Finale Roadster Build Thread (Page 4/5)
PaulJK APR 04, 10:07 PM
Amazing work John (as usual )
jstricker APR 04, 10:34 PM
After we foamed in the windshield header I carved foam out for about 3/4" back and intentionally made that very rough. I mixed up some flox and filled that area and after dry, glassed it over with two layers of heavyweight glass tape. Then the customary sanding and shaping and sanding and priming and sanding and smoothing........................





My theme throughout this car was smooth. I don't want a lot of things sticking out. I was only moderately succesful in this but it came out pretty well in the header area, I think.

One of the things about the Finale kit that I've never quite understood is the fuel filler location on the body is too far back to use the stock pipes without cutting and extending the filler and vent pipe. I decided on this car to move the filler forward. To do this I cut a square out that surrounded the filler, then cut another piece the amount I wanted to move it. I then reversed the pieces, moving the filler forward and the and the extra piece to the rear. They were glassed with 3 layers of matte on the back of the body and then work started to smooth the outside.



What you see is the opener moved and covered with a thick layer of microballoon/resin mixture (called micro) then covered with PeelPly fabric to help level and keep it from running as it cures.There was also 2 layers of light glass cloth immediately over the cut pieces to keep the micro from cracking.

After the micro is cured you peel off the fabric (it won't adhere to the resin) and you're ready to start sanding (again).



I like to use 3M's Pirannah Putty for glass work as it doesn't seem as prone to cracking.



This is far from ready to prime, but close enough to see the basic shape.



At the same time the back end of the car is coming along nicely



Notice how the panel inset now flows into the new tail light openings.



I have another modification in mind for the rectangular section between the tail lights



Tail lights mounted and in to get a sense of the rear view, although still without a wing........





More in a bit........

John Stricker

Edited to add this was my 8000th POST

[This message has been edited by jstricker (edited 04-04-2007).]

jstricker APR 04, 10:56 PM
Since I forgot to show them in the last post here's a quick shot of the tail light brackets. Very simple and basically scrap metal.



I glassed in the side vent screens BEFORE I mounted the rear clip and did that simply by mixing up some flox and after forming the mesh to fit the opening, floxing it in place. Trust me, it will NOT come out.



It's time to work on the wing. The car looks naked to me without it.

When I picked up the body kit from Archie there were several wings there and I happened to get a not so good one. For some reason it was very rough and warped. I thought about calling him and having him send me another one (I later mentioned it to him and he was a little cranky at me for NOT calling him) but decided to use this one. First thing we did was cut out the area for the third brake light to blend it into the wing. I thought about doing it several ways but this is how we did it on the copper Finale and it worked well so why screw with success?

You can see the cutout for the light as well as the starting of smoothing and filling the seams which were very rough. Like I said, I grabbed a not so good one.



Other side, and you can see the LED Strip



Third brake light LED Strip. I think this thing cost me $20. You don't want to know what the one in the copper Finale cost in '02.


I don't have a picture of my "forming" of the wing itself, but this picture illustrates how it was done. I put the wing on the car and bolted it down on the driver's side. There was about a 1/4" gap at the rear of the wing mount area on the passenger side when this was done. I sat one of these tractor front end weights on the wing along with 3 more 25# bags of lead shot as close to the edge as I could. This twisted it into shape. I then put 4 heat lamps around the wing and let it get war. REALLY warm. I don't know what the Tg (transition temperature) of the glass used was, but I got past that as you could see the wing relax. The heat was then removed and let cool overnight with the weight still in place.

Once that was done, I used just the one weight to make sure it was solidly placed and began glassing in the wing.



Each side got two wraps of heavy tape, then micro'd in.




IMHO, the most tedious part of the basic kit is blending the wing (it's a PITA to sand on the inside of the sing/body) and the front vent openings.



You might notice a bolt sticking through the wing. Well, as I said, this wing was NOT one of the best and one of the studs pulled out that are glassed into the wing. I simply drilled a hole clear through it to hold it into place until it had been completely bonded, then I filled the hole later.



From here on out for this part, it's sanding, filling, sanding, filling, rinse, repeat. It takes a lot of time and dust and you won't have any fingerprints left when you're halfway through.

John Stricker
northeastfiero APR 05, 05:11 AM
Hi john do you have any more pictures fo the rear body mounting bracket. I notice yours is triangular where the bracket I have is not
Thanks Carl
jstricker APR 05, 07:14 AM
I don't think I have any others that show it any differently. The reason ours look different is it had to be modified to clear the recessed tail lights. We had to do pretty much the same thing with the Bonneville tail lights on the copper Finale. Modified as in the pictures, they are very strong and give good clearance for the lights and brackets.

John Stricker

quote
Originally posted by northeastfiero:

Hi john do you have any more pictures fo the rear body mounting bracket. I notice yours is triangular where the bracket I have is not
Thanks Carl
northeastfiero APR 05, 02:24 PM
Hi John here`s a couple of photos of where I am at the moment
None of the pannels have been final fixed or aligned yet.
Is it possible to show on some of your pictures where each body part is fixed and pictures of the fastners you have used
Thanks all help is welcome Carl



This images is larger than 102400 bytes. Click to view.

This images is larger than 102400 bytes. Click to view.
jstricker APR 05, 04:35 PM
The rear clip is, of course, mounted to the wing mounting pads as per the video you should have gotten from Archie. It is mounted at the front at the two bolts per side as the stock body panels are mounted. In addition, on the roof of the full Finale kit (as opposed to the roadster) the roof I bonded with panel bonder to the space frame and then glassed and filled smooth with the stock roof section you have left. I mount my rockers with simple "L" brackets to the space frame made from 1" aluminum strip and then that is glassed and smoothed with the front and rear clips as well as bolted to them before glassing where the panels mate.

At the front, I have a couple of pictures.

This images is larger than 102400 bytes. Click to view.

This is a bracket my painter made and I wasn't too happy about because he thought the front end flexed too much. We have NOTHING like this on the copper car and after 40K miles it doesn't show stress cracks. If I were doing a mount like that, I'd have done it differently and cleaner, but by the time I saw it he already had it in.

We also mount the front clip, of course, with all of the stock front fender mounting bolts as well as making "L" brackets to hold it at the proper distance for a smooth transition to the door.



You can barely see it looking up from the bottom with the inner fender liners on if you can see the silver area at the top of the picture.

The rocker panels are countersunk and pop riveted to the lower door jambs. That's pretty much it with regard to mounting the panels. It takes a lot of time to get things to mate evenly and get your door gaps even.

I like the Lambo hinges you have installed although it looks like you have limited space for your legs to get in and out of the car. If you aren't swinging the doors out, you can fill and smooth the "holes" at the front lower door and front fender area. I tried to do that with the Roadster and with them filled you don't have enough clearance in that area to open the doors more than 1/2 way, but with the Lambo hinges you should be fine if you want to smooth the body up some.

John Stricker
jscott1 APR 05, 04:43 PM
Oh my...I just discovered this thread... I love these kind of build ups!

This car is amazing!!
northeastfiero APR 05, 04:56 PM
Thanks that info helps a lot I have no video as this body is from when candy apple owned the company
The lambo doors do open out quite a bit, I haven`t welded the bracket to stop the door closing on itself.
J Scott the firebird interior gets deliveredon tuesday it arrived in to the coountry today will post pics when that is done.
Thanks Carl
jstricker APR 05, 06:13 PM
Call or email Archie and I'm sure he can work something out with you on the video.

John Stricker

quote
Originally posted by northeastfiero:

Thanks that info helps a lot I have no video as this body is from when candy apple owned the company
The lambo doors do open out quite a bit, I haven`t welded the bracket to stop the door closing on itself.
J Scott the firebird interior gets deliveredon tuesday it arrived in to the coountry today will post pics when that is done.
Thanks Carl