Luna: The cause of, and solution to, all of my problems

[OldAndyAndTheSea]

Go to Syracuse. Head north on I-81 for around 50 miles.

 

I'm dead nuts on the eastern shore of Lake Ontario.

 

I'm an hour and fifty minutes from Utica.

[1 tuff z]

I'm not too far either, Rochester is about 90 minutes west of you.

hey andy

just starting following your posts, car looks great!     great work   im from the Utica area   where abouts are you

[sicripp83]

1 tuff z       I think iv seen your car at Watkins glen.    my buddy dose track events their every year.  my wife did one this past year in her mustang.   my car wasn't ready, cant wait maybe this year!!   fresh pavement this year

[OldAndyAndTheSea]

This evening was spent pulling the old dash out of the car.



It's been a few years since I was here last.



I had forgotten what a chore that can be.


And, again, because I'm me. Mocked, big time.

Apologies for the pictures. I tried to substitute quantity for quality.














I believe it looks like it will fit. But I won't know for sure until I actually have it in the right place, bolted down.




I absolutely LOVE the look. With the doors closed around you, it's a wild feeling; Totally surrounded by carbon. Just what I wanted.

Now to engineer a mounting system, and a way to retain factory heat..

Hmm..... I think I'm gonna be here a while.

Edited December 28, 2015 by OldAndyAndTheSea

[98blackbell]

Ya you need heat, we need A/C.

 

Looks great. Will be really clean looking.

 

I helped tooquick260 put his TTT3 front suspension in this weekend. Wow what a diffedence.

 

Will be watching your progress.

[1 tuff z]

hope to see you there and at ZCON 2016, 1st week of August in Toronto!

1 tuff z       I think iv seen your car at Watkins glen.    my buddy dose track events their every year.  my wife did one this past year in her mustang.   my car wasn't ready, cant wait maybe this year!!   fresh pavement this year

[OldAndyAndTheSea]

Busy busy busy at the shop.


Still managed to get some things done on the car though.




Distributor "cap" mold. It suffered some damage, but still remains usable.




Back at the clamshells.








And some dash progress. I mounted the OEM metal framework, and proceeded to see what my potential options were for mounting the dash skin.



Seems to be aligned properly. And it does appear to fit. Whoa. Cool.




Once again, fender welting to the rescue. This will transition the flocking material to the defroster cover beautifully, if you ask me.

Apologies for the terrible shots, hopefully you get the idea.








After I made note of where the dash locates on the frame, it allowed me to plan out the first few tabbing locations.








After the dash is attached to the frame, then, I can really make some headway.

 Lots to do before that happens though. It needs to lose some weight first.


I'm fairly confident I will be able to retrofit the guts of the heater controls to the dash. That'll be cool.






It should probably happen sooner than later, as it will become more difficult as things get mounted to the dash.




Also infused another console today, in order to start building inventory. I'm excited to see how it turns out. The layup went well.







Happy New Year all!

[supernova_6969]

Cool that everything stock seems to fit.

How are you planning on making the tabs stick? Some kind of epoxy?

And are you planning on doing some lightening of the metal frame? Seems like a shame to loose a ton of wwight in the console but keep the heavy frame..

Btw how much weight did you save with the carbon console??

[OldAndyAndTheSea]

Cool that everything stock seems to fit.

How are you planning on making the tabs stick? Some kind of epoxy?

And are you planning on doing some lightening of the metal frame? Seems like a shame to loose a ton of wwight in the console but keep the heavy frame..

Btw how much weight did you save with the carbon console??

 

Thanks.

 

The tabs are going to be made of carbon strips and thickened epoxy fillets. They will make more sense once you see them. 

 

And this is my thought process on the dash mounting...

 

-I am going to bond the OEM frame to the dash, uncut (aside from a few bits I have removed already).

This will also show any people, who may want one in the future, how I mounted an uncut frame to the dash skin.

 

-I will only bond it in the area shown in those pictures.

 

-Once the dash is attached to the frame, it will allow me to install it much easier - for testing purposes.That will guarantee it stays in the same place while I determine which parts of the frame are truly no longer needed.

 

-Once I've marked off those areas, and have made a few other locator marks, I will cut the two original attachment points (tabs).

 

-Remove the frame.

 

-Chop off the heavy bits

 

-Reattach new modified "chopped" frame to the dash, with finished tabbing throughout.

 

 

That's one avenue of thought. I have a few others as backup, should this plan fail.

 

 

I need to install the hazard switch and the heater controls first, before I attach the frame, however.

 

 

 

And the console weighs 420 grams. I sacrificed my console making the original plug, and neglected to record any weight, unfortunately. So I don't know. I can't imagine a lot of savings were made, but this one won't crack if you lift your body out of the car by putting your hand on it.

 

 

 

I'm planning to work on it today. I'll update accordingly.

Edited January 2, 2016 by OldAndyAndTheSea

[OldAndyAndTheSea]

Oh man. So far so good.

Scary.




Factory heat, Baby!

Taking a break for a minute, then I'll hopefully mount everything in the appropriate place.

Looks like it's going to work!

[1 tuff z]

Love it!

[OldAndyAndTheSea]

Thanks! Me too!

 

 

This was a big step - I was able to temporarily mock the components in place with a couple spots of hot glue.

 

Those slots were a force to be reckoned with. And I still need to file the vent opening slightly, as it is unable to spin currently.


If the cables can still be hooked up properly, and if the vent still lines up with the blower, we are in business.









Onto the next step of the plan. Frame refurbish/trim.

Alrighty then.

[seattlejester]

Looks real clean Andy!

[OldAndyAndTheSea]

Thanks! I can't wait to get everything permanently in place. Super excited to flock the top, once the details are sorted. It'll look nice then.

 

 

 

 

Time to address the frame. I chopped off any unnecessary brackets or unused portions of the support structure. I removed approximately 2 pounds of material


Before




I proceeded to etch prime the prepped bare shell, and spayed the part flat black.

After








All bits removed.



This will also aid in installing various dash components, as I now have a sever shortage of removble access panels for things like heater cables, and wiring. That may prove to be tricky.

We'll see.

Edited January 3, 2016 by OldAndyAndTheSea

[OldAndyAndTheSea]

Super fun.

Gauges, mocked. CAN'T wait to see it flocked.







More progress today....Started preparing to actually bond the dash skin to the frame.

First I need to make sure the heater controls are mounted, and properly oriented.

Chopped!







Everything mocked. Fairly tidy; Can't complain.






And a little clamshell trim action. I'll be working on a few ideas to make these close this week.







I'm going to start bonding the controls, and possibly the dash skin, this evening.

As always, I'll update accordingly.
 

[RB26powered74zcar]

You make me sick.....

 

 

jk

[OldAndyAndTheSea]

You make me sick.....

 

 

jk

I make me sick, sometimes, too.

 

So the shell is officially mounted for the first time. No wiring. No heater stuff hooked up, but that all actually seems doable now that it is in place. It will just take some time, and planning, to get the details right. Hopefully I'll make gains in that area this weekend.

 

Very promising. Here's a barrage of photos, trying to show various angles.

 

 

 

 

Fender welting divider. Mocked in place.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Driver's side should tuck up in there after I bond the appropriate spot to the frame. The shell has little support, currently, in this area.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'll need to bond a couple spots, while it is mounted, to get the fitment correct.

 

Then....a couple more cuts and some goop away from flocking.

 

I can't wait. Although, I should probably practice, as I've never done it before.

Edited January 7, 2016 by OldAndyAndTheSea

[OldAndyAndTheSea]

Lookadat!

Distributor "cap" proof of concept.






I'll mount it this evening, as I plan to do the final bonds tonight. Then I practice some flocking tomorrow.


I'll hopefully attempt to flock the top this weekend.

[OldAndyAndTheSea]

Made one of the final bonds tonight. If all goes according to plan, that will allow me to pull the dash back, and make the last two bonds ever. Then it's ready to flock.


And I installed the distributor "cap".

Lovely. Fits like a glove.

I've missed looking at the engine.... soon...soon.






Hopefully I will practice a little flocking tomorrow. We'll see.

Progress nonetheless. Good.

[LanceVance]

Hopefully I will practice a little flocking tomorrow. We'll see.

I've done a dash before (with the hand kit, not the fancy compressor driven flocker), my only recommendation is to have the dash on a rotating rig, and only shoot downwards. You are only planning to do the top so it shouldn't be a problem, but if you spray parallel to the ground the fibers have a tendency to lay down and you'll get inconsistent texture.