Winter Project -Plexiglas side curtains

Pictures or never happened!

Nice write up and thanks for sharing.

I look forward to seeing your solution to water intrusion as I’ve never completely solved it.  Have you put in any provision for ventilation?  The pop-out airplane vents are great, although too small to pay tolls through, etc.

Joel,

Anxious to see your pictures.  This is a project that I just completed.  

James

joelabraham posted:

 

On one side I welded ( really soldered or brazed) aluminum pegs to the 1 in. aluminum strip to fit in the top of the door-don't use map gas-its too hot-I used propane. I then positioned the 1/4 wide  strip to the strip outward of the door top over the door skin to block water entry and pop riveted them together.

 On  the other (passenger side) rather than "weld" I made U shaped brackets with wings to hold bolts that fit into the door holes.

 

 

Sounds like a nice job, Joel. What type of product did you use to braze the pegs onto the strip on the driver's side and why a different approach on the passenger side ? 

Thanks...Dave Stroud

Lane wrote:  "The pop-out airplane vents are great, although too small to pay tolls through, etc."

You guys don't have "EZ-Pass" down there?  And here in Massachusetts, we don't even need EZ-Pass modules in our cars anymore - they just shoot a photo of your license plates on the way through the toll thingie and then send you a bill in the mail.  They can even remind you to replace your front plate for a small fee, and threaten a fine if you don't have it on your car in the future.  Nice of them, huh?

What's a Toll, did you been pay the Troll?

I can't stand the tolls. In California we pay some of the highest gas taxes in the nation and some of the highest registration fees. It costs me over $1,000 to register four cars annually. People are using less gas so they added more fees to our registration. We are currently in fourth place with Pennsylvania, New York, and Washington ahead of us. Even with the high taxes California is in 6th place for having the worst road conditions. If I'm paying more than $.40 per gallon there is no way I'm going to pay even more money just to drive in a lane that is reserved for those who are willing to pay for it. My taxes are supposed to be paying for the roads I use and I won't be held hostage with the promise of an uncrowded lane.  Just build enough lanes so drivers don't experience car-mageddon and quit digging in my pocket for more money.

Your taxes are being used for Governor Moonbeam's latest scheme. $10.6B and counting for the central valley portion of the answer to all your transportation issues.

You're supposed to ride the high speed rail to SF or LA, Robert. Don't want to go either place? It's your own fault for living in flyover country.

... which brings me to a rabbit trail (on the rabbit trail we already find ourselves on). Remember the "shovel-ready" stimulus projects? Why didn't that buy us all high-speed rail? Or free fiber-optic internet? Or fix the bridges? Or something... ?

Stan Galat posted:

Your taxes are being used for Governor Moonbeam's latest scheme. $10.6B and counting for the central valley portion of the answer to all your transportation issues.

You're supposed to ride the high speed rail to SF or LA, Robert. Don't want to go either place? It's your own fault for living in flyover country.

 

... which brings me to a rabbit trail (on the rabbit trail we already find ourselves on). Remember the "shovel-ready" stimulus projects? Why didn't that buy us all high-speed rail? Or free fiber-optic internet? Or fix the bridges? Or something... ?

Illinois isn't exactly citizen friendly when it comes to taxes. One of the reasons we left. Also, why isn't that much balleyhooed high speed train from Chicago to St. Louis in place already? It was supposed to be Caterpillar grader ready? Illinois doesn't have Moonbeam, it has Graft King in the person of the Speaker of the House and his Attorney General daughter. (How does that work? He's as crooked as my dog's hind leg and the person who would be tasked with investigating any malfeasance on his part is the Attorney General. Now there is an insurance policy!)

You're just being mean now, Bob.

We don't have toll roads in the south, but it's a well understood example.  Being able to open a window to use an ATM or something like that would be handy.   Even with this issue the advantages of plexiglass side windows over side curtains are plentiful.

Another topic off the rails...sheesh. What was that Aretha Franklin song ? Sorry for Joel. 

Sorry for my part in that, David. I just lost my mind for a couple minutes. I'll try and do better.

Joel:  Please post your photos so we can get this thread back on track!

I want to see how you did them.

What the heck are you guys worried about? Some of our most interesting (and best) work happens when we get off track! 

We have tracks? Oops!

Stan Galat posted:

Your taxes are being used for Governor Moonbeam's latest scheme. $10.6B and counting for the central valley portion of the answer to all your transportation issues.

You're supposed to ride the high speed rail to SF or LA, Robert. Don't want to go either place? It's your own fault for living in flyover country.

 

... which brings me to a rabbit trail (on the rabbit trail we already find ourselves on). Remember the "shovel-ready" stimulus projects? Why didn't that buy us all high-speed rail? Or free fiber-optic internet? Or fix the bridges? Or something... ?

I changed the words of the Talking Heads song “I’m On a Road to Nowhere” to “I’m On a Train to Nowhere”. 

Bill, James, Gordon-The reason for the delay on posting  pictures of my plexiglas side curtains was that I was in the hospital but I'm home and back to the same old nonsense.

Lane-I got a pretty good seal using a firm rubber strip glued to the inside of the windshield frame and foam rubber glued to the leading edge of the plexi. I went for a ride today and I couldn't feel any air coming in.

David-I used "low temp aluminum welding rod." Its on the internet and inexpensive. Very technique sensitive. I can bring you some to Carlisle if  you  wish. The reason  I made brackets with bolts on the passenger side is because I didn't want a bead of braze raising the flat al. strip above the top of the door.

Seven pictures posted-Joel

Possible to see how t looks with the top down. 

joelabraham posted:

 

David-I used "low temp aluminum welding rod." Its on the internet and inexpensive. Very technique sensitive. I can bring you some to Carlisle if  you  wish. The reason  I made brackets with bolts on the passenger side is because I didn't want a bead of braze raising the flat al. strip above the top of the door.

Seven pictures posted-Joel

Very nice job, Joel. Looks to be pretty tight and I'd bet it would do very well in the rain. I was just curious about the aluminum brazing rod. I've used some Alumibond 3000 here and there, found on youtube....and on the raffle table at Carlisle too. :-)

Thanks, 

@David Stroud IM Roadster D David did you make one? Do you have a picture you can share? How do they look with the top down and use as wind breaker

"CALMOTION"  I made plexi side curtains years ago but took a different approach than Joel, not putting the rubber channel where the windshield post is, nor on the window itself. If you want a really good system to keep water out at any speed, I'd say you'll need the rubber seals on the windshield post and the side window like Joel has done.

I cut and bent plexi and attach them to the doors in the same manner as a stock side curtain and ran a rubber trim channel along the bottom edge. I did contour and bend the leading edge of the plexi inwards to get a closer fit in and around the windshield post. I also tilted my plexi windows inwards to get a good seal against the canvas top. Two details I did add, the first of which looks a little strange but is quite effective is to glue a short strip of windshield wiper blade rubber to the rear, top of the fender to deflect slipstream water outboard rather than letting it come inboard as it will naturally try to do around the bottom of the windshield post. I also added a rubber foam strip to the inside of the doors which gets sandwiched against the body when it is closed. 

I don't drive with the windows installed and the top down. Sorry for the poor quality of my pics. 

Joel, nice work. I can see you're a real tinkerer. David mentions the alumibond 3000 because that is HIM on the youtube video selling it!

David, I remember my first trip to Carlisle in the rain. The water curving up and around the windshield over the top of the door, yup! I stopped at a truckstop and used a 6" foam plate taped to the door/windshield to divert it. Worked very well.

@David Stroud IM Roadster D Thanks for the information. And picture. I was looking at creating one more so as wind breaker. 

Joel!

Sorry to hear about the visit with your friends in hospital.  Even though most nurses are truly wonderful people and I love them all, I would just as soon see them in restaurants or Stop and Shop or at the gym - Anywhere but in their natural habitat!  Glad you're doing better.

Those windows came out fantastic, and provide a much greater field of view.  Very nice level of detail and fitment, too, making them much more effective against drafts (the bane of all Speedstah Guys, everywhere!)  I can see a lot of copies on the horizon.

I'm curious about that tube structure sitting in your garage, tho.......   The beginnings of an airboat?  With a roll bar?  It has a bunch of dash gauges and what looks like a trim wheel beside the seat - a DIY Dirigible?  Something to fly over golf courses during Pro/Am tournaments? 

DannyP posted:

Joel, nice work. I can see you're a real tinkerer. David mentions the alumibond 3000 because that is HIM on the youtube video selling it!

David, I remember my first trip to Carlisle in the rain. The water curving up and around the windshield over the top of the door, yup! I stopped at a truckstop and used a 6" foam plate taped to the door/windshield to divert it. Worked very well.

 Ha, Ha, Danny. ( sadly enough ) That WAS me when I WAS selling it... (-:   I'll bring some more to Carlisle again. 

I have to ask,,,,, Why are you abandoning the project?  I have always wanted to build an ultralight or a gyrocopter...  both projects seem so very enticing!  ;-)  

   My friend with the MGA, has rebuilt several Piper cubs that are vintage and has flown them back and forth across the US.   I am very jealous of that and am thinking of a retirement project.  

   My wife who is extremely tolerant of my "madness" has not bought in...... yet! ;-0

Safety Jim posted:

I have to ask,,,,, Why are you abandoning the project?  I have always wanted to build an ultralight or a gyrocopter...  both projects seem so very enticing!  ;-)  

 

Hi, Jim. PM me if you need details, please. I've deleted my post so as to minimize thread drift.

One of my wife's college room-mates married a guy who got his pilot's license and one summer they (he) decided to go cross-country from Portland, Oregon, to Worcester, Mass, in his Piper Tomahawk.

I think it took something like 10-12 days (no-fly storm days included) and her stories of thunderstorms over the midwest/southern Canada are legendarily hilarious (she thought she was gonna die several times, especially the time that everything in the cockpit landed on the ceiling for more than a few seconds), not to mention the wicked sunburn she had when they arrived.  She got out in Worcester, never rode with him again and divorced him 3 months later......

He may have planned for this, because three months later he married his secretary.

Alice have been coast to coast in our Cessna Cutlass---but we did it in one day.

Took 4 days in the Speedster!

 Last to coast in a speedster in 4 Days. Wow👍

Jack’s place is at least a hundred miles west of the Mississippi, so a long way from the east coast.  Still, it’s a loooooong drive in a Speedster.  Jack is our hero when it comes to loooooong drives.

Here is how I did my Lexan side curtains.  Not completely watertight, but I hope to avoid needing that too much.  

David Stroud posted:

Safety Jim posted:

I have to ask,,,,, Why are you abandoning the project?  I have always wanted to build an ultralight or a gyrocopter...  both projects seem so very enticing!  ;-)  

 

Hi, Jim. PM me if you need details, please. I've deleted my post so as to minimize thread drift.

Too late!!

Nice pictures and thank you. So they are Lexan 1/4 thickness. Is the front height higher than the rear or even?

Yes, they are 1/4” Lexan.  They are the same height, top and bottom are close to parallel until the large radius.  

I made a cardboard template by tracing directly from my canvass top.  I then added about 1/4” to the top surface to make sure it lapped under the flap on the top.  

James nice work, If you glued a rubber strip to the side of the window post ala IM it would seal even more I think. 

Robert M posted:

I can't stand the tolls. In California we pay some of the highest gas taxes in the nation and some of the highest registration fees. It costs me over $1,000 to register four cars annually. People are using less gas so they added more fees to our registration. We are currently in fourth place with Pennsylvania, New York, and Washington ahead of us. Even with the high taxes California is in 6th place for having the worst road conditions. If I'm paying more than $.40 per gallon there is no way I'm going to pay even more money just to drive in a lane that is reserved for those who are willing to pay for it. My taxes are supposed to be paying for the roads I use and I won't be held hostage with the promise of an uncrowded lane.  Just build enough lanes so drivers don't experience car-mageddon and quit digging in my pocket for more money.

Robert, if you think the roads are bad, don’t come to Nebraska!  We have chuckholes big enough to lose Speedsters in by spring and our property taxes are ridiculously high compared to the value of a house.  Plus it cost me $1000 to register a 2015 Cadillac this year.

Lane Anderson posted:

Jack’s place is at least a hundred miles west of the Mississippi, so a long way from the east coast.  Still, it’s a loooooong drive in a Speedster.  Jack is our hero when it comes to loooooong drives.

Lane---I believe the longevity and mileage king is Musbejim.  David  Stroud  is insane with his "Iron Butt" treks, and when you add up the miles you've done just making 13-14 round trips to Carlisle you are right up there with just about anyone.  There are Probably some others that have the sickness bad too.  

The message to our bretheren is that these cars can be sorted to the point of decent reliability  and can be depended on.  I remember my first Carlisle trip in 2008, I left Alice home because I was concerned about breaking down on some interstate highway.  I was sorry after the trip because the VS ran like a charm.  Still does.