Wrap Headers

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Major System Category: Exhaust
Task:
Parts: Steel Ties
            Heat Wrap
Prerequisite Tasks:
Additional Costs: $71
Time Requirement: 1.5 hours
Date Started: June 1, 2015
Date Completed: June 3, 2015
The Kooks header and exhaust system (marketed by Vraptor Speedworks) arrived one afternoon. At this point in the build, I am bogged down with a bunch of nagging, putsy details that all need attention. My work schedule has been unreal, and it detracts from the time necessary to work on the car.

Partially wrapped header.

The exhaust system consists of headers, cats and the super massive cross over pipe. None of this can be finalized until I have the engine in the car. I did lay the cats and tail pipes in place over the top of the chassis (above the transaxle) and did some preliminary measurements for brackets to secure the tail pipe, but I can't do much more until I know where the headers land and work my way back from there.

This stuff is pretty easy to use.

The one thing I can do is wrap the headers. I thought I could get away with 30 feet of heat wrap. The Kooks headers require 60 feet per header. The easiest thing to do is to wrap the individual pipes coming out from the engine, then wrap from the cats back. Secure everything with steel ties and hope for the best. I've never wrapped headers before, and the when looking at the donor parts, it seems the OEM wrap is pretty cheap stuff.

Based on my preliminary measurements (i.e. holding header in space next to the cats from under the car), it is going to be very tight vis-a-vis the linkage for the cable shifter. Next item, is to fabricate a shield/housing for those pieces.

A Pillar Covers

<<  Overhead Console                                                           >>

Major System Category: Interior
Task: Construct coverings for the A Pillar
Parts:
Sheet Metal (26 gauge)
Metal Brake Machine
Angle Die Ginder
Prerequisite Tasks:

1. Cockpit window installation
2. All wiring along A pillar needs to be in place
3. Overhead console must be constructed.

Additional Costs: $20 (estimate)
Time Requirement: 6+ hours
Date Started: August 1, 2015

Date Completed: August 22, 2015

This has been a major hang up on the build. Some people may just want to get the car rolling and do not care about the interior. I do care about the interior looks and layout, and I have found myself spending a lot of time. One issue is the A pillars. I want something more than just a black pipe and against rough fiberglass for an interior motif. In addition, I have wiring running up both A pillars to an overhead console. These connections are for lights, TPMS, mirror (e.g. lights, temperature, day/night sensors), HomeLink, Power jacks for radar detector, compartment for remotes and phone, GPS, Bluetooth microphone, power FM antennae and probably a few things I am forgetting..

Driver's side A pillar. You can see from the body shell that this makes for an irregular shape. This is why I thought I could make acrylic work, but it turned out I could not accomplish this with a single piece. However, with sheet metal, I am to bend and shape and press it into a shape that matches the requirement. Any gaps cane be handled using a carbon fiber trim I purchased two years ago.

I have a need to both secure and hide the conduits. At one point, a third party offered a complete set of coverings for around $400. This was a super deal. But when I went to purchase the coverings, he no longer was making them. That meant I had to build my own. I hadn't planned for this.

The first thing I needed to do was make a pattern. There is plenty of card board waiting to go to recycling, so finding pieces big enough is no problem.

I tried working with acrylic panels in various thickness. I found that 1/32 works best, but it is very touchy and you can screw up very quickly. This comes down to working on something for two days, then wrecking it by accident. The overhead console is made of acrylic, but that module lent itself to the material. The pillar and roll cage coverings require more severe bends, and the acrylic just breaks or refuses to work out.

30 inch metal brake I purchased from Amazon for $70.

Eventually, I came back to sheet metal. However, to make this work I needed a metal bending brake. The one I purchased is a 30 inch brake. Harbor Freight has an 18 inch model, but I determined that was too small for my needs. Typically, I am dealing with lengths between 14 and 24 inches for the coverings.

I traced  the pattern to the sheet metal.

The other problem is the irregular shape of the pillar area. This has to be done with the body shell attached tot he car, but prior to paint. I cut some card board and took it to the car. Here is where it gets tricky. While the shape appears easy when examining it from the outside, there is this pesky roll cage under the fiber glass and it is a 3 dimensional section that needs to be measured around. I solved this problem by taking a tape measure and measuring the circumference along the pillar at different points. I also mounted the dash pod, because there is a difference of two inches with and without the dash pod installed.

This oddly shaped piece of metal is the A pillar covering. It is ready to go to my guy for the carbon fiber treatment.

I cut the pattern out of the cardboard, mounted it on the sheet metal and traced it using a Sharpie. Then it was a simple matter of cutting the sheet metal using an angle die grinder. I have a cheap one I purchased at Harbor Freight that really works well for close work like this. I ground down two wheels cutting out both the passenger and driver's side coverings.

This is the pattern for the piece that runs from the A pillar to the overhead console.

I had to make a couple of bends and pressure form it to the car. It is not a perfect fit, but it doesn't have to be right now. I just need the approximate shape, and I can deal with the finishing when it is attached to the car for final fit. I think I can do attachment using double sided tape and probably a black  rivet or two. Final fit will have to happen before the wind shield is installed.

These are the same on both sides. Although final fitment seems to vary somewhat between passenger and driver side. I think this may be  something I did than a true difference in the body shell..

The cross coverings that run between the A pillar and the overhead console are pretty simple to construct. Basically, it is rectangle with a curved end that has a bend. Compared to the other pieces, I had these cut, bent and roughly fitted in about 1 hour.

Clamped for rough fit on the driver's side. I refined the bend and eliminated the gaps visible in this photo. The other issue is the wires that are present. They need to be there so I can ensure they actually get covered by these pieces.

The curve on the this piece follows the curvature of the wind shield glass. This is going to get a bit tricky on final assembly. Right now I am just clamping things into place without regard to the finish, but when I get to final assembly I have to be very careful. These will have three coats of clear coat over the hydrographics carbon fiber, but it is still a metal piece and things can get scratched.

Primed and ready for hydrographics.

While the overhead console needs to be installed when the body shell is off, these pieces can only be installed withe body shell in tact. I better be sure I don't need to take anything apart at that point, because it is a great deal of work to do that. When I do this for the final time, the car will be close to completion!

A pillar pieces ready for hydrographics.

Overhead Console

<<  Cockpit Rear Window Install                              A Pillar Coverings  >>

Major System Category: Interior
Task: Construct overhead console
Parts:
Acrylic 1/32 inch thickness
Metal Brake Machine
Angle Die Ginder
Prerequisite Tasks: Cockpit Rear Window Install
Additional Costs: $20 (estimate)
Time Requirement: 12+ hours
Date Started:  June 1, 2015

Date Completed:  August 5, 2015

The overhead console is not part of the build. It is an optional item I decided to build to accomplish a number of things. It houses the following items:

• Overhead lights
• Front and rear speakers attached to the parking sensors
• TPMS control panel
• The wiring associated with the rear view mirror (i.e. themostat, power, compass)
• GPS receiver
• Blue tooth microphone
• Powered FM antennae
• HomeLink Control Panel
• Power jacks for radar detector
• Compartment for phone and remotes

I started with a flat sheet of acrylic and drew out the pattern.

The biggest challenge associated with the overhead console is the curvature of the roof. There are very few straight lines. I never really figured out a good way to create a pattern for this. So I started with straight lines and worked at shaping the ends that meet the roof.

This is a very rough looking after I applied the initial bends to the acrylic.

My earlier experiments with 1/8 inch thickness proved that the acrylic was difficult to work with. I decided to try 1/32 thickness. This is easy to bend and very unforgiving if it gets too hot. It proved too weak to simply fold into the shape I needed for the console.

I used about every clamp I could find to hold this thing together.

I discovered that I needed to reinforce the overhead console, and fabricated ribs (like for a container ship). I also drilled through each rib so I could run wiring through out console. I have wires coming off the front roll bars via the A pillars and from the rear cockpit window frame as well.

One of the [rob;es with the ribs are gaps between the reinforcing ribs and the shell. 

I fashioned the ribs our of 1/8 inch acrylic. I had this from some of my earlier experiments. The thicker acrylic proved too difficult to shape. I added angle aluminum to the edges of the ribs. I riveted the angle aluminum to the ribs, then used 3M's 8115 panel bond to adhere the ribs to the inner wall of the console.

I ended up purchasing bigger clamps to hold everything together, while the panel bond cured.

The overhead console is very ungainly, and it needs to be fitted inside the car. I used a ratchet strap to hold the console against the inner roof. There is a lot of fitting that has to take place, due to the curvature of the roof and the height of the console. I ended trimming the top of the console twice. The ratchet strap was the only way to hold the console in place.

I constructed a box out of 1/8 inch acrylic to hold remotes and my cell phone. This didn't go as smoothly as I wished. I ended up fiber glassing the opening to hide the mess I had made. This looks very rough, but as with all fiber glass projects on the build, I just kept working at it until it looked better.

It is important to center the console and hook it around the forward roll bar, This needs to be in place before the the A pillar and corresponding roll bar coverings are fabricated. The other issue is level. I used both a bubble level and the cross hatch laser level to ensure the console is sitting level in the center of the cockpit.

This is the overhead console prior to being primed for hydrographics work/

The overhead console will be installed using a rail system of 3/16 all thread that ties into the front and rear roll bars. This is run through the ribs and is designed to act as a hanger. This can only be installed when the body shell is off the car for paint.

Primed and ready for the carbon fiber treatment. Note: This is upside down in this photo.

This entire interior process took a huge amount of time. I had expected to purchase all these parts, and when it became obvious I would have to manufacture everything, I didn't have a clear idea of what materials to use or how to go about it. I think I will end up with a product that is superior to anything I could have purchased, because I designed it for this car and my needs.

Cockpit Rear Window Install

<<  Cockpit Rear Window             Overhead Console  >>

Major System Category: Interior
Task: Install rear window
Parts: Cockpit Rear Window and helpers
Prerequisite Tasks: Cockpit Rear Window
Additional Costs: N/A
Time Requirement: 30 minutes
Date Started:  April 25, 2015

Date Completed:  April 25, 2015

This is a very quick task with one slight catch. You need three hands. I know some of you are saying, "Well you're a ninja something or other, use your foot." Even Ninjas run into problems from time to time. Of course, I have resources very few builders can claim - grand kids! In this case, Ethan and Zachary. So now I have six hands and and people short enough to easily fit inside the cockpit.

The problem is to install the window here. As you can see there is a lot going on here, and not much room. This is taken from the rear of the car through the engine bay to the front.

Installing the rear window is really a very big step in working out the rest of the interior. I found I needed to know exactly where this fit inside the car and I have done numerous measurements from the back window as I worked on the overhead console and NACA wing vents.

Everyone piled into the car. I had the doors on the car to make sure no one fell out.

Because the window is installed in the window frame, there is no easy way to reach a hand around the car and hold the nut and bolt for the frame, plus hold the frame up. My solution was to recruit helpers (this did involve a trip to Sonic and some ice cream).

Zachary on the driver's side as the lift goes up.

There goes Ethan on the passenger side.

With helpers, the rear cockpit window was easily installed and secured in less than 30 minutes. I raised the car on the lift and clambered up a ladder into the engine bay. The kids had a blast.

Rear window taken from the driver's side. You can see some wires coming through the top of the frame. These have to be threaded at the time of installation.

Same view from the passenger side. The wires come from the second power cell installed in the engine bay.