Kevinmham

Hi There! I just joined RCUniverse so this is my first post. So far, I'm impressed by the amount of info and subjects here. After a move from airplanes to boats, I thought I'd share my first boat project with you. I built a RCAmphicar. It is based on a 1963-1967 Amphicar built in Germany. My goal was to have it be able to drive on land, and drive ( boat ?) on the water. I'm happy to say that it worked ! You can see it in action on youtube at " Kevinmham's channel " I'll try to put a link here, but the computer is not my strong point so I'll have to learn how.

leebart121

kevinmham, Welcome to the forum!
Your Amphicar looks great. Can you post some of the build on the site and some other videos? it would be nice to see what you did to make it all work.

Kevinmham

Thanks !! You know, I thought I uploaded 12 pictures. I wonder what happened to them. Maybe they are to large ? OH well. As for video the video on my youtube channel is all I have at the moment. I know it's not great and some of it is kind of boring, but at least you get the idea. I do havea decent amount of construction pics, and if I can figure out how to upload them , I'll do that. I might be able to e-mail them to you, also if you want, but I don't seem to have much luck sending multiple pictures anywhere !!!

Deathwish

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Here you go Kevin
part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AnHY...eature=related

part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsTjW...eature=related

Kmot

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Fantastic job! Really amazing! [X(]

Wow! [sm=thumbup.gif]

Kevinmham

Thank you, Deathwish ( Bronson fan ? ). The videos aren't great but hey, at leastanyone can see it in action ! By the way, has anybody else built an Amphicar or amphibious vehicle? I know a guy named " soundscollector " is rebuilding an old Multiplex Amphitruck from the '80s. It's pretty cool. Anyone else?

Kmot

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Yes, a fella by the name of John Gill. He posts on RC Groups. He also has a webpage:

http://www.jsgill.net/

And here is is Amphicar:

http://www.jsgill.net/apps/videos/vi...24190-amphicar

http://www.jsgill.net/apps/photos/album?albumid=3712068

Deathwish

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No deathwish comes from a game i play and i use it on everything else.

Chynewalker

Nicely done! There's a real one around here that drives into our antique boat show every couple of years... Always thought they were cool looking!

Deathwish

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U got the same last name as i do Chyne. But am for Missouri

Ron Olson

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Nice job! I've only seen one other RC model of an Amphicar and it was a smaller one at the Toledo show a few years ago.
I'm kind of an Amphicar nut as we had a few in the garage when I was young as my dad worked on them for the local dealer so I was old enough to help him throw wrenches at them. My regret was that we never took one out on the lake across the street from our house as I always and still do want to take a ride in one.

Kevinmham

Thanks Ron. We also had a real Amphicar at the automotive upholstery shop where I work. When I saw it, I thought " how cool would it be to have a miniature version of this ! " So I took about 60 pictures of it from all kinds of angles, and proceeded to build my own little car/boat.

Bob54

Do you have any plans from your build as I would absolutely love to have a go at building my own, even just a few tips would be fantastic.
I also have a question: how did you seal up the holes so that your electronics didn't get wet? or did you use waterproof motors?

Bob54

Oh and another thing, what sort of wood did you use to build it?

Kevinmham

No, I don't have any plans for the Amphicar. It was scratch built. It is made mostly from 1/8 mahogony door skin and balsa wood. It is covered in fiberglass, and then primed and painted with automotive paint. This seems to have made the body virtually waterproof. The steering rods have acordian boots on them, and are sealed to the inner fender using urathane windshield adhesive. The twin prop shafts get filled with axle grease occasionaly, and despite being horizontal, they don't ever seem to leak. The rear has independant suspension, with custom made ( bespoke?) drive shafts. These have little boots around them as well, but have been a challenge to keep sealed. I ended up sealing the motor/ transmission area off from the rest of the car, and adding a bildge pump in there. I can control the pump from the transmitter, so when a bit of water leaks in, I just pump it out. The floor is all sealed, and the transmission dosen't seem to be affected by water.

It wasn't the easiest thing to build, but worth it, because you end up with something kinda unique. I still have some pictures of it during construction, so if you need a tip on a certain area, let me know, and i'll post them.

Bob54

That would be a fantastic help, thank you very much.

Bob54

How did you cover it with fibreglass? And when you say you have rubber seals on the axles what are they? do you have any pics of them.
Sorry about all the questions!!

Ron Olson

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My guess is that Aeromarine pushrod seals would be one way to go as they are the accordian style which would allow for suspension movement. These have also been used on stuffing boxes to seal around flex cables.

Kevinmham

Ron is correct. I used marine pushrod seals. They worked great . The front dosen't leak, but the back does. Not through the seals, but through the half shafts I made. They are dog bone axels from an old RC 10 rc car, thatI cut apart and added stuffing tubes . They are short and dont hold a lot of grease.
The body is covered in fiberglass cloth and resin, just like an airlpane wing. Fill ,sand, paint. I didnt use fiberglass resin, I used a two part epoxy called Envirotex Lite. Same results, but no smell. Worked good.

I'll try to find a picture of the axels when I get home.

Bob54

Thanks a lot to both of you!

Kevinmham

I don't have any good pics of the axels, but you can see them in the first picture, along with the convertible top frame, rear suspension arm and the shocks.

Kevinmham

My pictures seem to be too large, so I'll have to post one or two at a time. Sorry for any doubles.

Kevinmham

Kevinmham

My resized images seem to be kind of blurry. Let me know if you want a better quality example of any of them.

Deathwish

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Got any showing the bottom?