Mister Towed's Tai Chi build - Page 55

mikmiglia · #**1081** 23rd January 2013, 07:22

What you need to do to keep the bonnet ridged, is make a template of the profile of the bulk head. Basically get some thin card press against the edge of the bulkhead were the bonnet sits and draw the shape . Make a template seperate for both sides as they wont be the same, basically you will end up with two like hockey stick shape templates.
The reason you draw the shape from the bulkhead side is that you will then transfar the shape to some 12mm ply and cut them to fit inside the bonnet.
I offer up the ply ribs to the inside of the bonnet making sure they a at a distance away from your master cylinders and so on, so mark them in with a pencil and then drill a number of 8th holes on the pencil line, one you have drilled the holes fix screws from the opposite side to hold the ribs in place. You will find that you will have to pull the sides of the bonnet in when you fix, well thats fine as that s good as its copying the shape from the the bulkhead side , so when you shut the bonnet the bonnet fits the bulkhead shut line.

You will need the round the top edges of the fitted ribs in place , and then they can be glass in place to make a strong frame inside. And once glass has dried remove the screws and make good the holes on the out side of the bonnet.

Long bloody winded way of explaning , may need to read twice to make sence lol

garyh · #**1082** 23rd January 2013, 08:12

I think we should have some more videos... now everyone has the hang of posting pics!

Mister Towed · #**1083** 23rd January 2013, 17:53

That was a pretty good explanation of how to make the bonnet rigid Mike, I'm going to see how mine works out with vents and bonnet pins first though. If it lifts or distorts too much at speed I'll go with the hockey stick strengthening ribs as a retro fit option.

As for videos, everything takes me so bloody long to finish that unless I went with time-lapse photography, like that excellent Spitfire engine build video, then I'd need a thousand gigabyte memory card just to capture me picking my nose while I'm thinking about how I want the next bit to work out.

Looking forward to posting a road trip video though...

Paul L · #**1084** 23rd January 2013, 20:08

MikMiglia - Hi Mike, as they used to say on Blue Peter...

Here's one you made earlier...

This was from Barry May's build thread, the Ecosse Blue one with a tail fin.

While looking for this photo it was interesting to see how the doors were done on this car.
If you get a chance to update your own build thread one day Mike, I'd love to see some photos of your doors too.

Mr T - I think the vents will make be a nice addition.
Although would it be worth fitting the vents after you've got an MOT?
Sorry, I've forgotten if you are going with the MOT before final paint plan.

Cheers, Paul.

mikmiglia · #**1085** 23rd January 2013, 21:01

Well paul, well done for finding them pics. You will see what im up too from next week with pics, keep and eye out.

Mister Towed · #**1086** 24th January 2013, 18:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by mikmiglia

Well paul, well done for finding them pics. You will see what im up too from next week with pics, keep and eye out.

Looking forward to the update Mike...

Now, the best thing about Sammio building imho is the complete lack of rules. You may find this surprising given what I do for a living, but, in my working life I've always been one to view rules as a flexible concept that're there to be stretched to the limit if not actually broken.

So, when a challenge manifests itself, rather than consult the comprehensive build manual for the 'right' way of tackling it as you would if you'd bought a Caterham or Westfield, you invariably have to start a lateral thinking process instead. And nobody can tell you you've got it wrong, with the possible exception of M*cha, who no-one listens to anyway.

And the latest challenge is the fly-screen. I don't know if anyone's noticed, but my perspex fly-screen hasn't been attached properly since I bonded in the Porsche 550 Spyder dashboard I bought from Gary J about a hundred years ago. Well, last summer.

The problem is that my fancy dashboard has completely blocked access to the underside of the body at each end of the 'screen frame. I can get at all the other fasteners across the middle, but the very ends are totally inaccessable. This isn't the best illustration of the problem, but trust me, you can't get at the underside at all.

As I don't particularly want to cut access panels into the sides of the dashboard, some type of blind fastener was needed.

Whilst sitting on the toilet, netbook on knees, pondering the not inconsiderable expense and pitfalls of having to buy a decent 'rivnut' tool - looking at a few forums it seems they quickly get loose if attached to fibreglass - it suddenly struck me that I might actually be closer to a solution than I could've possibly imagined.

You see, a year or so ago I replaced the broken toilet seat in our downstairs 'cloakroom' (posh talk for spare shi**er) with a fancy, soft closing one that came with ingenious, shake-proof fasteners called 'well nuts'. If you're not familiar with these, they consist of thick rubber tube with a brass nut set in one end and a matching bolt. You push the tube into a hole that's near enough an interference fit (hole too small for object going in), put the bolt in, and when you tighten it up it pulls the rubber tube up into a doughnut shape under the panel and jams it in place.

And a quick ebay search revealed that for the princely sum of less than six pounds I could buy the same toilet seat technology on a smaller scale, M6 in my case, and solve the problem without having to cut access panels in my car.

So here it is, straight from bog to car, a very effective way of fitting the screen without requiring access to both the inside and outside of the body shell.

Next time we'll be looking at bonnet vents hopefully...

Paul L · #**1087** 24th January 2013, 19:31

Mr T - Another top tip.

I'll have a look at these well nuts as they might solve a number of issues.

Cheers, Paul.

Mister Towed · #**1088** 25th January 2013, 08:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul L

Mr T - Another top tip.

I'll have a look at these well nuts as they might solve a number of issues.

Cheers, Paul.

Just noticed your avatar picture Paul. Take a look at your motorcycle fairing, it's probably held on with well nuts.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/M6-Rubber-...item3ccbd2484e

Mister Towed · #**1089** 29th January 2013, 15:27

My £37 aluminium radiator arrived from China this morning, hooray!

It's very good quality for the price, but, as I almost fully expected, it arrived damaged. It was packaged well enough, but the courier had made a special effort to crush the box.

Thankfully it's only the overflow pipe that's sheared off, which I was going to block off anyway. The core's fine and I'm not sending it all the way back to China, I'll just block up the hole somehow.

I'll get around to fitting the alloy rad soon, but I decided to have a crack at the bonnet louvres today instead. They're actually going to be cosmetic rather than functional as I didn't want to weaken the rather thin bonnet moulding more than necessary.

So, we start with one of these for £3.95 delivered (ebay) -

Then we take the angle grinder fitted with a really thin disc to it -

After cutting both down so we have a pair of 100mm wide louvred inserts, draw round them at the desired location, grind out recesses to suit, stick them in place with mega strong glue then blend in with filler once they're set in place -

I'll sand them down tomorrow and see what they look like, but so far, so good.

Viatron · #**1090** 29th January 2013, 16:11

Mr T,
are you going to cut away underneath for some ventilation or are they a decorative item?

Mister Towed · #**1091** 29th January 2013, 17:15

Quote:

Originally Posted by Viatron

Mr T,
are you going to cut away underneath for some ventilation or are they a decorative item?

They're going to be decorative I'm afraid. The original plan was to have them fully functioning, but the bonnet moulding is very thin and I'd be concerned that it may crack if I cut them out underneath.

The aluminium panel the louvres are stamped into is also too thin to be a structural part of the bonnet, they'd allow it to flex which would probably crack the paint. They do look the part though at a fifth of the price of purpose made ones.

CarNoob · #**1092** 29th January 2013, 22:34

Did you put extra fibre glass underneath, i have put in side vents but built up the underside first. will up load picture when i can locate my

phone cable. Why not cut slots with disc cutter.

Mister Towed · #**1093** 30th January 2013, 07:56

I haven't reinforced the area under the vents, I've only recessed the bonnet about half a mm so I shouldn't have weakened it too much. I'll see how flexible it is once it's finished and maybe add some 'glass underneath if necessary. I can cut slots underneath the vents if the bonnet lifts at speed, but I'm hoping that won't be necessary as I've got the bonnet pins on top to hold it down and I'm not sealing the back edge of the bonnet all the way around - I'm just sticking foam rubber strip in short sections under the bonnet to give the right stand off, but leaving gaps between them to let the air out. That's the idea, anyway.

CarNoob · #**1094** 30th January 2013, 08:50

I have done the same puting in spacers to leave the air flow for the gap.

Mister Towed · #**1095** 30th January 2013, 15:13

My £3.95 Heatrae louvres are now blended in and I'm rather pleased with the result -

Rest of the day spent sanding, filling and sanding.

Shopping with the wife tomorrow apparently, but should make some more progress on Friday.

oxford1360 · #**1096** 30th January 2013, 15:18

It's going to look good when that paint goes on.

davecymru · #**1097** 30th January 2013, 16:00

I can see you've got 1-or-2 small holes on your bulge to fill

Best of luck matey!

Mister Towed · #**1098** 30th January 2013, 16:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by davecymru

I can see you've got 1-or-2 small holes on your bulge to fill

Best of luck matey!

Yes, been at the bonnet with the filler and sanding mouse today. Where I connected the big scoop to the original bonnet line there was a big, bumpy void. I've managed to get it mostly smoothed out today by spreading loads of filler on it and using a ruler as a scraper. Much happier with it now but still a work in progress...

Paul L · #**1099** 30th January 2013, 20:52

Mr T - I think the louvres will look the part one the finished car.

But I fear you will hate them when it comes to painting & sanding.

The good news is you seem to have reached the point where sanding & painting is an issue.

Good luck, Paul.

Mister Towed · #**1100** 31st January 2013, 07:11

I take your point about painting the louvres, it's going to be a challenge. My feeling is that so long as the car looks good from ten paces I'm not too worried about what the concours d'elegance judges think when they look at it with a microscope. It is, after all, supposed to look like a fifties racing car, not a modern, high end production car.

Steadying my nerve prior to spraying now, much as i did before trying my first weld. Sitting cross-legged on the floor, and breath in......... and out.