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The Return Of The Flamed
Beast
Randy Corson's New Liberator Tunnel - Part One
For many of us on this website and in the hot boat community, Randy Corson
does not need any introduction. Randy, also known as the “Wildman” on our
message forums unveiled the details of his fully customized twin engine
1996 Liberator 21 tunnel
in an article we featured. The boat featured a stunning flamed dress of
multi colored fades and clearcoat – it was dubbed “The Flamer” because of
the exquisite paintwork that Randy himself was responsible for. It was a
sight to behold.
Randy Corson owns and operates
Custom Body
Works/Liberator Boats of Florida. He specializes in custom paint and
bodywork. In addition to his paint work, he is also a dealer for Liberator
boats. After owning his first Liberator 21, he liked it so much that he
decided to sell them!
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Left: The 2003 all-white Liberator
21. Balsa-cored and Kevlar reinforced for strength.
Right:
The Liberator, after wet sanding the entire boat
with 400 grit paper and applying the lavender fade into white with a
violet pearl flip-flop topcoat. |
Left: Randy carefully traces out the
flame pattern - accuracy here is crucial, as the design must be
perfectly symmetrical.
Right: The completed
tracings of the deck flames. Note that Note that they are symmetrical. |
The Flamer was
a Liberator 21 tunnel rigged with twin Mercury 2.5 liter EFI engines, and
was capable of speeds exceeding 120 mph. All this, with custom
color-coordinated rigging work and hundreds of watts of stereo power. It
was in all senses of the term, a hot boat.
When the original Flamer
was first completed, Randy thought he had created something he could never
top. Many readers agreed that it would be most difficult to create
something more exotic than the his work of art. Well, an unfortunate event
ushered in the foundation for the Wildman to top what he thought could not
be topped.
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Left:
Hours
of cutting and tracing... painstaking work, even for a professional
like Randy, but the reward will be well worth it.
Right: Randy
masking out the flames with two inch tape. The flames are then cut
out with a razor blade and the tape removed. |
Left:
Laying out the cutout tracing upside down to create a reverse mirror
image so that both sides match. This process is done on the entire
boat.
Right: Randy
taping around the tracing. |
In April of 2002, Randy was
participating in the Radical Boat Reunion in Palatka, Florida, when his
Liberator struck a large piece of floating wood, causing moderate damage to
one of the hull sponsons. The damage was above the waterline, and the boat
did not take on any water. After the damaged Liberator was taken home,
Randy thought about repairing it. Although he could easily have repaired
the hull, Randy decided it was time to order a new Liberator 21, all in
white. He was going to create a new twin-engine monster, and it would be
better than the first.
The new Liberator arrived,
and the Wildman planned out the details of the new flamed paintjob. The new
hull is more durable, and is fully balsa cored. It features tri-directional
vinylester resin reinforced with a layer of Kevlar. The added strength is
well appreciated by the 520+ horsepower that will be bolted to the transom.
Although slightly heavier than the previous one, it should not affect its
performance much with the amount of power that will be bolted to the
transom.
The boat is prepped, and
the basecoats of marbleized pink, silver, and lavender fades are applied.
Although this would be the extent of most custom paintjobs, this was only
the beginning for this project. Many hours of block-sanding the heavy
clear-coated surface between each sets of flames is required to maintain a
smooth finish. Essentially, the clear urethane acts as a buffer between
layers, filling in the voids in the surface while adding depth to the
finish.
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