The excitement is building
- Thread starter Island Girl
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Island Girl
Well-Known Member
Little Saturday Update . . . .
So I've been busy as a beaver with working out a way to mount the grill shell to the rad module . . . . and I like what I came up with
The coupling nuts turned out to be too long, and wayyy to hard to cut off and then locate a hole for a bolt right on target.
. . . And the flanges at the bottom of the grill shell needed to be trimmed back yet some more, so that it could slide into place on the rad module from the front without getting hung up on the shock mount brackets.
So I went with plan B, and swapped out the shorter 1/2" carriage bolts and coupling nuts in the rad side rails for 3/4" carriage bolts with nylocs and then made up some 1.25" wide flat bar to waffle out to the width to meet the grill shell and mount on the new carriage bolts.
This turned out to be wicked solid as a mounting base for the grill shell.
With the rad module mounted back in the frame, the grill shell slid right into place and I drilled a few holes and put in a few mounting bolts . . . will change them out for button head allens when they get here.
All I got to do now is get some polished aluminum and make a fan shroud . . . .
After looking at the price for a 2' X 2' piece of polished 1/8", ($130) . . . maybe I'll go with plain aluminum, especially since it's cheaper ($80), even 5/32" thickness is still under $100 . . . but polished would sure look nice . . . .
Anyway, some pics of today's progress . . .
So I've been busy as a beaver with working out a way to mount the grill shell to the rad module . . . . and I like what I came up with
The coupling nuts turned out to be too long, and wayyy to hard to cut off and then locate a hole for a bolt right on target.
. . . And the flanges at the bottom of the grill shell needed to be trimmed back yet some more, so that it could slide into place on the rad module from the front without getting hung up on the shock mount brackets.
So I went with plan B, and swapped out the shorter 1/2" carriage bolts and coupling nuts in the rad side rails for 3/4" carriage bolts with nylocs and then made up some 1.25" wide flat bar to waffle out to the width to meet the grill shell and mount on the new carriage bolts.
This turned out to be wicked solid as a mounting base for the grill shell.
With the rad module mounted back in the frame, the grill shell slid right into place and I drilled a few holes and put in a few mounting bolts . . . will change them out for button head allens when they get here.
All I got to do now is get some polished aluminum and make a fan shroud . . . .
After looking at the price for a 2' X 2' piece of polished 1/8", ($130) . . . maybe I'll go with plain aluminum, especially since it's cheaper ($80), even 5/32" thickness is still under $100 . . . but polished would sure look nice . . . .
Anyway, some pics of today's progress . . .
choppedtop
Well-Known Member
Lookin good for sure. On my grill, same as yours, I added an air dam at the top so all air is forced the the coils. Don't know if it helped or not, but I wanted all air going through and not over.
old round fart
Well-Known Member
Impressive detail and workpersonship!
Island Girl
Well-Known Member
Thanks everyone for all the compliments and kind words . . .
Positive feedback is a great motivator.
Now to get the fan shroud made and the fan properly mounted to it, and I think that will about finish the fabrications for the front end . . .
And just to be on the safe side, I'm going to pull the front wheel hub bearing caps off tomorrow and make sure Spirit packed the bearings . . . . would be just my luck that if I don't check, some one will have forgotten to do that before it shipped . . .
Positive feedback is a great motivator.
Now to get the fan shroud made and the fan properly mounted to it, and I think that will about finish the fabrications for the front end . . .
And just to be on the safe side, I'm going to pull the front wheel hub bearing caps off tomorrow and make sure Spirit packed the bearings . . . . would be just my luck that if I don't check, some one will have forgotten to do that before it shipped . . .
Island Girl
Well-Known Member
Been thinking about that as I built it . . . looking at what assemblies could be tig'd without creating a bigger pain if I have to work on something later.
Once I have all the ugly hex heads replaced with the tidy little button head allens and the mounting plate for the fan made, I'll be able to see a bigger picture and decide if it's worth tigging some of the smaller pieces into assemblies.
Having decided to create a shroud, as opposed to leaving the fan somewhat as previously pictured, it will be easy to tig the fan frame, where before it had to be assembled around the fan.
There's still some tweaking to be done on the fan structure before I can feel it's finished.
Please, girl, step back and take some pics of that beautiful car!
Island Girl
Well-Known Member
So I pulled the wheels and bearing caps, and kudos to Josh and the Spirit team . . . . the bearings looked well packed.
I put the "Weld Racing" dress up caps in the wheels as it looked so naked without them, and I had just forgotten to put them in when I put the wheels back on after putting the brakes on.
Actually ran across this pic on Spirit's FB page pics and it was just really obvious how ugly a wheel hub looks with a nice wheel and no dress up cover.
Though I'd rather be working on the T, today it was put up the hurricane shutters . . . This Dorian storm could have some real impact before it stops being a hurricane as it's forecast to be when it goes south of us here on St Croix, USVI.
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Island Girl
Well-Known Member
That little couple of dots, just to the south east of Puerto Rico is St Croix. The more major portion of the storm is predicted to go to the south of us, but I'm only about a half mile from the south shore with open ground, and sometimes they don't get it quite so right . . . better to be prepared.
This is where that 3+ month wait over the rear end issue looms big . . . If it weren't for that, it would be drivable by now . . . .
Just keeping my fingers crossed for the next couple months as we go thru the peak of hurricane season.
Island Girl
Well-Known Member
Direct hit here, went right over us for all intents and purposes . . . it's now a hurricane.
neighbor called to let me know my car tent was pretty trashed and in his yard, and that the Harley was on the ground.
Not sure if the T has any damage yet, won't know until I get home from work, sometime tomorrow. I know it's wet, as the car cover was in my neighbor's yard too
I expected the work tent to fly away if the storm changed from its originally predicted course as it did, so I removed the radiator and grill shell and put them in the house Sunday when I put the hurricane shutters up.
I'll post some pics as soon as I get home and get some . . . . hopefully, the flying tent didn't break the windshield on its way to the neighbor's yard . . .
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