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Well I decided during my first time out with a fresh core in my viper I would be looking for another project stream. I decided on a vking to run in a unlimited class with our drag club. There are basically no rules as far as weight or power so I knew I wanted a longer hull to take the power and be a little safer at speed. My goals with this is as close to a 500 pound bare hull and rigged water ready with me in it to be under 1200 pounds. As for power I'm starting with a fresh 280 with 260 electronics. I would like to hit 100-105 in the quarter mile in the end, if I can't do it on the motor I'm not afraid of using nitrous.

Here is the donor hull 1979 vking, sure is ugly but I plan on changing that.





This is the start of the tear down. I'm cutting the foam boxes out of the boat, I cut along the bottom of the box them made a cut as far back on the top as possible, dug out the foam with a pry bar then cut the rest of the glass from the inside.

I also cut the inside of the gunnels out, I will be bringing the sides in to make a smaller cockpit with tandem seating.



I started to cut the splashwell out to get to the transom.



I then decided this was going to be a totally custom race boat and did some more cutting on the splashwell.


The other side, and the floor is almost out.




One thing I have noticed on my viper is the amount of flex in the dash with a drag prop. I want to make sure this one is solid and started to cut the dash out.

You can see at the left the dash wasn't glassed in on both sides.


Well that's where I'm at, I should have the rest of the dash and stringers out tomorrow night.

gotta watch your trigger finger on that saws-all!

by the looks of your viper, its gonna be another bad@$$ boat when your done. cant wait to see the progress and hopefully get inspired and motivated to work on mine.

77viper wrote:One thing I have noticed on my viper is the amount of flex in the dash with a drag prop. I want to make sure this one is solid and started to cut the dash out.

i read somewhere that the steering wheel in the middle weakens the dash
you think that was the problem ?

You sure have been busy on that thing. You have convinced me to do some racing next year but I may need some help to make that happen and you look like a fast worker.

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hydrostream76 wrote:

I added some material arround the helm and that is stiff. It's the whole dash that is flexing. You can see that the 1/2" ply used for the dash is only glassed in on the back side on the vking, i'm guessing the viper is the same way.

You sure can build some awsome boats, hope this one turns out just as good. I just aquired a 1982 "Limited Edition Vandalizer Package" Vandal, of course it needs floors and stringers I checked the core and its shot as well, my question to you is what did you use on your Viper. What would be better balsa or the foam Ive been hearing about

Thanks varmit, as far as what material is better or what to use I don't think there is a definitive answer. The one thing I can say for sure is that it all depends on craftsmanship. These boats were mass produced at a factory how many years ago and are still around if you take your time and do it correctly with todays standards it should last a lifetime. I did my viper in bulsa and polyester, I'm looking into some composite materials for this one.

So I took the viper out for it's final trip of the year today after work so I didn't get a whole lot of time on the vking. I did get the rest of the dash out and a better picture of what I'm talking about how they were layed up.

Dash is out.


Here you can see the corner where the plywood for the dash makes a 90 and is tied into the plywood that is run in the gunnel.

Here you can see it's only glasses with chop on the back side of the intersection.


I don't know how to draw on pictures to show exactly what I mean.

Today I started ripping out the old core, what did you use to get the fiberglass and the half good bulsa up with. My core is half rotten and what aint is soaked with water and a pain to get up.

I started using a skill saw and scoring the glass and bulsa. Then I slide a long Sharp pry bar to chip it out. My viper all came up easy the vking core is in a little better shape.

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Do you know if the Vandal has a core on the pad. What is the core there for anyway, I know other boats dont have it, I did a 17' skeeter and it didint have the core like Streams