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Latest color choces...
My 46 Ford as it sat (3/21/07) |
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This was taken the morning of the Poor Boy Barn Breakfast... the project car was about to be jump-started. |
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| 10-12-07 Rusty rockerbox and underside rusty removal and paint |
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| 10-25-07 | ||||
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| 11-10-07 new passenger side rocker boxes | ||||
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| 12-09-07 underside complete for now | ||||
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| #12-31-07 Engine painting, valve cover polishing and painting | ||||
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Dashboard surgery  |
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Clean carb, all that's left is re-assembly.  |
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| 1-21-08 | ||||
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| 01_26_08 | ||||
My mishmash of SBC parts, painted up pretty,
Just a few things left, my buddy Joe and I are gonna mate it up with it's
trans Tuesday night. |
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My L78-15's on Glenn's wheels, not as bad as I
thought, but they will fill in the fenders well. |
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Front wheels painted to match the rears and
the firewall, tire mounted so the engine can be put back in (nasty roller
tires were shot.) |
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| 2/18/08 outside for the first time in years. I didn't plan the scoop to stick up just perfect, it just happened. I had to grind an angle on the back of it to clear the firewall indentation, but it is probably a good idea to have a hole back there for air to escape and rainwater to drain. | ||||
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| coulmn fits pretty good... | ||||
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| not much room for a radiator, I think I'll make a combo fender hanger, radiator support from the F-1 radiator cradle I saved. | ||||
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| I sat here and said "brum brum" T-bird
buckets, Riviera console and narrowed Corvair dash...I have to make a
bracket that ties the firewall to the bottom dash "rail" and has a column
mount in it tonight.When I do the bodywork, I'm going to have to change
the cowl vent opener, or weld it shut, the console covers it. a little. I
need to call my apprentice Jeff to finish the dash up for me. I needs to go get in there with a shop vac, filthy. |
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3/2/08 Setback, finally broke out the new radiator, turns out the outlets are in the wrong place... 6 weeks to fix. Plan B is old radiator and separate trans cooler. Driveshaft in, brake pedal in, radiator and front clip on... stay tuned, only 20 days left! |
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| 3/3/08 The Rodeo gave up it's only cool piece... |
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| My 16 y.o. apprentice Jeff is getting pretty good at butt welding sheet metal, he's going to have lots of practice this next 2 weeks, the dash is all his. | ||||
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| We'll be cutting the bottom edge off the
original dash to cover the cross brace, it'll make it look like the
corvair pods sprouted out of the original dash. I'm going with the dual glove boxes, it's a little known speed secret. |
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| Lunchtime 3/12/08... What happens when you get your Rally America order... In graphic novel format. |
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| 03-15-08 Plumbing up the engine and (temporary) trans. cooler, fuel line and PCVs (We checked the numbers, they are supposed to fit the car the VCs came off of, but they are still too big for the grommet). I need to hunt for the cover for and HEI distributor cap, bye bye Accel supercoil. Bought a battery and put 1/2 second of power to the fuel pump relay, heard a whirring noise, so that;s good to go. |
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| And the bottom of the dash, from the original dash, will help strengthen the Bottom of the Coravir dash, and give me a place to mount switches and stuff. The cutout is where the steering column goes through., it'll hide some of the ugly.
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| crudely tacked a patch over the jagged hole
from the 1st of two canted taillight housing some brilliant customizer did
to this car in Montana, and I cut the bottom hole larger using a
posterbord template so the Corvette taillight fit nicely, welded in a
couple of brackets and ran a die over the two posts on the back so I could
puts some 1.4-20 nuts on it. fits pretty tight to the fender, If I keep
using these taillights, It'll probably only need a thick rubber gasket to
seal it up. I'm not entirely happy with the push bars, but I leave them for a while.
This is all just a quicky spray bomb paint job, just so it's one color and doesn't say "Fart" on the door.
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| 3_19_08 1 day to go... | ||||
| Jeff's dash looks a hell of a lot better all
one color, even if that color is primer grey
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| Whitewalls look better when they get bleechwhite-ed too... especially with the front doghouse re-installed. I have an idea how to get rid of the streaky look to the Ace Spraybomb, the color is even, the gloss isn't.
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Both fenders patched up, both taillights installed, and both rear fenders painted and with a few bolts holding them on. When I get the bodywork done, I'll have to get me a pair of Corvette taillight repops, these look pretty good in there, the chrome makes them look finished. and they are small enough not to distract the eye. That crappy rusted out rear pan has GOT to go. streaky paint will be fixed by Saturday.
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| Here's how it's going to Billetproof... not
running, not wired, no gas pedal, no shifter, seats bolted down, wheels
on.
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| No Cal Custom spiders mounted yet, ran into
some innertube problems
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| 8/31/08 a little progress or "back on the horse" Got the battery box positioned and mounted (camera f'up, n o pic yet), I think I might paint the battery the vanilla shake, it looks huge. |
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Made (better) shock mount (only one done today) from the Mustang plates and a Harbor Freight Fence padlock loop kit. the old shock mounts were the pin type, so I flipped the plates from side to side, cut off the are that wouldn't clear the backing plates, and welded on loop thing and a gusset. |
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| Fingerprints all over them | ||||
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| Whooo! ghost shock | ||||
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| Looking from underneath | ||||
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| Then I cut the wussy Y shaped push bar things I made off the old bumper braces, and bolted these Gen-U-ine 1950s chrome ones on... I was told they came off a '41 Ford, and they plates that came bolted on them might have worked, but they used some huge bolts which wouldn't clear the side of the body. | ||||
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| they mimic the shape of the rear end, I have a matching pair for the front, I'll put them on when I take the front doghouse off again to put in the new radiator. | ||||
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9-17-08 Got there before dark... |
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| Pulled the dog house off | ||||
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| Not one of the stock mounts match up, but it's smaller than the stock one which leaves more room for options. I can mount it separate from the wiggly, wobbly front sheetmental. | ||||
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| Of course I knew that the thermostate housing wouldn't be right... | ||||
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| Since the front end was off, I stuck the push bars/tusks on, holes lined up, must've come off a '41 like the guy said. | ||||
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9-28-08 Shocks and radiator After breakfast, I showed Willie what I was planning on using for a lower shock mount, and he said that what I really needed to do was to get a bushing for the bottom hole of the shock bracket (which turned out to be .700", the I.D. of the bushing sleeve in the bottom of the shock was about .475") So I called up my dad to see if he was busy and if he could make some bushings... He wasn't, so we found a chunk of some almost hardened steel, and make up some bushing on his pre-historic lathe... |
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| The lathe is a 1938 South Bend...15" swing in the gap... kinda arty pic... | ||||
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| Here is the piece, the part that is .700" is an interference fit in the lower shock bracket hole... | ||||
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| Shock is a little cocked, but not too bad. There's a sleeve inside the bushing.. so it has room to move. | ||||
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| Radiator - used that piece of 3/4" x 2
I cut earlier, centered and marked the radiator and drilled some pilot
holes. In order to get the right angle, I bungee-ed a 1"x2" to the front of the fan blades and then bunged the radiator to it so that the spacing was right from top to bottom, and the radiator is the same angle. |
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| Drilling holes in a $520 radiator kinda freaks me out... | ||||
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| The front frame horns curve downward, opposite
of the way the radiator needs to go to be angles back about 2 degrees, so
I made some 125" "L": brackets, to bolt through and existing hole, filled
the gap underneath with another .125" chuck and a wedge. In order to catch another existing hole would put the bolt right through the edge, I marked it and cut a notch and then welded a bolt into that notch... The Radiator mounting kit I had would let the bolt go all the way through the 3/4" tall tube, so I drilled out the bottom big enough so that the spring would fit. I put the rubber between the flange and then put two washers above the flange so the castle nut would catch the hole in the bolt. With the rubber in there, the bottom tank does not tough the mount.. |
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| I had some problems because the radiator mount
would not go back in once the "L: brackets were on, so I trimmed down the
edges a bit, and the long ends... I painted it and installed it, it all
worked, and I stuck the thermostat and the flex hose on there... everything clears, and it's about an inch away. I can leave it this way with the front doghouse off until after I get it fired, which will be nice. This was the hardest crap I have left (other than wiring), so I'm glad it's over. Running trans cooler lines and installing the sending unit for one of the temp. gauges and measuring and acquiring a lower radiator hose is next. |
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| Racked up my neck last night, so I brought home my gauge collection and came up with this layout after scanning them on my flatbed scanner. | ||||
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| 10-4-08 These should make Dave, VERY happy... Anybody got some 5.60-15's lying around? |
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| About 1.5" should get me by them... The lightened area is where the pipes go it they go straight back. | ||||
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| Clears the body everywhere by about 25", and I rocked everything, shouldn't touch at all. | ||||
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| Good news is MOST of the holes in the transmission and radiator are connected to something. the temp sender hole needs plugging or a sender. | ||||
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| Here one of the holes I am worried about... I
stuck an O-ring on it, but the bracket that attaches it further up don't hold that flange-y thing against the hole... Might be a job for dad to make a thing to make things tight and leak free... Stayed tuned |
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| 10-18-08 Footboard painted and in | ||||
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| Shifter mounted | ||||
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| 10-26-08 Not much I took pictures of,
but the shifter is finally hooked up (B&M shifter box was missing yet another piece, had to make a swivel for the shift arm) Throttle pedal is mounted to firewall, and is waiting for
the throttle cable I ordered on Friday. Speaking of Friday, Rally America shipped my front chromies on Friday,
should be here by next weekend. The only thing I did take a pic of was the X-member brace that had to
be modified to so that the shifter cable |
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| 10-28-08 Guess what showed up today!!!! It's twin should be here tomorrow... The throttle cable and one of the breathers (the PCV side) showed up too... |
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| 11-8-08 Batteries died in the camera last Saturday, lots little crap done. Dipsticks finished, throttle linkage fixed, breathers and PCV fixed, frame piece adapted and fixed, tires mounted, tie rods all tightened up, front shocks, dash panels surround sanded and polished, sending units installed and a bunch of little parts due Monday from Mac's Ford, grommets, hood hinge bolts, rubber stuff to seal floor boards, picked up a headlight switch and some tallights pigtails, and I have tomorrow and 3 days off next week... Dash panel due up for tomorrow, plus finishing up the battery box and ground straps, and mounting fuse panel |
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| Not much clearance, I'm thinking a little hammer work, or a washer behind the motormount to raise it... Or go back to the block huggers... | ||||
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| Master cyclinder access hole in the odd shaped floor before... | ||||
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| 11-9-08
A.M. |
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| 12-16-08 Finally got the camera to work again, although the flash is still FUBAR. Dash is just setting in there, but the backing metal is secure, and the grounds, the lights, the constant (clock) and the ignitions are all wired, even the turn signal indicators are wired...just have to run the wires for the 3 senders... Here it is all lit up, I wired up the plug for the turn-signals/hazard lights too. |
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Here is the High School Musical 2 notepad coils holding the wires together, we';; see how long they last... |
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Here is the fabulous plumbing I did to get the pressure gauge all hunky dorey. |
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| Put back together... smile pretty for the insurance co. and Photoshopped grill... | ||||
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1_29_09 Brake light switch with and without pad |
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| Pulleys aligned | ||||
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| Gas tank heat shield | ||||
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| Temporary exhaust... quiet enough that I can hear the "ghetto tick" from one of the lifters... Grrrr!!! | ||||
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| WTF? The chimp that made this rear pan didn't make it to fit standard 12" wide plates... Grrrr! | ||||
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| So I masked off some of the decent chrome on a 49 Chevy license guard and trimmed the back to fit, I will cut out the offending hole, and replace the whole rear pan (I have a license frenching box, and a new stock pan to install) when I get a chance and the body work starts | ||||
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| From this low angle (about a foot off the ground) you can see how fat the gast tank and shield hang down | ||||
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| I polished the Valve cover that got sand blasted better then the passenger side one, so they kinda match now | ||||
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| Still on the ramps in the back until I change the diff. oil I got it running pretty good tonight, temp went up to 180 slowly at idle, I gave it a little gas to get the fan spinning and about 3 seconds later the temp when down to 160 and crept back up to 180 slowly, so it needs a better fan or a shroud to keep the air going through the radiator. Temp exhaust will be more than quiet enough for the drive to Dave's... | ||||
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Let there be lights! |
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Ooooooh! |
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Ahhhh! I really liking these Corvette taillights, masking off the good chrome on the license guard keeps the shiny bits in proportion to each other. |
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You know me, gotta do everything just a little bit different... Already had a hole in the plaque and didn't want to drill any more, so I trimmed a washer so that a spring would hold onto it, then I welded the end of the spring to a plate, and then put some spacers onto some 2" bolts so that the spring would have enough length to flex and let the plaque still "hang" in the traditional spot, but not flop around while driving. |
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| Artsy | ||||
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| 02-23-09 | ||||
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| 02-24-09 home at last | ||||
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02-27-09 - 2 week dry spell and the first time the car gets washed
in 13 years ends it I put one leaf back in the front spring, raised it about 1"-1.5" I think this will be the final "stance". |
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Billetproof FL 09 show grounds transportation... My late cousin's Columbia with Fat Lucky stitched seat. |
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April 1, 2009... the Ford in the (14 x30) garage at home instead of the
barn... If anybody wonders why I work in the hot, nasty barn? because it's still better than this... |
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05-03-09 Debated on going to the Poor Boy breakfast and going to Dave's
shop afterwards, OR getting my Turns out that was a good decision... This is the mismatch, 46-48 "mustache" and the 42 hood |
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Sliced about 3" out of the center, to make the two character lines meet at a pint near the top, then took the second grill I bought, and cut an equal amount extra off of each end to extend the ends of the mustache out to just past the the end of the opening, like factory. Those ends need to have relief cuts made in them to make the transition where they joined smoother. I mig tacked it together, and Dave with his Miller "Tig From Hell" model welder, filled in the holes. My mig at home would have made a huge mess of this (see dash pics above) |
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| back on the car for the ride home... | ||||
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| Holes need to be filled, but a quick coat of Ace Navy... | ||||
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| 7-15-09 Fiberglass fan shroud. the temperature was rising when I sat at traffic lights, so it was suggested that I put a fan shroud on it... I tried making one out of cookie sheets, abut it was too flimsy... So I used a technique I saw on the TV show "Unique Whips"... sometimes vegetating isn't always a waste of time. | ||||
Make forms fro the diameter of the fan (18")
and then gave it 3/4" more, then the core area of the fan, plus and extra
1-1/2" on each side, you'll see why in a few. |
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The engine angle was accounted for with the
spacers... |
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Then I got some of this FABULOUS polka dot
t-shirt material that had Lycra in it so it stretched... $3 a yard on the
remnant rack at Joanne's |
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I used some staples at first, first in the
center, then radiating towards the corners, making sure the material had
no wrikles of not so tight areas... then I hot glued it down as smooth as
I could, so when I put the resin on, it would lay flatter. |
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Here it is all pretty, ready to be splooged
with resin |
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Here is the first coat of resin, took about 8
oz. on the first pass, then another 8 oz. before I started the matt layer. |
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I cut the matt into 2: x 4: strips and went
around the lip area, pretty good, then filled in the areas around the
edge, I just went to the edge because it'll be trimmed off anyway. |
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I waited 2 days just to be sure the resin was
cured, and I cut away some of the material(you are gonna want to do this
trust me) and drilled a hole to get a jig saw in... |
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I was starting to get a nice calm Zen feeling
about now... I don't know why. |
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Then I went on the back side and knocked down
the areas that got resin on them, and kind ground ot almost flat with a
sander. |
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Got it mostly knocked down and trimmed off the
cloth that was still kinda not soaked with resin. |
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then I cut the center out leaving the last
1-1/2" I made it wider than the raqdiator core, so I could mount some
aluminum angle... this will keep it rigid, and give me something to screw
the shroud to...  |
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Then I said screw it, I'll just cut the damn
thing in half... the aluminum angle will stay in one piece, and the two
pieces will be held together with it. |
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Test fit, looks like it'll work... |
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Now all that's left is a little more grinding,
a skim coat of bondo and some paint inside and out. If you don't want people to notice
it, paint it black |
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| T-nuts epoxied in... no need to try and fit a wrench inside the shroud... felt protects radiator from | ||||
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| Spacer tubes keep the mounting flange on the sides of the radiator just the right depth | ||||
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| Bottom piece on...this shows the thickness of the resin, t-shirt material, masonite and 'glass matt. | ||||
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| Top piece on...showing the sandwich of radiator flange, spacer tube, then shroud with t-nuts | ||||
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| Bottom piece off again... didn't work to fix my problem... | ||||
Up next, I use the same technique to make a new front end to the Riviera console... and a minibike body... |
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