Babalouie's 911 - start on p7

[baggins]

Gordon Smash Repair, on Pacific Hwy Gordon

Perfect thanks, just up the road.

[Babalouie]

So, at the moment the underbonnet looks like this...and it's not terribly practical to have to unpeel the side of the carpet to sort out the hood prop.


Then I went to visit my favourite classic car trim shop for ideas, but I was surprised to discover that it had closed down...I had an idea about getting a bit of carpet trimmed to look like the Carrera RS carpet, but the more I looked at it, the less I liked it.


But now that I am without a trimmer anyway, I figured it wouldn't hurt to have a bash at making something up myself.


I start out with this stuff, which I bought from a DIY electronics store, they sell speaker kits that you can make at home, and this stuff was called "Speaker Carpet". It's basically the same fuzzy material that covers the parcel shelf on a hatchback. Twenty bucks for about twice the material I needed.


Then I cut up some 5mm mdf I got at the hardware store.


Stick it all together with aerosol contact glue (those extra rectangular patches are to reinforce the "hinge" where the board flips up)


Tuck in all the edges nice and neat...


And there you go! There are already Velcro tabs on that black plastic trim piece at the front, so the front of the new "carpet" sticks there by itself.


For better or worse, this is how the underbonnet is going to look like from now on...I'm thinking it didn't turn out too bad for a lazy evening's work


I was thinking of extending the carpet to cover up this little hidey-hole next to the fuel tank, but I didn't like how the RS carpet had that snake-like bit of extra material to do this. So I figure it would look nice if I could make up an aluminium flap or door to cover this up. Something in black, with dimple die holes in it... :D

[Beavis]

I was going to say "I actually like the look without any carpet", but then I saw the carpeting job you did. Nice work!!

[GTV]

you could always just cut a small hole in the carpet for the stay to slot through, no?

[Babalouie]

you could always just cut a small hole in the carpet for the stay to slot through, no?

That was an option. You can get these clip-in curtain rings, and say if you painted it red, it should be self-explanatory, right?

...but then surely one day, someone will just poke the rod thru the hole, not thinking that they're meant to be aiming for that cup-thing, and then the next thing ya know, the rod is making some big scratch on the strut tower.






Also that wouldn't look badass like the Carrera RS

[demuire]

Make a panel (you make nice panels) that was part of the carpet, and clipped onto the strut brace so that you can't possibly miss the cup-thing?

[Babalouie]

That's not a bad idea...I reckon I might do that too, and swap between the bare RS look and the stock carpet every now and then

[Monk]

I will do a little more experimentation, but I think we might possibly have to file this away under "Because Race Car" and live with some slightly wonky fitment

/me looks at the last 42 pages

Riiiiiiiiight...

:D

[Babalouie]

This afternoon, I figured I'd have a go at doing something about that gaping hole next to the fuel tank. First step is making a cardboard template, and then using a jigsaw to cut the shape out of 1.5mm aluminium. I like to put down some masking tape to protect the surface, since it's easy for a stray bit of swarf to put a big ugly scratch down the middle of it when it's on the bench.


...measure up and mark some holes for drilling, with a centrepunch


Drill out a bunch of 4mm pilot holes...


Enlarge the holes to 12mm with a step drill (I find these are the best for cutting big holes in sheet metal)


For um, err...




Then clean up the edges on the belt sander, and now we can test fit!


Then cut out a bracket, which in this case has to be a vee-shape because of the weird angle it has to be bent to...


Rivet the bracket onto the piece, and test fit...hmm, it fouls the soft hoses from the brake reservoir a bit, so the piece will have to have a little bend in it to make space. Because I'm using the Porsche plastic nuts (same as the ones used for the wheel arch liner), which have a wide base, the bracket ended up a little more deep than I intended.


I thought about leaving it as bare metal, but I figured that was a little too much of a hot-rod touch for the RS-look I'm going for. So understated black it is (if we don't like it, a squirt of paint stripper will make it all better) :D


The finished item! You can see that there is now a little bend in it to clear the two hoses going behind it.


Hmmm...not sure if I'm feeling it, to be honest. I might give it a couple of days to get used to it.

[Ben Wilson]

Honestly, I think this is somewhere where the dimple die may have done more harm than good. I think a flat plate in satin black may work better. Or some plastic to match the flap hanging off the reservoir could work...

[Babalouie]

Yeah, I'm starting to think that way too. Basically the same piece, but with bigger flat holes

[Stix Zadinia]

yeah I think theres too much flat plate, or maybe run a lip around the outside edge? (same direction as the holes)

and maybe satin black

[Babalouie]

Or...I could wrap it in that black carpet...

[Tripper]

carpet will look better, just put a bit down over the bracket you made and see if its worth doing proper

[GTV]

looks like a footrest for the midget hostage

carpet is the answer