Type IX Refit

[Fishb0y]

The Type IX I got at SubFest arrived last night, much to the bewilderment of my kid. I need to work on my spatial awareness... this is a lot larger than I remembered.

Tasks that I am looking at so far are:

• Correcting the warp in the bow
• Remove and updates electronics (already ordered a TD SR12 receiver)
• Replace 6v SLA battery... open to options
• Replace all hull fittings
• Replace aluminum hatch with Lexan, add 2 other openings forward and aft on the dry hull.
• Repaint and weather
• Update the deck and tower for U-853

This is just the initial list from a quick scan last night. While I have classes starting this week, I hope to start the disassembly soon. more pictures to follow.

[RCSubGuy]

Gut that bad boy and reinstall all from scratch. You’ll catch old hoses and leaky seals now rather than when testing in water. Will also let you know exactly how it works so that troubleshooting and repairs are easy later on.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Gut that bad boy and reinstall all from scratch. You’ll catch old hoses and leaky seals now rather than when testing in water. Will also let you know exactly how it works so that troubleshooting and repairs are easy later on.

I could not agree more. Why suffer old, unknown sins when you can install new ones afresh.

David

[Fishb0y]

I totally agree with you both. I was having a little problem sleeping last night, so I gutted her like a fish. The hoses are harder than my arteries and the rubber boots were as brittle as my marriage. Outside of the little water from the pistons, it doesn't stink too much.

I also removed both the 6v SLA and receiver batteries. I did some research and I can install a 6v 6ah LiFePO4 that is smaller, but I was wondering if a 2s (7.4v) LiPO would work? That would allow me to easier remove the battery for charging and storage... I'm hesitant on charging inside the boat if I don't need to.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

OK. Now that you have blood on your hands. Time to cut up and hide the body parts in a dumpster.

Rip out the transverse bulkheads and turn that boat from a semi-dry-hull into a proper wet-hull, and house everything into a single, removable, WTC/SD. Bob will fix you up. Lose the piston tanks -- they don't like working on this contanant.

[Sinksalot]

If you plan on adding a new deck and conning tower for the typed IXC U853. Here a nice upgrade kit for that Engel type IX.

https://modellbau-wikinger.de/epages/d06a00c7-1e09-45bb-b9c0-756df7f7ecdb.sf/de_DE/?ObjectPath=/Shops/d06a00c7-1e09-45bb-b9c0-756df7f7ecdb/Products/094

The one I used for my U848 was the Type IX D2 U848 upgrade kit

[Das Boot]

Whichever is your battery choice, always remove them before charging.

[wlambing]

You will need good cut-off wheels to get that box out of the hull! I helped a friend remove that stuff from an Engel 1:48 Gato and we found that the top of the box had steel bar reinforcements in it for the hatch cover bolts to bite into. Took a lot of sweating and swearing, and wheels!!

[Davjacva]

Steve, glad your sub finally made it. Had a blast talking with you at Subfest. I have Nautilus getting a refit and have my Engels Type IX getting ready to start. So mine is a IX/40C and it's 77" long, now that would make it...1/39 scale. The Engels IX D2 is 77" long and it's 1/45 scale...? Sounds too funny when I think the hulls are pretty much the same. The D2 was about 30' longer in real life. So it's a head-scratcher. Looking at yours, mine undoubtedly came out later, and it's a late 80's boat. If you watch the 1993 Sub-Commitee regatta on Youtube, it's all over the video with the original owner (Charlie Cleveland). I've got to re-do a lot of the brass, take off the inaccurate 105mm (they didn't use them after 43' anyway), and probably have to lay some new glass to strengthen the upper deck. Some other little things. Inside, I've taken everything out, and going to cut a lot of the bulkheads out, heave the old motors and redo the rudder and planes controls, then put a WTC in it. Sucker's a hog to carry around, especially when it had all the lead Engels put in it to counter the dry space. Anyway, here's some photos. I put some pictures of my newly cleaned shop for historical reasons. It got trashed when working Nautilus and a few other projects. All my hobbies are out there now except for my classic cars...so it gets trashed a lot. Relented and had to put some shelves up too.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Steve, glad your sub finally made it. Had a blast talking with you at Subfest. I have Nautilus getting a refit and have my Engels Type IX getting ready to start. So mine is a IX/40C and it's 77" long, now that would make it...1/39 scale. The Engels IX D2 is 77" long and it's 1/45 scale...? Sounds too funny when I think the hulls are pretty much the same. The D2 was about 30' longer in real life. So it's a head-scratcher. Looking at yours, mine undoubtedly came out later, and it's a late 80's boat. If you watch the 1993 Sub-Commitee regatta on Youtube, it's all over the video with the original owner (Charlie Cleveland). I've got to re-do a lot of the brass, take off the inaccurate 105mm (they didn't use them after 43' anyway), and probably have to lay some new glass to strengthen the upper deck. Some other little things. Inside, I've taken everything out, and going to cut a lot of the bulkheads out, heave the old motors and redo the rudder and planes controls, then put a WTC in it. Sucker's a hog to carry around, especially when it had all the lead Engels put in it to counter the dry space. Anyway, here's some photos. I put some pictures of my newly cleaned shop for historical reasons. It got trashed when working Nautilus and a few other projects. All my hobbies are out there now except for my classic cars...so it gets trashed a lot. Relented and had to put some shelves up too.

Just examined the photos of your shop.

... and briefly stuck my head into my shop.

You jerk!!!

David

[RCSubGuy]

Watch going with LiPo as they're nominally 11.1V (or 7.4V) versus the 6V that the system is designed to work with. You need the weight. Just use some new 6V SLA batteries and be done with it. They're bulletproof and cheap.

You could gut the watertight enclosure, but it works and it's already set up that way. You got the majority of the internals already. Take a stab at making it work.

[Fishb0y]

Steve, glad your sub finally made it. Had a blast talking with you at Subfest. I have Nautilus getting a refit and have my Engels Type IX getting ready to start. So mine is a IX/40C and it's 77" long, now that would make it...1/39 scale. The Engels IX D2 is 77" long and it's 1/45 scale...? Sounds too funny when I think the hulls are pretty much the same. The D2 was about 30' longer in real life. So it's a head-scratcher. Looking at yours, mine undoubtedly came out later, and it's a late 80's boat. If you watch the 1993 Sub-Commitee regatta on Youtube, it's all over the video with the original owner (Charlie Cleveland). I've got to re-do a lot of the brass, take off the inaccurate 105mm (they didn't use them after 43' anyway), and probably have to lay some new glass to strengthen the upper deck. Some other little things. Inside, I've taken everything out, and going to cut a lot of the bulkheads out, heave the old motors and redo the rudder and planes controls, then put a WTC in it. Sucker's a hog to carry around, especially when it had all the lead Engels put in it to counter the dry space. Anyway, here's some photos. I put some pictures of my newly cleaned shop for historical reasons. It got trashed when working Nautilus and a few other projects. All my hobbies are out there now except for my classic cars...so it gets trashed a lot. Relented and had to put some shelves up too.

Great talking to you at Subfest too! It's funning how many people I run into who were stationed on the (C)Harlotte, and thanks for uploading those photos! I'm finding the lower hull is fairly warped, so right now I'm creating some braces to help slowly "realign" the hull.