Wilson Lowers
#12
VIP Member
VIP Member
we have been down that path and it failed miserably. Most of the castings from the manufacturer are so bad, and with that I mean, not simmetrical, bent and overall out of shape that it makes it almost impossible to cnc them. Like I said, we have been doing this for 25+ yrs. We have been down every road, we have tested every shape, every tool, every thickness and we continue to test new ways to make it better. We will never, however, cut corners to save time and money and risk not putting out our best work everytime. As you all know, it takes no time to ruin a reputation that has taken years to build.
Happy easter everyone!
Craig.
Happy easter everyone!
Craig.
#13
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Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Union, NE
Posts: 468
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#14
Registered
Thanks guys, It took around 30 hrs to finish both drives that included making templates so that i could match both sides and one drive to the other as they are being used as a pair.
Peter
Peter
#15
Platinum Member
Platinum Member
we have been down that path and it failed miserably. Most of the castings from the manufacturer are so bad, and with that I mean, not simmetrical, bent and overall out of shape that it makes it almost impossible to cnc them. Like I said, we have been doing this for 25+ yrs. We have been down every road, we have tested every shape, every tool, every thickness and we continue to test new ways to make it better. We will never, however, cut corners to save time and money and risk not putting out our best work everytime. As you all know, it takes no time to ruin a reputation that has taken years to build.
Happy easter everyone!
Craig.
Happy easter everyone!
Craig.
#16
Registered
Drives
Your lowers turned out really nice. Did you happen to check the width before and after. I would think you could remove an 1/8th of an inch off of the cases, going by the shavings in the picture.
#17
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Peter
#18
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Join Date: May 2004
Location: Stuart
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The finish we provide lasts longer than most. We havent found that buffing them helps them look better for that much longer and it is a lot easier to get our finish back to almost 100% than it is to rebuff them.
Peter, the drives look nice. However, if the last photo is the finished product I can already see that you havent done much , if any, of the performance enhancing work on them. We do an awful lot of reshaping, and know specific areas where we have to take out and modify. Be very carefull with the Ilmors as they are already a thin casting and they have various oil cooling channels going through them, that already have thin walls.
KW.... I thank you for the kind words. We are also curious to see how they work.
On the Imco drives the results vary so much as they are on so many different boats and different horespowers. We have had as little as 1-2 mph gain and all the way upto 10-12 mph. But on almost most the cases the feedback has been how mucher better the boat planed, cruised, and handled across the board.
As you can see and read, from my fellow brit Peter unwin, it takes a very long time to get them to just look better, then add on to that all the reshaping and modifying we do to them, its not just a "take a grinder to it" job. We have been doing this a very long time. The best of the best use us daily. We pride ourselves on the work we do and put out everyday.
All the best
Craig
Peter, the drives look nice. However, if the last photo is the finished product I can already see that you havent done much , if any, of the performance enhancing work on them. We do an awful lot of reshaping, and know specific areas where we have to take out and modify. Be very carefull with the Ilmors as they are already a thin casting and they have various oil cooling channels going through them, that already have thin walls.
KW.... I thank you for the kind words. We are also curious to see how they work.
On the Imco drives the results vary so much as they are on so many different boats and different horespowers. We have had as little as 1-2 mph gain and all the way upto 10-12 mph. But on almost most the cases the feedback has been how mucher better the boat planed, cruised, and handled across the board.
As you can see and read, from my fellow brit Peter unwin, it takes a very long time to get them to just look better, then add on to that all the reshaping and modifying we do to them, its not just a "take a grinder to it" job. We have been doing this a very long time. The best of the best use us daily. We pride ourselves on the work we do and put out everyday.
All the best
Craig
#19
Registered
Hi Craig,
The drives weren't finished in the last photographs been busy on other projects. This week i spun up a plastic bush to slide over the propshaft as a guide to reshaping the rear of the housing taking care not to go too close to the circlip recess, ideally i would like to take more material away in this area but i would need to strip the drives and check the wall thicknesses first, i will probably do this at their first tear down and inspection. We will be visiting Florida in October staying for around 7 weeks. My fly-by-wire steering system will be running by then so i will be looking for potential customers, would be nice to call by and say hi, say hello to Mark for us.
Peter
The drives weren't finished in the last photographs been busy on other projects. This week i spun up a plastic bush to slide over the propshaft as a guide to reshaping the rear of the housing taking care not to go too close to the circlip recess, ideally i would like to take more material away in this area but i would need to strip the drives and check the wall thicknesses first, i will probably do this at their first tear down and inspection. We will be visiting Florida in October staying for around 7 weeks. My fly-by-wire steering system will be running by then so i will be looking for potential customers, would be nice to call by and say hi, say hello to Mark for us.
Peter