Blooze Own: An F355 Six Speed N* Build Thread (Page 119/126)
Bloozberry JAN 07, 10:18 PM
OK, I busted out laughing aloud with that one Graham. My wife was wondering what was going on.

This week I figured out how I'd mount the radiators. I decided I wanted a 20 degree tilt on them to give me the room I wanted at the top of the enclosure for the hose later on. There isn't much except the cradle to fasten the lower radiator mounts to, and interestingly enough, the frame horns at the front of my cradle are also at 20 degrees. That made it a no-brainer to decide where the structural support would come from. Next, I needed to find a suitable isolator between the rad and the mounts to keep the fan noises from migrating to the chassis. I posted photos of some nifty high tech mounts I have kicking around but I just couldn't get them to work within the tight confines of the radiator compartment. That, and the fact that I just couldn't figure out how I would be able to remove the radiator for servicing at some point in the future if I used those mounts. So I resorted to reusing the stock Fiero rubber isolators... with a twist:



I took a piece of square steel tubing and with a bunch of cuts with my angle grinder...



...I made little cradles for the rubber isolators to sit in:



Then I welded the little cradles to a 3/4" steel tube after measuring where they needed to go so as not to interfere with anything:



And then welded a mounting tab at the end of the steel tube, so the whole thing looked like this:



Finally, I drilled and tapped two holes in the side of the engine cradle and one on the bottom side to attach the assembly to the frame, like this, giving an automatic 20 degrees of tilt:



For the upper mount, all I really needed was something simple to stabilize the top of the radiator. (The ducting (that I haven't made yet) from the door and rocker scoops will play a role in stabilizing and holding the rads at the correct angle.) As with the bottom mounts, I needed to find a rubber isolator for noise and vibration control. I happened to stumble across a couple of large circular rubber grommets whose ID fit the post welded to the top of the radiator perfectly, so that's when my plan for the upper mount started to gel. Using some small diameter exhaust tubing on the OD of the grommet allowed me to locate the top mount with a couple steel rods to the upper frame rail.

I have a neat little bender that installs in my vise for just this sort of thing. I used some wire to mock up the lengths and angles needed for two steel rods that would be welded to the exhaust tube, and bent them up:



Then I needed flat ends on the rods where they would meet up with the frame rail, so I heated them cherry red with my propane torch and hammered the ends flat:



Once all the parts were ready, I mocked them up, tacked them together, and then welded them. Here's the result:



For servicing, I plan to pull the radiators out from underneath the car, so this upper mount can be permanently installed. Since I'm building this up in reverse order for now, I had to remove the rubber isolator from the upper mount to get it in place. Here you can see the little aluminum post welded to the top of the rad that needs to be centered in the mount:



I held the upper mount to the upper frame rail with a couple large clamps, then slipped the rubber isolator in place:



Taking a step back, here's the overall picture for now:
Yarmouth Fiero JAN 08, 07:37 AM
I giggled a little when I posted it Blooze. As well, my wife wondered what I was up to. But after 25 years of marriage, she knows better than to ask.

Top notch fabrication. Will we soon see a pic looking rearward with the rear quarter on? Do you think you'll need to shroud the intake side of the radiator ?
Bloozberry JAN 08, 12:57 PM
It'll be a couple weeks yet before I mock up the rear quarters... it's just so much easier to work on the car without the fiberglass in the way. I still have to modify the entire RH side for the radiator over there. Once that's done, I'll have to mock up the rear quarters in order to find the right shape for the outside edge of the wheel well liners. Right now they're just squared off but they'll need to be trimmed back a fair bit at the apex of the arch.

I still have to make mounts for the engine torque struts, deck lid hinges, radiator, fuel filler, and exhaust plumbing, and I still have to figure out the entire rear and quarter window sheet metal. All of that will be easier with the rear quarter fiberglass off the chassis.

As for the intake side of the radiators, I'm planning a Y shaped shroud that takes the door and rocker scoop's two rectangular shapes and converges them into a single rectangular opening at the radiator end. Like the blue area here:



The shrouds will be completely separate sheet metal from what you see in my photos above. All I've done so far is close the up the radiator compartment. I plan on creating the shroud templates over the next couple days.
Bloozberry JAN 10, 10:27 PM
I started working on the radiator shrouds over the past couple days. I've known for a while that I would need to make a modification to the bottom of the B-pillar to (somewhat) straighten the airflow to the inboard third of the radiators. The sharp bend around the backside of the B-pillar would unnecessarily shroud the rad, so softening the radius of the rear corner was in the cards. I needed to have the location of the radiator finalized (as I did in my earlier post) before I could determine where the B-pillar needed the nip & tuck:



I got out my trusty die grinder to make the cuts:



I was aware of a structural member for the door latch hiding behind the area I was cutting so I was careful:



The stamped steel mini-beam connects the door latch post to the weld flange at the back of the B-pillar. I didn't want to fool around with that because having doors rattle on rough pavement is really annoying and cheap sounding.



Here's a close up of the reinforcement:



The next thing I did was bend the weld flange at the back of the B-pillar with a hammer. I only needed to bend it back to about 45 degrees:



Here's the big picture:



From this point, the plan was to make the radiator shrouds out of sheet metal, but things got complicated really fast. There was just no way I could make the convoluted shapes needed to make two differently sized inlets, offset to each other, converge into a single, larger outlet that is offset from both inlets, within the allowable space. So I resorted to Plan B: Fiberglass! I found some old polystyrene foam board sitting in the shop attic gathering dust, so I started cutting wafers to fill the space between the radiator and the two scoops to make a male buck:



I realize that polyester resin will eat the styrene foam so the plan will be to cover up the foam with some tape (or something else) once it's been carved into shape. Here's a closer look showing among other things how I made marks to index each foam piece to the next one:



The marks were handy once I pulled out each sheet and got ready to glue them together on my workbench. I just used ordinary carpenter's glue:



And then used a bunch of 1/2" steel plates to weigh them all down while the glue set. What a strange shape!



Of course I left the foam much larger in all dimensions just to give me room for error, so the next step is going to be sculpting out a Y-shaped shroud from that monolith.
ccfiero350 JAN 11, 07:37 AM
I use spackle. Super cheap, sand and shape with scuff pads and washup with water. Once you get your shape, seal it with what ever paint you have including house paint.

------------------
yellow 88 GT, not stock
white 88 notchie, 4 banger

Bloozberry JAN 12, 09:48 PM
Thanks for the suggestion ccfiero! I just might give that a try.

I had some fun with a new toy I got for Christmas that made carving out the shroud a cinch. It's a handheld air powered belt sander. What breeze it was to make even moderately fine adjustments to the shape:



I did find however that the white carpenter's glue I used didn't dry even after more than 24 hours. The sander's grip literally peeled the layers apart the first time I had a go at the foam block. So I took it apart, washed off the glue with water, and tried again with some spray contact-cement that's foam-friendly. That's what I should've done from the start since within minutes, it was glued solidly back together and ready for the sander:



Here's the rough foam buck after about a half hour of sculpting and a quick hand sanding with some 120 grit. I still need to fit it, align it, etc. I purposefully left it a bit larger in all dimensions for this purpose:



My first mock up:



Not bad for the first "go".
Yarmouth Fiero JAN 13, 07:45 AM
Very nice work. Are you planning a split mold for that piece or will you glass it in one shot and dig the foam out afterwards? I guess its not a part you necessarily need spares for.

Edit to add. Will the part have an access door on the side to enable you to remove the small critters you scoop up?

[This message has been edited by Yarmouth Fiero (edited 01-13-2015).]

Bloozberry JAN 13, 09:31 AM
I'm just planning to glass it over in one shot and dig the foam out. I can't see anyone (including me) wanting another one, and the RH side scoop is going to be the mirror image so it's not like I can use anything except maybe the three slices closest to the radiator, to make that one.

Hmmm... a door hunh? Hadn't thought about that, though I did think about putting a drain hole in the bottom. If something does crawl in there it's not like I'll be able to reach in with my hand because I'm planning on glassing in some vanes on the inside. Making a trap door on the bottom might be a good idea. Thanks!
Yarmouth Fiero JAN 13, 09:52 AM
Were the glass rockers panels already cut back in way of the lower scoop to accept your intake plenum design or did you modify them so that they didn't interfere with your radiator intake? How do you propose to transition between the rocker panel and the plenum? Perhaps some form of short flexible adaptor or just butt the two pieces close enough to capture the air flow? Same thoughts on the upper section of the plenum and the door scoop.
Bloozberry JAN 13, 10:53 AM
Questions, questions! I haven't completely made up my mind regarding the best way to attach the shroud to the car yet.

The rockers scoops are the way Don did them... I haven't modified them at all... yet. The scoops in the rockers start off sort of oval shaped at the inlet, but as they recess deeper into the rocker, the tunnel changes shape to a rectangle. At the end of the tunnel, there's a flange around the hole such that if I were to make a 90 degree flange at the end of the lower arm on my shroud, it would butt up against the inside of the rocker perfectly. The door scoops are the same. I'll take a picture of the inside of the panels if I remember, and post them.

To get the right fit between the shroud and the body openings, I left the two intake arms of my foam buck too long for now so that I can gradually whittle them away to fit up as tightly against the backside of the openings in the rocker and quarter panels as possible. But I won't be able to do that final adjustment until I mount the rocker and quarter panels relative to each other, and relative to the radiator. That means I need to mount both body panels to the frame. I'll probably leave that for later since I'm getting ahead of myself in other areas... the stuff I mentioned in an earlier post. For now though, I believe I will eventually glass the shrouds in place once the rockers and quarters are on. I can't see a need to make the shrouds, the rockers, nor the quarters removable once the car is completed. Everything that will ever need servicing in that area will be accessible by removing the wheel well liner, the bottom of the radiator compartment, and a trap door in the engine bay near the shock. Besides, having the shroud solidly mounted will eliminate one potential source for squeaks. Any thoughts?