I took a day off this week just to step away from the car. It was a nice little break, my wife and I watched Isle of Dogs. It's a Wes Anderson movie and not for everyone - I enjoyed it more than I thought I would.
It was a better week for me, I knocked off a few big items off the to-do list and I'm feeling better about getting closer to the end. It still feels like a far ways off but I think that's the light at the end of the tunnel and not a train!
It took me a long time to decide whether to hinge or fix my front clam into place. Hinging is a lot cooler but decidedly more complicated to get right/do well. It's even more difficult if you're running the fender liners. Ultimately I decided I would lock the front clam down and use quick release pins and the aerocatches to hold it in place. Making this decision made laying out all my front end stuff clearer.
The splitter tunnels as-received aren't flat, which makes them difficult to bond onto the street splitter. I used some reinforced resin to flatten it out.
I'm going with the belt and suspenders philosophy in areas where I'm bonding panels together. I'm worried the panel bond may give up or not be strong enough to make the jump to fill in all the gaps. In the case of the splitter tunnels I'm using panel bond to initially secure them, following up with some fiberglass, then will finish off with a few fasteners. These tunnels aren't going anywhere!
It was pretty cool to cut into the street splitter - it's fiberglass honeycomb sandwiched between fiberglass sheets.
As an FYI for those who are contemplating the track splitter - it's my understanding the track splitter comes as a "skin" and needs to be "filled in" to be usable. It doesn't have an internal honeycomb structure like the street splitter - explains the difference in cost.
With the tunnels in place I was able to figure out where to locate my quick release pins. I bonded a plate of aluminum to the vertical fiberglass fins and secured a piece of L-metal to the splitter. I'll drill a hole through the 2 plates as the final step just before finishing everything off so I get the alignment right.
I really had to think about where to locate the aerocatches - I like the hidden location most builders are using but I would prefer if the loading could be distributed over a wider area. Turns out my decision was made easier due to some body distortion/alignment issues I've got.
When applying load to the outboard edge of my front clam (where the hidden nose latch would be located), I have a mismatch to my spider/windshield area.
It would take me serious work to try and get that aligned correctly. However, if I locate my aerocatch on the top surface it distributes the load across the interior and exterior edges, helping to bring the alignment back in. I may need to use bumpstops to control just how much movement I get while achieving sufficient preload.
I located the nose latch over the "beer cup" holder and set the pin's location at the center of the depression. I had an interference between the latch body and the spider; I might have been better off offsetting the pin's location slightly.
You need to be careful when cutting the hole out for the latch body. The template is slightly oversized - but the holes you need to make for the screws are super close to the cutout. I wanted to preserve as much material as possible so undercut and crept up to the right size.
So some modification of the latch body was necessary ...
The front wheel liners were next - my driver side liner needed a fair amount of cutting to fit, the passenger side was a bit easier. It's not a very flush fit between the clam and liners so I used panel bond adhesive to set the position and will be going back in with fiberglass to glass it all in (belt and suspenders!).
Here's a shot of some of the gaps:
When setting the fore/aft position of my splitter I pushed it forward about 0.5" due to the wheel well recontour I did. The bonus here is I now have just enough clearance that I can turn my wheels lock to lock without risk of rubbing while my front lift is engaged and I have plenty of room to pull a wheel without getting it pinched between stuff.
Speaking of wheel clearances - I went back and did a little more finessing of my new rear wheel contours. I pulled the springs from my rear shocks and articulated the rear suspension. I was able to get full compression of my shocks and the tires look like they've been eaten by the wheel well. It's CLOSE. I'm sure I have tire rubs in my future, just hoping it won't be too severe. If I do and it's not kosher I'll have to think about adding some type of fender flare, the wheel well is too thin to take any more material out, it's about 0.25" right now. I'm confident if I attempt fender flares it'll look pretty ugly so trying hard to not have to go down that path.
Another item I had to go back and fix was the very first fiberglass job I did - the reinforcement of the rear clam where my intake tube pushes through. It wasn't a very good job the first time around and I made the mistake of not making a gap between my tube and the new fiberglass. This is a recipe for rubbing - so I cut my initial work out and redid it, this time using a piece of foam board to create some separation. It's surprising how much I've learned about fiberglass since that first job!
I'm not a pro by any means but I've stayed multiple nights at a Holiday Inn Express so I'm feeling pretty good about it.
I did a bit of a hack job earlier with the cutouts for my rear taillights and this also needed redressing. Needs a bit more bondo work to get the gaps consistent all around the openings but I like how it looks from directly behind.
From the side there's this "eyebrow" look that I'm not sure I love. Too far into it to change gears now! I wish I'd been able to find some nice round LED lights and go with Howard's version - glass it all in flat then use separate light assemblies. I searched for a long time and just couldn't find a light I liked.
Taking a step back ... I like the look. Seems like I have a paired circles theme running.
Similarly in the front. I picked up a set of cheap fog lights and stuck them in my recesses to get an idea of how things would look, I think they'll do.
It's great to feel like I'm getting more traction once again and making progress. There's still a million things to do but getting some of these items knocked off and getting clarity on others has helped with getting me re-energized.
More discussion and photos on the blog:
35. Splitting h-air-s – Cam's Superlite SLC