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| Blooze Own: An F355 Six Speed N* Build Thread (Page 108/126) |
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katatak
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MAY 24, 07:14 PM
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Blooz - That flywheel is Automotive Art - it needs to be hanging on a wall for all to admire!
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rourke_87_T-Top
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JUN 24, 06:11 PM
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Nice progress, I sent you a PM regarding a related item.
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Bridgetown
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JUL 01, 11:08 PM
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Reallybig
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JUL 02, 04:05 AM
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No posts in over a month and a half?!!! I hope all is well.
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Bloozberry
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JUL 02, 07:19 AM
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Thanks for the concern but I've just been overrun with yard and property maintenance, as well as getting ready to host a huge 50th wedding anniversary party for the in-laws. I'll be back on it in a week or so when all the hubbub is over. 
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Bloozberry
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JUL 02, 07:26 AM
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Cool! Thanks for the link. 
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Bloozberry
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JUL 14, 02:00 PM
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Well it's back to the grindstone after having taken a 2 month sabbatical. With the flywheel and clutch ready to install I was seriously tempted to pull the cradle out and git'er done, but practicality prevailed. I knew I needed to get a bunch of measurements for things like where the engine torque struts would meet up with the new cross-car brace; how much I would need to recess the rear bumper bar; how much trunk I would need to sacrifice; and how I might layout an exhaust system. All of this was best accomplished with the cradle still mounted to the frame.
One other thing I needed to check out (but have been dreading) was to mock up Don's rear clip (PFF'er 355Fiero). I'm sure I've mentioned somewhere earlier in this thread that Don "sold" his F355 body to me and Yarmouth Fiero last fall. It was a God-send because even though it is an IFG kit similar to the one I had bought, Don had already done many of the modifications to it to make it a better kit. He separated the rockers from the door bottoms, reshaped and lowered all four wheel arches, realigned the belt line, and on and on.
The only trouble with having reshaped and lowered the wheel arches is that I had based my rear suspension's track width on my un-modified body, which is about 2" narrower. I've known this would be a bit of a problem and hence my reluctance until now to mount his rear quarters on my car. Don's rear quarters were designed for the convertible so yesterday I took the plunge and cut a few notches in the fiberglass to give clearance to my hard top's C-pillars. Then with a little help from my wife, we lifted the quarters into place:
After a little jiggling we were able to get it centered on the chassis left-and-right and fore-and-aft. I couldn't have been happier with the nice newly curved arches and how well they were centered over my wheels from the side view. You did a lot of great work Don.
But, as expected the fenders were wider than my original body so my wheels looked a little sunken in. That's much, much easier to address than had they stuck too far out!
You can't simply cut the original arches off the panel, lower them an inch straight down, then fill the gap with fiberglass or Bondo. That would change the entire curvature of the fender flare. The way to do it properly is the way Don did it... he cut the fender lip off and moved it outboard and downwards along the original slope of the fender line, then filled the gap. That gives a continuous contour from the base of the sail panel to the fender lip:
So, despite my intent to have perfectly offset wheels, I now realize I'll need to buy wheel spacers for the rear to get the tires where I want them. That's a small price to pay considering all the work I avoided by not having to modify my original body panels only to arrive at the same conclusion.
I measured the needed decrease in offset and it appeared that 25 mm's per side was about right. If I were to order new wheels, they would have to be 18" x 9.0" ET 20's rather than ET 45's. So I borrowed a wheel spacer from my 308 kit to mock it up and confirm the new look:
It was bang on:
Here's the top view:
Then I stepped back to get an overall view of the rear end and was finally able to appreciate how far I'd come. If you scroll back to page 1 and see what the wheel gaps were back then, I'm ecstatic with the static stance, the available wheel travel, and the (theoretical) dynamics of the system.
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RCR
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JUL 14, 02:18 PM
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Looks great.
Bob
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355Fiero
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JUL 14, 03:48 PM
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Blooz;
The rear clip looks pretty darn good on your car..... Glad it worked out. You could sand some of the worst the bondo down with some 80 grit and paint it all one colour of primer and it would really stand out and you can see where any more adjustments might need to be made.
Great work and looking forward to more updates.
Cheers
Don[This message has been edited by 355Fiero (edited 07-14-2014).]
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exoticse
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JUL 14, 04:23 PM
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| quote | Originally posted by Bloozberry:
Well it's back to the grindstone after having taken a 2 month sabbatical. With the flywheel and clutch ready to install I was seriously tempted to pull the cradle out and git'er done, but practicality prevailed. I knew I needed to get a bunch of measurements for things like where the engine torque struts would meet up with the new cross-car brace; how much I would need to recess the rear bumper bar; how much trunk I would need to sacrifice; and how I might layout an exhaust system. All of this was best accomplished with the cradle still mounted to the frame.
One other thing I needed to check out (but have been dreading) was to mock up Don's rear clip (PFF'er 355Fiero). I'm sure I've mentioned somewhere earlier in this thread that Don "sold" his F355 body to me and Yarmouth Fiero last fall. It was a God-send because even though it is an IFG kit similar to the one I had bought, Don had already done many of the modifications to it to make it a better kit. He separated the rockers from the door bottoms, reshaped and lowered all four wheel arches, realigned the belt line, and on and on.
The only trouble with having reshaped and lowered the wheel arches is that I had based my rear suspension's track width on my un-modified body, which is about 2" narrower. I've known this would be a bit of a problem and hence my reluctance until now to mount his rear quarters on my car. Don's rear quarters were designed for the convertible so yesterday I took the plunge and cut a few notches in the fiberglass to give clearance to my hard top's C-pillars. Then with a little help from my wife, we lifted the quarters into place:
After a little jiggling we were able to get it centered on the chassis left-and-right and fore-and-aft. I couldn't have been happier with the nice newly curved arches and how well they were centered over my wheels from the side view. You did a lot of great work Don.
But, as expected the fenders were wider than my original body so my wheels looked a little sunken in. That's much, much easier to address than had they stuck too far out!
You can't simply cut the original arches off the panel, lower them an inch straight down, then fill the gap with fiberglass or Bondo. That would change the entire curvature of the fender flare. The way to do it properly is the way Don did it... he cut the fender lip off and moved it outboard and downwards along the original slope of the fender line, then filled the gap. That gives a continuous contour from the base of the sail panel to the fender lip:
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Awesomeness !!
Do you guys or don have any pictures of the process ? Going to have to do something similar on my choptop.
 [This message has been edited by exoticse (edited 07-14-2014).]
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