Progress update - rounded cockpit edges

[Tenrocca]

Hi All , Ive been working on rounding the cockit edges on my car. Ive pretty much done the front cowl. Thanks to Les for a bit of advice on how to go about it.

Basically I set my Dash in place, and spaced out a few mm further then the final position to allow for upholstery (I welded in different mounts to standard). I bonded some polyurethane foam in under the cowl to get close to the thickness I wanted, and sanded back to shape. I routed a little lip into the existing cowl so that I had something to glass onto, and then glassed around and back to the dash. Took the dash out and glassed the back edge of the rounded section as well so its hopefully its relatively strong and wont fall out the first bump I go over. Im using body filler now to finish off the curve with a piece of conduit the right ID to shape.



I also put my gauges in on the weekend. Ive decided to flip the barina switches around, and remove the wiper controls and put them on the dash(As Im going through a "period correct" phase at present ). This will eliminate any clearance issues with the indicator\door. The main headlight switch will also be on the dash, with the dip and flash switching still on the indicator stalk. I machined up a slim line stalk to go over the existing one. Im going to have a crack at making up a less chunky cowl to cover the column, especially as I was able to cut away a good section of the plastic bit on the wiper side - and hopefilly give a little easier access to the ignition.



Cheers

[Rebel1]

Looking great Andrew. Looks heaps better than a flat edge.

Another hint... Some engineers requires some padding over that part of the dash.

After you have finished with the bog to final shape get some vinyl upholstery material and contact it over the area to be padded. Wax the surface of the vinyl with carnauba wax a couple of times, then lay on a couple of layers of glass over the waxed vinyl.

After it has cured you can remove the fiberglass glass off the vinyl. Then remove the vinyl off the body. Trim the glass moulding to the shape you want.

This leaves you with a fiberglass moulding that is an exact shape of the coaming but is the thickness of the vinyl wider than your dash radius.

You can then glue on some padding over the glass and cover that with your upholstery material. Wrap the vinyl under the fiberglass moulding and you end up with a push on padded crash pad that can be removed if you don't want it long term after final inspection.

Cheers

[Aussie Mike]

That looks great Andrew, very inspiring. Should significantly strengthen the top edge of the dash too. The flex thru there anoys me a bit. Are you going to do the back edge of the cockpit area as well?

I worked on my pedals on the week end. Hope to have some update pics to show soon.

Cheers

[Tenrocca]

Hi Mike. The back edge is this weeks job, then I might look into beefing up the door sill and the back edge above the striker. Ive noticed in Mandos gallery he also thickened up the sill area, and I think you could get a lot neater finish around the doors without that sharp edge.

If anyone has any nice pics of how they have finished off around their doors Id appreciate it - I meant to check that out at nationals but everytime I was about to check out someones car - Phil Neall was spinning off and distracting me

[Churchy]

Andrew,

That looks great buddy. Now if only I had a "flash" looking hand brake lever like that .

[Gav]

You have done a top job Andrew, I will be scrutinising your pics very carefully to work out how to do it myself!!

Gav

[Kanga]

great work, in victoria we need about 3 to 4 mm of padding on the dash, mine fell off recently, the wind and stuff. There are always great ideas here If i had thought of it I too would have put the wipers on the dash. I have notice a lot of body flex in the classic revival i don't know if areas with a large amount of bog will stand the test of time.


steve

[albanycobra]

Andrew
What brand of gauges are you using? and if you dont mind were did
you get them. I think they would look good in my GT40. Your dash
looks great.

[Tenrocca]

Gday Dave,

The minor Gauges are smiths. Bit of a long story, but I was gifted one gauge ("classic" smiths range), and then over the last 12 months of searching on ebay managed to procure the others. Im thinking of ditching the clock and putting in an oil temp gauge, as I think this might be more important then the time! The speedo and taco are a different story. They are actually VDO refaced as smiths. Howards instruments in Victoria do them - Bernie has a full set like this from them, and they are great to deal with. Not a perfect match for the real smiths ones, but close enough for me. If I was to do it again Id just get them all through Howards. They take the standard cockpit vision which a lot of guys use, put the chrome ring and reface them.

Mark - As god is my witness, by the next B club meeting, you will have a handbrake handle just "like" that one (Actually - it is that one, Im going to make another that matches my indicator stalk a bit better). I will polish her up for you though! (Dont complain - I work bloody cheap )

Steve - Hopefully it will hold up OK. The body filler itself is prob only 3-4 mm thick I guess. I tried to fibreglass up as close to the finished level as I could. Time will tell!


Cheers.

[Aussie Mike]

That handbrake design looks very familiar. I might have to start checking into copywrite laws to see what I should do. By the sounds of it a percentage of the sale price to Churchy might have to be handed over.

Hmm... Now what's 10% of free going to buy me?

You can buy som stuff that looks a bit like talcum powder that you mix with your resin to make a filler. It might be a good option as it will have a better bond to the base fiberglass.

I think my clock might get swapped for a boost guage eventually.

Cheers

[Tenrocca]

Hey Mike - Thats exactly what I used. My fibreglass guy gave me a bag of the talc stuff - just mix it in with the resin till it gets to the right consistency. Takes longer to go off then regular body filler so you have more time to shape. I have been using the off the self stuff for the final smoothing though, as it seems to sand a little easier.

Ill send your 10% off in the post tomorrow

Cheers.

[Churchy]

Andrew,

Cool, I can have a flashy hand brake lever on the Go-Kart (gallery updated).

As for the sale price dude. The price is spot on (6 pack of "brown sparkling Cabernet" on the way) ...

Seriously I'm in no hurry, just wanted to give you a bit of a rev up seeing as my lath does not come close to that industrial monster you have access too. BTW, those bonnet locking thingies (I think these may also infringe the Aussie Mike copyright), are you able to send me the dimensions ?

[Tenrocca]

Hey its not that big! (The lathe that is )

Ill measure the catch things up - Youll need the small cam wedges for the size I made. Man thats another 10% off to Mike....

[Philm]

Andrew,
Excellent work, now that is another thing I need to add to the list.

To those guys who don't want to finish there cars as they will have nothing to do......forget that....... you never finish!!!!


Phil

[Aussie Mike]

Originally Posted by Tenrocca

Man thats another 10% off to Mike....

Hey, I'm nearly up to a whole stubbie! Hooray!

Cheers

[stephen low]

Guys the talc like material should be what are called micro balloons and it is a thickening agent for resins. Should be able to be got at any decent fibreglass supply shop, particularly epoxy suppliers.

Use at least a basic dust mask and be careful not to breathe the micro balloons in as they are very fine particles and are not good for your health long term - then again that first corner in the new cobra at too high a speed may not be good for the health either!!

Another good product I've struck for very fine filling and sanding is made by International marine I believe, and it was a green colour, can't remember the name. Very easy to spread and fill just like a bog but very very easy to sand and tough as well.

Have used these products building a f/glass yacht so know they work well and no I am not on a commission.

[BMK]

You can buy the repro SMITH gauges from either Roger or Ian Howard at Howard Instruments in Heidelberg, Victoria.

Full set cost around $1300 with all sender units and gauges including clock. Cannot pick from original - apart from the KPH speedo and normal needle direction.

www.howardinstruments.com.au and email at howardinstruments@bigpond.com.au

[Plums]

Talc and micro balloons are different animals. Talc is talc, and micro balloons are small air filled glass bubbles.

Talc filled resin is quite heavy, while ballooned resin is much lighter. If you are filling large areas you should definitely go for balloons, with a smear of talc filler on the outside if desired...

By the way, if you get desperate you can use normal baby talc - smells nice when you grind it too!!!

[Cameron Parsons]

You can also do the MPH reverse speedo. My KPH version fell out, somthing to do with metric incompatibility



Love that interior Bernie

Cameron

[Tony Cram]

Andrew,

Stephen is correct. Micro Balloons or Micro Spheres are the way to go. I guess I should know we make Polyester / Vinyl ester and Gelcoats resins here at my work (Huntsman). Most good quality outlets sell Micro Spheres in various sized packets. We do have outlets in Vic and Qld but good outlets will stock these products. Look up Huntsman Composites in the phone book / web they can tell you where you can get it.

Micro Spheres are a much lighter product and designed for large fill jobs that need sanding. The glass beads crush as they are sanded and there is less weight due to the air in the sphere, this is why they are easy to sand. Talc is OK for the finer details but is heavier. You just need to use a good quality bog (Bog has fillers and talc in it already). We supply K+H product with our resins.

A good point already mentioned about wearing good breathing protection. WEAR IT!!. We dont want any dead cobra owners on the forum.

Cheers


Tony