Dayton Nationals 1980
Photo by Phil Kunz
Last Update: March 8, 2012
New Hull Photos
Construction Log Update
On October 17, 2009, I became the third owner of this 280 class, Ron Jones, Sr. hydroplane. The hull was brought from Anaheim, CA. to Sammamish, WA. on November 28, 2009 by me, Gordy Gillmer, Dave Compton and Andrew Compton. The first order of business will be to remove the deck and inspect all structural members. Once the inspection and any subsequent needed repairs are complete, the boat will be rolled over and the repair work that is needed on the bottom will be done. THEN...back on her feet to be re-plumbed, re-wired and re-decked.
Keep checking back as I get the website refined and more information gets posted.
Steve Compton
March 8, 2012
I got to move the Gold Streak into the garage! Mary is being a real trooper about it. As long as I did a magnetic sweep of the area under the shed so she could park her car under cover without getting a flat tire, she would be OK with it.
That was easy :)
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New runner on Right sponson
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So, I was able to get the heater and lights going, and glassed in the piece of leading edge I had to cut away when removing the old reinforced cockpit. So while she's upside down (again), it was time to re-do the sponson runners. It turned out that they had been deepened a bit so I went and re-calculated the angles and all, and was able to not have to re-build them completely. I remade the runners and will use 1/8" 6061 and everything SHOULD be pretty close.
I took the metal parts down to Mike at Electrofinishing in Kent last month and now we've got Gold anodized parts back. Check that off the list!
Brother-in-law Andy Thompson, along with his lovely wife Julie (and of course puppy Toby and Emma) came over the weekend of Feb 18-19 and we started the sanding process to get ready to paint the bottom. Boy, that's been a long time coming, and a lot of work!
One thing came to light since the last update. I was contacted by photographer Phil Kunz (via Bill DeGlopper), letting me know he had photos from the 1981 Dayton Nationals. In reviewing what he had, I finally got a good picture of the transom. It turns out I had set the drag link up on the left, and the original setup was on the right. My desire to make her as original as possible means I've got a bit more work to the steering setup...oh well.
Over the next few months, we're going to be needing to work on Miss Thriftway so E-27 will most likely get put back under the shed, Mary's car back into the garage, and working on fitting in our SECOND re-built Allison V-1710 into the hull. We tried to make everything identical to engine number one, but no matter how hard you try, each one will have their own unique quirks on how it goes into the boat!
Who knows, maybe Mary will let me leave her in the garage and I can continue progress...
At the APBA Region 10 meeting last fall, one of our vintage buddies, Ron Morrison, announced that he had gone out and had an original Ron Jones Sr Racing Hull logo reproduced. Of course he had to buy a minimum number. and
with the setup, he was wanting to sell some of his "surplus". Well, as you can imagine, this was an opportunity one cannot pass up! In talking to John Leach a while back, I mentioned the logo and he had not been able to get any. And Ron didn't have any more, so this was a great deal!
