I posted awhile back about my car and a fiberglass relay board cover I made. Most of my time is spent on not too exciting maintenance stuff. But, I just made this engine lid and thought it was neat enough to share. I wanted to be able to get the lid out of the way while working on it. This was probably a lot more work than just slotting/opening up the mounting holes, but it was fun.

I made some aluminum hinges to resemble the stock ones, and used pip pins as the hinge pin so I could split the hinges in half. For the fiberglass lid I made a mold off a nice straight stock lid. It's held down with the stock mechanism, and even pops up enough to grab with out any springs. I was thinking of attaching a small prop rod, but it comes off so easily, and even if I leave it on its light enough to not really bother you while checking the oil quick.

Please excuse the ugly firewall and engine compartment. I'll really have to get going on cleaning that up now.




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Lid shut and cleaned up grills.


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Nicely done!

Very nice! I bet there is a market for those.

whats the weight savings

The car isn't at my house right now. So, Ill weigh the fiberglass lid this week and reply here again. The complete stock set up I removed and just weighed was 14 lbs. I'd guess the new lid is around 5 lbs or less, but I'll weigh it.

thats pretty good.

you should bust out a half dozen, i bet you could sell them quick.... jon bovy....

Very nice work and innovation I know that I will want one of these in the future

Nice job! Something I've given some thought to myself.

I'm in.

Nice work!

definly a market!
I'm in (need to start saving alum.cans)

I bet the carbon fiber freaks would love to have one in C F.!
I know I would!







BTW

How many layers of mat? I assume you vacuum bagged it over the stock lid? Very cool! I'll take one in CF.

I hate you.

...No, wait. That's not quite it.

Ah, there it is: I'm INSANELY jealous of you! That is incredibly cool!!

--DD

Thanks everyone.



It is about 2 layers of mat and a final layer of cloth. I made it thicker in the ribs under the grill and where the hinges mount. I did not vaccuum bag it because it was a smaller part and had no core mat, like a hood does. I made a heavy duty fiberglass mold from the original lid, and then this lid was made from the mold. So, it's a smooth gelcoat top finish with the fiberglass cloth underneath. Then sanded, primed, and painted.

My original plan was to make a carbon fiber one, but I wanted to make sure everything worked first. The nice thing is now I can just swap one onto the hinges bolted to the car. I could even make an opened up GT style, and then swap back over on rainy days. I'd just to need to make some targa top style trunk holders for the back up lid, lol.

Now your talk'in

I just weighed the fiberglass lid today. It is 4.1 pounds. That's the lid, stock grill, and the bonded on hinge halves. So, a little bit more for the hinge half on the car and the pip pins. So, it's almost ten pounds less than what I took off, which included the springs and rain shield in that original weight. I took some better photos of the inside, I'll try to post up when I get home later.

That is very cool. I bet there would be a strong market for those.

So this could be an all glass horizontally 914 for you then?

Front lid
Targa
Engine lid
Rear lid

Well, my lids are carbon fiber now . Somehow they changed on me

But still, that would be awesome.

Carbon fiber with holes (instead of grafted in expanded metal) would rock. Or, how about a one-piece engine lid + rear trunk lid with pins or dzus fasteners?

You guys sure can dream.... any of us got a big ass vacuum table?
and don't you need like an autoclave to cure carbon epoxy?

Very nice! Makes me wonder if the lid on my old race car was handmade? It too was made from fiberglass.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAdVO8Rkv6c

I want to find some aluminum mesh to use and make my own screen. About half the weight is in the steel grill. I have another fiberglass one curing in the mold, so we'll see what we can do with that one.

As for carbon fiber, I believe they use the autoclave on the pre-impregnated sheets and structural applications like on f1 cars. And for vaccuuming we have a bag set up.

Some detail shots.

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I've got access to a 4'x8' vaccum table. My father built it to glue up an ebony laminant in his dining room table. It's been sitting unused ever since.

Damn right!! Never let obstacles keep you from pursuing dreams!

Very nice!

Should never have to re-weld the hinge mounts ever again.

Well then I was wrong sorta.... I'm thinkin how cool would it be to make a structural replacement parts batch. Like carbon prepreg fenders and bumpers! along with lids!

Thats is why I thought right away that it would take alot of investing.

Now that clip on youtube makes it look like non structural parts could be made in the same manner as fiberglass components.

Always dream big right?

I started on a GT style lid that I will be able to swap out with my stock style. I wish I had smaller mesh, but this is a start. The practice at getting the shape right is good anyway if I decide to make a smaller mesh one later. Or, I may make matching side pieces in that size. I tried to take some more progress photos this time. I still have to cut out the lid, mount the hinge halves, paint it, etc...

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Umm.... That looks perfect. I want

It's been done. By Porsche. In 1968. It looks *fugly*!

I'm glad that never made it into production.



I have a pic at home, i can scan it tonight ...

I think that'd be a hassle as well. I was working to make things simpler when I want to work on it. Unless it's for a race car and you're taking the trunk off a lot anyway.

Finally finished the lid. I had time to do my bumpers, so the lid was put on the back burner. Now I need to clean up that firewall.


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Looks amazing, great work!!

Now go make 50 of 'em and sell them in the classifieds!

or just one more and sell it to me

this is all well and good, but if it's fiberglass and aluminum, how's it going to rust??

BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD

Make that 2, GT style for me.