Ben280 Posted May 13 Author Share Posted May 13 (edited) Also working on getting the radiator extractor wrapped up. This part has been a LONG time coming, and after a lot of pausing since I wanted to do it with carbon fiber, I've cheaped out and will just make it out of fiberglass and waft black paint towards it. This was a pretty fun thing to build, and figure I can get y'all up to speed! First tho, everybody in the way-back machine to March 2024. First thing to do was figure out how to make the shape. I started by cutting two huge holes in the hood, and start taping cardboard and paper to connect the three shapes. The challenge with this method is that I've firmly attached the hood to the car with tape, and because the shape is mostly paper, there was no good way to remove it to do anything with it! I decided here that expanding foam was going to be necessary to keep the shape and give me something to work with. I managed to squeeze a trash bag around the radiator, and bought some 2 part expanding foam from Amazon and started pouring. This process took SOOO MUCH FOAM! So much foam. I had to re-order 3 times to fill the shape out. Two things to note for folks thinking about doing this: This foam expands quite a bit requiring a pretty rigid form, and it gets HOT. The foam expands as part of an exothermic reaction, and will get up to about 180*. This gets worse if you pour a lot of foam on top of other foam, so you really want to let it cure and do it's thing before you layer it up. Once the thing was full, I trimmed the outlet and then took the hood off and realized the Big Chungus (tm) that I had created. Realized here that I forgot we need to make space for the air filter. Also, realizing that all the cardboard and other crap I used to make the shape is now glued forever to the foam. The drivers side channel is also quite a bit bigger than the passenger side, as the passenger side dodges a number of cooling tubes. Some shaping is clearly needed. Luckily because this is 2 part foam (never NEVER use Great Stuff foam for this), it was easily shaped with saws, grinders and other tools, was sandable and fillable with bondo. Ended up with a good shape! Last thing to do was fill in the area where the radiator sat so the fiberglass has a mounting flange. I then wrapped the whole thing in metal tape to promote reasonable release and it promptly sat in the shop for a year. I started fiberglassing it up this week, and have the bottom of the shape glassed in. My plan is to use plastic and more metal tape to create this piece in 2 parts, rather than trying to break, dissolve and generally remove the foam by disastrous methods. It's looking pretty alright, hoping to get the rest of it glassed up today! Edited May 13 by Ben280 random photo! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben280 Posted May 15 Author Share Posted May 15 Small fiberglass update. I got the general shape made, and it's ready for trimming and bonding together. I'd like to test fit it on the car, and make sure the radiator is picking up in the right spot. Excited for this, we've got fully ducted air going into and coming out of the radiator now! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben280 Posted May 27 Author Share Posted May 27 Good progress over the long weekend. Paint, bondo and fiberglass is mostly a waiting game which is pretty annoying. Got the duct glued together and painted so it looks like something. Trimmed it up a little and we are in great shape! The holes in the hood are a little bit large, but that's ok, and will likely get solved with a new hood (fiberglass) or something on top. Also got the transition piece painted which is exciting! This will help blend the splitter into the air dam, and will get taped onto the splitter once I put some trim on top of it. Need to get to work on the new intake pipe as well, going to put the filter over near the wheel for now. In the future, I'll flip the manifold and pull air from the cowl/wiper box area, but that's a bigger lift in terms of fabrication. Can't tell you how excited I am to have a metal fabrication project after 10 months of composites. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tube80z Posted May 29 Share Posted May 29 That is a lot of work. Cool to see this come together and can't wait to see it run on the track. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jboogsthethug Posted May 29 Share Posted May 29 A lot of work for sure, getting me pumped for my own build! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben280 Posted May 30 Author Share Posted May 30 If this car only inspired, I'd feel pretty good about it. As it sits, planning to go up to Packwood WA for an auto-x event in late June. Basically, doing what I should have done in 2023 and actually shaken the car out before driving it on a race track! From there, I'm hoping to get back to The Ridge in July with OnGrid for an HPDE day, and then up to Area27 in BC for a couple days with a buddy. That's going to be a great event, so I'm pretty stoked on that one. Got material coming tomorrow, should be a good weekend of welding! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben280 Posted June 2 Author Share Posted June 2 This is the most activity this thread has seen in years, ANOTHER WEEKEND UPDATE! Got the intake welded up, some gasketing on the radiator extractor, and got the car back on the ground. Also got a nut and bolt done on the car. I still need to bleed the brakes, and do a quick fluid check and I'll be in good shape for a few events! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben280 Posted July 1 Author Share Posted July 1 Went out for some Auto-x this weekend, and had a proper blast. Highly recommended for anyone here who still hasn't gone to try it. Enjoy a slow lap, some V8 noises and straight cut gearbox whine. I have a handful of things to think about and address moving forward, but overall I'm very happy with where this sits. Next up is OnGrid at the Ridge in late July for more testing, and maybe, just maaaaybe a little redemption. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leon Posted July 2 Share Posted July 2 Love it Ben, great to see the car back on the road and being used as it should be! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben280 Posted July 7 Author Share Posted July 7 Thanks Leon!! Really happy to have the car back out. Dug into the car over the weekend, found a couple loose nuts, and some unexpected and unwelcome suprises! The big one was my front rotors are not handling the heat very well. The car is stopping pretty nicely, but it seems that's coming at a cost. I'm not sure if this is new, or if it's an old crack that I hadn't noticed before, but it's here now and it's a problem. If I get a second crack, that means I now have a mostly disconnected piece of rotor flying around, and generally not a great idea. I've had these on the car since 2021, so I guess I can't be THAT mad at them. Anyway, rather than sinking $450 into new rotor rings, I'm taking the opportunity to go full floating rotor. Wilwood has been making a lot more lug-drive setups, and it will let me get away from the bolted hat/rotor combo. This will hopefully help fight some of the pad knockback issues I've been having, and generally improve braking feel. Consumable cost is about the same, the big cost of upgrading is new hats. Got some routine maintenance done as well, fluids changed etc. Filling the transmission is a pain in the neck, but a little hose and some creativity made it a little easier. I probably could make this a permanent feature if I wanted to. Modern problems require modern solutions. Ordered up some fresh-ish tires, going with a Pirelli slick, 325/660 rear, 305/660 front. Might be a slight challenge fitting the front, but I think this is the tire the car will run from here, so it will be nice to set it up for one size and call it a day. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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