Livewire's EKOS Build

[Livewire121]

Well while I was waiting for parts to come in, I thought I'd add some lights. My friends and I usually meet up in the evenings to run, and we pretty much push it until we can barely see the boats! This should solve that......I should add that these are controlled by the third channel on the receiver.

[Livewire121]

I applied 3-4 coats on everything from the ESC's to the BEC

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Shrink wrap it again and you're done!

[Livewire121]

I've got some time before my parts orders get here to complete the build. So I thought I'd water proof my electronics. This is what I used, but Steven here at OSE carries this as well. http://www.offshoreelectrics.com/pro...prod=ose-dp270
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[Livewire121]

Final steps are prime and paint.
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[Livewire121]

Now that the bondo has had time to dry, I started to block sand with 180 grit sandpaper.
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Pay close attention to the inside edge of the sponsons aswell as the trailing edge at the back of the sponsons.
You want to make these edges as sharp and as square as possible.
After I finished that step I applied a coat of glazing putty to the sponson. When it was dry I block sanded again with 400 grit sandpaper
to finish the surface.

[Livewire121]

Now wipe the hull down to remove any dust. I used methy hydrate to do this, because it dries quickly with no residue. After that you can go ahead and lay down the bondo.
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[Livewire121]

Start with 100-120 grit sandpaper to remove the paint and get down to the work surface.2013-01-26 13.15.55.jpg2013-01-26 13.16.50.jpg2013-01-26 13.17.25.jpg2013-01-26 14.36.16.jpg

[Livewire121]

In the pic you'll see everything I needed to blue print the sponsons.
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[Livewire121]

After the spray on glue has had time to dry, place the stencil on the cloth and cut it out. Like I said earlier I was putting in two layers of carbon fiber. The first layer was cut at a 45 degree angle and the second layer was cut at a 90 degree angle. The reason I did this was to add strength in all directions.
Here's how it's done.
1. Mask off the hull.
2. Place the first layer on the vacuum film and wet it down with resin.
3. Place the second layer on top of the first layer.
4. Fold the film over the top so it's like a taco lol.
5. Now take the 3" squeegee and squeegee out the excess resin, now you have a piece of pre-preg cloth. Leave it there for a few mins.
6. Time to wet down the interior of the hull.
7. After the hull has been wetted go back to the pre-preg and cut the excess film and resin away.
8. Peel one side of the film off, leaving film on the top side. Doing this allows you to fold and work the cloth into it's position in the hull.
9. Lightly squeegee the center tunnel and use the finned roller to work the cloth into the sponsons.
10. Now carefully peel the film off.
11. With the film removed continue to work the cloth with the roller until all the air pockets are gone and the cloth is laid flat against the hull.
And that's it! Next I'm going to blue print the hull.

[Livewire121]

Here's a better pic of the interior2013-01-30 09.45.28.jpg

[Livewire121]

I'm not sure what I'm going to do about the window yet. I'm debating on using a Eagle tree system with the gps unit, If I do I'll have to keep the window clear.

[Rocstar]

Looks good man! Are you going to reinforce the windshield? A flip at high speed will blow out the the stock one. I have seen some use a thicker piece of acrylic. I put the carbon fiber over the windshield when I did the hatch.
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[Livewire121]

The size of the sheet of carbon fiber cloth I had was 36"x50", so I had tons of material. For the hull I layed in two layers 19" long but I can't remember the width. There's a couple little tricks to cutting this stuff. When you've layed out all of your stencils and you know the size of the piece that has to be cut from the roll. Look for one thread on the edge of the roll, hold on to it, and slowly pull it out. After you've removed it, you'll notice removing that thread has left you with a perfect line to cut down. I would do this for each stencil. Once I cut down that line that was made, I would spray each piece of cloth with a spray on glue. Doing this stops the weave in the cloth from wanting to open and it makes it so that you can cut out the stencils.

[Livewire121]

here's a pic of the hatch lid, I should have tried to lay this in one piece tho2013-01-29 10.53.50.jpg

[Livewire121]

2013-01-21 12.22.00.jpg2013-01-21 12.22.38.jpgI wish I had taken pics of how I layed the carbon. But like I said I was trying this for the first time.Here's a couple pics of how the hull turned out. Not 100% perfect, but not to bad for a first attempt.