21st Century Outlaw 997 Project

[Darren C]

Next I needed to make sure that the holders were to sit central to the hole in the bumper as they have a bigger bore than that of the sensor end.
To do this accurately I decided to make a dummy sensor alignment tool (bit like a clutch tool) so got busy on the lathe with some aluminium bar.

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Couldn't use a real sensor as I'd put my car all back together while continuing with the project.

[Darren C]

Using the sensor holder location tool I individually rapid set epoxied each holder in position.

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Each one perfectly central to the holes

[Darren C]

To make a permanent job the holders then got GRP'd into place with mat & finishing tissue.

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[Darren C]

While working on the new bumper I'd noticed a few imperfections and loss of definition in a few area's from the molding process so, as part of prep for painting these needed to be addressed, filled & fettled.

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[Darren C]

Finally the whole surface was prepared (some filler primer locally applied to prevent snow blindness) and any pin holes filled before it was completely flatted ready for paint.

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[Darren C]

I borrowed a big van & took it down to the paintshop this week.

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Then followed with the car for a paint scan. Knowing the code & name cannot account for any previous paintwork on the car or UV fade, so thought it best to do a belt & braces scan.

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[Darren C]

With the bumper away for a week being painted (have to go in & flat it though ) it was time to take a look at the numberplate lights.

Moving them upwards in the new backdate design means the cars loom is too short to reach and there's no space for the connection plug.

I decided to buy a new set to modify (and use for test fitting when I cut & filed the apertures) so these needed modifying.

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The plug was carefully cut off to reveal the pins.

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And new flying leads soldered on.

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These then got heat shrink applied, resin sealed (as the holes around the pins in these lamps have gaps which is normally sealed by the plug) then carefully folded over to give maximum clearance from the boot latch panel on the car.

[Darren C]

Finally on the numberplate lights I visited my local breakers yard & got some generic VAG plugs so that I could finish the ends of the leads with the same fitting I cut off the lights. In this way they just plug straight into the cars loom with ease. Not a problem if the unit fails as the business end with contacts & bulb holder is a separate piece to this surround.

I found the right plugs on a MKIII Golf by Washer bottle & a similar age Passat, so harvested a few just in case

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These again were soldered in, heat shrinked & the VAG rubber boots fitted to complete the mod.

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Last job this afternoon was to pop a light out my car and plug the new ones in for test

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All ready for when the bumper arrives back from paint

[Darren C]

A couple of posts this evening to bring you right up to date on progress.

Early this week I picked up my form tools that I made (pictured previously in this thread) for the up-scale Bullet Door Mirrors.
Over the process of prototyping the mirrors I had to tweak them slightly.
Basically the cone was good to go with the exception of drilling & fitting a dowel location pin (which I didn't realise the spinners needed...learning curve ) The only other trial we did on the Alumimium prototypes was working out where to make the cut line of the part at the base of the cone. It has a small flare here, that sits on the bowl part. We made a few cones with various sizes flares to see what looked & fitted best.
An additional tool was needed to make the "dent" in the nose of the cone to replicate the original Bullet Mirror, but scaled up to suit. This tool was made with a centre dowel to locate not only in the metal plate but also as a guide location for the two halves of the tool to keep it concentric. The male part of this stamp tool is a bit sacrificial as it needed to be made in brass (softer than the Stainless end product) so as not to mark it. Obviously this means it only has a short working life, but for now I only want 2 mirrors

The bowl form tool on the other hand got altered about 4 times in total as I worked out how much room was needed to keep the 997 mirror motor happy, while keeping the profile of the outer bowl radius as close to original mirror shape as possible. The fact of the matter is, to use the motorised assembly and keep the glass within the bowl at full tilt it had to be almost twice as deep as a scaled up original bowl is. I tried it with a parallel section & although it looked neat (bit Singerish) it just didn't do it for me Anyways here a picture of the final form tools with original mirror so you can see the up-scale

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And the evolution of bowls in Aluminium

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And a shot including my cone prototyping & mirror angle jig

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So as shown earlier in this thread, I got to the stage where I was ready to spin the parts in Stainless Steel. This IMHO is a better route than chrome on steel or brass, or polished/anodised Aluminium for longevity. Hard work.....but hey that's what makes it worth doing

[Darren C]

So here they are (after a long tedious polish)

The first batch of 997 scale Outlaw Bullet Mirrors in Stainless Steel

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Next stop, make the pedestals (templates already done in ali) in Stainless

[Bootsy]

Quality stuff

[hickepa2]

Masterful


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[andytat]

I really like those mirrors!!!

[Darren C]

Thanks for the kind words

So this weeks update on Progress....

I've had an absolute crazy week at work combined with the my consultant changing my meds it's been to say the least...interesting!

Nevertheless, with the awesome mirror bodies back from the spinners I started to transfer the Aluminium pedestal prototypes to templates & cut out of stainless sheet

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I shortened the template to make a removable panel on the underside to enable fitting to the door mounts that have two splayed sprung loaded arms. Porsche make the plastic mirror covers in two so that they can be fitted. I didn't like the idea of a split line halfway through so designed an obsured cover plate on the underside that'll only be seen if your lying on the floor looking up

With the stainless cut it needed first folding.

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Stainless is tough & unforgiving so it wasn't going to be as easy as just bending the Aluminium prototypes in my hand.

[Darren C]

So before I got too far down the metal manipulation I file fitted the handed stainless sheet to the mirror bowls so no light shone through any gap

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Then repeated for the mirror on the other side

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Now I was ready to bend to shape. This took a little thought as the stainless is tough and with a mirror polished finish any imperfection would be seen. I needed a flowing bend (not lots of parallel bends) to form the unique shape

After some thought I decided I needed a bend form tool to roll the stainless around into shape.

This needed to be exact
This needed to be smaller than the finished part by the thickness of the metal

So.....I got the old Aliuminium prototype and re worked it to take out any imperfections, then taped up the join & filled it with body filler!

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