The 'Savage' build thread

[K3LAG]

On our one test drive it seemed like the iPad was going to be a problem reflection wise. However I had polarized sunglasses on which can be a problem depending on orientation and direction of polarization. I will probably put a matte screen protector on it which will help some, but I don't know if it will be enough. I may have to fabricate a visor to reduce the glare, but I'm going to wait to figure that out. I'll let you know when I have more data, but it might be a while at this point.

Larry

[Frank818]

Polarized sunglasses are hard to counterbalance. I have a pair that I use when it's sunny and my matte screen on my old laptop cannot get through. I don't think the finish type of the screen will make a difference. Unless there exist screen made for polarized sunglasses.

[K3LAG]

Polarized sunglasses are hard to counterbalance. I have a pair that I use when it's sunny and my matte screen on my old laptop cannot get through. I don't think the finish type of the screen will make a difference. Unless there exist screen made for polarized sunglasses.

I agree, I don't think any screen film will fix the polarized sunglass problem. I was just trying to say that I had polarized sunglasses on, so I couldn't tell how bad the glare was or wasn't. At best, if you can get the polarizations lined up to about the same angle you could keep the polarized lenses from making it worse, but that's not too likely to happen.

In my Grand Cherokee the built in NAV/Audio display nearly completely disappears when I have my sunglasses on. I think they are both polarized and in opposite directions so it just turns into a black rectangle. With my sunglasses on I can only read the display if I turn my head enough for the two polarizations to line up more closely, which is awful hard to do while watching the road and probably looks really goofy to other drivers.

All that being said, I wouldn't give up my prescription polarized sunglasses to solve the problem.

Larry

[wleehendrick]

FYI... a quarterwave retardation film will do the trick to making a linearly polarized display visible through poalrized glasses. It circularizes the output polarization making the glasses absorb 50% of the light regardless of orientation... the difficulty is laminating it cleanly.

You would think automakers would get this right by now, but the display polarization of the stereo lcd in my wife's 135i is oriented improperly... Frustrating in this day and age, especially since all the other displays are circularized. You have to twist your head to read it if you have polarized glasses on (which I prefer for driving).

[wleehendrick]

PS the retardation axis needs to be at 45deg with respect to the linear polarataion axis of the lcd to properly circularize it. PM me if you want to try it.

PPS... Heres how it works:

http://www.apioptics.com/quarter-wave-retarders.html

[K3LAG]

PS the retardation axis needs to be at 45deg with respect to the linear polarataion axis of the lcd to properly circularize it. PM me if you want to try it.

PPS... Heres how it works:

http://www.apioptics.com/quarter-wave-retarders.html

I read that web page and, to the degree that I understand it, it sounds pretty cool. I'll have to keep that in mind as I get closer to getting it back out of the garage in the spring.

Larry

[K3LAG]

We have been rethinking color lately. We are sticking with all of the Orange trim, it's mostly all completed at this point anyway. However we are leaning toward changing the body color. The original plan was to paint it white with a light coat of orange pearl over top of it. The thought was the orange pearl would accent the orange trim nicely and it wouldn't be just 'plain' white. On further reflection I started to think the bright white paint with the bright orange trim wouldn't look right. The best way that I can describe it is that the brightness of the white would kind of obscure the orange trim.

So, I think we are going to drop the pearl and go for a more subdued color. Right now we are leaning toward 2009 Porsche Cream White.

100_1686.jpg

Everyone I've bounced it off of so far likes the idea. Also, it will be cheaper to paint and easier to match if ever needed.

Larry

[wleehendrick]

We are sticking with all of the Orange trim

Right now we are leaning toward 2009 Porsche Cream White.

Orange and Cream? Yummy...

orange-creamsicle-pop.jpg

Just kidding; I think it'll pop!

[K3LAG]

Finished trimming and mounting the side pods today. Will mount the rear bumper tomorrow. I pulled out the aluminum pieces that block off the back of the front fenders and test fit them. For them to fit properly you do have to trim the flange on the front of the side pods all the way back.

IMG_0686.jpg IMG_0685.jpg IMG_0684.jpg

Larry

[Frank818]

Interesting dash, completely different than the one I have. Mine is one piece.

Second thing, was there a gap between your passenger side dash bracket and the dash itself? Or the dash slides right under the bracket?

[K3LAG]

Interesting dash, completely different than the one I have. Mine is one piece.

Second thing, was there a gap between your passenger side dash bracket and the dash itself? Or the dash slides right under the bracket?

I have the older fiberglass dash rather than the newer plastic one. I didn't know the new one is one piece. Mine came assembled, but remove three nuts and washers and the two parts come apart. My brackets aligned fine.

Larry

[Frank818]

Ok there are 3 versions of the dash then. The FB (which I wasn't aware of), the plastic one-piece (40 bucks at FFR) and the padded dash (450 or so?). I believe the latter is also one-piece.

[K3LAG]

Been working with some weight, strong duck tape and heat from IR lamp and the body is slowly taking it's shape again.

In the mean time, I got the rear lights wired:

https://www.icloud.com/photostream/#...7-9A0F10866775

Also, I got a 3D printer for Christmas. That should make for some fun.

Larry

[K3LAG]

We worked on the fit of the front engine cover the other day. We had to to trim quite a bit around the roll bar to get enough clearance. Much like Wallace18 did on the orange car he built.

We were disappointed that it didn't fit better, but once we had it all trimmed it actually looked pretty decent.

IMG_0694.jpg

With the cardboard tube removed, we have about 1/16" clearance between the cover and roll bar.

Also, we discovered that the right and left humps on the engine cover are not completely symmetrical. These two pictures show the template we made on the drivers side held up to both sides. As you can see, the passenger side hump is shaped differently than the driver side one.

IMG_0496.jpg IMG_0498.jpg

Larry

[K3LAG]

It's been a while since I posted an update. We have been slowly working on the body. Things are basically fitting in place but we still have to do some more trimming and fitting to get nice gaps.

The passenger side door is done and the driver side in about half done. Next week we will finish the driver door. Once the doors are in place we should be able to finish up fitting the rear panels since they have to match the height of the doors. Then we move to the front.

Here are a few progress pics...

IMG_0700.jpg IMG_0701.jpg IMG_0702.jpg

Oh, the rear lights are working too...

https://www.icloud.com/photostream/#...7-9A0F10866775

Larry

[K3LAG]

Nothing too much to report this week. 2nd door is installed. Next we will get all of the rear panels lined up with the doors and each other.

IMG_0704.jpg

Larry

[K3LAG]

We have the rear panels and doors pretty much all in place now. We will still need to do a bit of sanding and filling to clean up the corners and gaps, but we are happy with the fit now. We will move on to the front end this week.

IMG_0712.jpg IMG_0713.jpg IMG_0715.jpg

Larry

[Tamra]

Looks great!

[K3LAG]

Thanks Tamra. Alway nice to get some positive feedback.

Here are tonights pictures. The windshield is mounted and the front body panels are sitting in place. Nothing is really fit yet. It's all just clamped in place so we could figure out how to attack it.

IMG_0723.jpg IMG_0724.jpg

The only trimming we've done so far is the trimming the nose to fit around the radiator support.

Played with the new air saw for the first time. What fun. It's going to make things a bit easier than the tools we used on the back.

Larry

[metros]

Looking really good! I'm surprised they're fitting that well without much trimming.

[K3LAG]

Looking really good! I'm surprised they're fitting that well without much trimming.

The distance from the car hides a lot. There is plenty of trimming and work to do yet.

Larry

[metalmaker12]

Looking good!

[Wayne Presley]

Looking great Larry!

[Mitch Wright]

Very Nice

[Bob_n_Cincy]

Hi Larry
Body look good. I started working on the headlights today.
Maybe we can compare notes, when you try them.
Bob

[K3LAG]

Thanks for the compliments everyone.

Hi Larry
Body look good. I started working on the headlights today.
Maybe we can compare notes, when you try them.
Bob

I tried figuring out how to fit the buckets with the front off the car, but nothing seemed to quite fit. I'm hoping that having things more in place will provide some additional context for how to get stuff mounted.

Do you have plastic or fiberglass light buckets? I have the plastic ones and all the write ups on the forum so far seem to be with the fiberglass ones. I'm not sure if it makes much difference in fit.

Larry

[Bob_n_Cincy]

Thanks for the compliments everyone.



I tried figuring out how to fit the buckets with the front off the car, but nothing seemed to quite fit. I'm hoping that having things more in place will provide some additional context for how to get stuff mounted.

Do you have plastic or fiberglass light buckets? I have the plastic ones and all the write ups on the forum so far seem to be with the fiberglass ones. I'm not sure if it makes much difference in fit.

Larry

Larry
I have chassis #21 and 22
I have one set of each kind. Tony at FFR says the plastics works better.
The FG are 10x stiffer, headlight fits in it better, but very difficult to manipulate things to get to fit the car..

The soft plastic can conform to the car much easier.

Both types hold the headlight pretty high requiring a lot of trimming to the eyebrow.

John G said he was going to try without buckets. I might try the same.
Bob

[K3LAG]

Did more work on the front end last night. Still a good bit to do.

We were having a hard time figuring out how high the hood should be compared to the windshield surround so we were a little perplexed as to where and how much to trim. We noticed that the amount of arch in the hood effects where the corners of the hood land but we didn't have a reference for how much it should be arched. I knew that the wiper kit supports the hood so I decided to go ahead and get it installed so we could use it as a reference for the hood height.

So the bottoms of the fenders are now attached and things are trimmed enough to get it close. We still need to attach the wiper kit trim piece to the hood then we will trim things to fit. Once that is all squared away we will do the headlight area.

IMG_0725.jpg IMG_0726.jpg

Larry

[Wayne Presley]

Center the hood on the windshield, hold back edge of fender against edge of hood on each side, check how the fenders relate to the doors, slide hood/fenders to make door fitting the same right to left, make fender mounts to this position, make hood mounts/hold downs to match.

[K3LAG]

Center the hood on the windshield, hold back edge of fender against edge of hood on each side, check how the fenders relate to the doors, slide hood/fenders to make door fitting the same right to left, make fender mounts to this position, make hood mounts/hold downs to match.

That's the plan. The issue we are dealing with is that the top corners of the fenders and hood hit the windshield surround before they come together. So, we just have to work out how to trim and fit that area so it looks nice.

Larry

[K3LAG]

Things are progressing slowly lately. It seems we just have a lot of things going on Friday evenings which is our normal 818 time. I had hoped to have it on the road this spring, but I don't think it's going to happen.

I have gotten a few small things done.

Dash top is wrapped in vinyl:

IMG_0749.jpg

And exhaust from Breeze is installed:

IMG_0754.jpg IMG_0756.jpg

The exhaust fit perfectly. Every bolt hole lined up, all the clearances are good and it's well centered under the car. I wish everything fit this well.

It's hard to tell how loud it is in the garage, but I think it's louder than I hoped. Once we have the car back on the ground I'll get some audio of it outdoors for those that are interested.

Larry

[Tamra]

Looks great!

[Kurk818]

That is a serious exhaust hanger bracket

[K3LAG]

That is a serious exhaust hanger bracket

It is indeed. It's a good thing it fit perfectly as it wouldn't have been any fun to try bend it.

Larry

[K3LAG]

Got engine cover hinges from Mike today and installed them this evening. They fit and work well.

IMG_0761.jpg

It looks like I am going to have to move my AWIC forward about 1.5" for the FFR trunk to fit. I will report how that works out once I get it done.

Larry

[matteo92065]

do you have the trunk yet? Please update us with your AWIC and trunk solutions and how they all fit. It looks like I'm doing the exact same set up as you.

[K3LAG]

do you have the trunk yet? Please update us with your AWIC and trunk solutions and how they all fit. It looks like I'm doing the exact same set up as you.

FedEx guy should be bringing my trunk today.

Larry

[K3LAG]

Trunk installed:

IMG_0768.jpg IMG_0769.jpg

The mounting brackets with Mike's hinges work well.

We have the AWIC moved forward but are still working some plumbing issues. We have a plan, but need to get a few parts before finishing that up. I'll post the details once we complete it.

Larry

[K3LAG]

As promised here are some details on the moved AWIC. We have the AWIC setup from Very Cool Parts so it may be a bit different if you are using Zero DB's brackets/setup.

We were able to achieve about 3/4" clearance between the back of the AWIC and the trunk.

Here are the modified front brackets. They were re-bent and shortened a bit.

Passenger side:
IMG_0772.jpg
The bottom bolt is a difficult to get to because of the tight space and the way the bracket is bent.

Drivers side:
IMG_0778.jpg

Rear bracket and clearance:
IMG_0776.jpg IMG_0800.jpg

Since moving the AWIC this far forward really reduced the space between the manifold and AWIC we had to move the BPV from between the two to the end of the AWIC. Wayne sent us a 2.5" metal tube with the connection for the BPV and a replacement 2" tube without the connection for the BPV. We ended up shortening the 2" tube by a couple of inches to make it all fit nice.

Here is the completed installation and location of BPV:
IMG_0801.jpg IMG_0802.jpg

We have also been working on the inside door panels. Quik Latches for both rear covers and the headlights. Should be more to report on all those soon.

We are picking up a new right front fender when we are at the open house this weekend so hopefully that will fix our headlight problem. I'll report the results of that both here and over in the body sub-forum.

Larry

[Tamra]

Looks good!