Saving Old Seagulls

It is an FVP , with a modern sticker why and from where I don't know .

Chilli Dog wrote:Some times you cant save them all ~ but you never discard them

A somber reminder of the reason why Seagulls must be saved...gentlemen, let us remove our hats and beat our breasts to honor these our fallen brethren motors
But there's always hope! Look at the tank on that 2nd from the left...a survivor!

Reminds me of the saying "Old fishermen never die...they just smell that way!"

Incredible! How did that happen?

No1. Normal corrosion
No2. Burned
No3. Lying on seabed
No4. Lying on seabed

Guess what is on the Dean Smith & Grace ?

if you guessed a prop for the brass " Army " motor . Give yourself a star , bronze of course
Going to be sometime before it will be finished , I 've got to measure and shape it ,test it on a motor with a rev counter on my boat and adjust so that it runs the right revs at WOT , then static balance it and then polish it . might have a cuppa this seagull hot rodding is hard work !

this is my set up to static balance props , though the shaft is going to be altered . The idea being that if I can measure and have the blade with the same cup , same pitch etc doing this with ensure the mass is as close to being even as I can make it .

This has be one of the most fascinating and informative threads I've seen to date... inspiring even.

Gee thanks , apart from the number of views going up I wondered if any body enjoyed my photos and ramblings

They're all struck dumb....lathes are like engineering porn.....

You can probably almost feel them going green with envy....

So do you think a picture of a mill could take them over the top ?

The last photo was opening out the spring hole on a prop casting . At this point I'm centring it . Quite frankly if I wasn't doing this for the bronze prop I wouldn't have bothered to do any others . While I have access to the machine shop from my welding trade , I needed some help and it all took longer than I thought . My mate has a bucket of gear he makes available and expertise that makes it possible ,affordable and fun . Now I understand why custom made props are so expensive .
Having come this far I intend to balance all my props, for once basic optimisation of the motor is made , prop customisation to your ride is where the speed advantage will come from . (my belief)
I'll listen to any man's theory in this area and how they achieve it , such an interesting study of physics a prop is ultimately constructed by an engineer then honed by an artist after conclusions made from analytical testing by a scientist. Bloody baffling really !
I fear I say to much, in either I am right and my competition is reading this flowing my lead or I come last , in which case I'm blowing it out the south end and you can all laugh at me later !

Love the prop. Bronze is so much nicer.

Here's a fabricated one - for a Forty Plus - from the home of British Seagull. Why anyone made it I don't know, nor when or who.

Perhaps further down the line when assembling the finished article, continuing the yellow metal theme you could consider a spark plug like this? ( I know this one pre-dates the motor by quite a bit, but you get my drift). Maybe a bigger one with a brass terminal screw cap would be better? And perhaps yellow fabric covered HT lead with a black fleck?
Brass tank straps are no challenge and may add to the effect, too, but I'm sure you have thought of that. This motor is going to look special!

I like the idea of the ht lead and plug Charles,plugs like that don't fall out of trees though . brass straps could be a bit much , it's nice to have the contrast of the stainless ones , remember the tank is brass not painted black . if I had a good painted tank I'd be very tempted to go with brass straps !

Silly of me, I was picturing a high gloss tank complete with the early 'lots of gold' decal.

I didn't realise brass spark plugs were all that scarce. Again, silly me.

Copper fuel and water pipes?