this hull started my love for carbon fiber,after painting and covering with graphics I was not happy with the result,so I decided to try my hand at 'carbon fiber skinning' even though I could ruin my apache hull if not done correctly.

this hull started my love for carbon fiber,after painting and covering with graphics I was not happy with the result,so I decided to try my hand at 'carbon fiber skinning' even though I could ruin my apache hull if not done correctly.

the hull needed to be sanded well to give the deep black basecoat resin something to stick to,this is left to go to a tack(from 3 to 5 hours).
the carbon has to applied very carefully as to not disturb the weave but at the same time pressed down so it sticks to the very tacky basecoat.
I covered the deck in as few pieces as possible (6 pieces).
this picture is straight after applying the carbon on the deck.

the next step is to apply the top coat resin,very thin for the first coat followed by heating with a hair dryer to burst any air bubbles trapped in the carbon fiber weave,these pictures are after 2 coats have been applied.

another 2 coats on now so there will be enough to sand down and not break through to the carbon after it has completely dried, I left it for a week before I started sanding.

the sanding started with 240grit wet and dry until the surface was flat and even.
then using 400grit sanded until the surface scrathes from the 240grit were removed,then 600grit until the scratches from the 400grit were removed,and so on using 800,1000,1200 grit paper.

the sanding and polishing took around 6 to 7 weeks,I used a very fine liquid polishing compound to get the high gloss I wanted but not a silicone based polish as the graphics I would put on would not stick very well.

I also decided to skin the interior with carbon/kevlar using the same method as I used on the outside of the hull

fitting the zenoah was straight forward between the five inch wide engine rails with the quick release engine mount from PMB. I decided to cover the fuel and water line with stainless steel heat protection sleeve.the apache is not intended to be an all out speed machine, with all the add ons I have put on it I am happy with the end result and dont want or need a pure raceing boat

I didn't want an all out modified zenoah, just a standard with a velocity stack is more than enough. I want my zenoah to last a long time and a modded zen in my view wont last as long as a standard, besides at around 230 quid I dont want to blow mine up !,a boost induction system is as far as I will go.
I changed the normal black,round watercooled head for a square cnc head with more water flow to keep it as cool as possible