LM18 Houston Tx

[ericwensel]

Not a lot of progress until it warms up a bit but i made one nice milestone. I bought a trailer. Galvenized EZ-Loader with no rust. I feel I got a pretty good deal at $700. After i paint the hull, i will flip over onto the trailer and do the work on trailer from that point onward.



This week i will be mostly a design week. I am trying to layout the under deck conduit in CAD to get a feel for what i need to do. Suggestions would be appreciated.

[ericwensel]

Finished filleting and taping the stringers and bulkheads this weekend. Also built the shell for the console. Will try to get a picture or two later.

[VT_Jeff]

Great deal on the trailer! Design looks very cool, nice work on the 3d drawing.

[TomW1]

Great deal on the trailer, EZLoader's are top of the line. When you have your fuel, electrical and hydraulic lines laid out do not skimp on the size of the PVC you run them through. Use electrical sweep elbows not water elbows, they are easier to pull lines and wire through. For gas use 1.5 lines for that 3/8 gas line it is bigger than you think and you will pay heck getting it through anything much smaller. Do a separate tube for your fish finder it will be more accurate. Then an 1.5 for all your other electrical going back and 1" going forward or even 1.5 if having a trolling motor. 1.5-2" for your hydraulics lines. When drilling your holes do so after putting in the extra glue pieces for the frames and put the holes just under the pieces. That will give you the maximum strength in the frames. When you glue the deck down you have a a complete solid

Well good luck on your lay out.

Tom

[ericwensel]

Thanks for the suggestions TomW1. I will go with 1.5 for the gas and hydraulics. I was thinking sweep elbows would be best but it does create a potential issue for me. I don't have a lot of elevation between the bottom of the hull and the cockpit deck. Because i am trying to run the cables and lines up a tubular rather than through a open console, i need to come through the deck vertical rather than finish the radius above the deck. I think a 1.5" will just fit assuming a sweep elbow.


I plan on doing one more thing before flipping. I will install the outside cockpit/sole supports this week and hopefully flip this weekend to start painting.

[ericwensel]

Started painting. Two coats down. First coat looked better than expected. Seconds looks better than the first. In this pic, it is about 4 hours after applying second coat. It is looking really nice. Fingers crossed, one more coat after this one.

[Fuzz]

Dang right that looks good

[VT_Jeff]

Looks great, already a very good reflection!

[Jeff]

Really well done!!! Jeff

[TomW1]

It looks very good. Tom