Funky Fresh Fab: Installing Lexan Windows

Yes, there hasn't been a post in a while. Yes, some of you are annoyed. There is a lot going on besides me having the time to sit down and type blog posts. But, you readers have spoken and I will get back on the train and do this again. Anyway . . .

Last I left off, I had just finished the dash. Ed mounted the Traqmate display on a spacer:

The next big task was prepping the rear window for install. It's a molded sheet of lexan, which Ed decided to use Dzus fasteners to hold around the sides. I made a spacer to hold the Dzus tabs in the right spot. This was pretty easy. I chopped a piece of steel to get the right drop:

Then welded on a longer piece:

How it's used:

I discovered that I could use a magnet to hold everything in place long enough to tack the tabs in place:

Progress:

Now it just need support:

Close up:

Measuring for the support straps:

Now, on to the front! I opted to use existing bolt holes to locate the three required straps:

I also came up with a pretty simple way to hold the bottom of the windshield in place. I made squares of the aluminum:

After cutting them out, I superglued them in place so that they support the bottom edge:

Pit pics from Lime Rock

Some pics from the pits at Lime Rock two weekends ago. (Yes, I'm slow.)
Veery fast EP BMW:

Ed and Steph's ITA CRX:

 In the staging area for the qualifying heat:

 This car looked good, even with some rough spots:

 I have never heard of this car:

 I liked it, though.

Here's something you don't see every day:

Especially not with a Cobra 460 engine with a turbo strapped to it:

 I like the design of this gurney flap:

 The dude that owned this 02 was totally cool:

 Yum:

 The aftermath of being made a bumper car:

 This is the worst part:

The rear subframe is tweaked, but fixable. 

Installing a pre-bent roll cage into Steve's CRX, Part 1.

My friend Steve has a silly CRX. What makes it silly? Well, just look and see for yourself:

You might say it makes a little power. It is fairly fast, too, so much so that he needs a roll bar if he wants to run the car at a legitimate drag strip. So, he bought a pre-bent cage and since he didn't want to use flux core for this, I brought over my welding setup and got to work, and it will be quite a lot of work.

Here we are getting set up:

As always, cleaning is the most important part of any welding prep:

 Getting into that corner to clean was a pain. I used a combination of a wire cup and a knotted wire brush. Be sure that you move any wires or lines out of the way.

I notched the baseplate to get a better fitup in the corner:

 Because the floor is curved in odd ways I used a hammer to bash the floor flatter and also curve the plate to match the profile better.

The weld marks in the middle of the plate are from where I tacked a piece of flat bar on to get a better ground:

 I managed to get some really good welds:

 And some not so pretty but perfectly good welds:

 

I will be making some filler plates to fit in the divots under the plate to the floor, as there is a variable gap of 1/8" to about 1/2". This is more than good enough to get started, though. 

This is a weld on the other side:

 That will get the same filler plate treatment.

Here we come to the not so fun part of lining up the main hoop:

 I asked for a tape measure and Steve gave me this:

 I thought he was mocking me, as it is maybe 1.5" big. Great measuring tools . . .

He DID have a couple of decent carpenter's squares. I used them to mark 1' and 2' up from the end of the hoops thusly:

 This gives a relatively fixed position on both legs to measure from, which, theoretically, makes things easier.

I am fairly confused on one thing, though. I don't get how these tubes are supposed to fit in the car or why they are coped the way they are:

 Me working, obviously:

 Bird's eye view, including me READING THE DARN INSTRUCTIONS:

 Where we left off for the day:

With darkness approaching, we cleaned up and I headed out. I am due back to his house on Tuesday, though I might be able to make it Monday after work, too.

And that's the start of it! Look forward to further installments as we get this thing done.