Mustangs Minutes

[Mustang]

As soon as I spotted this image the smell of two stroke flooded my senses. My dad owned one of these & carted it up to the central highlands of Tasmania in his EK Holden Wagon, us kids slept in the car with the engine.

[Mustang]

I like lantern roofs when they are smart,

but not so much like this,

[Mustang]

Talking about lantern roofs, check out this transformation on the Vintage Vans Forum.

 link

[snoops]

Wow, will be following that one - that's quite an undertaking.

[Mustang]

An interesting site in Australia selling Airstreams:

aluminia.com.au/for-sale/

[Mustang]

Another of my favourite cars, the mark 1 Cortina, who wouldn't like one especially fitted with the engine below:

[Mustang]

Remember when 15 cents actually bought something.

[Mustang]

The all beautiful "no silicon" Jane Russell from the 50s.
Some similarity between the model & the car bumper!!!

[Mustang]

Anzac Day Dawn Service,
The attendance at Caloundra continues to grow, seems to be more younger people showing respect.

[Mustang]

At the risk of nothing else to do to the "Winnie Walden" I have decided to turn a lifetime ambition to fruition by building a small boat. Not much else happening on this forum so if you are interested in the progress I will update as the vessel progresses.

After attending the Wooden Boat Festival in Hobart this year, the disease was implanted. I visited the Wooden Boat College at Franklin to see about their courses. Would love to engage but Franklin is at the wrong end of the earth.

So they put me onto a designer in the USA & since then money has been flying out of the till!!!!!!
(printed plans delivered $220.00)

Now comes the conversion of suggested timber of American tastes (Western red cedar?) to what is available in Qld.
After a concentrated search I found a mill not 30 minutes away.

The owner was very helpful, so we decided on Silver Quandong, a light coloured, straight grain, bends & glues well.
The issue is 14' boards without knots are hard to come by, otherwise scarfing shorter lengths is an option.

The actual timber I bought is 100 years old.
(timber $550.00)
Now to rip these 14 feet, rough sawn boards with some natural edges down to tiny sizes of 1"x 3/4" & similar.
Handling these on my own, called for some "prop" inventiveness.

Finally, after an afternoon's entertainment we have a selection of knot free chines, gunwales & a keel.
Stay tuned.

[Mustang]

The group on the left are runs with knots, but will live to be scarfed lengths in the future, the group on the right are 14 feet clean.

[Mustang]

The keel has been dressed, doesn't look much but took me all day with two new machines, a jointer & thicknesser I have never used before.

Setting them up with receiving & exit beds are now done. I also purchased 4 x support rollers a great investment at $38.00 each.

The frames are numbers 2 & 5, there is the bow & transom to be added, going to be larger than I first thought?

[Mustang]

All the frames are cut and tweaked to fit the chines, I have transferred these to light ply, so in the event of another build I only have to trace off the profile.



Picked up the stainless screws 240 pieces for $31.00 only from K & J Fastenings, imagine the cost of these in a hardware store in packets of 5 ?? the long ones are for the Skeg.

[Mustang]

At the wooden Boat Festival I ran into a Japanese tool seller, I bought a kit of super fine saw blades that interchange with one handle. They have proved to be a life changer in the workshop.

[Mustang]

Renovating an old "made in Australia" handplane (bottom left), I guess this is the last time the clamps will be tidy in their respective areas. I still need more !!!

[Mustang]

A trial run with the frames, first gunwales in position, measure, level, measure again, twist, add supports, twist again, level,
measure again.
How do they build ocean liners? 
We are nearly ready to start drilling & screwing, the frames now need shaping to suit the gunwhales, (gluing comes later).

[Mustang]

The gunwhales had to be laminated to achieve the desirable twist, to fit the frames, here the second gunwhale is glued to the first.

[Mustang]

OOOppppss 
This is the finger sensitive brake from my tablesaw.
Its so effective it removed a tooth from the blade so new brake & blade required, trouble is after I bought this brand "Sawstop" I found the brake can self activate, which is what happened in this case. 

Off to the referee to see if I get one under warranty. 


The dominos fell yesterday, found I dressed two stringers too small, then when I ripped new timber I found knots, then I was cutting a scarf joint to make up the length, then the brake activated, at least I have all my fingers today.

[Mustang]

Here we are masked up ready for fillet joints, fillets will be made from two part epoxy glue thickened with special fillers.
The fillets add strength, seal & fill gaps left by the builder; some you can't avoid.

Pro builders can perform fillets without tape, but cleaning up is so easy this way.

For the observant, yes, I'm a stringer short, coming soon, the keel is only attached to the stem (bow) at this stage it will be sealed to the frames when it leaves the 4 x 2 strongback (which is attached to the sawhorses).

[Mustang]

Here are the fillets, holes nicely filled & uniform with strength added to the joint.


And good news today, the finger brake on the table saw was replaced along with the saw blade at no charge, Yeeeeha.
($200 worth)

[Mustang]

Up to the inwales & spacer blocks on the starboard side.
Also the boat has been released from the strongback (building frame) without any twisting, sigh of relief.


With the temperature rising above 25 degrees I was amazed how quickly the glue went off by the time I layered up 15 blocks & set the top inwale for lamination and set 39 clamps the glue was almost set.
We are off caravanning so no work for the next 4 weeks.

[Mustang]

The frame is nearly finished, apart from seats, floorboards, rowlocks, sealing.
As the weather is warming up I may have to jump ahead & apply the ballistic nylon as it prefers to be applied in a colder temperature.

[snoops]

Jun 13, 2023 7:26:17 GMT 10 Mustang said:

OOOppppss 
This is the finger sensitive brake from my tablesaw.
Its so effective it removed a tooth from the blade so new brake & blade required, trouble is after I bought this brand "Sawstop" I found the brake can self activate, which is what happened in this case. 

Off to the referee to see if I get one under warranty. 


The dominos fell yesterday, found I dressed two stringers too small, then when I ripped new timber I found knots, then I was cutting a scarf joint to make up the length, then the brake activated, at least I have all my fingers today.

Yes, I have heard of plenty of misfires from sawstops but I guess most would be happy to lose a couple of blades and cartridges over the years then have it save a finger or hand when it absolutely has to. 

[Mustang]

The frame has been covered in three coats of epoxy, man is that hard going!!!!
Now the skin (ballistic nylon) is fitted, stapled, heat shrunk & waiting to be covered in Urethane.


Ooopps should have left that tail on untill the urethane was finished. !!!!!

[Mustang]

Three coats of Urethane on a less than level surface is somewhat tricky.

The method of choice is to tip a stream from your container about half the boat & spread with a screed, great for a flat surface, I needed a car restorers rotisserie, but at the end of the day there is a watertight (?) coating.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQGU05w88I0