Project Blue Book

[defianty]

Stephen,
It's a difficult one. Where do you stop, but the 'Whilst you're in there' devil is sat on my shoulder!!!
I'm giving myself plenty of time to consider, then re-consider, then re-re-consider.....
Stud welding gun has just arrived, so next weekend should be a hoot!

I know all about that devil! Just today I sent my Tachometer off for a full rebuild and conversion, costing more than twice as much as the adaptor I was going to buy. Another lump of cash that I may 'forget' too add to the spreadsheet

Looking forward to the stud welding gun update.

[chief]

OUCH

[hot66]

itll be worth it in the end

Think id have been the same with the wobbly seams too

[chief]

Hot66 true dat brother!

So another weekend spent blasting the sh#t out of the bearings on Bosch's finest drill and some stud welding, slidy hammering shernanaganz!!!
All good fun until someone looses an eye....

So as long as you get the metal nice and clean, the studs weld on great.














So most of the day spent playing with the slide hammer. I have to say it's a great tool this stud welder. The floor is now pretty much perfect. I then moved onto hammer and dollying the seams. Another few hours lost there!
Last but by no means least I beat the living daylights out of the deformed front floor. This was tricky but i'm sure you'll agree it's about right now.
BEFORE....





NOW....





A quick wipe over and the floor is taking shape



Slow progress, but progress never the less. I have to say you can really loose many hours doing this kinda stuff

This morning I spent some time with my pal Phil helping him move into a new unit, which I have managed to blag some space in. This will allow me to store the Cayman there over winter whilst making the mess in my own garage at home. I shall take the opportunity to get the front and back P.U's off to get painted and whilst i'm at it refurb the wheels. I have an intersting idea for them :puh:

So off for a hot shower and look forward to Guy Martin buliding a ruddy big first world war tank on the telly.
Peace out peeps....
Chief

[chief]

Just a few photos of progress this weekend. I appreciate is doesn't look like much but the hours spent scraping off underseal then cleaning over with white spirit is insane. I have removed so much of the OTT factory white seam sealer I recon i've dropped the car weight by a few pounds and proberly the same myself









So one wheel arch clean and ready for etch primer.
This really is soul destroying stuff. It took an entire day to get to this!

In the interest of keeping my sanity I decided to move onto something different. To that end I dived into the rear engine lid. The catch plate holder had broken and some bright spark just drilled two holes and put the worlds tiniest set screw and nut to hold it.



This welded back on and the holes puddle welded I moved onto removing the hinge stay. This needs to be removed to allow for the next modification.







This will now allow me to punch louvers into it. This should aid extra air for the 911 fan to suck at!
Also it should look killer!!

And onto the outer sill covers. I've had these shot blasted to see what condition they are in, which isn't too bad. I need to do some beating on one which has seen some action....





Again a lot of work to do here with making up the extension from the wheel arch, but this can be done as a stand alone project. Just need to see if my pal Toby has a louver punch I can use :puh:

So another weekend gone and a step forward me thinks. Lots of work left to do. But as i've said this is more of a pilgrimage than a project.
All the best,
Chief

[glovebox]

Love it

[LMR]

That wheel arch looks great. Give it a quick tickle with a DA sander and you will definitely be ready for some paint.

Loving the louvres!

[Green Ernie]

I like the louver idea

[sladey]

Nice work

[chief]

Thanks for the positive comments fellas, I appreciate it.
Dropped in on Toby today. Couldn't find a louvere shape I liked. So we're designing our own.
He's going to make the tooling once we're happy with the shape of the mockup. I'll try and get some photos of the process as I think it my interest some.

[LMR]

Video of a louvre being formed would be ace

[chief]

Thought it was about time I knuckled down and posted up the progress on 'Project Blue Book'....
I have been working on it but haven't had much worth posting i guess...
Thought it was time to remove the thick tar panels on the inside floor to look for dreaded rust.




And a bin full of cra*p

Scraping with the heatgun revealed this...



So with the car rolled over I could finish off removing the last bits of underseal.

Got very bored with that so thought i'd get the welder revvvved up!







So getting neater all the time....
Next I decided to trim the wheel arches down. I maked a line time tape at 16mm and you can see how out they are. A lot of grinding and a nasty cut on my digit, but here we are.




Looking a bit more like it. I cannot stand seeing the return lip being so huge and all over the place!

Now remember my latest hairbrained scheme?????


So here we have the finished result...




Sooooo whaddaya all think???????
Anyhoo off for a shower and try and get all this metal dust and grinding out of me hair and ears!
All the best chaps,
Enjoy the rugby!
Chief

[LMR]

My word you have been busy!

Hats off to you, louvres are a brave choice and won't be to everyones taste, but a big thumbs up from me!!

[defianty]

That's really tidy work Chief. Coming along nicely.

[Green Ernie]

Love it, turned out great