45" Mono Revival

I built a mono about ten years ago now. My first attempt at an RC boat, knowing even less than I do now about them. I was given the hull, and proceeded to buy a G260PUM, and all the other things I thought I needed to make it work. Quarter scale steering servo, an AM Sanwa radio set, and knocked up some homemade hardware to get the thing moving.

The hull was a nice colour, some sort of metalflake blue. That as is turns out was about the only good thing about it. I remember getting the thing to the pond after fitting everything into it, and watching it attempt to plough through the water. The hull I kid you not, must of had a 1" hook in it and I was trying to drive it with the biggest prop I could buy at the time. Can't remember exactly, may have been a 7516 three blader from memory.

I was expecting a ten foot rooster tail and a ton of speed from this thing. Instead I went home and stored it for the next 10-12 years. A few months ago when cleaning out the shed I thought to myself, I really need to do something about this thing. I started googling RC gas boats, and quickly found sites like this and others. I was motivated again.

I gutted the hull, and cut out nearly two thirds of the bottom of it and started from scratch. Four kilo's of bog later, I was starting to get somewhere. The hull was seriously terrible. Nothing was square, and it had ripples everywhere. Looking back now, I don't know why I didn't just buy another one. I think it was a case of unfinished business between me and the boat.

Armed only with what I'd read from forums and other sites, I started rebuilding the bottom of the hull. After what seemed like an eternity of filling and sanding, I was ready for some primer.

You will get a lot more satisfaction and knowledge the way your taking on this project than just buying a boat and following instructions. Bottom looks good.

Looks like a good re-do. I hope it works well for ya.

Thanks for the kind words people. I've already learned a lot so far thanks to site's like this one.
After a rub down, I laid on a few coats of some red two part paint I had left over from a car years ago.

Nice work M/B! Almost like a new hull now after all your hard work. Now that it's so nice, you might want to invest in some new hardware for it to make sure she runs as good as she looks. Everyone here will be glad to help you pick out what you want. Notice I'm not suggesting anything? I have my own preferences in that category. Love the RED! Keep posting pics as she comes along! Brian

Looks :ohmy: nice - good work

I agree with Brian - bring 'er up to today's hardware and rock & roll that puppy :woohoo:

Keep posting

Cheers

Thanks guy's. Since the hull weighed nearly half a ton with the filler, I decided to learn to glass and make a mould. No intentions whatsoever of making boats to sell and I won't be, but the hull was way too heavy and brittle to be of any functional use.
Making a mould would also allow me to take some freeboard out of it for what I thought would look and handle better.
All in all it seemed to turn out more than reasonable for my needs.
Even without a deck I think the new part looked better than the entire old boat.

Very cool and good job! Even though it may have been your first time- looks like you really knew what you were doing.

Can you explain what material and how you shaped it to form the strakes? I see your flat chine so did you do the same with the inside strakes and then fill in the gap with body filler (since there is an angle)?

Thanks Aaron. That's pretty well exactly what I did for the strakes mate. A bit of measuring and marking and a hot glue gun in spots before filling as you stated. My neighbour has one of those fancy bench saw's, so he cut me some strips out of 3mm MDF and I went from there. I originally had another strip temporarily screwed to the outside chines as a guide to run my trough along when I was bogging as well as the timber straight edge for the keel. It kept all the bog where I needed it, and helped keep the lines sharp. If any of that makes sense.
I knew that I wanted every edge as sharp as I could keep it. Still don't why, just felt like the right thing to do. Looks cooler to I think.

I wasn't happy with the first hull I made, but kept it as a base for making the deck. Long story short, I had pictured in my mind what I wanted the deck to look like. Smooth and clean with no lines. When googling fibreglassing, I'd come across how speaker door pods were made. You know, with the stretched fabric and all. I tried that. I failed miserably. The resin was too heavy for the cloth, so it sank and really just didn't work. I scrapped it all and started from scratch with some thin ply that formed easily. Much better.