The Rinaldi Family Hovercraft Cruiser

Click on the picture to see more photos

16ft long

8ft wide

3 engine-1 lift and 2 thrust

68hp total

6 passenger

Aluminum/Composite construction

Center stick steering

Convertible with full soft top

_______________________________

Its time for a little T.L.C.

 

Frank wanted to do a little pre emptive strike on the craft and make it a little like a shiny new Hovercraft.

Turns out it needed more than some poilsh and a good bath.

Frank removed the wiring hatches and found all non tinned automitive style wire and it was corroded to say the least. So naturally we tore it all out of the craft!

The new harness is clean and all in Delphi sealed water tight connections

The engine mount was starting to rust something fearse! Paint would never fix it, so it was decided to remove all metal aprts for sand blasting and hot dip galvanizing.

After some welding and repairs this mount is better than new. some brackets were added for mounting lights radar etc.

The top looked sharp but was a really heavy duty stitched job. So lucky for Frank His wife just happens to do this canvas work for aircraft. BONUS

The aluminum just was abused and nasty from salt weather and not putting donw welding blankets while doing repairs at some point. We do that to.

It takes hours and hours to polish aluminum, were happy right here with just very clean.

The rudders were just beat up poorly built or replaced in service P.O.S. and yeah they went to.

The fuel system was not up to par by any standard so were going to install the tanks properly out side the craft and put in proper switches with a fuel pump that primes the system.

Bilge pumps HMMMM well they were there but they were never hooked up, so will make those work and install pilot lights on them so we know when they are working.

The tiny tachs were just added and the red pilot light is the alternator charging light, the green lights are indicators for when the left or right bilge pump is operating. The oil lights are in the switch panel next to the kill switch for each engine.

back of the craft on both sides needs repair so will get in there and seal it all up proper.

I'll find a picture when i get a chance

The props and home made hubs bushings pulleys etc are about rusted away and very inconvient to service so will have custom aluminum hubs made and galvanize all the steel bushing etc

The engines with the new marine wiring harness and marine paint. we went with the rustoleum mettalic it is a dead ringer almost for the sliver honda uses on there out boards. Matches teh galvanize very well but sets the pieces off just a bit.

Not only is the engine mounts all galvanized but all the metal on the engines wre galvanized as well. if it was steel it got blasted and hot dipped. Some of it even after that got a coat of paint on it.

Also note the dual battery arrangment those are two interstae battery's that would be in say a Honda civic.

Check out that custom strobe light with anchor and all around light. frank custom built the unit. very nice!

The craft has 8 of these lights on it, four in the rear facing to the sides and forward and four on the front pointed straight ahead.

The engnes are galvanized and have three coats of good paint. the black you see is plastic covers and were left stock.

Note the alternator mounted in the center of the crafts engine mount.

close up of the alternator. its not pretty yet but we are working on that part. what i had Frank do is take a antifreeze plastic jug and use a razor blade and cut out pieces to cover the holes in the alternator used for cooling. then he sliconed them to the alternator. this unit is water tight we believe? will see. since the kohler turns backwords of a car engine on the PTO side we used a Honda alternator. a honda engine turns reverse of all other car engines. i believe this is a 90 amp alternator off a 1980 honda accord with air conditioning. its only down fall is that it has a external regulator. i wish we had gone with a late model unit run by a serpentine belt but we had pulley and mounting issues. i think if i were starting over on this i would build a mount that makes the alternator mount over the top of the lift motor and have it run direct drive with no belt at all. On a positive not this unit probably will last the life of the craft. I'm not worried about heat since its not in a hot car engine compartment and it has two props that are inches form it not to mention the water spray.

All in all we basically have taken the entire craft down to the basic hull and started with repairs to it and a few updates for service. Its abig JOB its going to be Expensive but were going to do it right and use all the best parts.

The craft was just serviced top to bottom at US Hovercraft 6 months ago so we need to make sure we use better parts and materials this time as our club has a 5 year standard for major tear downs not a seasonal service tear down plan.

Also will be repairing the steering as some one welded the adjusting nuts on to the steering cable? besides it cuased undo rust it failed from it!

Quite a difference in the wiring, lots of effort to keep it all very clean and orderly.

The skirt will need a bit of maintanence which will just be what looks to be agreat big patch over the rear of the skirt where some one welded on the craft and again fogot to cover the skrt with a welding blanket and burnt a thousand holes in it.

The right tool and the right part go a long way. i think this site will really go a long ways to showing what a tired & worn out craft and your VISA can bring back to life. As i right this the craft is about finished and almsot abck together so if i skip around a bit or get out of seqaunce forgive as i have what will be about 400 hours into this refit and what i will argue with any one is a completly new craft from top to bottom and thousands invested in money. Will get to the trailer repairs and making it work right next.