LocostUSA.com

Started on my scuttle. Same 0.050" 5052 alloy. I cut the aluminum to size before I started bending the sides around the Argon bottle. This didn't leave me with enough leverage to force the proper shape, particularly along the lower edges. I want to cold roll the skin to avoid heat distortion in the flat top section, so annealing is out. Guess I'll need to finish up the bends with a slip roller.

Also bought some head rests from fleabay. These are halo-style units from a '97 Suzuki X90. Got the idea from Johnlee63: viewtopic.php?f=23&t=20437
I'll need to locate the head rests properly once the seats get bolted down and then build some adjustable/removeable mounts. A re-spray with black vinyl dye is in order as well.

Off to find some DIY time on a slip roller...

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Cheers, Tom

My Car9 build: viewtopic.php?f=35&t=14613
"It's the construction of the car-the sheer lunacy and joy of making diverse parts come together and work as one-that counts."
Ultima Spyder, Northstar 4.0, Porsche G50/52

Tom,

Do you have a slip roller or at least easy access to one? Lee, my neighbor that attended the last 2 SALE events has one.

Cheers!

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Larry in Seattle

Also bought some head rests from fleabay. These are halo-style units from a '97 Suzuki X90. Got the idea from Johnlee63: http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtop ... 23&t=20437
I'll need to locate the head rests properly once the seats get bolted down and then build some adjustable/removeable mounts. A re-spray with black vinyl dye is in order as well.

I have also been looking at headrests for mine. Noticed a set of Volvo headrests that I may pick up and do the same thing. Not fond of banging my head on my rollbar because of its loction.

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Thom

Head rests are also important to protect against whiplash if you get rear-ended. So a big safety consideration.

Those Volvo units are interesting. The halo style was also used on '84-'86 Mustang GT's, hard to find good ones, but repro ones are available ($$). '97-'05 Pontiac Grand Prix's, '86-'89 Jeep Cherokees and some '98-'05 VW Beetles also had halo-style head rests. Lots of options and they can be re-colored with a good quality vinyl dye.

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Cheers, Tom

My Car9 build: viewtopic.php?f=35&t=14613
"It's the construction of the car-the sheer lunacy and joy of making diverse parts come together and work as one-that counts."
Ultima Spyder, Northstar 4.0, Porsche G50/52

Thanks, Larry, that's good to know. I called Ted and he may have one that will work. I'll know Monday. I would also have him do some TIG work on a couple of aluminum cooling system parts while I'm at his shop.

If Ted doesn't have one that will work, I'll send you an email re Lee's roller. The sides I need to roll are 28.5" long, so I'll need a slip roller of at least 30" capacity.

_________________
Cheers, Tom

My Car9 build: viewtopic.php?f=35&t=14613
"It's the construction of the car-the sheer lunacy and joy of making diverse parts come together and work as one-that counts."
Ultima Spyder, Northstar 4.0, Porsche G50/52

Ted had a 36" slip roller so while I did the cranking he wrestled and slipped the panel through the rollers to create the slightly conical shapes needed to match the scuttle's templates. Turned out to be a nice fit once laid onto the chassis.

5/8" square-tubes were added to mount the br@ck^ts used to secure the scuttle sides and also affix the windshield stanchions. All panels are being attached via floating nut plates and button head machine screws, typically #8's, but 1/4" are used where the stanchions mount.
The mounted scuttle fit up pretty well. Final fitting and edge dressing will be completed later on the rotisserie. The protective white plastic will stay on until then as no hammering or heating of the panel is required.

The windshield stanchion in the picture is a prototype made from 0.050" 5052 aluminum. The finished ones will be 0.125" 6061-T6. The top two mounting holes on each stanchion will bolt through the scuttle into Click-Bond nut plates glued onto the inside of the scuttle.

The finished windshield height will appear fairly short (about 8" above the scuttle) as the high top rail and dash hoop make for a tall scuttle relative to the seat bottom.

Another pair of nut plates / button heads will be added to pull in the pointy corners of the scuttle once the cockpit side panels and forward roll hoop braces are in place. Edge trim will be added to the scuttle's aft edge.

Windshield stanchions are next.

"Symmetry is overrated." JD Kemp

_________________
Cheers, Tom

My Car9 build: viewtopic.php?f=35&t=14613
"It's the construction of the car-the sheer lunacy and joy of making diverse parts come together and work as one-that counts."
Ultima Spyder, Northstar 4.0, Porsche G50/52

That looks really good Tom.

I've been delaying mine as I don't currently have the combination of skills/tools to make mine look as good as I want it to. Debating giving it a shot or seeing if a shop would make one up for me.

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Trochu Motor League

Step by step, inch by inch, slowly I turned.....and Tom has made some great progress!

I was overly concerned with the thought someone might grab the windshield to heft themselves out. So far it hasn't happened as far as I know. So when at first I read what you had in mind for the stanchions I was concerned. After thinking about it a bit 0.125 T6061 is very well up to the job.

Looking good Tom!

Cheers

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Larry in Seattle

Very nice Tom, very nice.
I can't rightly recall in previous posts, are you leaving the engine bay exposed?

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Perry

'If man built it, man can fix it'
"No one ever told me I couldn't do it."
"If you can't build it safe, don't build it."

Perry's Locost Super Che7enette Build
Perry's TBird Based 5.0L Super 7 L.S.O
Perry's S10 Super 7 The 3rd
Perry's 4th Build The Topolino 500 (Little Mouse) Altered
Perry's 5th Build the Super Slant 6 Super 7
Perry's Final Build the 1929 Mercedes Gazelle

Looks very goo Tom! Your body work is inspiring as to the quality (like the rest of your work).

I also got on fleebay slide inserts for my headrests. You may be able to drill a hole thru the roll bar and insert the plastic sliders thru the hole.

In my case, my cross frame rail was in front of the cross rail on the roll bar and it was just 1" dia. I have to weld a flat plate to the frame rail and then a 3/4" round tube to the bottom of that to have the "locking" of the plastic slider.


The lower tube is not installed yet in the photo.

After the headrest rod is inserted, the slider cannot pop out. And you can then adjust the headrest up and down as original.

Thom

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Thom

Larry, thanks. Inch by inch it is. Just a lot of inches to go yet...

Perry, yes, the plan has been to leave the engine bay open. The nose cone has been extended aft and the scuttle lengthened to focus more on the exposed motor. No power steering pump, a low-mount alternator and a reversed intake manifold with the air cleaner under the scuttle -- just featuring the V8 bits.

Trochu, not too hard to make an alloy scuttle. Mine is 5052-H32 aluminum, so a bit stiff and I didn't want to anneal the panel and get heat distortion. I probably could have finished forming the rolled sides over the gas bottle if I hadn't trimmed the sides first. So had no leverage to finish the bends. A couple of inches extra length on the sides would have worked better on the slip roller, too. And I had to do a final trim to fit on the sides anyway.
So give it a shot, you can always repurpose the scrap if it doesn't work out.

Thom, your headrest set-up with the Volvo units is looking good. I hadn't thought about using those plastic inserts. I wonder if they will work with the Suzuki headrests I have? What is the diameter of the steel rods in your Volvo headrests?

_________________
Cheers, Tom

My Car9 build: viewtopic.php?f=35&t=14613
"It's the construction of the car-the sheer lunacy and joy of making diverse parts come together and work as one-that counts."
Ultima Spyder, Northstar 4.0, Porsche G50/52

They are 1/2" in dia. and the plastic inserts will fit inside a 1" tube. I actually was able to use some leftover scraps of my chrome moly tubing for the collars.

Look at what your headrests used for the slide surface, I'll bet it was an insert that slide into the top of the seat like on the Volvo.

Thom

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Thom

I had a dragster with a layback seat and had a cross brace I could bend my legs and hook my heels on and straighten out my legs and get high enough to stand up.

Thanks, OKBH. I have a cross brace like that, too. If I pop the steering wheel off I can bend these old knees enough to hook my heels on the brace. Pretty good leverage to get the rest of me vertical. Every little bit helps!
Thanks, Thom. The rods on the Suzuki headrests are 10mm diameter, a little smaller than your Volvo units. I'll look for some inserts of that size. It would be nice to use some OEM'ish parts for a change.

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Cheers, Tom

My Car9 build: viewtopic.php?f=35&t=14613
"It's the construction of the car-the sheer lunacy and joy of making diverse parts come together and work as one-that counts."
Ultima Spyder, Northstar 4.0, Porsche G50/52

Been using my “social distancing” time to be productive in the garage. Avoiding all Corona’s except those with added lime. So far, so good.

Used the time between limes to make a pair of windshield posts. The KV stanchions wouldn’t fit well on my roll-your-own scuttle, so way too many hours were spent whittling a pair out of 0.125” 6061-T6. It was a band saw and file affair followed by some hydraulic press and bending brake time. After sufficient fettling, I had a pair of stanchions:



Still need to get some more button head bolts and glue some Click-Bond nut plates behind the upper bolt holes. But figured the stanchions met the Good Enough criteria so started to mock-up the windshield frame:


Tough to eyeball accurate sight lines while vroom-vrooming, but the windshield height shown in the mock-up should be above my line of vision. The top of the windshield frame is about 8” above the (tall) scuttle giving about 9” of windshield glass on the 62* slope. I’ll give it some more vroom-vroom time just to be sure. Then make up a template and form a length of 5/8” x 5/8” x 1/8” aluminum channel into the windshield frame.

I plan to use rx7locost’s weld-nut trick to attach the frame to the posts. Then at some point it’s off to the glass shop.

_________________
Cheers, Tom

My Car9 build: viewtopic.php?f=35&t=14613
"It's the construction of the car-the sheer lunacy and joy of making diverse parts come together and work as one-that counts."
Ultima Spyder, Northstar 4.0, Porsche G50/52