Saving Old Seagulls

Hi there, joined this very informative and helpful forum as I have been given a Seagull (SJM 35057, says 1961 on the flywheel) for a silly amphibious project I am working on.
What a little gem it is, started second pull after many many years laying in a shed
Annoyingly managed to scratch the cover, the sunlight makes it look worse than it is, but I don't think it's ever been off since new, points where almost not opening, adjusted now, runs better.
The project is maybe rather a bit too silly, and I hesitate to ask, but would anybody here be able to help me out as to weather it will actually work (float) and if a Seagull will be able to propel it if I post pics and details of it ?

I have another free Seagull century I think, no engine number on it though, been used at sea and seized solid, this is the one I would like to use as the shiny 40 is way too good!

Had a good look around here and have have raised my expectations of getting the seized 100 running again, so may be needing a little help there as well...

What are you waiting for, ASK!

Lets have the details or photos of your floating project - if you are thinking of raising the Titanic and using the 40 on it that may be rather ambitious and you will definitely be underpowered

Pretty 40+! The 40+'s are my favorite, I've just fixed the cooling issues on mine, much to my satisfaction. Love the testing tank! A useful idea I picked up here is to remove the drive spring from the prop when tank testing, it kills the whirlpool effect dead. There is enough drag from the shaft and gearbox to limit 'running away' and of cause the water pump still does.

So the project...you've got us interested, make with the details!

OK, so this is the challenge, to get this to float...
There are lots of voids that could be foam filled, the the petrol tank under the rear could be replaced with a block of polystyrene, and large blocks could be put under the front behind the headlights.

It weighs around 670kg at a guess, I need to weigh it empty and without the armament.

It works surprisingly well on land for something I expected to be pretty well useless, it would be great if it worked as well on water..

[YouTube]http://youtu.be/oSTvdIXiWvw[/YouTube]

not sure if that will work here's the link again http://youtu.be/oSTvdIXiWvw

see below

I would have thought the best option was to build another robin just for the outboard. It's what they do on the Bond films
Remove engine/front wheel - Leave the rear wheels. Combined trailer and boat. Pull it with your other.
Paint it Navy blue or D Day stripes. Very wecome at lerrin I would hope.

It looks like a hell of a lot of work to get it to float, let alone water tight.
What about detachable outriggers, that would let the car sit a little more higher on the water.
With the engine and tracks you will be lucky to find enough places to add buoyancy with external tanks, it will give you a lot less to do on the car.
Only a thought.,

670 kilos, but the weight is quite low, 2 x 450 litre floats a little longer than the Robin, fitting under 2 transverse tubes at about top of cill level.

I suppose you want to drive it to the water, reroute the exhaust & fit an undertray to the engine compartment so that there are no waves in engine compartment to drown electrics.

A nice piece of work!

Your daft enough to be a member of this site, welcome to the lunatic fringe!

Good luck with that!

Thanks for you thoughts and encouragement chaps,

Skytm, a stunt double would be a way round it, but when this goes in the water there will be a lot of witnessed around, so not an option I can use.

Keith, I really want to get it floating without outriggers, although in the end it may be the only way.

Charles, yep, I want to drive it in and out again! I think an under tray is the best option, I am thinking of making one out of ply and sealing it to the chassis rails, if it is 150mm below the floor level the dimensions would be 1700 x 900 x 150mm, there is room for a 850 x 600 x 300mm block of polystyrene or similar under the back end. and I can spray foam fill the sills etc.

The body is pretty well watertight, the difficult bit is sealing the prop shaft, but that has been done on other amphibs.

Am I right in thinking that when the axle/tracks are in the water their weight is effectively reduced? they weigh around 125 kg as a unit.

metalflake, this is the easy bit, making it air portable by Microlite is the real challenge...

I presume as no one has mentioned the Seagull there are no perceived problems on that score?

If you can get it to float, I think your Seagull will move it a long alright and probably as fast as you would care to go. You may wish to refer to the procedure for getting a Seagull running again after full immersion for future reference

Can you measure the weight each wheel is carrying with you in it & give us a cross sectional sketch with the wheel locations & the external dimensions, I think without outriggers you might have stability problems.

Charles uk wrote:Can you measure the weight each wheel is carrying with you in it & give us a cross sectional sketch with the wheel locations & the external dimensions, I think without outriggers you might have stability problems.

Those Robins had enough stability problems when on three wheels, the tracks look like they might give you quite a bit of weight at the rear corners which will not transfer to stability in the same way low down weight in the middle of the "hull might". In practical term, two outriggers that fold out from the rear inside of the vehicle would be easy to construct and could even be electrically deployed, they could give added flotation and stability. Another thought. that could be better looking, is, being fiberglass it would be reasonably easy to alter the profile of the body in the appropriate areas creating an air filled voids on the exterior surfaces to obtain flotation and stability, I'm picturing something like an exaggerated body kit working like the collar on a rib. There are probably places inside of the body that similar voids could be created for flotation using glass fibre, wheel wells etc. I guess they could be filled with expanding foam to guard against leaking. A cleverly worked front bumper running down the sides and in to a rear bumper could do the job, keeping the bouyancy at the edges would give stability like an inflatable boat. Getting it floating fairly high in the water would overcome the huge drag associated with many amphibious vehicles and help keep your engine out of trouble. You could rough up the basic shapes with thin plywood or even cardbord and then use the fibreglass mat and resin to strengthen them as you mold them to the bodywork. Plenty of filler, some paint and imagination and who knows.

fortyplus wrote: You may wish to refer to the procedure for getting a Seagull running again after full immersion for future reference

Are you a mind reader?...