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Vance,
I used a mold for some of the tank alterations, and some I just created out
of fiberglass over supports.
My forward MBT was molded in one piece. I created a Styrofoam and
plaster pattern, fiberglassed over that to create a mold and then laid up the
MBT in the mold. There is a pic in the PSUBS postings that shows all three
parts lined up.
The aft MBT was laid up in a rough mold I created out of sand and
mortar. It was crude and resulted in a crude looking MBT but some sanding
and bondo cleaned it up. My casting was about the same as a standard aft
MBT. After I had it molded I warped it with plastic food wrap and laid up
what was essentially another fiberglass MBT over the top of it.
When that was cured, I separated it and cut it up to create the wrap around
part of the rear MBT. I just fiberglassed the extra pieces on to my
original aft MBT and then worked it smooth with more fiberglass and
bondo.
You can also create any shape you need to add on to your MBT's by grinding
on a chunk of Styrofoam and either, cover it with plaster and wax, or cover the
Styrofoam with plastic food wrap, then lay it up with glass and resin.
Fiberglass resin eats into unprotected Styrofoam. You can then attach your
additions to your MBT's with more fiberglass and resin.
I'm sure if you wanted to lower the sided of your existing MBT's you could
cover what you have with food wrap plastic and lay up some fiberglass as I did,
then cut out what you need from you new part and add it to your
sides. Fiberglass isn't that hard to work with and bondo fixes all your
blunders.
If you just want to add a flat shelf to the bottom of your MBT's cover a
piece of plywood with food wrap and fix it in a position that it will
be where you want the shelf to be located. lay up some cloth from your
existing MBT and laying on your plywood then goo it up with resin.
After it cures, yank the plywood out, trim to shape, and you got a
general form to work from. I created a shelf over my rear thruster like
that. To dress up the edges of my aft MBT, I fiber glassed around a piece
of rubber hose. It bends into shape easy and when embed in fiberglass,
it stays there.
Be careful not to enclose your MBT's so they will trap water or air if
your get in an unusual position. The Captain cautioned me about
that. He suggested I drill some holes in the ends of the MBT's so I
wouldn't ever end up in the position of a floating buoy with a bubble of air
caught in the end of one tank and no way to get it out or fill the other
tank to get back to level. If you look close at my pics, you'll see the
holes.
Yes, I did use the strap to hold on the MBT's. I used a stainless
steel strap and stainless steel hardware to hold it tight. Don't use RTV
to seal it though. Use urethane, It's better when in contact with sea
water.
Hope you can follow what I'm trying to say.
Merry Christmas to you also, Dan H.
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