1979 Schiada RC, The Boss

[lenmann]

@SpectraPat asked for some pics of the Schiada/Imco fuel tank brackets so here they are.

My plan is to fab new ones out of stainless steel using the loop side of velcro as a cushion against the fuel tanks instead of the vinyl coating.

 

[SpectraPat]

Thanks!!

 

[Ouderkirk]

@SpectraPat asked for some pics of the Schiada/Imco fuel tank brackets so here they are.

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My plan is to fab new ones out of stainless steel using the loop side of velcro as a cushion against the fuel tanks instead of the vinyl coating.

Don't forget to have the new SS parts passivated in Nitric Acid. This will remove the iron at the surface after fabrication. This in an important step that many people forget when working/bending or welding with Stainless Steel. The worked areas will begin to rust. Annealing serves a similar purpose but includes stress relief that is sometimes necessary when fabricating Stainless Steel. Annealing is heating the object to where the nickel and chrome will melt and migrate around the steel substrate lattice and make the carbonized (the worked areas) steel uniform in the nickle and chrome content. Regular Nitric Acid Passivate is much cheaper than Annealing and is probably all you would need.

 

[lenmann]

Balsa going down.

Little known fact unless you are building a wind farm or having balsa floors put in your old boat: there is currently a global balsa shortage due to the wildfires in South America last year.

 

[lenmann]

Slow but steady progress. Wet sanding the balsa and interior gel for polishing. Then spray the non-skid in white and a final detail. Word is I can pick it up in two weeks.

Next stop, Adrenaline trailers in LHC for the new hauler and then back home to start drilling new holes in it.

 

[HydroSkreamin]

Awesome!! Looks great, and keep that wheel of progress rolling.

 

[poncho]

That is beautiful, nice floors in a flat are the Raquel Welch of the boating world

 

[Groper]

Did you open up the cavity next to the stringers where the motor mounts bolt up or was is that the way from the factory ?
I like it better without having access plates screwed down to the floor it's a lot cleaner IMO.

 

[lenmann]

Did you open up the cavity next to the stringers where the motor mounts bolt up or was is that the way from the factory ?
I like it better without having access plates screwed down to the floor it's a lot cleaner IMO.

Yes, I did. It had full floors originally. Opening up that stringer bay gives some more room for hardware access and to put other stuff like oil coolers, etc. It's how Stan is doing most of the recent boats at Schiada.

 

[lenmann]

It's baaaack!

Yesterday I made the quick 16 hour trip to Castaic and back to bring home the finished hull. I am really happy with the job that Pancho and Dustin at Menace Marine did. The colors and retro graphics scheme are spot on and exactly what I wanted. The balsa came out great. Best of all the non-skid came out as close to perfect as you can get on a re-spray. Just enough new gel that it is shiny and bright white but not so much that it looks and feels like cottage cheese.

Keen observers will note that she is back on the old Competitive trailer. The new trailer wasn't ready at Adrenaline so I wasn't able to pickup the hull and trailer in one trip. Evidently, there is a global shortage of polished stainless fenders. Something about a large conglomerate acquiring the go-to fender company, laying off all of the original talent, and now they are now un-able to fulfill fender orders because nobody can figure out how to make them. Acquisition integration fail...

Next up, drilling holes and bolting stuff together...

 

[footer]

Stunning.

 

[DBR]

It's beautiful!

 

[SpectraPat]

AMAZING!! Let the fun begin!

 

[HydroSkreamin]

Oh. My. Lord!! Looks awesome!! Balls that thing is sharp.

You’ve gotta be on cloud nine. I’m right behind you in the gel department, bud.

I’m ecstatic for you. What a gorgeous piece.

 

[Groper]

It's sooo beautiful

 

[EPL]

Looks awesome i guess i have a reason to stop by now !!

 

[lenmann]

Thanks guys, I appreciate the comments and continued moral support.

 

[Riverbottom]

Awfully nice to start drilling holes in. It looks beautiful, you have done a great job.

 

[X Hoser]

I really like them colors! Beautiful

 

[AZLineman]

Wowza

 

[cofooter]

Damn that is SHARP. Great color choices!!!! Nailed it!

 

[Backlash]

Nice!! The color combination is perfect and unique! That combination doesn't look like any other color scheme that I've seen on a Schiada! Menace Marine did a really nice job for you! Looks almost as good as that C-10!

 

[lenmann]

Nice!! The color combination is perfect and unique! That combination doesn't look like any other color scheme that I've seen on a Schiada! Menace Marine did a really nice job for you! Looks almost as good as that C-10!

Thanks man, there will be a cameo shot at some point in time with the RC behind the C-10. Its a '75 so definitely period correct, no hitch on the truck though...

 

[vdcruiser]

This is amazing, Good job by everyone.

 

[lenmann]

All right, the holidays are over and the tree is gone. It's time to start rigging the boat. Well at least get ready to start...

I need to get the hull off the trailer to be able to mount the strut and drill the prop shaft hole which will lead to mounting the v-drive., and on, and on, and on. So I looked at buying some commercially available "dollies" to set the hull on but by the time I factored in price, plus shipping, plus lead times given Covid shipping delays I figured maybe I could just build some. I had some casters laying around, ran to the steel yard and grabbed a couple of sticks of 2" tube and started cutting and welding. Not exactly weld porn, but pretty good for a old guy rocking a 2.5 cheater in the hood.

 

[DBR]

Your skill set never fails to impress.

 

[Backlash]

Nobody puts Baby in the corner!

Looking good my friend! How many times have you wiped her down since you got her back??

 

[HydroSkreamin]

Yeah, looks like your first time welding...

Those are beefier than I see at some boat companies.

This is the fun part...enjoy it! It’s tough taking cutting tools to something you’ve just spent a percentage of your life on to get “right”, but I’m pretty sure you’re measuring twice and cutting once.

As always, jonesing for the next installment!

 

[lenmann]

I wish I had an update that included tangible progress on the boat but this phase of the journey seems to be a lot about designing parts, testing designs, then sending them off to guys that can turn ideas into real parts and waiting for real stuff to show up that I can bolt on the hull.

One of the great opportunities you have rebuilding an old v-drive boat from scratch is that you are starting with a clean slate. The vision for my boat is a period correct-ish aesthetic with modern rigging and powertrain shooting for a safe 100 mph boat. There are very few "off the shelf" parts for this kind of build. The small and shrinking handful of guys that do this kind of work are part artist and part engineer. Even at Schiada, each new boat is an expression of Stan and Lee's interpretation of a set of customer requirements shaped in manner consistent with the brand, its history, and a commitment to exceptional quality. While some parts may be the same from one boat to the next, each boat is a unique creation, pushing the state of the art forward. It sounds a little oxymoronic saying v-drive and state of the art in same sentence. While v-drives are not new technology, the art continues to progress with each new build.

This boat being my first v-drive and my desire to build it myself present certain challenges. The fact that I live in northern California makes hanging out and learning at Schiada, Prime, Concept, in Havasu at Mike Kings, or in Vegas with Racey impractical. That's the bad news. On the upside, we live in the age of information, and there are communities like RDP where boaters that have relevant experience share it with those that don't. RDP and to a lesser degree PB and even old HB archives have been very useful to this novice v-drive rigger. Stan and Lee at Schiada, Shane (Racey), Matt (025) and Daryl (Toolman) have been very generous with their time and expertise helping me along the way.

I found Toolman here on RDP while looking for a CNC machined parts source. He told me about the 3d printing technology he has been using to validate design concepts for a number of other v-drive builders. It turns out these little printers are cheap, work well, and if you are relatively new at 3D CAD like I am, can save you from expensive mistakes in metal. They also let you iterate designs very quickly at a very low cost and produce a part that's durable enough for mock ups as well as just getting a sense of look and feel.

Here are a couple of the cav plate parts I have built using the Ender 5 printer I picked up on Amazon. The machine is basically a CNC hot glue gun, laying down sequential layers of melted plastic as it creates the physical representation of a 3D CAD model. Once I am happy with a design it will head out for CNC machining in metal.

 

[HydroSkreamin]

I bought a Creality for the same reasons and I’ve been so busy it’s still in the box.

Nice parts!

 

[74 spectra20 v-drive]

Very Cool! My Son got into the 3D printing and has done some real nice work for Gun stocks and some misc ard ware items. cannot wait to see your finished product.

 

[lenmann]

No updates since January because I have been waiting on parts and I took month off to do some off-roading down in Arizona. Had the opportunity to do the Wayside Oasis poker run, hit the bars in Parker, and managed to rack up a little over a 1000 miles on the new RZR. Epic trip made better by a swing through LA on the way home to pickup the SS underwater gear, a driveline coupler, cavitation plate blanks and my billet v-drive.

Big shout out to @025 Matt, Lee at Schiada and Drew at Casale for pulling everything together. It made for a full day of LA traffic running from Van Nuys, to Redlands, and back to Santa Fe Springs but I got it done.

Next update should include some of this shiny stuff bolted on the boat.

 

[jstnoc]

Nice hardware!!! [emoji91][emoji91]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[vdcruiser]

Thats some really nice stuff there.

 

[sintax]

now thats an upgrade. Good looking gear man!

 

[crzy2bealive]

Just read the whole thread!!!! Amazing work!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[jmeads]

Matt makes some really nice parts. great craftsman for sure !!!!

 

[Groper]

Matt makes some really nice parts. great craftsman for sure !!!!

Matt who ?

I'd like to get some plates made.

 

[lenmann]

@

Matt who ?

I'd like to get some plates made.

@025 here on RDP. Great guy, Schiada RC owner, sooper knowledgable, and a skilled craftsman.

 

[SPECTRABRENT]

lenmann,

Is the rudder box a one off piece (stainless)?

Thank You!

Brent

 

[lenmann]

lenmann,

Is the rudder box a one off piece (stainless)?

Thank You!

Brent

Yes, stainless that @025 (Matt) made for me.

Bergeron used to sell them, although I am not sure that they stocked them per se. When I called in December they had just sold the last of their SS struts, turn fins, rudders and rudder boxes to Stan at Schiada. At that time Brian Bergeron indicated that he was no longer making those parts as it was something his dad, Phil, did personally. As you may be aware Phil passed away last year.

 

[025]

Yes, stainless that @025 (Matt) made for me.

Bergeron used to sell them, although I am not sure that they stocked them per se. When I called in December they had just sold the last of their SS struts, turn fins, rudders and rudder boxes to Stan at Schiada. At that time Brian Bergeron indicated that he was no longer making those parts as it was something his dad, Phil, did personally. As you may be aware Phil passed away last year.

Len, Good to meet you in person, boat looks great! I look forward to seeing some of those parts installed and especially seeing that boat on the water

 

[lenmann]

So, let me start with acknowledging that I have come to understand that rigging a v-drive boat is a shit-ton of work. I have learned this in just the first few of what are a couple of hundred tasks left to get this old girl back on the water. My respect for the guys that do this everyday was already substantial, I am now officially in awe. Every part is a one off and takes way too long to get, every hole is unique to the hull, the hull is imperfect, there is no blue print, and everyone that rigs v-drives does it a little differently. Because this is v-drive #1 for me, I end up over thinking every variable, re-measuring every feature and recalculating every dimension. Most of that is my OCD, some of it is my need to make sure this thing is a safe as it can be. I have to keep reminding myself that people have been building v-drives for along time. Collect the best info I can get, chose a path, execute said path to the best of my ability, and hope like hell its all performs well on that magic first day on the lake.

All that said, I have made some progress on my heap. The first step in rigging a v-drive is to set the strut. The strut dictates the location of the prop, prop shaft, v-drive, trans and motor. I am using a drop through strut and clamshell so I need to cut a slot in the hull to accurately locate it. The strut needs to be coincident with the imaginary vertical plane that bisects the "v" shape of the hull bottom and runs true to the "v" back to front. The trick is to accurately determine where that imaginary plane lies. One of the things I learned while "blue-printing" my hull is that the hull isn't very symmetrical from side to side. I fixed what I could in terms of making the hull straight and flat but I couldn't do much about making it the same side to side. Addionally there isn't a very precise relationship from the inside of the hull to the outside which makes picking the right surfaces of the boat to locate the strut pretty important. Everybody I spoke to said to think about the part of the hull thats in contact with the water while the boat is at speed; essentially the last 2-3 feet of the keel near the transom; and locate the strut relative to those surfaces. That simplifies things a bunch vs. trying to use the whole bottom of the boat.

I started by making a v-shaped drill fixture out of glued up plywood with a 15 degree "v" and a drill bushing bisecting the angled surfaces. I used the fixture to assure the hull was level (relative to the "v'"), created a "reference" level inside the hull, and then drilled two holes from the bottom up into the interior of the hull. One hole at the transom, roughly where the rudder box will be, and another forward up near the v-drive location. I slid two pins into the holes and pulled a line between them to tape out a line that marks the intersection of the plane and the 6" wide flat on the inside floor at the keel. The purpose of the tapeline is to give me a target for the holes that need to be cut from inside the boat.

I built a simple MDF router jig, drilled and tapped two holes in the hull along the tape line to secure it, shimmed it to level and screwed it down. Using a bushing in a plunge router and a 1/2" carbide bit and routed the strut slot through the hull to just under 5/8" wide to match the strut blade thickness.

Then I filed the round corners square and adjusted the fit of the strut so I could just slide it in and out while not having any extra slop or movement. I was targeting 6" from the keel to the rear center of the barrel. This was a little hard to measure so I turned up a ABS bushing to locate a tooling center in the strut barrel allowing me to accurately set the 6" dimension and the 7.5 degree angle. I used the same bushing and a cheap laser pointer to project where the strut barrel centerline instersects the keel. The good news is that it lined up nicely along the keel indicating the fixture worked as planned.

The clamshell that @025 machined up has a nice wide base to support the strut blade really well. I needed to fit the base of it to the shape of the flat in the keel and about 1-1/2 inches of angled surface on either side so I kicked the head on the Bridgeport and progressively shaved material off until the clamshell sat on the fairly flat while clamped on the strut. Any gaps get filled with epoxy when the assembly is bedded in place. I used feeler gages to dial the shell into the hull to within about .030".

Now I could also adjust the length of the strut blade to fully insert into the clamshell while maintaining the 6" target underneath. With the strut wedged in place from underneath, I clamped the shell in place, transfer punched the blade hole locations, drilled the holes in the blade, drilled the angled holes in the hull and test fit the whole assembly yet again. Through out the course of this phase I am pretty sure the strut was in and out at least 50 times getting the fit and location just right. Now that it was, it's time to bed the strut and clamshell in epoxy making the assembly one with the hull.

After scuffing up the gelcoat with some 40 grit, wiping everything down with acetone, I spread a layer of Poxy-Putty in the strut slot, on the hull and clamshell and assembled the parts using the bolts to squeeze out the excess epoxy. This was a messier job than it needed to be because I applied too much epoxy resulting in way too much squeeze out and a bunch of clean up. Chalk it up to inexperience, overall happy with the way it turned out.

Next up: drilling the prop shaft hole.

 

[HydroSkreamin]

Badass! Nice work!

I know exactly how you feel. Awesome!

 

[n2otoofast4u]

Oh shit. Another badass thread. Officially following.

 

[DBR]

Very interesting to read and the pictures make it even better.

 

[74 spectra20 v-drive]

Len, I am not ashamed to say it.... I think I have a little Bro Crush buddy Absolutely stunning and I think I enjoy watching the process you develop for each specific task, meticulous and just absolute attention to detail!

 

[lenmann]

Len, I am not ashamed to say it.... I think I have a little Bro Crush buddy Absolutely stunning and I think I enjoy watching the process you develop for each specific task, meticulous and just absolute attention to detail!

Thanks man...I think?

Kidding aside, I appreciate the encouragement. This thread serves as a form of motivation to keep me moving forward on the project. It's also kind of a build log. I have, on a couple of occasions, gone back in the thread to remember how I did something a couple years ago. The combined effects of aging, polyester resin fumes and a 5 year build cycle take their toll.

Thanks for following along.

 

[aaronschiada]

Nice work man! Keep it up!

 

[havasuhusker]

Awesome boat and what a great thread! I'm amazed by all of you guys that can stuff like this!