Shaping 550 Fenders...

Looking really good @arajani! Carey's Nabisco bits are way better than mine, and that's only partially because the door edge area and bulkhead on your car are shaped more correctly as compared to mine. 

I'm also stunned by the ferrules for the firewall material. The top one I figured out myself. I did not make one for mine but probably will before I set it loose in the wild. But I had no inkling there'd be anything like that halfway down the firewall where the two bits of vinyl meet. Mine's just velcroed on there and, while convenient for anyone who may want to remove and replace the upholstery quickly to toggle between that "just raced" look and "date night on Amelia Island," it doesn't quite get the "date night" effect.

Yours surely will.

Looks like @WOLFGANG has solved the 'windlass' issue.

Apparently, 'windlace' is an old industry term that has been used to describe various door seal products over the years - including this stuff that many of us remember from cars of the 50s, 60s, and 70s. But, until now, I've never known what to call it.

And all the while the only "old industry term" I know is

"Dead-on balls accurate" LOL!

Anand and SE crew: Looking fabulous!

Yes, wind lace... 

LeonChupp posted:

Beer head on a calm day....maybe..

Wind lace indeed.

Hey, as long as Leon brought up beer: It's English lace, the lovely pattern that beer foam makes on the inside of the glass whilst drinking!

I had a similar plastic molding on my 2004 Acura RL but it went along the rear fender edges to protect the edge from getting chipped by rocks. 

@edsnova -- I think yours looks great. Herein lies the beauty of this site -- we share and learn from each other. I love these little details -- the construction and rationale for all of these little bits is really cool.

Brad got the top part of my seats all sorted out. The cover hasn't been stretched over yet, but I think he nailed it. I've referenced cars by Rainer Cooney, Nick Clemence (550-0075) and Peter Dunkel (550-0077) as a reference, and he matched them nicely. Upholstery is one of those arts forms that I will never completely be able to understand -- it amazes me what these guys do. 

Sweet, Anand, sweet.

Dude.

The upholsterers at Special Edition have my full respect. 

I asked Carey to have them work on the seat bottoms. They should have a “wedge” appearance and be perfectly flat horizontally. Carey tasked them with copying the photo of 550-0075. I think they got it spot on. 

Here’s a split shot (European Collectibles car on the top half, of course)

I don't know, man. I mean, the seat bottoms look pretty right but now the radii of the bolster edges looks a few tenths of a degree off. 

edsnova posted:

I don't know, man. I mean, the seat bottoms look pretty right but now the radii of the bolster edges looks a few tenths of a degree off. 

It’s the angle, Ed. Already checked on that 

Subscribed.

Carey and his team padded the firewall. Just waiting for SMS to send us a bit more vinyl.

He also added some vinyl in the forward lightening hole, as the fiberglass inside it was rough. Looks good!

ALB wants to know  the weight of fabric you put in the lightening hole versus weight of the piece of fiberglass that was cut out.

Wow.

Anand: Definitely a nice way to pretty up a probable ugly area......looks great!

Panhandle Bob posted:

ALB wants to know  the weight of fabric you put in the lightening hole versus weight of the piece of fiberglass that was cut out.

Of course, Bob; this is important stuff!

Carey spent a large portion of his Saturday (read: dedicated!) and today (10 hours) fabbing up some brackets for my Setrab oil cooler. This is the 2nd biggest oil cooler they make — and the biggest one I could fit in my car. 

Carey did a crazy good job on this. I was super pleased with how this turned out!

Very slick! There is no extra room in that car anywhere, is there? What I mean is great utilization of space that Porsche did with the original design. And very nice replication by SE.

Is there an underpan for a rear hot air exit like the original cars? You gonna have a driver-operated flap for that cooler as well?(Carey is probably cursing me right now for suggesting such nonsense!)

@DannyP no there is NO room formic of anything here, and after working on everything it is clear why Chuck made some of the dimensional changes he did.  Something as simple as the placement of the beam and pedal board never made sense to me, but in its original format, like this car is, you can only fit a single circuit master cylinder and you have to modify the brake switch to clear the beam...  this is just one of probably 20 examples...

Yes there is an underpan.

No driver controlled flap.  With the 4 cam shroud you cannot have any engine mounted oil cooler, so this front mounted cooler is the only oil cooling the motor has.  That is why I went with the 600hp Sterab cooler and I still have some worry about what oil temps will be...

Carey, not to worry. My 911 shroud has the same constraint. I have a 96 plate cooler and that keeps the oil under control. Temps are a little cooler(fan runs less) with the dry sump tank/pump. But it never got above 190 before. 

The only concern is there isn't a fan up front, but you will also get some cooling from the lines going up front and back as Porsche did with the original 911 loop cooler in the RF fender. Maybe in traffic, a small rise in temp. But underway, this car is NOT going to overheat.

Yeah only way to get a fan on this one would be to do one above the cooler, which would require blowing a HUGE hole in the trunk floor under the battery and tank, otherwise the fan will be the lowest point on the car by a few inches...  I agree, I think it'll be OK.  Supposedly it was OK previously and it had some POS junkyard heater core modified to an oil cooler with no fans...

@DannyP — thanks for the reassurance about the motor! I am pretty worried about that, but I feel a bit better now.

@Pat Downs mentioned that Bob Tomlinson’s Spyder (owner of CB)  also lacked a oil cooler on the motor — they also had a front mounted system. He told me he always got nervous when in traffic, and that the car did get quite warm. 

That was in the 80s, so the technology has improved (I hope!). I also have a double Carrera fan spinning back there with Panchito heads, so hopefully that part is fine (John Willhoit mentioned that the last 616 motor he did like this for Carl Lager had head temps that were above his comfort level). I can’t remember the numbers, but it was remedied with a different size pulley. 

If you guys see smoke on the Google Satellite map over Fresno, you’ll know why...

You'll be fine. I guarantee it. 

Coming from heating and cooling guy Anand should be assured. 

Beautiful work @chines1 and @arajani! I'm with Stan on this, that much oil cooling is plenty for the size of the engine. In fact, if you haven't thought about it already, consider a thermostatic bypass on the oil lines to help get your engine up to running temperature. The 911s with the right front mounted coolers have them and they still take a while to come up to temp.

Crank trigger is getting power as we speak. We should have a running motor before too long!

Great! Excited for you ARAJANI!

mppickett posted:

Beautiful work @chines1 and @arajani! I'm with Stan on this, that much oil cooling is plenty for the size of the engine. In fact, if you haven't thought about it already, consider a thermostatic bypass on the oil lines to help get your engine up to running temperature. The 911s with the right front mounted coolers have them and they still take a while to come up to temp.

Yes.  Henry installed the 911 oil cooling system in my IM6, and there is a thermostat in the line that opens at 180 degrees.  I also have a manual on/off switch for the two oil cooler fans (left and right front).

Wow! What a nice build and a beautiful car.

Perhaps a silly question but why isn't this build posted on the spyderclub?

EdG

Because uploading photos or hosting them somewhere else is a real PIA on Spyderclub.

I've given up reducing the resolution to 600kb or less and the server tells me they are still too large.

Welcome, Ed. I know you!

I make the occasional post/comment here, mainly because I get e-mail notifications about a related post, and usually while Im answering morning e-mails or have just got off the phone or something... BUT I am terrible about posting on forums and social media when it comes to work related stuff.  

EdG posted:

Wow! What a nice build and a beautiful car.

Perhaps a silly question but why isn't this build posted on the spyderclub?

EdG

@DannyP has it right. I love the content on SpyderClub, but sharing things there is a nuisance. 

As long as Carey doesn’t set fire to my car, there will be more to come! Stick around, @EdG! 

Anand

"As long as Carey doesn’t set fire to my car, there will be more to come!"

Ewww, don't say that...

Well, Carey got the car started! Sounded great. 

Currently, Brad (his painter) is spraying the bottom of the car blue. There was a section of the floor that was still silver. 

We got the rest of the vinyl from SMS today, so I think the upholsterers are going to finish the firewall and interior starting Monday March 9. I'm sure it will be a 2-3 day affair, at the least. 

After that, Carey is going to do some touch ups -- I'm sure he'll drive the car and ensure that everything is operating as it should. 

I'll post more as it comes!

Excellent!! Congrats, ARAJANI!

Congratulations, Arajani! Big day! It sounds great.

A fairly silly update, but here's the light chip coat going on the underside of my car. We'll paint it blue afterward. The aluminum floor is super thin, so Carey felt it better to have something in place to protect the paint from just chipping off.