NS F355 Project (Page 8/73)
Bloozberry OCT 29, 01:08 PM
Something that I would consider doing once you get to the rear firewall bracing, is to tack the firewall sheet metal to the braces as well. From experience with my SBC kit, I've found that long distance drives can be fatiguing due to a low frequency droning or booming sound which I believe is transmitted into the cabin by the rear firewall resonating with the V8 frequencies. Changing the stiffness of the firewall back there by tacking it to the braces would certainly change the sound transmission characteristics and may very well dampen the boominess I experience in my car. Just a suggestion.
Yarmouth Fiero OCT 29, 04:25 PM
Thanks Blooz. I agree that the firewall is certainly built like a drum. There will be an opportunity to plug well the firewall to various locations on the truss stiffener once its in place. That will also add a little more strength to the whole assembly I hope.
Yarmouth Fiero OCT 30, 06:06 PM
Well I finally got the drivers side door back on to check the clearance with the new chassis frame. Its suprising how heavy those doors are....... well that is what my 15 year old son claims.

There is almost 3" of clearance between the fwd edge of the door and the aft side of the frame with the door closed.



As the door opens, it moves forward slightly and inward as well.



The door body panel roughly follows the edge of the door structure and while it does add thickness, causing the door to swing forward and inward a bit more, it appears that the finished door should clear additional frame structure with room to spare. I may even be able to fit a modified gusset for added strength.



As the curved frame on the fwd side of the A pillar lies snug in the recess of the wheel well, there should not be any issues with tire clearance on the finished car.

Photos of 355 body compliments of Blooz.

[This message has been edited by Yarmouth Fiero (edited 10-30-2012).]

Yarmouth Fiero OCT 31, 06:00 PM
Happy Halloween.....
Yarmouth Fiero NOV 04, 06:41 PM
Today the boys and I spent the day with Blooz in his magical workshop. There are so many cool projects and items to ask questions about that it's hard to stay on task at times. Btw.... I'm as guilty of this as the boys.

The activity today was to make a template of the new extended glass for our 355 projects. We have 4 new windshields still in the crate so we opened it up and carefully removed one for use as a guide for our template. I could hear Blooz whispering " this one is yours".... over and over.
You would think we were handling human organs for transplant the way we gingerly extracted the glass from the crate and moved it to the waiting bench. ( listen for the choir of angels)

Using 1/8" corregated plastic, we traced the glass outline on two separate sheets of plastic which would then be glued together to provide a stiffer template. The templates were cut out and trimmed to the desired shape.

Once the two sheets were cut to the desired shape and glued together with a hot glue gun, they were pressed flat against the glass to give the correct shape and then a batten was cut from the same material and glued on edge with the hot glue. It created a suprisingly stiff template of the windshield.

Once the templates were made, we again gingerly returned the windshield to its crate for safe keeping. There are no pictures of this because all 4 of us were holding the glass.

I did snap a picture of the label on the windshield before we were done. The quality appears to be very high and I think they will make an awesome addition to our 355 projects.



With the template home, we were quick to try in on our chassis. I am very happy with the fit and the template will make it much easier to build a suitable lower glass support without handling the actual glass any more than necessary.



Blooz also scored me some awesome parts for our SBC installation, including a flywheel, adapter plate, waterpump, starter and various mounts and brackets. Thanks again for your help Blooz.

edit: remove photos of family members

[This message has been edited by Yarmouth Fiero (edited 02-23-2015).]

Bloozberry NOV 04, 08:55 PM
These 6 windshields travelled from Pennsylvania, down to Maryland (where one of two getting off-loaded got broken), then the remaining four travelled up the Eastern Seaboard to Maine, across the border to New Brunswick, then finally on a 3 hour ferry trip to Nova Scotia... 1000 miles total with nary a nick or chip. After hearing of ALLTRBO having three extended windshields being broken in transit, I think I'd rather give a kidney than have to go through that again. But I could just see it (now that they're nicely nestled in the shop)... one of us tripping on an extension cord while moving one ten feet. That's why I kept whispering "yours, yours, yours".

I'm glad we (well, more like boys and you) went through that process of making the plastic templates though. That was a great idea. Much easier to work with than the actual glass
Yarmouth Fiero NOV 05, 05:04 AM
I agree Blooz, it was certainly a long, uneventful journey getting them back to NS. And to then have an "incident" the last few feet would certainly be heartbreaking.

One thing I forgot to do was measure the width of the bottom frit as it does indeed look wide. Although looking at the template from inside the car, the extended glass does infact " extend" well forward over the dash so we should be good. I guess we can always get an additional seat cushion upholstered with our interiors to boost us up a little in the drivers seat.

When I was 16, my dad had to hose clamp a wooden block on the clutch pedal of this 77 Dodge Ram Club Cab because I couldn't reach to shift the 3 on the tree. We always have that option if we find ourselves boosted too high.
Bloozberry NOV 05, 06:44 AM
I'd help you out if I knew what a "frit" was. (I know what an apple fritter is... are they related?)
Yarmouth Fiero NOV 05, 06:54 AM
Oops....sorry. In the shipbuilding world, we install frameless glass that has a baked ceramic black boarder that protects the adhesive from UV damage. We call this boarder a frit or ceramic frit. I assume our windshields have an adhesive or painted boarder that does the same job. Is there an automotive term for this boarder?

Edit: An apple fritter is much more delicious yet can also coat the inside of your windshield if you aren't careful pulling out of the Tim's drive through.

[This message has been edited by Yarmouth Fiero (edited 11-05-2012).]

Corpsmen Ed DEC 06, 04:22 PM
Hey, thanks for stopping by my build thread. Yours is looking sweet too. I will definitely be following the progress, and sharing it with my boys to show them what REAL "helping" looks like.