Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Radiator and fans

I've fabricated the mounts for the radiator and fans, and it all worked out really well. The radiator is the biggest Griffin one I could fit between the modified chassis rails (I cut off and welded up the flange from the tops of them, to fit a bigger cross flow radiator). The dual fans are Spal high output 12", and the whole unit with the shroud fitted the radiator perfectly.


I riveted little plates with captive nuts onto the inside edge of the  fan shroud...


...so you can bolt the mounts on to the shroud, which sandwiches the radiator with rubber lined clamps, keeping the radiator from touching any metal on the body in order to avoid electrolysis. 


The whole unit is nice and rigid and bolts on via four 8mm bolts (there's captive nuts welded onto the inside of the clamps), making installation and removal real easy.

Thursday, October 10, 2013

The hood of my car is a lightweight fiberglass race (rough) part that is held on with four latches. When you want access to the engine bay you just lift it off. Now I live in a notoriously windy city, and this thing would be gone if you just removed it and put it down anywhere! So I decided I'd add two pins to the roof, and a hook at the front, so you can latch the hood down securely. Works great! I haven't done the front hook part yet, but when that's done you could drive around with the hood on the roof. Perfect for Beach Hop!


Here's the inside of the roof, showing the plate and captive nut system I'm using to mount the pins. I'll clean and paint this bit up, but it's all covered with the headliner.

This is the in progress mold of my modified bumper. I added the alloy brace to keep the mold rigid.

And here's the fiberglass bumper I made from the finished mold behind it. Not much good for bumping, but it only weighs 1.3kg!