See how to freshen up an old hull...an economical alternative to gettng into the hobby!
Last year, my friend Bob
purchased this hull at a race we attended. Bob attended this race as a
spectator only, but within no time he was bit and wanted to get in! This was to
be his first R/C boat...an old 48" cut down Muck mono. I had seen some of
these in action in the past, and had actually raced against this very boat. It
was a good performer and would make a good solid first race boat.
I decided to document my work as I fixed up this old hull to show readers out
there that it really isn't all that difficult if you chose a good hull that
really isn't beyond repair. This can be a very economical way of getting
into the hobby also, as was the case here.
During the winter I took the old Muck and started removing the old hardware and
cleaning it up. I took out the old stuffing tube and cleaned the inside of the
hull. Removing some decals revealed some prop marks on the front deck. There
was also a section of the deck seam that was damaged. On top of this a lot of
holes needed to be filled on the transom and sides. All in all though this
would be a fairly easy hull to fix up.
Here is the hull
after I cleaned it up a little. Already looking much better!
Some pictures of the holes and damaged areas that needed to be repaired and/or
patched.
Since all the repairs were minor I used a product called
MarineFIX fast epoxy paste. It is a two-part epoxy paste designed for boat
repairs as well as other uses. I used a Dremel to remove all the loose material
around the areas that had to be fixed and cleaned them out with acetone prior
to applying the MarineFIX paste.
The MarineFIX paste cures fast
and is ready to sand in about 20 minutes. Here are a few pictures of the
repairs done and sanded.
After completely sanding the hull and making sure the repairs were ok I primed
the hull and painted the base coat. For paint and primer I used Duplicolor
brand commonly available at auto parts stores and others. The graphics on the
boat are all vinyl. For the clear coat I also used Duplicolor brand, but that
was a mistake. The Duplicolor clear (at least the one that I used) does NOT
resist to gasoline! The final clear coat should be done with a good quality
clear coat such as DuPont brand. Live and learn! Anyway here are some pictures
of Bob with his boat. Needless to say he is a huge fan of the Dukes of Hazard,
as is his son Brandon.
Finally, here are some action shots of the Muck in action at the lake and at
the races in
Happy Boating!
