Had some fun this weekend, thought I would share.

My buddy's Vega has this radiator hanging way down in the front, just unsightly. Rusty brackets hanging out, etc. We got this idea to build a spoiler to cover it up and here it is. This happened over the course of the weekend and you can see how he worked over the engine in the process too. Kinda neat. Compare the first and last Vega picture. I did the spoiler, he worked in the engine bay. Took about the same amount of time for both projects to get done. Although he's still plumbing the 250 shot, and working on carb linkage.

Vega before, radiator hangs down about 4", rusty brackets, very uncool.


Aluminum cut. We used an old street sign. (legally obtained, and super STIFF). I've used sign material before, and it's always a bargain.


Made a 90 degree angle out of some 18gauge, and then formed it to the spoiler.


Here it is Cleco'd and mock'd up on the car.


All riveted up, and ready to weld the strut tabs on.


Here it is mounted up, strut rods and upper bumper mounts made. Strut rods are standard cold rold 5/16 threaded 5/16-24 and some little heims on it.


Had to include a shot with my 89 Civic in it, just to keep the peace on a Honda forum ...lol...


And the final result. Totally changed the way the car looks. He's pretty stoaked about it, and it's super beefy, yet still reasonably light weight. You can stand on it.


Unrelated, but you know how sometimes you're looking around your bench, and all of a sudden a bunch of scrap looks like something, so you weld it together for fun. That's what this was. I said, "look, this scrap would resemble a catch can if I welded it together"... So I did. It's not good for anything other than it was funny at the time and I used it to play with welding at different frequency's.



Modified by vectorsolid at 1:49 AM 7/14/2008

 

Cool project.

Very nice.

 

dual Predator Carbs?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by BakedCookies &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">dual Predator Carbs?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Yea, dual Predators. I haven't had much experience with them, but he's been using them for years and can really make them work. I've street driven that car, in traffic, with no bog, no hesitation, nothing but smooth and instant throttle response around town or at the track. I suppose it's like anything, the more you work with it, the handier you get at it. I'd never seen the inside of one until this weekend... I can't believe it works at all. ...lol...

 

I've had 2 different pm's from people kinda fascinated by the sign material idea. Scrounge your local scrap and recycle centers. Here's another project I made out of sign material. It's a bomber seat for a ratrod. I think this sign said something about a "recreation area" for fishing access or something like that. You can see how much sanding you do on the face to get rid of the sign stuff. The sign vinyl goo, will get hot and melt and toss contaminants out and into your weld as it melts and smokes, if you don't get it at least 1" away from the weld area. I've welded junk projects within 1/4" or less of the sign goo, and it gets a bit contaminated, but still a solid weld.

If you look at the seat, down where the back rest meets the bottom (where your butt goes), there are 3 welds going across there, you can see on the back side of the seat where those welds have melted the goo. But that's okay, it's not part of the weld... just good and HOT.









Modified by vectorsolid at 12:41 PM 7/14/2008

 

What brand of dimple dies do you use? Also are the shear/die combo or just dies?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Top Ramen &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">What brand of dimple dies do you use? Also are the shear/die combo or just dies?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Just dies on this one.

http://www.vansantent.com/shee...s.htm

 

sweet projects

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by vectorsolid &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Just dies on this one.
</TD></TR></TABLE>

Great! Those are the ones I was thinking of getting. Are you happy with them?

Thanks.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Top Ramen &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Great! Those are the ones I was thinking of getting. Are you happy with them?

Thanks.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Can't complain. Well machined and work perfect.

 

Super nice work! Car looks damn bad-***!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Agtronic &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Super nice work! Car looks damn bad-***!</TD></TR></TABLE>

Thanks man.