WAAAAAY better than V1. The step is totally consistent around the edge. (It almost looks like I know what I'd doing...)

CLEAN!

Hey! That could make a really cool rear bracket...! LOL

Looks impressive Chris!

T

And with no other work requests from Tony @Cracker ( ), I went ahead with cutting and stamping the other side.
#mirrorimage, #imPRESSion

Oh, and pay no attention to that flywheel. It has absolutely nothing to do with what I'm up to. Seriously, pretend you didn't see it...

@Rand - it's true. I am a drama queen!

That hinged die is genius. Look how crisp those mirror pieces are. Glad you are finally stepping up your game!

LOL, no dude, you are an amazing fabricator. Looking forward to seeing it on the road but really enjoying watching your work.

Thanks to all for the kind words. It's been interesting to see how my skills have developed since I started on this build. I have a long way to go but I will admit to occasional flashes of things working out as planned.

With the new panels cut, it's back to the fiddly work of fitting things. I really went after getting all the surrounding pieces exactly where I want them, cleco-ing, clamping, etc., and sure enough, what used to fit, isn't quite where I'd thought it was. Lesson learned...

So, while I immerse myself in a bit of "been there, done that", the first of the new panels' fit is looking pretty nice.

Before I get too excited, I'm going to make the stamping die and press that center piece where I've Sharpied out the design. Back to the plasma table!

I impressed myself today. As I was looking for a piece to use for the center section stamping die. I looked at the side panel stamp and thought, "Wait a second! I can build all my tooling into one tool..". So I did.
Presenting: The Double Flapper Stamper!

It was a pretty quick "copy/paste" from the .dxf of the side panel stamp to create this one. The oval alignment slots are required as I couldn't make the outer shape match the already bent center piece.
Here's the part in place, ready for the press.

A bit of work to tune the fit, especially right at the corner. And I'm not looking forward to welding and grinding the step at that joint but then, if it was easy, everyone would be doing it!
Onward...

That is going to look really cool when your done! Way too nice to cover over.

And one for the furniture folks. My wife has been asking me to make a small table for next to her favorite chair. I cranked out V1 this afternoon. Still need to wrap the top surface to give it some sort of ledge.
Hey, what did she expect? Wood and straight pieces???

Major milestone yesterday: The engine was delivered to Huffaker Engineering at Sonoma Raceway! (I'll always think of it as Sears Point...)
The engine is getting a bit of time on the engine dyno to get a baseline tune. I figured it'd be best to let the experts have the first go at setting up the ITBs.

Slightly off topic, but timing be what it is, yesterday was arrival day for the CSRG David Love Vintage Races.
Fittingly, there was also a memorial for Pete Giddings, one of the most popular stars of American vintage racing. He died in January after battling cancer...

I happened to be driving through the pits just as it was breaking up. Here are a few of the cars on display at the memorial. The craftsmanship on these beasts is unbelievable.
Two of the Alfas fired up and drove off. I don't think I'd even sit in them when they're running, let alone drive one in anger.

Fabulous and beautiful, terrifying and intimidating.

Godspeed, Mr. Giddings.

more

And then there was this...

Sorry, but it's more "not really 914" fab work this weekend.
Today, it was fitting the driver side doghouse panel.
About 173 "fit/trim/fit/sand/fit..." cycles. I still have the very final tuning to do but it's nearly ready for welding!

Just for fun, a test look at the raw removable cover side pieces. I plan to round them over at the corner then fab a center panel and weld it to these to create the one-piece cover.

I finished the day with a rough trim and a quick fab of the lower, center panel of the dog house. I still have to hammer around the lower corner radii of the side panels and do all the fitting but you get the idea.

Getting there!

Looks like the start of a Mark 19 Ironman helmet.

Looks like once the cover is one piece, you'll need to be able to flex at least one side a little to clear the recess for removal. What's the plan there?

Yep, I've been looking at that. I think maybe a little, is all. It'll only be 18 ga material (though I may remake the cover in AL) so a bit of flex is likely anyway.
I was waiting for someone to ask about how it'll seal. I sourced a rubber U-channel that should work great. I used it to wrap the AL panels I made for that Lotus 7. I plan to apply this to the inner edge of the dog house and the cover should seal against it. Fingers crossed!

I was more thinking about if you would need an indent or something to get a finger grip to remove it. The rubber U-channel might kill two birds by elevating the edge of the cover off the dog house just enough to get a finger tip under. It's looking great!

I spent time today working on the lower front corners of the outer panels.
The goal is to hammer them to shape and most importantly, in alignment with the angle of the corner at the top. Fun!

I thought a good approach would be to cut a piece of appropriate radius tube and use is as an alignment/hammer form. It seemed that if I hold it in place at the top, it'll dictate where and how much I should wrap the corner at the bottom.

Here's the tube being fit as I'm trying to see if this will work.

Then, after marking where the panel contacted the tube (that's where the wrap would need to start), I removed the tube and clamped it into the vice, held the panel as close to aligned as I could and started hammering the corner around.

Test fit, tweak, test fit, tweak some more... you know the drill.
Starting to get there.

All these pieces have to come together at the same time while maintaining the various angels and fitment in the earlier posts. So next I needed to work in the lower front panel. Lots of checking, clamping, tweaking, checking.
I got this far on the driver side lower and called it a day.
Another few hours to get all the final fits tuned and I should be able to start tacking things!

Final fitting... Let's weld this thing.

I still have a bit of hammer and dolly work and bits of some of the seams to weld but I couldn't resist posting this progress. I'm REALLY happy with how it's looking.

That is quite the access panel you have there...!

T

Enough progress on welding that I decided I would move to fabrication of the cover.
I figured I better put the seat in, just to be sure everything still fits!

It does! So then I worked up a CAD drawing and cut the center panel blank.

I clamped this (and both side panels) to the dog house and used the panel holes to
locate the drilling spots. At this point, the fasteners are temporary. I'll weld nuts on the back side of each hole for the fasteners. And they'll be button heads. I just happened to have these laying around.

Then I marked and rough trimmed the side panels.
The next step is to start hammering the edges around to meet the center panel and match the radius of the rest of the dog house. As always, I'm betting you get the idea of what this will look like.

Once the corners are ready, the three pieces will be welded and metal finished.

I'll likely stamp some reinforcing pattern into the sides and front. I'm still noodling on the design for that. Though I may make another cover from aluminum. Or use this as a mold and make one from carbon fiber/kevlar.

And I'm sure there will be some bondo involved on various parts of the firewall, just to get it to look super nice.

The plan is to paint it as well as stitch up a removable cover of some sort. Quilted diamond pattern? Straight ribs? Something else? So many decisions.

Damn those are nice seats...

I think diamond pattern will phase out.

You could match OEM with a big bubble and do piping around it like your seats maybe one horizontal beltline about an inch tall like your seats?


One thing us custom people need to consider is future proofing the design so it lasts more than 5-10 years without looking rediculous

Singer is where I'm starting to take design cues from as it's throwback timeless. They do some modern designs I don't think will stand the test of time but in general it's a really good example of what probably will stand up in 20 years.

Damn that's nice. I think even Chris Baker will be happy with that.

"And I'm sure there will be some bondo involved on various parts of the firewall, just to get it to look super nice. "

JB Weld is you friend here, it was originally designed to smooth aircraft skin. One of the few places I use the stuff.

Mad skills on display

@914forme Stephen - I've never worked w/JB Weld but what I'm looking for is to have a smooth transition in a few areas, like these corners.
You're saying I can build up a bit in these spots and then, what? Does JB weld file/sand to a paint-able finish?
I was looking at bronze welding and filing... JB Weld sounds like it might be simpler.

Yes it should do that just fine, it can be shaped sanded , filed, if hit that the right set time, you can even shape it like putty, but that is a minimum work time in that state. just hit the area behind the repair with a bit of grit so it has a bite. And go to town. JB Weld is not good after heating so this is a last step thing, not a still welding kind of thing. I have used it in the past to make great repairs in 1970s body work on my Ghia coupe.

Gas welding with bronze fill achieves the same thing, or go old school and use lead. JBWeld is just easier to deal with in the long run. No tinning, no flame, no tallow, etc....

Ha, @bbrock ! Like you're one to talk...
But yes, he seems to be happy w/it. Well, for today, at least!

This design works, functionally, in terms of the needed clearance and systems access.

It is however, forcing me to reconsider the existing console. As I've been getting more familiar with working with sheet metal, I think I can make a new console that better integrates with the look of the fire wall.

So I've purchased the needed materials and will be starting that whole deal over again.

That looks really nice Chris!

I've done some filling like that by TIG brazing with SIL BRZ rod. Worked pretty well. The heat input is quite a bit less than regular similar metal TIG so warpage was a bit better.

Awesome. I do think I'll tack weld those areas in a couple spots, maybe from behind, to get them locked in place. Off to the store for some JB Weld!

Man, I love this site. All the help and great support from you guys really helps!

Time for some style points on the center panel. Here's a look into how I go about this sort of thing.

Starting on the left is the panel blank that's in the earlier pics.

To the right is a version that will have cut outs. I'm thinking I could first paint it, then rivet on, from behind, a polished aluminum panel. Maybe carry that look throughout the interior.

The next two items are a panel blank that the four, far right pieces attach to. It becomes the male stamping die to emboss raised or sunken shapes into the "plain" panel blank.
All the holes precisely locate each piece. This would be used if I decided to go with a "raised/sunken" look throughout the interior.

The cool part is, I can have multiple versions of the removable cover! After all, a girl can never have too many pairs of shoes!

I hope to get to some of this today. Should be fun to see how it turns out.

A quick trip to the metal store to replenish my supply and...

Something like this? This is a new panel sitting on top of the earlier, plain one.
Imagine it backed up with polished aluminum... or maybe Lexan?

And I think I'll design up new side panels with some cut outs so everything is matchy-match.

And here's V1 of the side panels. I like this look and probably won't sweat these too much as you can hardly see them, once the seats are in place. Still, I want it to look nice...

Lexan might be cool but it will be noisy. My Cayman has a lexan cover and is much (and delightfully) louder than stock in the cabin.

Keep up the fantastic work!

Fitting the cover pieces in prep for welding. Overall, there are a few imperfections, but I think I can mostly hide and live with the mistakes.

I learned a lot the past few days as I was making and fitting these pieces. I know I could make some improvements were I to give it another go but unless something goes really wrong, I'm moving forward with this as is.

Once the cover is final welded, I'll work up the filler pieces and determine how they'll be attached. Rivets? Welded?

Or, I could make up some carbon fiber panels and bond them in. That might be pretty cool...

looks awesome!

@tygaboy someone has obviously hacked your account!!!

But that looks badass. Any filler you pick is going to look great. If it were me, I'd think about what would provide some sound dampening.

Flux capacitor fluxing

Looks like something out of star wars!

Very nice