A bit of an oops

While trial fitting the second lamination of the chine I have discovered that I have a bit much twist in the chine at the point it lands on the stem. The result will be that when the bevel is applied to the stem, there will only be 1 point that flows nicely on to the chine.

The photo below illustrates this; the leading edge of the chine should be more or less parallel with the stem edge.

Never mind, I will just have to do a bit of extra fairing and possible add a wedge to get enough chine to land the bottom planks on. On the flip side I have the angle cut for the second chine lam to hit the stem and it's sitting quite nicely, still needs a little bit of fine tuning.

Tim's Monaco

I have been in Sydney for a week, and took the oportunity to catch up with Tim and see his completed Monaco.

A truly beautiful boat.

As per last time I saw it, I spent a good hour trying to absorb as much about how his has been assembled to give me clues / hints / ideas for the when I come up against a challenge.

You can see videos of Tim's Monaco here


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFiKq4COY_I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1NQTjtQ7Do

Its a double edged sword seeing a completed boat, it can leave you feeling over awed at the task ahead, but also inspired to carry on, not that I have been in need of inspiration as I am still enjoying the building process very much.

As far as being over awed, I decided a long time ago to just take it one task at a time.


 

First Lamination of Chines fitted

I got the chines fitted to my satisfaction today; where the chine matches the stem, I had no problems cutting the first chine, but had about 3 goes at getting the second one to fit, and it still didn't turn out as good as the first one

Decided to launch straight into glueing them down.  It went without a hitch except I was a bit slow on the second chine and my glue went off rapidly and got VERY hot.  I actually ran out of time and and so the chine on one side is not glued at the last couple of frames, I'll do that in a day or so.

Spent the last hour of the day doing some of the prep work for the second layer of chine.  I just need to scarf them together and then can start to dry fit them.

More Chine Works

I spent a hour or so tonight "adjusting" the notch in frame 7 tonight and now both sides are almost right.  A bit more fine tuning is required, but overall I am happy they are starting to fit properly.

Again work and other commitments are soaking up all my time so progress has been frustratingly slow.

Chines miss the mark

More work has been done on the chines, but on both sides the chines do not fit comfortably in the frame 8 notches. In fact a fair amount of force is required to bend them up into the notches. This doesn't seem at all right!!

On the bright side the both miss by exactly the same amount which suggest the two side are fairly symmetrical.

I have at this point elected to post a question on the Glen-l site and wait for some expert opinion. I have some time as my next opportunity to work on the boat will not be until saturday, even them I expect I will only get an hour or two, then I am away for work again.

More chine work

Unfortunately work got in the way this weekend so I only got about an hour and a half in on the boat. This was only enough time to get some of the chine notches on the other side cut out.

First Chine fitted

Over the last two days I have cut and "fitted" all the notches for the first of the chine pieces.  Frames 0 - 5 were very easy, only required minor adjustments to get a good fit.

frame 6 was a bit tougher, 7 even more so and 8 was down right scary.  I have had to cut so deep into frame 8 to get the end of the chine to land in the correct place on the stem.  I know it will be alright ones its all glued and screwed, but still makes me nervous.

Bending the chine was not to much of a problem and there has been no suggestion it was going to snap.  Putting a twist in it up near the bow is a bit tougher.  I was using one of my smaller clamps but it broke the end off.

 

So now I am using the next size up.  I have also been using strops to put the bow end of the chine in.  

I finished the day with the chine fitting pretty good all the way along, even the chine to stem mating is pretty good.  Here how I cut that.

 

You can also see from the last photo that the notch in Frame 8 is fairly large, frame 7 is even worse.  Before I started this task I reviewed various other peoples build photos and found this to be quite common.  I swore mine where going to be a lot neater and tidier, but despite my best efforts mine look terrible as well.

I cut the notches with my new Bosch oscilatting saw, made quick and easy work, although I do need to get a new blade for it.

So here is the completed chine.  I have left the bow end relaxed as I have to go away for work for a week or so and I don't want it snapping for something while I am away.

And lastly, my son (aged 6) helping dad by crawling the length of the boat vacuum all the saw dust.

The engine

It's a little way off yet but I have been researching some more into my power plant of choice.

Like anyone I would love to slap a wad of bills on someone's counter and get a brand new 5.7l something, but just plain can't afford it.

The engine I intend to use is either 1UZ-FE or the 3UZ-FE. The basic difference is that the 1UZ is a 4l and the 3UZ is a 4.3l. The 3UZ-FE is reasonably rare, but if I can get one I will. The 3UZ-FE came out around about 2000 and is essentially the same as the late model 1UZ's but a 4.3l.

The 1UZ had various variants over the years, but from my perspective at least the important change was the VVT-I models which came out about 1997.

The major reason is actually safety. All of the 1UZ's I am told have a sealed starter and alternator, and being EFI they dont have a carb and so no risk of blow back from that. So the last major source of sparks is the dizzie, which in VVT motors was replaced with coil over plugs.

But.... There is always a but. The VVT ECU has a built in immobilizer meaning you need to have the original key, transponder ring (from around the ignition switch) and immobilizer sub-ECU. Now I can get motors with all of that stuff but it's a whole lot of complication I don't want, I would have to seal all that junk in a box and it's just something I plain don't like the idea of.

Options:

1. Live with the extra junk
2. There is a guy in Hamilton who claims to have bypassed the security without having any of the security components
3. Throw the ECU and it's bits away and use a Link G4 storm after market ECU, which to be honest will probably make the engine perform better anyway.

Option 2 sounds alright but he charges almost the same as buying a link ECU. The link ECU is about $1800 to purchase.

The factory ECU also controls the transmission, and once these removed the "check engine" light won't go off. The link ECU isn't expecting a transmission and so don't have the same problem.


These engines have been around for 15 years, it staggers me that how to bypass the security isn't common knowledge on the net.

Why the 1UZ / 3UZ ?

All alloy block
EFI
V8
Readily available
6 Bolt mains
Full range of marinizing Parts available
A lot of information on the net, these engine are quite popular for conversions.
Sealed alternator and starter


I also discovered after I had settled on this engine that there is another Monaco builder in Australia using the same engine, and he is a lot further down the track than me so hopefully I can get a lot of good advice from him when the time comes.

This picture is of a similar version of the 1UZFE to what I want to use.  I'll update it to the correct picture next time I see one

Chines Pt 1

Not a lot of progress today. Finished running a couple lengths through the thicknesser and cut the scarf on 4 pieces which I hope to glue after the kids have gone to bed.

Bought a "triton dust bucket" to try and save my shop vac, not hugely impressed with it, but it's better than nothing.

It supposedly works on the cyclone effect and when the vacuum is going you can definitely see it swirling inside but the fine dust blocks the filter in the dust bucket, but it's better than blocking the filter in the vacuum. Might try modifying it to better catch the fine stuff.