Anyone cut them off and had it be BAD?

Notice the name of the plane 

If that guy raced boats I bet he could take on that Jesus dude from the motivational posters.

we do not know what the long term effects of these new resins are.

So that's why my pecker stopped working and my kids have gills! 

Years back I was driving from San Jose to Santa Cruz one PM (when I was doing damage inspections full time) ALAS !! I spied a rectangular red box along side the freeway , I pulled over and risk life and limb to throw it in the back of my Colt There it was a SAWZALL  (without regard one of the best tools I have in my arsenal ) .

I always wondered what happened to my sawzall.  Last time I saw it was when I laid it on the roof of my truck.

Hey Stevecat, I think we're on to something here There seems to be a common denominator, guess I better keep my eyes open for a good used motor and VFD???

GT

Yeah find us a cheap 500HP with VFD, then about 800 ft^2 facility with a BIG main breaker panel, good water and a floor drain. And I think we need a 2.5:1 speed increaser with good quality gears. 

They are straight slot stainless bolts and when I went to turn them, they twisted the end of my screwdriver. Thats why I double nutted it from the top and broke two of them loose that way. Tomarrow I will get a screwdriver with a 1/2" blade or grind a chisel down to fit. Maybe one of those impact screwdrivers that you hit with a hammer might do the trick. I put some penitrating oil on today, so hopfully that will help too.

Same ting for me I had broke ones too. Do what Brad sez. Carefully drill out the centers with drill bit no bigger than ID of threads. OK if you are off center a bit. Then EZ out or pry the shell of the screw out. Then drill out the old threads and put in 3/8 or 7/16 through bolts with self lock nuts. Spooge a wad of silicone in the hole as you put the bolts in.

PS there is nothing more exciting than drilling your first hole in the bottom of your boat!!!!

New! Lower price and more pics!!!

$1250 for the hull only. Add $250 for the pump. Add $250 for the trailer. Add $500 for the Olds 455 V8.

3AM and I'm reading old posts... I'm addicted . Ran across this comment from Bottom Feeder:

"I know you So Cal types would never think about removing the side fins on you intake  But that is a good place to start. They have an effect on the roll center and dont do much for loading. The worst part is the placement. If you run a forward skag and the skags on the pump you have one fighting the other. Think about it the way it is. The forward skag is your pivot the nozzel is your force and direction. With the fins on the intake the pivot and fulcrum are way to close together."

This guy knows his shit. I cut mine off (B4 reading this thread) but he is dead on. Those things don't make any sense. I can't see any upside to em, but lots of downside. They are in the perfect place to dork up handling or (in my case) block flow to the pump in a hard turn. I think they musta looked good on paper back in the 60's when Berk made their castings. But IMO they are a mistake.

How many of you out there have removed them? Did you do it with a saw or just use the bottom of the lake? Anybody got ideas about what good they do?

It's not modeling clay 

It's made to be spreadable for only a very short time. 

If your trying to build up an area for shape you need to make it out of something srtonger than Bondo.

Get us some pics of what you're trying to do and maybe we can help.

I have two project where I need/want something less gooey than bondo and with a longer working time:
1) On my boat I have made a whole bunch of interior layout changes. My motor cover is a 1-off with a bunch of big corner fillets . It went well, just took friggin forever cause I had to do one face at a time and mix little blobs of bondo every 5 minutes. Now I've got the whole rear area to do. It's all cosmetic nothing structural (backsides are glassed).

2) My trailer is covered with some kind of bondo/filler put on by the factory to make it look smooth and sexy. Now I have "personalized" it by chopping out some length. I want to finish up these weld areas with whatever filler/bondo they used to make it all look clean.

Thanks for the advice so far guys. Looks like there is both ceramic powder and now a high temp regular powder, so I'm gonna go ahead.

B4 I coat the logs I want to weld them to my snails. I want to get rid of the joint and clean up the look a bit. Has anyone welded theirs? Got any advice?

There are two "players" in my saga of Detroit: The past and present leaders of the Big Three car companies and the past and present leaders of the UAW. I am going to refer to these people collectively as "management" in my discussion.

For over 30 years of my adult lifetime I have watched the leadership of Big Three automotive ignore the realities of the marketplace. It doesn't matter what the excuses are, the absolute bottom line is they have mismanaged their business and the evidence is massive loss of market share. The Asian car companies have kicked their ass. They are still kicking ass and they will continue to kick ass. This is called free market capitalism - nothing more, nothing less. After 300 years of trying various systems, free market capitalism seems to succeed where socialism, communism, dictatorships and monarchies have failed. Free market capitalism has determined that Detroit's Big Three don't have a clue and they are being punished for their faults.

And for 30 years, the same group of people who have failed to react effectively to worthy competitive products has also stood by and allowed their businesses to enter into unsustainable union contracts. Again, when I refer to management I mean the management of both the UAW and the Big Three. Together, they have committed industrial suicide. I can assure you that BOTH groups of management knew at some level that they were negotiating themselves into ruin. But oh boy, the UAW had a nice ride there for about 30 years! God bless 'em for their moxy and egocentric, short-sightedness. They obtained great pay and benefits for their members. (I am indeed jealous.) But there was a consequence to their actions - they created a cost structure that could not be sustained. The combination of high wages for active workers, together with growing pension fund obligations for retirees, topped off with declining sales due to crappy products is NOT a formula for success.

Good job UAW management and legal consul - you made yourselves a LOT OF MONEY and had a good time! But isn't your job as grown-up, supposedly responsible professionals to balance both the short and long-term health of the business? And shame on you Big Three management! What the hell were you thinking as you kept signing the contracts? The collective behavior of these two groups of management borders on fraud. They promised their workers pay and benefit packages that were in NO WAY sustainable for the long haul. Over on Wall Street this is called a Ponzi scheme.

In the real world of most tax payers, this kind of behavior can only go on for a couple of years and we're out of business. The only places where this level of insanity exist without consequence are in Detroit, the US health care industry and any big, fat, heavy-public-sector, socialist country like France.

So now, after 30 years of stupid decisions, slow-motion suicide and egoistic wages and benefits, Detroit management (including union management) want Mommy and Daddy to make it all better. They want our government to make the bad monster go away so they can keep having fun! I say what any parent has to ultimately learn to say if they want their kids to grow up - sorry Big Three and UAW, but NO.

The US is supposed to be a democracy with a free-market economy. I don't want the US to turn into France (one is enough thank you).

Hang in there Glasscutter. Just get though each hour and each day for awhile. We're here for you in whatever way we can help.