A Bit More Progress

[choppinczech]

Thanks Gerry. I'd also like to find something to help control back flow and aeration like this.


For the tubing inside I have some semi-ridgid PTFE. I'll make a form to the shapes I need and fill the tubing with hot sand.

I've done it with sprinkler pipe. It works really well.

 

[Gerry]

The return is the one thats bent at 90*. Its also got a baffle between the exit and the pick up. I want to run a small tank that is between the main tank and the fuel pump to act as an isolated pick up and reserve tank. The gauge in the main tank:... when it hits empty, will mean about another 1 gallon in the reserve tank.





The reserve tank is the angled box with the white side in the body recess. Fuel from main tank hot this one that has a pickup in it for the fuel pump.

 

[choppinczech]

All tacked up.




My MIG worked out o.k. for tack welds, but I wouldn't try to do anything else with it. After burning up about 20 tips, I can proudly say that I can change out a bird's nest in a matter of seconds.

 

[choppinczech]

By bird's nest I mean this...

 

[old round fart]

That is why you use a spool gun. The wire is on the gun so the wire doesn’t need to be pushed so far. Now it’s done I
tell you that! Lol
Did you see my private message?

 

[choppinczech]

That is why you use a spool gun. The wire is on the gun so the wire doesn’t need to be pushed so far. Now it’s done I
tell you that! Lol

I'm too cheap to buy one for a hand full of tack welds. I'll search out someone to do the finish welds. I never had any problems with pushing the .030 wire. A teflon liner, .035 tips and a light tension on the drive wheel worked great. The bird nesting always happened when I burned a tip.

Did you see my private message?

Yes. No problem. Thanks for asking.

 

[choppinczech]

I found a certified welder doing side jobs in Reno to tig weld this up. He did a great job. It's a nine hour round trip from my house. Once to drop it off and again to pick it up. But it's done. I just want to carefully round over the beads and get it mounted.

I'm also working on the battery mount. The rectangle drawn on the back of the tub is where it'll go. An Optima mounted horizontally.

 

[Island Girl]

That's some damn fine work there!

 

[choppinczech]

Thanks!

I've also been working on my side mirrors. I always liked the swept back styling on sports car and super car mirrors.


I tried a few aftermarket ones but nothing worked. So I'm making my own to fit this car's style and resemble some of the shapes throughout.

They'll attach to these recesses I molded in years ago that also share a side to side dash support.







I started the whole adventure off by making the acrylic mirrors. It's much easier to give the shells an even gap around the mirrors than make the mirrors fit the shells.

And started making the molds for the shells.

Doing it like this helps to get both shells as close to the same by hand as possible. Individual shaped puzzle pieces.





So these molds are the insides of the shells. I'll lay on several layers of 8.9 oz. 8 harness satin weave to a 3/16" thickness.

I have the mirror swivel mechanism figured out but I'll post those later.

 

[Neshkoro]

All I can say is DAMN!
Nice work.

 

[Indycars]

That deserves a double wow ....... Wow, Wow !!!

 

[Spanky]

Chop . . . you rock, buddy! Can't wait to see this sucker go screamin' down the road

 

[choppinczech]

Thanks guys.

Once I get that battery recess cut out and prepped I'll fix this mold in place and glass the shape in from the inside of the tub.



It's just a box that's sized to my hold down with the mounting holes indicated. There's a bit of taper on the sides to pull it out.

The mold needs to sit plumb and level.

 

[rubicon]

Glad to see your work being posted again. Awesome work Chopp.

 

[Cristobal Estrada]

Super nice work!

 

[choppinczech]

These are what I needed to make the countersinks in. They're the pivots for my mirrors.



Inside are these little stemmed balls that come from the R/C world used as suspension and steering joints.



They're sandwiched between the two plates and squeezed together with spring tension. They swivel really smooth.

 

[fletcherson]

Nice to see the Lamborghini bucket back in motion! I enjoy watching your progress.

 

[choppinczech]

I ended up using an 8.5 oz. 2x2 twill weave fabric to lay these up. It’s the most conformable weave that I know of and it was still pushed to it’s limits on this shape.



And there’s no better time to spray on some high build primer while the part is still tacky. It fills the voids and cures the underlying resin.





This jig makes it easy to place and remove the shells over and over, keeping them in the same location. It uses the molds and positions the shells at a 10° inward angle and a 3° lean back to match the car’s rake. The hinges allowed me play with different angles and once the 10° angle was decided on the bracing was added.










With the shells held in rock solid position, I can start working on the bases and arms.

 

[choppinczech]

I'm changing the double arms to single arms like this. A triangular shape at the base, tapering to a horizontal plane at the shells.


I surrounded the steel base plates by making them undersized and bolting them in place with oversized saturated glass behind. Waxed foil tape keeps the part from sticking and adds a bit of clearance for primer and paint later.







These steel straps riveted to the shells gives me a target for the tack welded threaded rods to come.

 

[rubicon]

Amazing. Love it.