To do the panels I wound up with about 34 piece that needed to be made and there may be two more. Only six panels out of the lot didnot need bending at least once.The hardest to do were the rear upright tower, and the ones that outlined the rear window. The tower had multiple bends in several planes and was a B**** to plan out and bend.The rear window spacers are one inch and my bender's face is 2". Had to make a piece just for that bend. Spacers had to be made as I want to insulate the cabin every way I can. These spaces are filled with expanding foam(Great Stuff) from Home Depot. Now before someone flames me, I know that they will support combustion. I tested a piece of the stuff and yes it will burn, but takes a long time to ignite and a lot of heat before it begins to burn. Just remember, fiberglass will burn as well. The attachment of the spacers at the top of the window almost caused me to give up on the idea of spacers or outlining the window in stainlesss all together. The rear portion of the cage fit too close to the body to attach the rivets at the top(pulling from the cabin). I came up with another idea, that is to pull the rivets from the stainless side and put stainless washers made for rivets on the back side, so that when the mandrel pulled, it snugged up to the washer and held the fiberglass without splitting.
The kick panels were finished as well and are attached with nutserts. These were popped with the Plasma torch and the steel grinding bit used to dress the hole is just the same size as the nutsert itself. These are 4 or 5 times as hard to pull as the pop rivets. It took both hands to pull them snug. The hydraulic puller is very expensive.
I have done most of the welding and I can tell you that flat welds are the easyest to do. Consequently, the car has been in some very strange positions in order to make the seams as close to flat as possible. The ones I can't do will be done by a racecar fabricator who works for Brad Brand at Atlanta Chassis Dyno. Brad is assisting with the engine build, and is going to fabricate my exhaust system in stainless. They fabricate all of their turbo and exhaust tubing on their 700cu. in. ford engine.
I have all of this week off from work so some more progress should be made. The money I got from the sale of my old 930 will help bring in some more pieces. Hopefully in a month or two I will get to goig faster than a snails pace. the fabrication just took way longer than I thought it would.
Bill
The kick panels were finished as well and are attached with nutserts. These were popped with the Plasma torch and the steel grinding bit used to dress the hole is just the same size as the nutsert itself. These are 4 or 5 times as hard to pull as the pop rivets. It took both hands to pull them snug. The hydraulic puller is very expensive.
I have done most of the welding and I can tell you that flat welds are the easyest to do. Consequently, the car has been in some very strange positions in order to make the seams as close to flat as possible. The ones I can't do will be done by a racecar fabricator who works for Brad Brand at Atlanta Chassis Dyno. Brad is assisting with the engine build, and is going to fabricate my exhaust system in stainless. They fabricate all of their turbo and exhaust tubing on their 700cu. in. ford engine.
I have all of this week off from work so some more progress should be made. The money I got from the sale of my old 930 will help bring in some more pieces. Hopefully in a month or two I will get to goig faster than a snails pace. the fabrication just took way longer than I thought it would.
Bill
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