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 Post subject: Re: Stalker BMW build
PostPosted: October 29, 2017, 9:22 am 
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Location: Carlsbad, California, USA
Wow, you've done a lot of nice work since I was on last. When you tried the spinning of the velocity stacks, did you anneal the aluminum, I wonder? I don't know if that's what you're supposed to do, but it occurred to me that it might help.

Cheers,

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Damn! That front slip angle is way too large and the Ackerman is just a muddle.

Build Log: viewtopic.php?f=35&t=5886


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 Post subject: Re: Stalker BMW build
PostPosted: October 29, 2017, 10:41 am 
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Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Pretty nice stuff you got there

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 Post subject: Re: Stalker BMW build
PostPosted: October 29, 2017, 11:11 am 
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Lonnie-S wrote:
Wow, you've done a lot of nice work since I was on last. When you tried the spinning of the velocity stacks, did you anneal the aluminum, I wonder? I don't know if that's what you're supposed to do, but it occurred to me that it might help.

Cheers,


Thanks, feels slow but posting here helps me see progress!

I did anneal the aluminum. Put a layer of carbon on it with acetylene only and then heated it with a neutral flame until the carbon burned off which is supposed to be the right temp? Seemed quite soft afterwords.

Regardless, found some really nice velocity stacks in the right size on ebay for something like $20/per. They look fantastic for that money.

Alex


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 Post subject: Re: Stalker BMW build
PostPosted: October 29, 2017, 12:25 pm 
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Joined: August 8, 2014, 6:08 pm
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Location: Green Bay, WI
That fuel tank is awesome. This is going too be a sweet build.

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My build : http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtop ... 35&t=17160

MGB/GT V8 5.0L. viewtopic.php?f=36&t=20782


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 Post subject: Re: Stalker BMW build
PostPosted: November 20, 2017, 12:28 am 
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Joined: December 18, 2010, 3:29 pm
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Filled up my garage GoPro SD card today. 18 months into the build, about 143 hrs of camera time, I figure I remember to turn it on about 75% of the time. Pretty cool to see the steady progress!



Alex


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 Post subject: Re: Stalker BMW build
PostPosted: November 20, 2017, 6:27 am 
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Posts: 169
Tundra 7 wrote:
That fuel tank is awesome. This is going too be a sweet build.


Thanks! I am really happy with the final product. I finished up all the welding last week and was pretty relieved that I kept it fairly square. It was a lot of inches of weld compared to a square tank but it stayed within 1/8" almost everywhere. The overall tank bowed about 1/4" with all the welding on the back face and none on the front but fortunately it was perfectly symmetrical and didn't effect fit at all. That was with 1" tacks and welding 2" at a time while changing locations constantly so just running beads would have been a disaster!

It holds 5psi with soapy water sprayed on all seams, trying to decide if I should line it or not. I've lined every other AL tank I've done but I'd sure like to skip it on this large, complex shape!

Alex


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 Post subject: Re: Stalker BMW build
PostPosted: April 11, 2018, 5:30 am 
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Joined: December 18, 2010, 3:29 pm
Posts: 169
It's been a while since the last update. Lots of work on: work, daily drivers, bicycles, and for the Stalker: terrible, terrible, slow composite bodywork.

OK, I HATE composite work. Turns out I am, apparently, OK at it but, good lord, it sucks. Lots of pictures here because I feel like I deserve it after this mess! :BH:

Most Stalkers with LS or V6 engines don't have body panels below the hood since they fill that area with a pair of headers. I have no left side headers on the straight six so I needed a nice panel to finish it off. I also wanted to do a vent that wasn't really a vent but allowed a wider footbox in a good looking way. Here's the vent shape I'm talking about. It's the part right under the hood that flares out before the pass compartment. I've seen people use the 'vent' area as just a way to buy a little width at your feet. If used in that way the vent becomes "fake" but lets your feet have a little more space.

I also decided to just integrate the sides of the pass compartment so the part ended up 80 something inches long.

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So, should have just made the damn thing out of aluminum and been done in a day but it seemed like an easy shape and I've wanted to try some carbon fiber work since we last did some in college. I should NOT have tried it on a part this size. The amount of work to make and prep the mold, cut the damn layups (that took an entire day), vacuum bag the thing with no leaks (another whole day), and infuse it is insane. Further, there is no redeeming quality to the work, it just sucks. It's like drywall. Easily 40 hrs to the finished part that isn't even trimmed yet.

It did turn out absolutely perfect, literally flawless, so I'm happy in the end.

Here's the mold, wet sanded and sprayed with PVA. Carbon rolled up behind it, still seemed a little fun at this moment:

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Here's the first half of the layup, 2 layers plus 2mm core mat. VERY not fun at this point. My back was already super sore from reaching over the 60" carbon roll to cut patterns, hours behind where I thought I'd be. A couple details I had to guess on were making me very nervous and I wouldn't know the result until the very end.

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Vacuum bag finally ready to go. This sucked even more than cutting patterns.

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Here's why I should have started smaller. Even pumping out the damn epoxy was tiring and boring. 4.5kg, I needed about 3.5. I was mixing as it infused so poured back 2 of these before they got hardener. I still threw away about 1kg, chalk it up to being a newbie. Again, this whole time since it was my first part I thought there was a 50% chance of failure, not motivating!

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Infusion happening. Aside from worry, this was actually cool:

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Finished infusion, still at 50% confidence here:

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Ta da! A perfect finish, popped out of the mold with no issue, I even remembered gloves so I don't have any splinters. The part is F'ing sweet, not sure it was worth the work but it was satisfying for sure.

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Even the backside looks great:

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That's about it for Stalker progress, radiator mounts are done but that was just a couple hour's work. I'm going to duplicate this panel for the right side too and just see how much needs to get cut up for the header exit. So, next up is one more of these parts out of the mold (with some friends helping this time), cooling plumbing, hood hinge mounting, etc.

As for the distractions if you're interested: Bought a Jeep Wrangler for my wife, what a terrible but fun car! By far the worst highway car I've ever driven but so much joy! No idea why, maybe it's just the idea that every landscape or roadside you look at you think "I could drive over there." She said she didn't want a 'stupid mom SUV' but we needed a winter car and we'd both always wanted a Jeep. Got a great deal on a lifted Rubicon but it included a drive back from Dallas and a throwout bearing that just barely made the trip. Pulling a trans without even touching a jack or jack stands is pretty handy! All good now.

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Volvo burned a piston. Pretty done working on this car, going up for sale when it's back on the road. Ping me if interested. Choice of turbos right now, I'll decide myself in a week or two.

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Working on my first triathlon so needed a road bike. Went used old school and cool for the tri bike rather than a new carbon job but it's taken some garage time to tune back up. The titanium frame rides super smooth as everyone says.

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Alex


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 Post subject: Re: Stalker BMW build
PostPosted: April 11, 2018, 5:34 am 
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Joined: December 18, 2010, 3:29 pm
Posts: 169
Also realized I missed a post on here. I cross post on another unrelated forum and this one was down for a bit a that time:

So, from January:

Fun stuff today, finally test fitted the ITB's! I sloped them from above the master cylinder down 2 deg/cyl to the front to clear the hood. Hard to see completely from the photos but it's a really cool effect in person. The last Stalker pic is a video link of my bench setup for the Electronic throttle control. Works great! Pretty easy code to write, just using RPM and TPS sensors to limit WOT position at lower RPM, no OEM style monkeying around with driver/throttle filtering.

Also added a gratuitous shot of the day job working for GM from a few weeks ago at Willow Springs. Fun to finally show off the hardware after years of work!

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Alex


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 Post subject: Re: Stalker BMW build
PostPosted: April 11, 2018, 7:41 am 
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Joined: October 19, 2010, 11:57 am
Posts: 507
Location: Waterloo, WI
What an awesome update! Impressive work. Oh, and congrats on the new bike too! :D

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 Post subject: Re: Stalker BMW build
PostPosted: September 22, 2018, 9:44 pm 
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Joined: December 18, 2010, 3:29 pm
Posts: 169
Lot's of tedious work this summer with some fun stuff lately.

Here's a couple shots of the carbon parts trimmed and in place:

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Hood mounted, this was tedious. Stalker recommends Home Depot barn door hinges for the hood which I was not OK with (rattles, rust, etc.) I widened a mountain bike hub and welded dropouts on the frame so I can have a tight pivot and a quick release for taking the whole front end off. I also built a stiffener/hood pin combo to keep it square and mate with the bearclaw latches. Sikaflex got messy but I can sand out the spillage. The whole underhood will be textured black so should disappear.

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Now the fun part. I love building headers, just the right combo of art and engineering. The tubes ended up exactly equal length. I did this for sound more than anything. The overall tube length ended up a bit longer than ideal but I really didn't want tubes randomly poking out of the body, I wanted them lined up 6 in a row when they exited the bodywork. These are a major visual element to the car so I was OK with the tuning trade-off of longer tubes (not a racecar!). I'll be polishing them in case I want to cut up the tubes later on for an un-equal length sound down the road. My exhaust tuning colleagues at work are debating if I will like equal or un-equal based on how I personally like our GM V8's to be tuned and my strong preference for Subaru over Honda 4cyl sounds.

The tube that heads over the top looks good from a few angles but I would probably have preferred to keep it like the others. Unfortunately the front wheel is really right up in there, had to break one out of the pack to get it all to fit.

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Non-stalker car stuff: My wife got a Grand Sport, she has impeccable taste in color! Also a cool shot of our white and black driveway when she still had the Camaro and with a fitting development ZR1 one evening.

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Next is a lot of finish work on headers. Then fitting the rear bodywork and configuring the trunk opening. Then should be into aluminum interior panels and floor. I also realized I took no pictures of the driveshaft adapter for the CTS-V diff. It's a cool part, I'll have to get pics later.

Alex


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 Post subject: Re: Stalker BMW build
PostPosted: September 22, 2018, 11:34 pm 
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Joined: October 24, 2008, 2:13 pm
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Location: Carlsbad, California, USA
Nice work, Alex. It all looks really good, but the headers are particularly cool.

Cheers,

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Damn! That front slip angle is way too large and the Ackerman is just a muddle.

Build Log: viewtopic.php?f=35&t=5886


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 Post subject: Re: Stalker BMW build
PostPosted: September 24, 2018, 10:56 am 
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Joined: August 21, 2017, 7:37 am
Posts: 257
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
heard them 2019's are gonna be a tough sell with all the 2020 leakage

also nice header. cant wait to see a little heat color on them

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 Post subject: Re: Stalker BMW build
PostPosted: November 5, 2018, 10:34 pm 
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Joined: December 18, 2010, 3:29 pm
Posts: 169
Same amount work time but tasks are getting more tedious so there's not as much to talk about. It's a good thing but slow!

Bought a 3 in 1 sheetmetal tool from Harbor Freight. This is one of those tools that are literally 15 to 20 times more money for a good one. Given I'm working on 0.040" aluminum it works absolutely perfectly, I actually love the thing.

Pic of my first interior panel and the new tool. This was a big milestone, getting more real. I don't have a picture of it but I'm screwing these in with #4 self tappers. Once everything is painted and I know it's in the right place I'll drill out these holes one at a time for structural rivets.


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Today was a ton of time carefully trimming the carbon side panel around the header. I made two carbon side panels and then threw the mold away so I didn't want to mess this up! I had to make sure I could remove and re-install the header as well since the side panels will be pretty permanent at some point.

I am super pumped about the Yosh pipes. This thing is kind of a big motorcycle in how I plan to use it and I think the whole exhaust really keeps with that image. Plus, I can say it has Yosh pipes! (yeah, was a teenager in the 90's)

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Next up is a lot of little stuff, fuel filler, e-brake, rad plumbing, idle air plumbing, days and days of tasks lined up.

Alex


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 Post subject: Re: Stalker BMW build
PostPosted: November 6, 2018, 12:34 pm 
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Joined: October 24, 2008, 2:13 pm
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Location: Carlsbad, California, USA
Your work is looking super. Yes, those exhaust headers/mufflers are going to be a major feature, and they look cool to a motorhead like me. I'm just glad I won't have to crawl over them as a passenger. :wink:

Cheers,

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Damn! That front slip angle is way too large and the Ackerman is just a muddle.

Build Log: viewtopic.php?f=35&t=5886


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 Post subject: Re: Stalker BMW build
PostPosted: November 6, 2018, 6:10 pm 
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Lonnie-S wrote:
Your work is looking super. Yes, those exhaust headers/mufflers are going to be a major feature, and they look cool to a motorhead like me. I'm just glad I won't have to crawl over them as a passenger. :wink:

Cheers,


Yeah, passenger side has been a significant afterthought on this project :lol:

Dry sump tank takes up 6" of legroom and a furnace off to their right side.

Alex


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