Hi everyone!

There is still some work left to be done. I still have some work to finish off the first 5 production enclosure. I've talked to a local machinist with who I will be manufacturing my brackets. He gave me some pointers on how to perfect my design so there will be the minimum vibration noise, maximum strength with them being the most affordable. Those brackets will most likely be bought (By myself) by batches, again, to reduce the final price.

I will work on the design during my vacations, the brackets design and the 5 enclosure started should be ready in about a month. Then there will be some test-fitting with prototype brackets to ensure the design is universal to all years, models, accessories... etc. Then there will be the first batch of brackets. After all this process, the first production enclosures will be ready to be shipped.

Until then, I wish you all happy holidays, drive safe and I will keep you up to date with future developments.

By the way, I added you all to the list!

Fred

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87 Pontiac Fiero GT

Hi everyone!

I know it's been a really long time. We had a very hard winter up here in Canada with some very low temperature (We did hit the -40 degrees Celsius/Fahrenheit for about a week.) therefore working in a non-heated garage was way too cold. Fortunatelly, I've been able to advance on the design with information I had on hand. With that done, I have been able to come up with a final shape that I will need to verify the fitment in the car as soon as it gets a little warmer.

This week is supposed to be relatively hot (around 0 Celsius / 32 Fahrenheit) so I will post some more information this week.

Fred

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87 Pontiac Fiero GT

I promised updates, here they are!

I worked on the bracket design and the mounting points for the enclosure. This is a nightmare to design. Let me explain:

I've thought a lot about where to mount it on the car, the easiest ways, the optimum ways and finally, I was left with only one solution. I didn't want to make a bracket that would of ended up in the wheel well since its a salted area (I need to look at all possible applications for the customers). I didn't want to make a bracket that would mount on top or on the side of the A/C duct as it would make vibration noises and the brackets would need to be different for A/C and non-A/C cars. I didn't want to attach it to the dash either because the weight is considerable and it would be very impractical to install and remove.

Over the time, I worked on more than 5 different bracket designs. Some of them worked, some of them developed problems after a while or the others were just not that great. This was my 2nd design which consisted of only 2 brackets. The problem with that was that the only thing that kept the enclosure from pivoting from the front to back, was the constant contact with the dash creating major vibration noises. I still post it on here just to explain how hard it was.



Now this is my 5th bracket design and the one we will stick to. There will be 3 mounting point because its the best way to immobilize an object preventing it from moving in every axis. Two mounting point are on the top preventing it from pivoting from right to left (Passenger to Driver), the other mounting point will be the small bracket attached to the frame that supports the dash and the foot light. Here is a picture of the mounting points (The dots represent the placement of the bolts).



I've made a paper cut out of the bracket's shape. Again, red dot means the attachment to the frame, green dot means the attachment on the enclosure and the yellow dot is the attachment of the power door lock relay to the bracket (So that it can be grounded).




The next step will be to make a steel prototype to make sure all the angles and dimensions are correct. I will the verify it in several cars to make sure it is universal to all Fiero (Just making sure of fitment) and then I will be able to send my drawing to a shop.

Fred

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87 Pontiac Fiero GT

[This message has been edited by mygear (edited 03-04-2013).]