Springfield Flyer.

[tauruck]

All right:  gasoline as a cleaning solvent.  boyhood adventure to follow:

I was in 6th or 7th grade and decided to "fix" the old Kirby vacuum cleaner.  I disassembled the motor, cleaned out the dust, and washed all the greasy/oily stuff in gasoline, of course.  In the basement of the house.  Whatever.

I cleaned up, put stuff back together, turned on the motor and heard it hum, all by itself, for a few seconds before - ka-boom (note lower case letters), the residual gasoline vapors elecyed to become noise.

I'm better with solvents now.  Mostly.

We still have Zina's late mom's Kirby here and it still works. Must be 50 years old.

[Buickguy3]

    Mike, Maybe it would have been easier to test drive a Mazda from a "used car " dealer for a week and pull some of your own molds off of it and return it and tell them it wasn't a car for you. 
      Doug 

[Seldom Seen Slim]

Mike said:  "...Zina's late mom's Kirby here and it still works. Must be 50 years old."

Unh, MIke, time to revise your concept of "old".  I was cleaning our old Kirby - 60 years ago and it was old then.

Maybe Mom and Dad got it at the Thrift Shop - yeah, that's no doubt why we had such and old machine.

[tauruck]

    Mike, Maybe it would have been easier to test drive a Mazda from a "used car " dealer for a week and pull some of your own molds off of it and return it and tell them it wasn't a car for you. 
      Doug 

I told the guy to ask Mazda SA to loan us a body in "white". They were in, in 5 seconds but they wanted the car complete and at the launch of the new model which was about three weeks back.
Kyle couldn't handle the pressure so he opted to borrow those other molds.

Jon, Kirby still makes polishers etc today i think?.

[Dr Goggles]

All right:  gasoline as a cleaning solvent.  boyhood adventure to follow:

I was in 6th or 7th grade and decided to "fix" the old Kirby vacuum cleaner.  I disassembled the motor, cleaned out the dust, and washed all the greasy/oily stuff in gasoline, of course.  In the basement of the house.  Whatever.

I cleaned up, put stuff back together, turned on the motor and heard it hum, all by itself, for a few seconds before - ka-boom (note lower case letters), the residual gasoline vapors elecyed to become noise.

I'm better with solvents now.  Mostly.

electrical contact cleaner/drill press switch/electricity=fireball

[tauruck]

Here's some great news.
Marlo Treit emailed me out of the blue and said he'd like to
donate two tires to my cause!!!!.
We all know who his best buddy is and methinks he set it up.
This is what makes this community great. The generosity on
all levels is off the charts from advice to motivation, inspiration
and gestures like this.

Thanks Marlo and Freud.
Also thanks to Buick Guy3, Manta22 and Tom Burkland to name a few.
God Bless all of you.

[wheelrdealer]

Mike, that works. A little brotherhood among long car aficionados.

 

[tauruck]

Thanks Bill.
Marlo says my tires will be at my shippers in Gilroy
on May 1 which happens to be my birthday.
It doesn't get any better. I should have them 10 days later at worst.
 

[tauruck]

I know the following is not build related but I do get email from time to time
asking for advice on composites. I'm honored that some of you do that.

Wish I was there to help in person in all honesty. That would be cool.
I'm building this pro mod body and now I'm on the rear wing section.
Local "builder's" bolt a rear wing to the trunk lid. Not us. I'm in a weird
situation. Using some other guy's junk molds can give me a bad rep.
I'm known as a humble dude but I take pride in my work so I'm putting
everything into the "Snowflake".

The rear of the car isn't box shaped so I had to come up with a solution that not
only looked but was functional and very strong.

I'm building the end plates first. I've got and epoxy laminate that starts out pretty
thin at the leading edge that will be bonded to the skin I already have on the car.
That will double up strength and thickness when I fit the plates.

Here's how I produced the mold. I cut a cardboard template and shaped it until I was happy.
I transferred that to a sheet of 4mm ABS plastic, maked a line where I'd make the cut to get the
correct profile and used a box cutter to get a clean cut. The reciprocating saw and ABS don't do
too well. It welds it's self behind the cut.

I used the  profile gauge to mark some offcuts and made 4 ABS forms. I taped everything together
with 2" masking tape, put on a good layer of release agent and set to work.

[tauruck]

Pics of the mold.

[tauruck]

Halfway on the end plate.
It still needs another 4 layers of fabric.

When that's done and cured I'll break down the mold,
tape everything back together on the other side and
repeat. I guess I'll have the plates on the body by the
end of the long weekend. Yesterday was a holiday and
so is Monday. No one is working except for the missus.
She had a crash on Wednesday and is hurting but she's
a stubborn broad.

[ggl205]

Mike, don't be ashamed to post how you do your craft in fiberglass. You have taught me and given me inspiration to try things even if they are a bit unconventional. So far, things have worked out well.

John

[tauruck]

That's awesome John. Thank you. God Bless.

[tauruck]

I guess some road tires with the same dimensions as the Mickey Thompsons I need will suffice for my tanden front end so I can mock things up
before machining the hubs.
15 x 4'5 x 25" shouldn't be too difficult to find here.

[tauruck]

Got a birthday present of sorts today.
My tires are in Gilroy at APEX and Marco mailed me so they should get here later this week.
Thanks Marlo and Freud.

Actually got quite a bit done on the liner that is rear end related today and will post pics later in the week.