RE: 21 Tunnel Talk
 

Sure do! That's a DPI, I had 2 of them. Great handling little boats.

RE: 21 Tunnel Talk
 

Hey Ron,
KEWL pic and neat family story too,
I still do test runs at my uncles farm, my bunch is involved runnin amuck, chasin cows, climbing trees,
Fling'n cow pies at each other etc.......... :D
All good family fun!
Gene

RE: 21 Tunnel Talk
 

Hey, I don't know if you can get away this weekend or not but there's a big race over in Hobart, IN this weekend. I'm only going down for Friday but some of the biggest names in OB tunnel boats will be there. Old JD himself is flying in for the race! If not, watch it on www.metimeliverc.com , you might just see my smilin' face on there as I may be in front of the camera for a while calling races and doing interviews.

RE: 21 Tunnel Talk
 

SO MUCH FOR MY VIDEO CARD :D

RE: 21 Tunnel Talk
 

Oh, come on! I'm not THAT ugly!

RE: 21 Tunnel Talk
 

Never said you were Ron. If I remember right, never gave a reason at all. Sounds like someone has gotten paranoid in their old age:D

RE: 21 Tunnel Talk
 

LOL! Im stuck spinning wrenches on tha daughters Sunfire,
But I might grab tha laptop and sneek in Subway fer lunch.......
Stream it WiFi, Still on dialup at tha house.
Rural dont ya know :)
Gene

RE: 21 Tunnel Talk
 

To continue from page 7 and measurement in question,
Note pic:

The short line is where the 1/32" dip occurs, last inch of sponson running surface.
The long line according to the VS1 blue printing specs should be flat 11" forward.

This really throws me as a dip in that area might cause a overly nose high running attitude........
As I said thou mine is flat some others are not,
Gene



And the screenshot is info Craig got from Marty Davis at IW about tuned pipe length and how mods affect it.
Very good reading and worth saving.........

RE: 21 Tunnel Talk
 

Hi Gene,

Good post there. I noticed the same thing on mine and went ahead a flattened as much as I could. I did however, take it a step further. Since the finish from factory is pretty much subpar I went ahead and sanded the entire boat down to refinish it. The bottom of the sponsons is now flat and balanced from side to side and almost the entire hull is close to bare wood now.

I did the riding surface with 60-grit and then smoothed it out with 220. I'm not sure what to reseal it with now though. I don't have easy access to 2-part paints because I don't have a compressor or spray gun here (plus I live in an apartment). I bought some Minwax Urethane clear sealer, but some of the guys on Intlwaters are telling me the nitro will eat it. So, I considered sealing with it, then painting with some quality spray paint and finally taking it to a auto-body shop to get it clear-coated with 2 part paint. What do you guys think?

RE: 21 Tunnel Talk
 

I think you were wise to get those run pads flat over their length. I'm sure the curved rear section is not a design feature. Also I use Minwax Marine Spar urethane semi-gloss to seal all my wood boats. I'm not sure about the Minwax polyurethane sealer but the spar urethane is completely fuel proof. Trust me on that one. I've tested it to the max. I've had 65% take off everything right down to the Spar urethane. It didn't bother that at all.

RE: 21 Tunnel Talk
 

@Racer - How did you apply that Marine Spar Minwax? Brushed on, spray or spray gun? And... Have you ever used it over paint, meaning as a final clear coat?

RE: 21 Tunnel Talk
 

I just put it on with a good quality 1" brush. It's not the fastest process but it works for me. I put on 1 coat right from the can. Spread it out evenly and don't try to pile it up. The first coat will completely soak in. Let it sit 3 days and then dry sand with 320 paper just enough to get the chinks off. Put on the second coat and use the same process. Now I personally don't care about a little grain showing thru and finish off with paint and then acrylic urethane which pretty much gets rid of most of the rest of the grain. You could use a couple coats of gloss polyurethane as a final finish but it isn't true clear. It has a slight yellow color to it. If you use it over dark colors you'll never notice. But put it on white or something like that and you'll see it for sure. I highly recommend you don't paint a race boat a dark color. They become great invisible targets.
Also back to the curved run pad thing...Take a spoon and hold it by the end of the handle. Start a stream of water with your faucet and allow the back of the spoon to touch the water stream and see what happens. It took a long time for me to absorb the importance of that demonstration. Everything that is not dead flat involves a curve.

RE: 21 Tunnel Talk
 

Hey Ron!
So whats the report from Hobart as far as tunnels and engines go?
Tell me Kemosabe.......
Gene

RE: 21 Tunnel Talk
 

Interesting! Somebody was running a K&B SS and the almighty O.S. motors couldn't catch him! [sm=lol.gif] They put the better racers in together, Pruesse vs. Dunlap was cool. Yes, I finally got to meet the man himself, JD, a really nice guy in person. I might have one shot of Jerry still on my cell phone. If you haven't seen the live feed on Me Time's site, they've had a lot of issues that they've been working on all day. Yes, I got to eyeball the new air-cooled O.S. but sorry, no shots as my daughter-in-law took most of the pix and videos there.
I found out how bad I was in front of the camera with the mike in my hand. I'm supposed to do it some more at the Gas Nat's in Celina at the end of the month. It's going to be pitiful....

RE: 21 Tunnel Talk
 

KEWL!
A K&B SS Eh? HaHa, we were talking bout that back on page 3.
So who has the SS, What hull?
Gene


I did manage to sneak off with tha laptop, but Subways server was screwy, got bout 5 sec of vid and lock, try again and lock.
So I finished my cold cut combo and went back ta wrench'n.

RE: 21 Tunnel Talk
 

Here's a great shot of JD taken in Eugene.
http://i52.tinypic.com/akkec7.jpg

RE: 21 Tunnel Talk
 

Nice shot, Jerry is one of a kind fer sure, he has been real good to me with info and pics thru the years.

Fav shot of Mike Z.
Dat crazy kid! :D
Gene

RE: 21 Tunnel Talk
 

[quote]ORIGINAL: Slideblues


So who has the SS, What hull?

Yea, Curious about that myself. If it's a D-14 driver, (Blue/VS-1 maybe?) I've probably raced it several times this season. There's a couple pretty fast ones around.

RE: 21 Tunnel Talk
 

I don't remember what the hull was but it wasn't a fancy high-dollar one. That heat was al who hit the line first as nobody gained a position, the gaps between the boats didn't change. It might not have been the Wi-Fi at Subwaybut the feed from the race as it keep freezing or buffering a lot during the webcast.
I'm going over in a few minutes to tune in for the rest of the racing. They try to get it finished by 1-2:00 PM so that everyone can get out of there at a reasonable time.
Lots of D-14 and 4 drivers there as it's in their neighborhood.

RE: 21 Tunnel Talk
 

You can buy 2 part automotive clear coat at a number of auto stores now a days; cost is @ $20/can. It is nitro proof. Comes in a special spray can that has both components seperated until you want to use.... there is a button on the bottom of the can that you depress that allows the 2 components to mix to together.... then shake til well mixed and you are good to go. Just an FYI ;)

todd

RE: 21 Tunnel Talk
 

@Todd - Genius! I didn't know this! I'm running some tests today with the paints I have on a piece of wood and then putting some nitro on it. To see if it holds up. But sealing at the very end with that 2 part automotive would be ideal.

I'm off to Vegas for a tradeshow the whole of next week, so I will be doing nothing with the boat. But once I come back, I'll on it to finish it.

RE: 21 Tunnel Talk
 

Todd welcome,

Ron yea musta been the video feed then, Checked Email while I was there and it was fine.
Im sure you got some pics too, Post a link when ya get time.
Gene


And a couple more shots from Mike Z of Ver2:
Spacer in muff is 18mm.......

RE: 21 Tunnel Talk
 

Slideblues, I assume your welcoming me to this thread !:) ... as I've been on here and IW since 2005 or so. :D Anyhow, thanks for the welcome..... I like to read ANY threads relating to nitro boats.... and I enjoy watching the tunnels run at the local club (they are our 2 biggest classes).... They often do the darndest things at the most unexpected times..... particulaly the the: Blow Off, Flip a couple times, land upright, bog for a moment then take off..... never ceases to bring acheer from everyone watching!! :D But I'll stick to riggers ('cause my brain and throttle finger get disconnected at WOT once the fun begins)! :)

RE: 21 Tunnel Talk
 

We had another good turnout at Elmira in 20 Mod Tunnel with 10 boats! It was the largest class!

I managed a 2nd place finish for the weekend. Two 1st, one 2nd, and one DNS because I hit something in the water, or spun out because of the wind. When I retrieved the boat there was a piece of wood floating next to it, so I assume I hit it.

The NR pipe setup is working well. It seems to be faster with stock timing numbers. During testing, because of the greater speeds, I did have to raise the engine slightly to settle the hull. On the straights, the boat would occasionally dart to the right. Luckily, I fixed this before race day.

RE: 21 Tunnel Talk
 

Todd yea ment the thred :D
My brain disconnects every time I fire a engine..... LOL!

Craig, Nice work Dude!
Glad ya got it sorted out.

Roger is not alone on VS1 probs, Seems Ian (Hooters Racing) in Oz was taking his engine off his VS1.........
And the transom came with it, Also had water in tha center section.

I was going to put a kicker (transom brace) on mine anyhow, But now Im wondering if a little more is needed,
Gene