a further 16 for the four step plates……total 146…..leaving me two screws short, even assuming the carpet monster doesn’t steal it’s fair share of them. The worst part is, that the postage for these cost more than the screws did and I didn’t fancy paying the better part of AUD $100 for a few extra screws. A little digging on the internet turned up some stainless steel screws of the same size. Although the individual cost was higher, the package size offered was smaller,  and the postage was only US $8.00 instead of US $40.00. I will hold off installing the step pads until the new screws arrive, just in case they look slightly different. I’ll use the existing bundle to install the hatch trims – coming up next.

[wefalck]

Didn't go up in the building-log, did you discuss your plating arrangements somewhere ?

 

BTW, I like your attention to detail !

[gjdale]

Thanks Wefalck,

 

I mentioned the plating kit a couple of pages back when discussing the cutwater, but didn't post any details. Here is a link that will tell you more:

 

http://www.caswellplating.com.au/plug_N_plate.html

 

I am using "copy chrome", which is actually cobalt. The kit is inexpensive and works very welll. However, just as with blackening processes, preparation is the key to success. The parts must be highly polished first and absolutely clean. In the case of the step plates, I progressed through 15 grades of abrasive paper, from 120 to 12,000 grit to achieve a polished surface and then soaked them in acetone for 30 minutes before a final rinse in distilled water. After plating, they were dunked in distilled water again, and then buffed with a metal polish and a felt pad on a rotary tool.

[popeye the sailor]

that's a quality shine Grant........really nice R/C set up too!  

[gjdale]

Thanks again for the kind comments and all the "likes".

 

A minor update today – the Engine Hatches have been installed. I diverted from the kit plans here. The kit provides for a single, one-piece hatch, that is to be removed for access to the engine compartment. I elected to make a two-piece hatch, hinged, as per the real boat. I also elected to make the trim pieces from stainless steel, rather than the sticky tape provided in the kit. The trim pieces have all been drilled to accept 000-120 screws, countersunk flush with the trim. I also installed two hatch stays to hold the hatches open just past 90-degress. For these, I used a product from MACK products.

 

Here is a picture of the trim in place, ready for the screw shaft holes to be drilled.

 

 

And this view shows the hatches in the open position, with the hatch stays visible at the forward end.

 

 

Although not perfect, I am happy enough to call this experiment a success. Next up, drilling 130 holes to accept the 000-120 screws and epoxying them in place.