Expresscraft Thunderbolt
 

many of you may remember me from the Easy Vee...lol. I just wanted to post pics of my second boat an expresscraft thunderbolt. Currently Iam waiting on strut and radio box... rudder and pretty much everything is here ready to be installed. Check it!

RE: Expresscraft Thunderbolt
 

the recent pics were of the pipe because I had clearance issues. I cut the cowl back more and it works great. Also I realize the bolts were upside down on the butch block and engine mount. I fixed them. These pics are about a week old. ( have been waiting on hardware)

RE: Expresscraft Thunderbolt
 

got a question on picture no. 7, are the bolts intended to be like that protruding?

RE: Expresscraft Thunderbolt
 

I agree, perhaps a cup head bolt could be used and run them the opposite way, with the nuts inside the hull, might look a bit nicer and not cause any dramas "catching" the water? Nice build by the way, should look killer when its done :D
Cheers, Chris

RE: Expresscraft Thunderbolt
 

yes they were backwards i flipped them so that the head of the bolt was on the bottom thus basically flush with the hull.

RE: Expresscraft Thunderbolt
 

lol, READ THE THREAD PROPERLY YOU IDIOTS would have worked well here :)

RE: Expresscraft Thunderbolt
 

Looking good!!! Keep pics comming.

RE: Expresscraft Thunderbolt
 

So did you give up on the easy vee? Or did you finish it? Nice build keep up the good work..

RE: Expresscraft Thunderbolt
 

Ididn't really give up on the easy vee. Ifinally got the engine running well and then the first day it was actually running well the cheap china pipe cracked at the header and I hit something in the water thus breaking the cheap aluminum prop. The little bit I saw of it running looksg reat. Sure was fast. Ireally wanted a cat and thoguht a fresh start might be nice because I messed up so much on te easy vee I don't think it would have lasted to long. I wanted a new boat with better quality gear. Anyway... so far the build has gone great. I'm still waiting on the strut and radio box...

RE: Expresscraft Thunderbolt
 

Package from Gizmo came in today. I installed water outlets, 11/32 brass tubing into butch block with expoxy putty, pipe stop, and Iput a rudder grommet on the exhaust hole. Sorry pics are dark and fuzzy my camera is lame.

Enjoy!

RE: Expresscraft Thunderbolt
 

last 2

RE: Expresscraft Thunderbolt
 

Is that how long you are going to run the pipe? The boat is looking good.

RE: Expresscraft Thunderbolt
 

Thanks Dockman. That IShow long the pipe will be if that is what you are asking? Is it ok?

RE: Expresscraft Thunderbolt
 

Looks pretty long to me, but I am know expert.

RE: Expresscraft Thunderbolt
 

Well after taking another look the header looks to be a 2" offset? When first looked at it I thought it was a 3" offset.

RE: Expresscraft Thunderbolt
 

Nice looking boat

RE: Expresscraft Thunderbolt
 

Thanks Sheograth.

Dockman it is a 2" offset and Ican't really shorten it any. Ikind of need a 3 inch offset 1 inch drop to make it a better fit because right now it really tight as you can see.

Thanks guys

RE: Expresscraft Thunderbolt
 

latest progress:

yes, pics were taking at night on kitchen counter... I tried to do it in brighter area than last time... still pretty bad pics..sorry

RE: Expresscraft Thunderbolt
 

Looking good Hollis[sm=thumbup.gif]

RE: Expresscraft Thunderbolt
 

Spend the time to make sure steering rod lines up with servo arm, you don't want it to bind.

RE: Expresscraft Thunderbolt
 

Thanks! I will work to get em lined up well. Going to work on radio box now...tryign to figure out how to mount it and then I will mount the throttle servo...won't work on rudder till ma servo comes in.

Thanks I will post pics tonight or tomorrow...or Saturday

RE: Expresscraft Thunderbolt
 

Looking good. Remember to set your strut to the correct height before you glass the stuffing tube in place. It looks quite low in those pics. If you have it at the recomended height for that hull when you glass it in, it will make future strut adjustments much easier.

RE: Expresscraft Thunderbolt
 

Wow theres not enough holes in the top of that boat [X(],looks like swiss cheeze :D,apart from that nice boat.
Mart

RE: Expresscraft Thunderbolt
 

I built this T/Bolt about 4 years ago. There are a few things I noticed on your build. First: Your motor appears to be mounted too far back. The sparkplug should be about 1/8" behind the scoop with the cowl on. These boats run light in the front as it is, so the motor should be as far forward as you can get it.
Second: Your pipe is too long! With that header, you'll need to shorten the pipe up. I made a water cooled extension to go on the back of the pipe on my build so the pipe would go all the way out the transom. We also wrapped the pipe because it was steel to reduce the heat inside the hull.
Third: The transom on the T/Bolts is not square to the sponsons and your hardware will not be square as a result. I machined up some 2* shims to bolt on behind the hardware to square things up.
I had many more pictures of this build, but they are trapped on the old hard drive for this computer that crashed a couple years ago. I had to go to JRCBD and copy these! LOL
Good luck, Brian:D

RE: Expresscraft Thunderbolt
 

Thank Bmad,
First, my engine is as far forward as I could get it. The spark plug is right in behind the scoop opening like it should be...

As for the pipe, I don't know what you mean by it is to long. If its a performance issue I am not going to deal with it yet. Getting the boat running is number one. I can work on increasing performance later. Even if I did need to shorten it all I could do is cut off the stinger? If you are saying moving it back on the header and have an extension on the end I could do that I guess.

The transon problem can easily be fixed by adjusting the strut since the angle can be changed. The rudder also has a little give way in it.. Plenty of people run without the metal or wooden blocks to correct the angle of the transom so I think I will just adjust the strut to make it 90 degrees with the sponsons.

Thanks mart, yea I had to cut up a few holes in the cowling for the pipe clearance. The inside of my cowl will be nice n cool!

Here are some pics of my latest progress. Everything is self explainatory except for the 2nd set of pictures of the butch block and collet. The second set is the correct set as you can see the cable was not aligned very well with the collet. I had to redo the butch block to fix this.

Thanks for the help everyone