A Berkeley with Bite! (ccrunner)

[Kartracer47]

I have done a bit of fiberglass with my projects and found a regular process that works well for molds.
3 coats of green mold release wax that is buffed by hand almost immediately after application and then 2+ coats of pva allows an easy release with a very smooth surface.
The green wax does not contain silicone so the pva will coat it smoothly and not fish eye.
I also use a lot of peel ply (Dacron polyester) over layups to give a smooth finished surface or a "no sanding needed" bonding surface for the next layup. Especially good over mat. Does not conform well so is best used in strips as needed. Be SURE to remove the peel ply before the next layup or prep!!!! I like the peel ply with a red thread to show that it is there!
Green wax and peel ply are available at laminating suppliers - well worth the money!!

[ccrunner]

Hi CC!
It's been a while, but I thought some may find this useful. I have made fiberglass molds in the past by carving polyfoam, then I would cover the foam in good ol' clear packing tape, being careful to lay it as flat as possible. Nothing sticks to the stuff! I would still put a coating of Simonize on it to help with the release, but it has yet to let me down. The trick is not to get any wrinkles in the tape where the epoxy can get under it, that tends to make a mess. You are left with little lines in the surface when you are done, but they are only about .004" high, so they are easily sanded away.
BTW- I pm'd you the other day.

Nathan! I just today (May 13) got your PM.. weird.. I responded with a potential parts source for you.. please let me know if my PM does not reach you..

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May 12, 2024

My VFR1200 motorcycle just sold, clearing up some much needed garage space. I originally planned to source that bike's motor/ dual clutch setup to build Berkeley #2, but I've abandon those plans (I'm fickle that way), and now once THIS Berk (this build log) is done, then I'm going to restomod a 1960 MGA coupe.. Bottom line, my small garage just became a bit more user friendly, so it's back on the Berk

Top pic is of the new trunk lid getting a mild rework in some fragile areas (underside shown), including one nasty air bubble that needed fixing.. Soon I'll skim the 'top' of the lid with filler/ glaze, then work on its latching system..

bottom pic: I raised the car to aid in accessing/reshaping the grille opening to its final configuration, and I realized this offered a rarely seen view of the underside of this car.. Of note, the 'flat' exhaust, which despite being a bit unconventional, works surprisingly well- who knew?!

--ccrunner

[ccrunner]

Reworking the Grille (Opening) Shape..

The factory grille shape is one of my least favorite elements of this marque.. You have this cool little Cobra-esque body, and then there's this giant, gulping fishmouth grille. I know they did it for a reason; the factory motors were 2-strokes, and needed all of the air flow and cooling that they could get. Because I'm now liquid cooled, the cave-like OEM grille opening is no longer needed.

So here is my chance to both shrink and raise the grille. I could go even smaller than what's in the coming pics, but I really need those yellow fog lights up front on this car, and they seem to live well on either side of the radiator, tucked back into the grille, which results in a narrow, wide ellipse that is somewhat Jaguar-like..

One consideration that I'm trying to be mindful of is to raise the 'chin' of the car (from factory spec anyway), and that effort will require that I 'flatten' the lower half of the grille aperture just a bit..

*Top photo is of an OEM grille opening.. Note the chunk of body (yellow box) that extends down below the natural flat area that extends from fender (bottom) to fender; this is the plane I'd like to not break in my quest for a lean, shapely grille..

--ccrunner

[ccrunner]

Grille Cont'd..

I've been apprehensive about this particular mod as I don't want to get it wrong.. I've seen several builds lose continuity as they alter a grille opening- it's not an exact thing- super subjective, but your eye knows when the grille shape is wrong for the car. For my part, I don't think this car will get a true 'grille' (decorative piece that fills the grille opening), mostly because I don't want to bury the fog lights behind a grille- I like them exposed in the opening.

Once I fab in the body below the grille opening (the 'chin' part of the car), then I'll evaluate if the open grille needs an adornment. I will be painting everything behind the grille (radiator/ misc brackets) satin black.. If she needs anything, I'm considering chopping down a Jaguar "Motif Bar" (OEM Jag horizontal bar) and fitting it between the fog lights to help add another long-ish horizontal element to make the car look lower and wider..

At this point in this mod, I'm taking some of the upper/lower symmetry out of the grille in an effort to raise the bottom half of the grille just enough to bring it up above the imaginary flat line that connects the driver and passenger lower fenders together.. I may cheat this line back down later, depending on how things shape out once I fab in the lower valance..

--ccrunner

[rx7locost]

Me likey!

I think the Jag-style single bar would look good. Have you thought about a Ferrari-style grill. That is the first thing that came to me. Something like this:

[ccrunner]

Me likey!

I think the Jag-style single bar would look good. Have you thought about a Ferrari-style grill. That is the first thing that came to me. Something like this:

Yes Chuck!.. that is a design I rather like if I do in fact fill the void.. I think it would look graceful and period appropriate.. I want to see how the opening looks empty, and if it needs something more than a floating horizonal bar, this design would be my go-to

--ccrunner

[seattletom]

...At this point in this mod, I'm taking some of the upper/lower symmetry out of the grille in an effort to raise the bottom half of the grille just enough to bring it up above the imaginary flat line that connects the driver and passenger lower fenders together.. I may cheat this line back down later, depending on how things shape out once I fab in the lower valance..

I wouldn't expect one could discern the "raise" of the lower grill opening line when standing next to the car and it is sitting on the ground. Besides, as JD would note, "Symmetry is overrated."

[ccrunner]

...At this point in this mod, I'm taking some of the upper/lower symmetry out of the grille in an effort to raise the bottom half of the grille just enough to bring it up above the imaginary flat line that connects the driver and passenger lower fenders together.. I may cheat this line back down later, depending on how things shape out once I fab in the lower valance..

I wouldn't expect one could discern the "raise" of the lower grill opening line when standing next to the car and it is sitting on the ground. Besides, as JD would note, "Symmetry is overrated."

A very good point Tom.. here I am sitting on the ground just a foot away from the grille, scrutinizing the new opening, when in reality it's too low to really even be noticed, at least to the casual observer.. I think I need to broaden my scope a bit and zoom out mentally

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Memorial Day Weekend, 2024

I have high hopes for progress on this wee beast this summer.. School's out (for Summer! -thankyou Alice Cooper ) soon, so I thought I'd get a jump on things and tear the car back down for some planned mods.

The tear-down/ rebuild process on this car is a bit tedious as everything is so tight on this car.. You can't get to bracket X without first removing items A and B and C.. You guys know the drill..

So the process has begun.. I don't need the car to be operational until the first week of August, so as per normal on these builds, I plan to blitz my 'to do' list hard, get done as much as I reasonably can, burn myself out on the build over the summer, then wherever things land, put it back together just before I run out of summer break. I'll then drive it for another year in whatever state I can get it to... I'm optimistic that I'll have it all in primer by end of summer, and have my long list of tasks substantially whittled down.. It's the journey, right?

--ccrunner

[ccrunner]

Last few of the effort to pull the nose off...

When this all goes back together in a few months, under the hood I plan to do a bit of painting/ cosmetic work to make it as clean and 'finished' as possible..

[ccrunner]

5-27-2024

In an effort to smooth the car body out a bit, I'm planning to shave the external OEM hood hinges and incorporate repurposed Miata trunk hinges for the task (green hinges). The Miata bits are likely a bit of overkill, but they were cheap and should fit in the small space available for reverse hood hinges.. The eventual stealth latch will likely end up being integrated into the airbox lid.. plan is to give it a remote rod/cable release..

--ccrunner

[ccrunner]

Now that the nose is off, I can easily access the morse shifter cable. I was driving around the other day and I missed a shift, which is a pretty rare thing in this car.. Because I'm such a good driver, it can't possibly have been my fault, so I assume that the cable just needed to be lubed .. So, whether it needed it or not, I set up my hillbilly gravity feed lube-bag-funnel, and now there will be no more missed shifts

--ccrunner

[ccrunner]

Red Dye Number (DOT)-3

When I moved the pedals/ firewall forward to essentially lengthen the cockpit, a compromise that was made was to locate the brake fluid reservoir up under the dash, where it is VERY difficult to see. My solution to being virtually unable to see how much fluid I had was to add a very small amount (literally a few drops) of red food dye. Please don't go freaking out about the introduction of moisture for this purpose- the internet is strongly divided on this issue, and I've had the red dye in the brake system for about a year (I couldn't get a picture of it until now).. I'm not getting any negative symptoms or side effects for having done this, and the dye makes it much easier to check the fill status.. For me, it's been a good mod.

*Do you guys remember the scandal over the use of Red Dye #3 years ago?? I had forgotten all about it until I started looking into dying my brake fluid.. I think the takeaway here is don't drink red brake fluid

--ccrunner

[ccrunner]

Swapping out the choke..

I can be my own worst enemy sometimes. A few years ago I got it in my head that I wanted to remove the OEM automatic 'wax' choke, and swap it out for an older generation OEM manual (cable) choke.. Why did I do this? I can't remember.. I think it was to gain more control over the cold idle.. What I've learned is that I liked the automatic choke.. It worked flawlessly, and I never forgot to turn it off, cause, ya know, automatic

Anyway, now that I can actually get to the motor with the body off, I think I'm going to take the time and effort to go back to the stock automatic choke. It will take a little time, and I'll have to recalibrate the starter valves, but so be it- this is the time to chase those little nagging preferences.. More on this later..

--ccrunner

[ccrunner]

Memorial Day Weekend, 2024

Another preference that I've decided to chase down.. I want a more positive link/ anchor system between the fiberglass nose of the car and the 'behind the dash' steel crossbar. The frame on this car is actually pretty ridged- I don't get much cowl shake, but I've always wanted more mounting points between the unstressed front clip and the steel subframe. In the top pic, the red arc represents where the body/cowl will be once the body is in place.

My solution to connect the steel frame to the fiberglass nose piece is in the yellow triangles.. To get to that point, I needed to weld in some tabs/ mounts at the crossbar to bolt the small, light aluminum triangles to, which is what I did today. Once the body goes back on, I'll fab the triangles and link the body and frame (the triangles will each end up being just a few inches across- they're pretty small).

--ccrunner

[ccrunner]

June 2, 2024

Progress was a bit slow on this day as taking the intake off of this motor is a slow, methodical, tight-clearances affair. I finally got the intake apart and then reassembled with the wax choke.. I'm in the middle of flushing the cooling system now, but I did in fact have a chance to refire the motor.. I have air bubbles in the cooling system (the wax choke necessitated that I open the cooling system), which are causing fits with the choke, but this was expected (at least until I finish flushing the cooling system), and then I'll refill it and purge the trapped air. At this point, I was just looking for coolant leaks and choke functionality, and it looks good on both fronts..

The bottom pick is of my new air filter prefilter. This little dude is cheap insurance to keep dirt and especially water out of the intake.. I believe it's even more important to use a prefilter now that I've moved the air filter to its new home up inside the front fender and behind the driver's front wheel; Not the most hospitable place for an air filter to live.. Prefilters help forgive a lot of placement sins

--ccrunner