A Bit More Progress

[choppinczech]

What a crafty guy you are! I have a hard time with a 7 piece jig saw puzzle.

Thanks.

Those jigs took hours to make and served their purpose.

But I only needed to use them for about 5 minutes.

 

[choppedtop]

That is the way it was when I was doing custom paint on motorcycles. Spend 3 or 4 hours taping and 5 or 10 minutes painting, then start all over again with the next pattern

 

[choppinczech]

I'm calling these done for now. I'm tired of working on them.







I'll attached these with silicone during final assembly.

 

[AusBucket]

Amazing work Choppinzech, love the creativity.

 

[Gerry]

I'm calling these done for now. I'm tired of working on them.

Thats not like you!!!!. Maybe with the new house n all, things are getting a bit 'crowded'.
I took a 15 year break once with my T. Not suggesting you do the same, but different pressures from different angles can get to you.

Amazing works, as always. Even when you tired your work is exemplary.
G

 

[fletcherson]

Nice! Taking a break and coming back later with fresh perspective isn’t a bad thing. Life doesn’t idle.

 

[choppinczech]

Just a break from the mirrors. Been on them for two months now.

There's still some tedious body work to do.

It's time to move on to other stuff like the battery recess.

 

[choppinczech]

I finally got my garage lit up,

I ended up converting the existing fluorescent fixture to LED, and branched off of that with two 4 footers and a 2 footer right over the car's front end.




That overhead opener will go bye bye some day and be replaced with a wall mounted opener.

The car is lit up like a surgical table now.

 

[AusBucket]

Very clean installation, but then we wouldn't expect anything else after seeing the pics from all your posts. ;-)) Love the clever use of the dead area above the door for your storage shelf!
Regards,

 

[old round fart]

I just got 10 two bulb 4’ led fixtures for my shop. Plugged one in and it over rode the 8’ fixture I have. I’m looking forward to my grandson climbing the ladder for me.

 

[choppinczech]

The original one that I retrofitted to LED puts out only half as much light as the others.

I'm gonna change it to one of these Lithonia units also.

 

[rubicon]

I have 9 six bulb fixtures with mirror reflectors. very bright. One in the back, three on each side and two in front. I want to switch over to LED replacement to cut down on operating cost. I'll keep the fixtures just change the bulbs. Chopp, I have no words worthy of the work you do. Amazing is the closes I can get. You set the bar high and I love it.

 

[choppinczech]

Thanks. Those look like good lights.

The initial cost of the bulbs will be high but I bet they'll pay for themselves in no time.

The two bulbs I have in my fluorescent fixture require no ballast. They get hot and neutral power from one end only.

 

[choppinczech]

Almost done with this battery mount.

I started by fastening the mold to sit level, plumb and perpendicular. Then increased to opening 1/4" all around.



Since I hate grinding excess glass, I marked where it needed to be and cut the pieces from templates.





Whenever I have overlapping mat, I like to feather the edges so that the buildup isn't too thick.



So the mold was laid up on a bench, reattached while still tacky and finished off from the inside.



I like to use this type of inserts in heavier duty areas. They have a lot of threads and don't spin on you later.

But I still like to put internal-tooth lock washers under the heads and goop on some epoxy to the "fingers" on the back side.





Although in this case I made some fiberglass caps filled with epoxy.

 

[choppinczech]

I'm working on some rubber mounted bracing now from the battery holder down to the frame.

 

[choppinczech]

One thing I forget to mention if you want to recess the heads or even up the surface on the back side for these threaded inserts. This particular size 5/16" insert requires a 1/2" mounting hole. So a router bit with a 1/2" pilot bearing makes a great spotfacer.

 

[choppinczech]

Some small but important steps lately. Been super busy at work.

I opted not to attach my battery holder to the frame. It seemed like it'd be another body mount in essence with the body and frame moving independently.



So instead, I braced it from the inside using existing mounting spots.



That gave me another bracing point to support the backs of the seat shells.

These opposing flats were put into the molds when the shells were made. The mounting bolts are held captive and the nuts fit into recesses in the cross piece.









So it was nice to be able to take care of two issues at the same time.

 

[choppinczech]

I'm super stoked!

This fuel tank holds 15 gallons. A hair less with the fuel pump inside. But that's way more than I anticipated.

 

[Intrepid]

Very cool.. I struggled to get a 10 gallon tank in mine.

 

[choppinczech]

Been working on the waterfall between my seats. The center console was made way before the seat shells and I wanted a shape that flows with them. So I removed the section that wasn't jiving and started making a mold plug.









So next I'll make a mold of the new plug with plenty of overlap of the keeper sections. After I lay up the new section, it'll show where to cut and join up the two.

I also redid my rear setup. The wishbone locator I had was just too close to the exhaust. So I changed to a panhard.

And I wanted to change the rear crossmember too. To get the upper shock mounts closer to the crossmember and get rid of the adjustable mounts since my ride height is established.

So from this...



To this...



Now the shocks are tucked in close to the crossmember and in double shear.