GLR Maria 54 Redo

I recently purchased a GLR Maria 54 from the late Glen Taft's estate rocket sale. The rocket was is in good shape except for the fin area which looked pretty bad. Glue and fiberglass were all over the place. The fin fillets were in terrible condition and the paint job was not very good. I love the Maria. I already own another Maria 54 so now I have two of them.

I didn't know if I was going to be able to repair the lower fin area or not. So what the hell.....I broke out my multi-tool and got got busy sanding all the paint, glue, and fiberglass off the lower fin area. Fortunately, I was able to do all this without damaging the fins. After 5 hours of sanding, I got everything smoothed out and ready to redo. I blended the 54 mm quik-loc motor retainer into the body tube using 2 oz. fiberglass cloth and Aeropoxy resin. Since this is a minimum diameter rocket, to make the tube perfectly slick, you have to do this. Next, I made new very smooth fin fillets using a 1/2 inch PVC coupler. After the fin fillets dried, I applied 2 coats of Aeropoxy laminating resin to the body tube and sanded it down till it was smooth as glass. The Maria 54 body tube is pretty tough as is. It really doesn't need to be laminated. I just wanted to add a little strength to it while keeping it light as possible. I then re-installed the Acme rail guides onto the body tube. I sanded down the upper tube and nose cone and have reprimed the entiire rocket preparing it for a new custom base coat/clear coat urethane very slick paint job. It will be painted just like the blue Maria 38 on GLR's web site.If the weather holds out, I will will paint it this weekend.

As for the shotgun tube assmbly, it is in very good shape/condition. Glenn did a pretty good job assembling the shotgun tube assembly. It doesn't require any work/repairs. The only thing I'm doing to the assembly is spraying it with a clear urethane coating for easy powder residue clean up work and protection from dampness. The chutes are factory chutes. The breadbox will house my Perfect Flight Stratologger altimeter and battery. The nose cone will house the BRB GPS tracking transmitter.

As you know, the Maria 54 is a high performance extreme altitude hi power rocket. As soon as I paint the rocket, I will post a pic of the finished rocket. I plan to fly it in the early summer on a K-motor, as soon as the winds calm down here.

Thanks for buying it. I was amazed at how everyone pitched in to help out his family. He wanted to fly it on a K820. Going to come visit West Texas?

Jim

Hey Jim:

I bought several of Glen's rockets.....a GLR Liberty 2, The Maria 54, an Aerotech Mirage, an Estes Super Nova Payloader II and a More Rockets Colonial Viper Fighter. Glen was a member of our rocket club (South Texas Aerospace Club). We'll miss him, but we know he's pretty busy flying with the angels now, so we wish him the best in his new life.

We been busy making new rockets and repairing/re-doing already built rockets. All of Glen's rockets I bought are getting a cosmetic makeover and redo. I have a love for the GLR Maria rockets, so the the Maria 54 is getting some extra special care and attention.

It appeared that the rocket was never flown as there was no powder residue anywhere. The fin area was a little rough and the motor retainer wasn't blended in with the body tube. Normally, I blend in the motor retainer before installing the fins, however, since the fins on Glen''s rocket are already installed, I had to do this procedure with the fins on the rocket which isn't an easy task. you have to be very careful so as not to mess up the curvature of the rocket fins at the bottom edge when doing the blending and sanding operation. Also maintaining the the roundness of the body tube itself is more difficult but it is doable - just takes extra work and time to do it. Fortunately, I have many years of experience as an automotive bodyman/painter, an aircraft mechanic and boat hull repairman so working with composites and making really nice looking rockets comes with the territory.

As soon as I complete the makeover, I will test the elctronics and test fire the shotgun tube ejection system on the ground just to make sure everything is working correctly and make sure my ejection powder charges are correct. Once I get this done, then I'll be ready to fly it. The first flight, I plan to keep it low and most likely will go up on a small 38mm J-motor as a test flight here at Beeville. I've got the altitude (24, 400 ft.) and the room to fly it here at Beeville with no major safety issues but for the first high altitude flight, I will most likely bring it out to West Texas as I have some other high altitude large rockets I'd like to fly that will have to be flown out there. Might as well make the trip worthwhile.

Here is some pics of the finished Maria 54 less paint on the lower body tube. The humidity was too high to paint today as I had planned to do. Hopefully, I can get it painted tomorrow. The fin area turned out really well despite having to work around the fins. The fins are laminated and reinforced with 2 oz. fiberglass cloth. The fin area is stiff and built to take supersonic flight. Aeropoxy resin and epoxy was used to throughout the redo.

I'm confused, which is a normal state of mind for me, but I think you are talking about a GLR Mariah 54 because I don't remembe a Maria 54. I could be wrong and it is possible the original qwner could have named it Maria.

Sailorbill said:

I'm confused, which is a normal state of mind for me, but I think you are talking about a GLR Mariah 54 because I don't remembe a Maria 54. I could be wrong and it is possible the original qwner could have named it Maria.

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https://giantleaprocketry.com/products/kits_highaltitude.aspx

Scroll down and you will see the 54 next to the 38.

I think he is confused because it was spelled Maria not Mariah.


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conman13 said:

I think he is confused because it was spelled Maria not Mariah.

Click to expand...

Yes. That was the problem. I also thought Ed may have had a kit named Maria or the original owner of the rocket had named it Maria.

You are correct....my spelling ain't worth a dammed. My bad.

Texas Rocketman said:

You are correct....my spelling ain't worth a dammed. My bad.

Click to expand...

No problem man. It was early in the morning, I couldn't sleep because my ankle was bothering me and I was confused.
It's all good. Sounds like you helped a fellow rocketmans family out, and that sir was the best thing I got out of this thread.