Blooze Own: An F355 Six Speed N* Build Thread (Page 120/126) Yarmouth Fiero JAN 13, 11:23 AM It sounds like a good plan. I should be able to configure something similar for my intake plenum minus the radiators. 355Fiero JAN 13, 01:55 PM Looking good Blooz; I made the mounting plates at the back of the lower scoops to seal in the rockers for weather as well as a mounting surface to attach any hoses I might have used in the end. I also planned on mounting the air scoops in the door area to the back of the door jamb I made. The oem cars, I think have a rubber gasket that fits onto the door jamb so that when the door closes, the door scoop seals up against the door jamb opening. Helps remove the wind noise when moving and helps with air loss at slower speeds. What are you planning for the gas door and hose area as that is now right above the driver's side rads and scoops? I have used drywall mud as ccfiero said but I have also used a skim of bondo to layer the foam. The bondo does eat the foam away a bit but not nearly as much as the resin and creates a pretty hard surface to start final sanding of the part. Sealing with drywall mud and a paint would probably be the best for this size of a part though. Keep up the great work and looking forward to seeing the end result. Cheers Don Bloozberry JAN 13, 03:02 PM quote Originally posted by 355Fiero: What are you planning for the gas door and hose area as that is now right above the driver's side rads and scoops? The fuel filler door is actually quite far back and isn't in line with the radiator. The plan at the moment is to fabricate a custom-shaped tube to follow a route similar to the real F355. It runs behind the radiator and into the engine bay. You'll have to excuse my primitive etch-a-sketch drawings but I think they get the point across: And before anyone else asks... I have no idea yet where I'm going to get my cold air for the engine intake. Maybe from scoop at the back of the quarter window... maybe. Jim88GT JAN 13, 05:45 PM Blooze, Before you finalize your scoops - have you considered rotating the inboard side of the radiators forward to help straighten the airflow on both the inlet and outlet side? Just a thought..... Jim Bloozberry JAN 13, 06:50 PM Thanks Jim for your input. I had originally considered the idea of rotating them as you suggested but that was before I decided to lay them back at the top. I discarded that original idea for several reasons but the main one was that it left precious little room for a shroud along the inboard side of the radiator. That B-pillar is enormously wide down there! Other minor issues involved awkward angles of the inlet and outlet pipes for hoses later on, access to the front engine cradle bolt, and mounting complexity. By rotating the rad with it also tilted, the same issues crop up even though I hadn't considered doing both until now. It's a compromise no matter what I do since the car wasn't designed with side saddle coolers in the first place, but I take comfort believing that what I'm doing will be sufficient. I reason that my 308 replica with a small block and stock Fiero radiator only ever gets hot enough for the fan to kick in during stop and go traffic, which is very rare in Nova Scotia! Even then, the temps drop like a lead balloon. I hope that my 355 will have even better cooling capacity. I see the cooling issue as two separate conditions to satisfy. One at speed, and the other at idle. At speed, rotating the radiators like you suggest would probably allow a more efficient airflow through the entire radiator, and less drag, but as the high pressure area develops in front of the radiator, the airflow will tend to make use of the inboard side of the radiator more and more. Once the air enters the shroud, there is no other place for it to go. It's during idling that a more effective airflow will matter. But since the fans will be drawing slow speed air through the entire surface of the radiator from the backside, I don't think rotating the radiators will make any difference in stop and go traffic. Recall though, it's not like I thought this through beforehand, the real reasons are the physical installation issues and this is just my way of arguing out of further development! fierogt28 JAN 14, 11:03 PM Hey Blooze, nice work... Interesting that you'll be canceling the front radiator with the 2 side radiators... How's the finger? Bloozberry JAN 19, 02:11 PM Thanks fierogt28 The finger's being stubborn. My occupational therapist said that finger and hand injuries take the longest of all to heal... up to a year before things are back to normal because of all the muscles, tendons and ligaments. I can get about 90% of the range of motion at this point, but only after soaking my hand in really hot water. Otherwise I get only about 50%. Overall hand strength is still only about 50% despite lots of exercise designed specifically for hand injuries. Bet you're sorry you asked now, eh? Well, after being overwhelmed by the price and availability of fiberglass supplies in my area, Yarmouth Fiero came to my rescue on the weekend with a care package. He's a big-wig at a major boat-building company which goes through fiberglass like Mimi goes through eye shadow on the Drew Carrie Show: by the 75 gallon drum. In exchange for a couple of rear ball joints, I got a couple gallons of resin, some hardener, a couple square yards of 1.5 oz mat, a can of release wax, a roller, some acetone, and some measuring and mixing containers! Woo-whoo! Thanks Graham. Before I could make use of all the goodies, I took ccfiero's advice and applied drywall crack filler to the entire Styrofoam buck, let it dry overnight and sanded it smooth the next day: I wasn't too concerned with perfection since this is after all the inside of the radiator shroud, which no one will ever see again (short of a critter crawling inside and making a nest). In fact, for the RH side, I probably won't go through the trouble of puttying the buck since the next step is to wrap the entire thing with packing tape to protect the foam from the resin. The tape pretty much hides all the superficial flaws as it is, but creates a few of its own problems: it doesn't like to wrap around complex curves very well. Nevertheless, I got the job done reasonably well: Even though the next step wasn't totally necessary, I waxed up the tape to make it easier to separate from the fiberglass later on. I've been told that the tape sticks to the fiberglass sometimes and it can be a helluva time trying to remove it. Better safe than sorry: Once that was dried, I donned six layers of clothes, my activated carbon filter breathing mask, and some nitrile gloves to start cutting the fiberglass mat (I get itchy and picky just looking at fiberglass!) I mixed up a pint of resin with 1/8 oz of hardener and got to work. The working time was about 20 mins before the resin started to gel-up, which was just enough time to use up one pint: I laid up two full layers of mat and ran through 2.5 pints of resin in total. I managed to keep it bubble-free except in one or two unimportant areas where it was next to impossible to keep the fiberglass from pulling away from the buck: That was last night, and I just checked on it to be sure it hardened properly: it did. Now to decide whether it's worth putting another layer on now, or to pull it off the buck and decide then... 355Fiero JAN 19, 06:26 PM Lookin' nice Blooz; A couple tricks learned over the years of glassing. When doing complex corners, pull the 1.5 oz. mat apart (essentially tear one side off to produce a .75 oz. mat piece and these go around the more complex corners so much more easily. You still use the 1.5 oz mat, you just do it in two layers vs. 1 and it lays down just fine. It actually goes into pretty tight corners and over pretty sharp edges at that weight. Hard very sharp corners still require two pieces with edges to be mated together with mat though. Then you do a .75 oz. overlay and then another two piece edge and you will have a very nice, sharp corner. You were smart to wax the tape. I used that tape on one of my old molds and did not and it made a mess and was a heck of a time removing it..... Two layers of 1.5 oz. should be just fine for that application as it is only directing air. Maybe another layer or two on the areas that you will be installing mounting screws/bolts into is all. Nice work. Don Yarmouth Fiero JAN 19, 08:36 PM Looks really good Blooz. Can't wait to see the finished product. If I know you, you're out in the shop tonight trimming and buffing the piece before a photo shoot ha-ha-ha. Great tip Don for working mat into and around tight corners. Are you looking for work as an FRP specialist? Google "Hammerhead USV-T" to see one of our products currently in use in your area on the West Coast. Lonster JAN 19, 09:53 PM quote Originally posted by Bloozberry: I'm just planning to glass it over in one shot and dig the foam out. A small squirt of acetone will quickly dissolve the foam... something I learned from Mythbusters.