Mechie3's 818S

[metalmaker12]

No real work done on the car. Too busy with other things.

Found out yesterday that the package due June 5th will be a girl.

Experimenting with a little bit if carbon fiber. This stuff is too thin but will prove the concept. I have a different sheet that I'll have laser cut that is quite a bit thicker.

Congrats Craig, very happy for you,your wife and families.

[Greg G]

I told my wife yesterday "I think this means I need to go buy a shotgun".

Just tell your wife to start saving your "Bail Money" now

[Greg G]

mine is 17 and head cheerleader, I recommend an AK-47, more intimidating, all you have to do is pull the slide back to get uncontrolled flow from the bladder!

Guns are always good. The wife and I both have our OPEN CARRY permits (I love Indiana!), the wife has a .40 Sig Sauer and my daughter has a 22 long rifle with a scope. We are all stupid good shots too thanks to our brother-in-law who is a retired Marine Gunny.

The best thing I ever said to all my sister's boyfriends was, "...I don't mind going BACK to jail".

Worked every time!

[RM1SepEx]

Anniversary was yesterday, check out my wife's 30th anniversary present...

DSCF0010.JPG

Charter Arms, Pink Lady 38SPL aluminum anodized and hardened frame, SS barrel and cylinder only 12oz!

[JeromeS13]

OPEN CARRY permits (I love Indiana!)

What are those? THAT's one of the reasons I love AZ. Hell, we can even conceal carry without a permit (certain restrictions apply).

[Frank818]

Well, having this in Canada I would go to jail right away. It's good you guys have your own portable 818 anti-theft system.

[Mechie3]

Finally got to work on my car last night. Got the door skin fully moutned and the fender trimmed. Depending on how FFR cuts your fender you'll need to trim the backside. Metalmaker had to do this and looking at pictures of Erik's, Waynes, and the FFR built cars, there is very little lip to the fender. I didn't have to cut the top at all. Starting about 3/4 of the way up from the bottom I trimmed the lip to ~1/4". Still need to sand and smooth it out. Without this, the door skin can't line up with the crease on the side skirt and can't open. Be careful where you put your third screw to hold the bottom of the fender. If you put it too far back it will interfere with the door.

[Frank818]

Depending on how FFR cuts your fender you'll need to trim the backside.
...
Be careful where you put your third screw to hold the bottom of the fender. If you put it too far back it will interfere with the door.

Where are these spots exactly on your pic?

[Mechie3]

The pic is looking at the passenger door towards the front. The bolts aren't shown in this pic. Find my previous post about fender mounting. Look at the top of the gap between the door and fender and you'll see how the fender lip is very wide at the top, but narrow at the bottom. It all used to be wide.

[metalmaker12]

I personal would cut the top to match the part that gets wider so the lip does not seem to go out and in. It is pretty much what we all did if you look over all the cars. Looking good Craig, and I would go out and work on it except its like 5 degrees and with my heat basting it gets close to 30 if I am luckey

[Mechie3]

Well, I would work on mine but the radiator in my 02 popped today. Going to steal the radiator from my 818. Lol.

Im not sure what to do with the fender. As it is the gap at the bottom is non existent and gets bigger at the top. Cutting off more makes the gap even larger. I'll have to look at it some more.

[Mechie3]

Finally got a chance to work on this Sunday. Saturday was running errands and fixing the WRX. Doing repairs on older cars takes some of the fun out of working on the kit car as it just wears me out.

Finished mounting one of the doors. The catch plate drags some, so I have to adjust that. It's a bit awkward since adjusting that makes the gaps uneven. Maybe I'll let it "self clearance" and leave it at that. Mounted one of the mirrors too. Didn't really like how it looked. It's certainly functional, but looks like you took a mirror from a different car and bolted it on. I want to keep power mirrors too and there was nowhere to hide the wire.

I took the side panel that we remove and started to hack it up. Got it pretty close to where I want. It provides a place to hide the wires and makes it look like the mirrors belong. I still need to clearance the mounting bosses on the inside of the plastic to account for the thickness of the FFR mounting bracket. Two of the mounting bosses aren't held on by much anymore so I'll have to backfill it a little with some epoxy.

Left: Simple cuts to remove most of unused bracket Right: almost done


The FFR bracket actually fits inside pretty well. Wonder if they intended for us to use these in the first place, then decided against it.


How it should look when done:


Bolted on with FFR bracket:


Bolted on with plastic piece (note small gap due to standoffs not being clearanced yet)

[Xusia]

Oh, Craig. Another awesome idea. I wasn't a real fan of how the stock mirrors looked, but couldn't find anything I liked better. This fixes my issues with the stock mirrors, so I'm really happy now!

[Frank818]

Brian, you can also wrap the mirrors with vinyl wrap of your choice, you know.

[Mechie3]

I just cut my second one and it doesn't quite match the first. The first one was definitely better. I'll have to see if I can get it laser scanned so I can make a better one and make them symmetric.

[Xusia]

Brian, you can also wrap the mirrors with vinyl wrap of your choice, you know.

Oh, I had already planned to do that! It was the mounting I wasn't happy with.

[Xusia]

I just cut my second one and it doesn't quite match the first. The first one was definitely better. I'll have to see if I can get it laser scanned so I can make a better one and make them symmetric.

How about offering a billet part? If you do, sign me up right now!

[RM1SepEx]

That is a perfect example for 3d scan and print

[Mechie3]

That is a perfect example for 3d scan and print

Exactly! Though I was thinking 3D scan and machine or 3D scan and carbon fiber!

I did find this last night: http://www.fuel-3d.com/

Coming this fall. $1100 3D scanner.

[RM1SepEx]

My friend Chris has:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/321266818489?lpid=82

http://airwolf3d.com/aw3d-hd-specs/

[Mechie3]

Been busy getting the nursery ready. It's too cold out to comfortably work on the car anyways as my motivation to work in 30 deg garage temps has waned considerably.

I've still been using my lunch times well though. Modeled and machined a simpler version of the mirror cap. It's not as fancy as the oem, but will gaurantee the left and right are symmetric. I also didn't like how I had to epoxy the chopped up one to ensure it wouldn't fall apart. Needs some tweaking, but it's close.

[Frank818]

Slick part! Again.

[ehansen007]

Very cool.

[Xusia]

OK. So how much for a set?

[indiana818]

i like how you slicked up the mirrors
kerry

[Mechie3]

OK. So how much for a set?

I'll have to get it quoted after I test fit it on the car. I'm going to guess they'll probably end up running upwards of $80/set if not much more. The little tiny delrin plugs for the ABS plates came back at $5.25/ea if I got 40. It's obviously cheaper the more I get, but there's risk to myself buying $400 worth of stuff only to sell one or two sets. These require two setups which increases handling and cost.

[Blitzkrieg]

30° garage is like summer.

[indiana818]

id like ti try a set

[Mechie3]

Hey...this thing still on?

Oh...hi!


I didn't get much done yesterday as it didn't get above 45 degrees until around 3pm. I just got over a cold and have no desire to get another one so quickly. Reorganized the garage, replaced a few rivets with rivnuts and screws, mounted my other V2 fender mount, mounted a mirror, and swapped the winter tires on the WRX for the summer tires on the 818. Felt good to actually do something to the car other than walk past it in the garage.

The front fender: Used 10-32 rivnuts. FFR says to use rivets, but then if you ever want to remove your fender, headlight, etc, you need a drill, rivets, and a rivet gun. Now I just need an allen key.


Mounted the mirror. The part I machined fits well. It completes the underside of the mirror, but I'm still not a fan of the gap at the top between it and the windshield. I might start looking for other options. I have a rather large gap between the door and windshield frame too due to the shape of the door.


Here's one of the reasons I haven't worked on the car in so long. The othe reason was it was so cold. This used to be the collect junk room. The floor used to have ~1000 hotwheel cars organized and lined up. :lol:

[Pearldrummer7]

Pics of the hotwheels cars!

Mirror looks good! Need something to hide and protect the wiring for the mirror power, now.



Frank

[Mechie3]

The wiring will end up going into the door frame. I didn't want to drill the hole just yet. You'll only see about 1/8" of it total once it's in the door. I just bent it back for the pic.

[Pearldrummer7]

The wiring will end up going into the door frame. I didn't want to drill the hole just yet. You'll only see about 1/8" of it total once it's in the door. I just bent it back for the pic.

Ah, gotcha! Sorry about the confusion. Looks like the mirrors were actually made for the 818 now.

[RM1SepEx]

any baby news?

[Mechie3]

any baby news?

She apparently likes it when I shout at the dogs. I like to get them all riled up and shout "whoo whoo pebbies!" (the one dog is named pebbles). When I do that, the dog gets all excited and runs around. I did it once and she (the baby) kicked my wife so hard my wife said "owie!!!". Since then she'll usually kick on command when I shout "whoo whoo!".

Hahaha!

[RM1SepEx]

When is she due? My niece is due soon, complaining now that she can't see her feet!

[Mechie3]

June fifth.

[Scargo]

I painted my son's room similar to that. Did blue and clouds on the ceiling, too. When he could get up, he grabbed the butterfly mobile I made and tore it to pieces.
Who did the decorating?

[Mechie3]

My wife and I did it together.

[EricScottZehnder]

My wife and I did it together.

Clearly...I mean, it does take two to tango...

[metros]

Congrats on the incoming addition to the family. If this is your first then start stocking up on sleep now. The first 12 weeks are rough on sleep. My son is almost 4 months now and just starting to allow me to sleep more at night. A great adventure overall though.