Luna, The Story of a Forgotten Catalina 30.

[mikeracca]

I got 1/2 of the new version 4 panel printed. This time it is black and the print turned out perfectly. IT still lifted as before but I made an allowance for that to happen and not ruin the part. I also added a 4mm groove for a sheet of plexi to help protect the gauges, and I decided to try letting the printer make the holes for the switches. That turned out pretty good. The ignition switch fits perfectly, and with a slight bit of sanding the other 2 will fit as well. I will post pics of it tomorrow after I chip away the risers... I didn't really feel like going out in the rain tonight to do this.

Well that's about all the important stuff for tonight... oh I got the right hand part printing now as well. I took off the glass to see if I could see anything that may cause a temp difference which would cause the lifting. The only thing I found was some fingerprints in the exact areas that I have problems with parts sticking. hmm... Well I cleaned off the prints, and made sure it was completely free of any oil or dust. I wouldn't think that fingerprints on the bottom of the glass would have caused any issues, but there are 2 spots that lift, and both had fingerprints. Yea I'm running with that until I see what the new part does. It's still too soon in the print to tell if it is going to lift or not. That usually happens at layer 3 or 4.

 

[Hayden Watson]

...
Well that's about all the important stuff for tonight... oh I got the right hand part printing now as well. I took off the glass to see if I could see anything that may cause a temp difference which would cause the lifting. The only thing I found was some fingerprints in the exact areas that I have problems with parts sticking. hmm... Well I cleaned off the prints, and made sure it was completely free of any oil or dust. I wouldn't think that fingerprints on the bottom of the glass would have caused any issues, but there are 2 spots that lift, and both had fingerprints. Yea I'm running with that until I see what the new part does. It's still too soon in the print to tell if it is going to lift or not. That usually happens at layer 3 or 4.

Like I have said, I do not have any real experience with 3d printing other than as an observer. One thing that I noticed is that he was very anal about cleaning and prepping the table in addition to having the insulated box closed as much as possible. Before every print, he wiped the whole surface down with a cleaning project and a clean micro-fiber rag. He then had some type of spray that he said was a bonding adjacent that made the part stick better. Apparently he used to have a lot of problems with lifting of the parts during printing and this process had mostly eliminated that issue. Next time I talk to him I will try to remember to ask for some specifics.

 

[mikeracca]

Well I didn't think that fingerprints on the bottom side of the glass would matter, but the print has been going on for 2 and a half hours now, and that side is still well planted on the platter. Each print I do I clean the glass on the top, but it looks like the bottom had a lot to do with it as well. Keeping fingers crossed that the rest of the print goes well. I will use up almost all the roll I have left on this print so if it fails, I am ordering more filament.

 

[mikeracca]

The control panel right hand side should be done here in about 2 hours. It’s looking good so far. I got myself a couple new GC2 batteries, that set me back quite a bit, but I just found out that the prices are going up here soon (like next week) because of how hard it is to get lead. Core charges have went from $15 to $27 just in the last few months alone.

And now for the not so good news. The company I bought the starter from is no longer a good place to shop. It used to be, I have bought Seadoo starters from them in the past and the customer service and parts were top quality. Here we are 4 days after the purchase and no shipping info, emails get kicked back right away and the phone is now a Google phone service. So I decided to check yelp and other reviews and just in the last 2 years things went down hill fast. Ok moving on… I called O’Reilly’s and they have a Wilson for $240… not a good price… Autozone can’t even cross the Lester, or Kubota, or Denso numbers so they are out of the running, and I try Napa… I don’t usually shop there but they have the starter locally for the same price I paid online!! YES!… no… it was the wrong one. It crossed using the Lester number but for some reason they have it as a different unit. When I check the same number at O’Reilly’s or online I get the right starter, so someone screwed up in their catalog. Oh well. The correct starter crossed with the Kubota or Universal part number is available, in 2 or 3 weeks coming out if TN. I got a printout from Napa and went back to O’Reilly’s and they couldn’t match the price but they are going to give me the starter at cost so there is that. Wilson is a good brand, I have sold them for years with very little trouble.

And lastly the best part of the day. I got the new countertop cut out. I moved each sink slightly outward to fit a conventional faucet, and next week I will get the Formica to finish the top. I’m also going to be making the other piece, don’t worry, I just need to get it out of the boat so it can be reproduced.

 

[mikeracca]

IT STARTS! and runs… at least it did for a little while. I wasn’t sure if the cooling system was running good so I didn’t let it run for long. I found my muffler leaks water, and I figured it would from all the blue silicone around the inlet. Looks like I will need to do a bit of fiberglass repair on that. I will look into that here soon.

When I tried to start the engine to get a video of it running, well it didn’t want to start again. It acted like it wasn’t getting fuel, so I tried bleeding the injectors again and I got fuel and bubbles out of injector 2 and nothing out of injector 1. I didn’t crank it much more after that, I was just excited to get it to start. I still need to hook up the cables and make a new wiring harness for the engine to the panel.

Speaking of the panel, I got the risers off the pieces and it looks great. A bit of massaging around the holes for the gauges and switches and we will be good to go.

You can see the improvements I made along the way. There is a recess for a sheet plexiglass and had the printer make 3 of the needed holes. I should have made a 4th hole, I have decided to use the small one on the left for a start button, and will make a new hole on the right side for the glow plug switch. The existing hole on the right side if for the night lights on the gauges.

 

[kappykaplan]

The panel looks great!

 

[mikeracca]

So I got the engine running perfectly now. The issues I mentioned above were correct, the injector pump had gotten a bit of air in it from somewhere, or I simply hadn’t gotten all the air out in the first place. I found out I was holding the throttle wide open just to get it to run how it was. I hooked the fuel lines to an electric fuel pump and gave that a try, and it did the trick. I got more air out of the injection pump, and I was able to get fuel out of the injectors again. After I finished priming the fuel system, the engine fired right up and purred like it was supposed to. I even got full throttle control right from the start.

I had to remove the muffler. Someone butchered a small leak and now I need to fix it. When I first got the boat I noticed a huge glob of blue silicone around the inlet of the muffler. Well there was blue, white and grey silicone all there at the same time. The muffler is made out of fiberglass, it’s easy to repair with some cleaning, new glass and epoxy. Oh well.

Work will start here soon on the wiring of the new panel, and I will keep you all informed on how that goes.

 

[jssailem]

it’s easy to repair with some cleaning, new glass and epoxy. Oh well.

Be sure to remove all traces of silicone from the unit. This is not as easy as it sounds. Epoxy and fiberglass do not play well with silicone debris.

 

[mikeracca]

Be sure to remove all traces of silicone from the unit. This is not as easy as it sounds. Epoxy and fiberglass do not play well with silicone debris.

Yessir. And they don’t play well with the diesel exhaust particulates either. I hated painting diesel cars/trucks when I was an auto body painter. We would degrease the rig 4 or 5 times (usually twice for a gas rig) and somehow we would still sometimes get fisheyes. Oh, let the fun begin!

 

[mikeracca]

Today was a kinda big day for Luna. I got the trimming done on the new panel pieces, and they are just about ready. I need to get some plexi so I can make the shield. The stuff I have on hand is either dark tinted (but the right thickness) too thick or too thin. Oh well, next Friday I will order a new piece of clear. The empty hole is for the fuel gauge which is on back order. It should be here soon… I hope.

Next I went over to a friends place… he has much better woodworking tools than I do. And I built a new electrical panel. I still need to make the hole for the bilge pump control, and maybe a charging port.

And here it is test fitted into it’s home. I still need to drill mounting holes for the crews and the B12 switch.

So there ya have it. And as you can tell my refit is starting to move to the electrical systems.

 

[kappykaplan]

Very nice, Mike!

 

[mikeracca]

So I mentioned before that my muffler needed some repairs. I gave it a good bath then I dug out the original epoxy that is supposed to form the seal from the inlet/outlet tubes to the body. The inlet was really bad. Some pieces were already missing and I could see bubbles out of the seam when I used a garden hose on one end and held my hand over the other. I used a bit akin to a dentist drill and my dremmel and dug out the old to prep for the new. I also did the rear to prevent it from failing and I’m glad I did, as some of that epoxy was about to come off on its own. I also cut out a damaged area on the inlet that I will need to glass back into place… that’s not gonna be fun .

Inlet with damage cut out.

You can see the holes in this pic. This is what they were trying to use silicone to repair.

And here is the outlet with the hole. Like I said, it was just starting to happen.

 

[Hayden Watson]

Good catch and the prep looks great.
For repairing the section of missing tube you might consider building from the outside inward. The important part is the outside diameter. I would feather edge the inside of the tube and leave the outside alone. I would make a form out of sheet metal that is covered some 6-mil plastic sheeting for a bond breaker and then layup glass on the inside of the tube so that I did not get the OD out of round.

 

[mikeracca]

Good catch and the prep looks great.
For repairing the section of missing tube you might consider building from the outside inward. The important part is the outside diameter. I would feather edge the inside of the tube and leave the outside alone. I would make a form out of sheet metal that is covered some 6-mil plastic sheeting for a bond breaker and then layup glass on the inside of the tube so that I did not get the OD out of round.

That was the exact basic plan I was going to use… except I was going to wrap some waxed paper around a wooden dowel for the inside form. Waxing the waxed paper will allow it to come off the glass without tearing.

 

[Hayden Watson]

That was the exact basic plan I was going to use… except I was going to wrap some waxed paper around a wooden dowel for the inside form. Waxing the waxed paper will allow it to come off the glass without tearing.

If I was doing it, I would be worried about forming the inside and needing to come up with a perfect layup on the outside were it needs to fit into a reinforced hose. That was why I would look at doing the layup on the inside. given that you have sanded off all of the gelcoat, you might layout one full wrap of 6oz to bring it back to design diameter.

 

[mikeracca]

If I was doing it, I would be worried about forming the inside and needing to come up with a perfect layup on the outside were it needs to fit into a reinforced hose. That was why I would look at doing the layup on the inside. given that you have sanded off all of the gelcoat, you might layout one full wrap of 6oz to bring it back to design diameter.

There never was any gel coat on the pipes… at least not on this one. The main issue I am going to have is getting the glass to stick on the inside. The glass in there is contaminated with theDiesel exhaust pretty badly, and my best cleaning efforts couldn’t get everything off and back to solid good glass. I have been tossing around the idea of just making a new pipe, and setting it in with epoxy, instead of repairing the current pipe.

 

[Hayden Watson]

There never was any gel coat on the pipes… at least not on this one. The main issue I am going to have is getting the glass to stick on the inside. The glass in there is contaminated with the Diesel exhaust pretty badly, and my best cleaning efforts couldn’t get everything off and back to solid good glass. I have been tossing around the idea of just making a new pipe, and setting it in with epoxy, instead of repairing the current pipe.

Not a bad idea. If you go that way, you can get fiberglass or carbon fiber tubes in many different sizes that could be installed. You have probably noticed that the inlet tube is short and ends just below the top of the box but the outlet tube goes almost to the bottom with the end cut at an angle to expel the water.

 

[mikeracca]

Hey guys!

I have been waiting on parts so there hasn’t been much going on with Luna’s refit. But today I got some JB Weld Marine for the muffler, and filled the seams. I will try to get the tube fixed here really soon. Next up I worked on the engine panel and got all the switches in place, all but the fuel gauge installed and the power busses are epoxied in place. I will get pics of the progress tomorrow as the epoxy was still drying and I couldn’t really move it much or they would slide off. I finished the work on my house battery box as well. I painted the bare fiberglass underneath as it would give me slivers if I touched it just right, and I got new straps, attached them to the box. Now the batteries will be nice and secure when the boat heels over.

And lastly I got the electrical panel sanded and painted then reassembled. I installed the bilge pump switch since the last pic, and all is well. This will go to Luna the next time I go to her and live there from this point on!

That’s it for right now, I‘m working on what I can here at home, and I am crossing my fingers for a launch before my family’s annual reunion at my Uncles place. I’m hoping to sail her to his place.

 

[mikeracca]

And here is the long awaited finished engine panel. I was able to get it wired up and everything is golden! The fuel gauge is just a stand in, but as a stand in it is the same form factor in the back, just a different face. The actual gauge will be the same style as the others.

 

[Hayden Watson]

Do you not have a tack?