Sirpent "Z"

[zzzzed]

I definately think this will work, however the pivot points are the key and grafting the Zed arms onto the Holden assy is a must due to the need for accuracy of operation.

 

So Mick will i do it or do you want to have a go first ?

 

Not fussed john.. If you get to it first i dont mind

here is the other commodore set up that could be made to work. this one just moves up and down. so with a fabricated braket it could be affective, Also there would be less moving parts so less to wear out

 

 

[salty]

Guys,

 

The covers wouldnt be that hard if someone like mentioned with a vacumm former was prepared to do it, the trick is to make a PUG of the form(s) to be able to do it, answer is yes I can do it, there isnt anything difficult about it, however once made how do you mount it?

I vac formed from 1983  to, er now, mold isnt hard to make, mounting wouldnt be hard either.

3 x90degree angled "bits" to attach to the cover and the headlight bucket, attach rubber "C" section around the lip/edge, done.

probably come in around $150-200 a set

[Sirpent]

Salty,

 

I'm afraid that mounting it with "L" brackets wouldn't suit, I did so with my Zed 25 years ago and hated its flimsy nature, the gasket fit and eventual stress fractures.

 

Thanks anyway

 

In the meanwhile, took to the 2 fascia's today with a cutting disc, "Death by a 1000 cuts" and ended up with a trial fit and mock-up which I was happy with, now I have to hand sand the pieces to suit one and other before the bonding commenses.

 

Cheers

 

John

 

[salty]

John, mounting these has always been a problem and the acrlyic used has always been hard to work with, brittle, cracking.UGH!

One material that comes to mind is G-PET, its easy to work with and flexible and its easy to heat and form.Theres also a clear styrene.

I was "playing" with the notion of forming a complete "cover", still allowing lights to shine through but not having to screw anything in place as well as easy removal.

so the entire bucket is covered with , maybe a lip to fit in the gap next to the bonnet which would keep it on

still working on that, 

[Sirpent]

Tell yer what Salty,

 

When time permits, i will do a step bucket where the formed head lamp cover can sit into, like a recess around the perimeter, that way it can be urethaned in after painting a black border around the edge on the inside similar to a windscreen.

 

I'll send it to you and then you do a step by step tutorial on how to form one.

 

Deal?

 

 

[salty]

John, thats a deal.

the actual forming doesnt take long, making the mold takes the time then making a "part", usually a thin styrene one, just to make sure everything lines up etc

[Sirpent]

Small Update :

 

Managed to secure the Climate control fascia in place today and do a trial fit, Now will turn it over and do some plastic welding in key spots before commencing the filler work, so far so good.

 

Cheers

 

John

[NZeder]

That is going to look really good. Nice choices John. I like your work

[Sirpent]

Cheers Mike,

 

But i know it looks very rough, think it will have and leave a different impression once it ifs filled smoothed and uniform.

[Sirpent]

well in between post on here, I spent an entire day plastic welding the fascia up, clock fits like a charm, now ready for some sanding and priming.

 

Cheers

 

John

[MaygZ]

One word - WOW

[Bigfella]

Looks great.

[KatoKid]

Very nice, what finish will it have? Matt black to match dash and console?

[Sirpent]

Black textured David, The center console will come up to finish edge flush with the bottom of this fascia and will hold the 7" 2 DIN GPS/CD/DVD so the switches usually there will be deleted and replaced.

 

 

[benny]

Hey Snake Man,

 

By plastic welding do you mean melting with a soldering iron?? ive done this before and it seems to work ok...

[Sirpent]

Yup,

 

There isn't any problem doing it that way as long as you ensure that the plastic surfaces are both brought to a melt point so that fusion takes place.

[FuzzyDropbear]

Very impressed John, looks a bit odd with the newer climate controls with ye olde clock in the middle, but I love it, very cool. 

 

You know, it's getting to the stage that there's lots of interesting builds going on, maybe we should organise a day to cruise and visit some of these project cars in the flesh?

[RBZ 260]

Awsome work John,

 

Lookin very schmick . love it.

 

re: clock and digital climate looking odd? maybe not the word ill use...

 

but to me looks perfect. lots of late model cars with digital climates still use analogue clocks. ie merc, audi, bmw, even the oz stuff all have same and looks great.

 

maybe there is a link with those cars mentioned they are all luxury cars. Z is not.  but to me it will look better than what 350z have a simple ugly digital clock in one of its pods. would look lot better in my opinion if it was analogue, even better replaced with a boost gauge 

 

anyway keep it up John cant wait to see some texture on it.

[Sirpent]

Thanks Johnny

 

I think its also a good blend of old and new now that I can see it in one piece, and putting a boost gauge in the upper dash clock position will really bring it all together.

 

But now I'm also thinking going a high gloss finish, will decide when I have surfaced it all and see how flat the surface is.

 

Just don't ask to see the back of it, the amount of reinforcement welding I did is ugly and unbelievable, the last thing I wanted was for it to develop stress fractures.

[benny]

hey john would you consider putting it in the oven at low temp to further the "fusion"?

[Sirpent]

No need to Ben,

 

Believe me when I say that the welds are rock strong, I will take some pics of the back later so you can see what I mean, I have tried applying torsion to it by twisting it by hand and there is no sign of any stress or fracturing, I even hot screwed self tappers into the mounting points at the back so that there is literally no stress on them when I fit up all the ducts etc.

[benny]

awesome.... looking forward to seeing it finished!!

[RBZ 260]

John gloss will look good. did that on mine so kinda biased  . Also my controller was gloss so it kinda blended in quite nicely. 

 

Pitty never got to finish the center console where 3 more GTR style gauges were ment to be under the CD player.. ie Volts and Oil and gauge with warning lights ie: engine check, alt, seatbelts, alarm flasher, handbrake, fog lights  etc.....

 

oh well its almost complete so it will migrate to the 240z one day..........

 

keep us posted.

 

 

[Sirpent]

Spaghetti anyone?

 

The step motor and CC only came with about 10cm's of cut loom at each connector so this meant fabricating a new one almost from scratch, problem is that there are a number of shared impulse pathways and a total of 8 components to make the system automated, 3 step motors, a sun sensor, water Temp sensor, air intake temp sensor, outside air temp sensor and then the relays for the blower etc.

 

Luckily I tracked down a copy of the wiring diagram but it like reading hieroglyphics so much of last night was spent simplifying it and working out how to blend it all together, today the soldering work started so fingers crossed in the next day or so I should be able to bench test it and post a vid of it operating, in case anyone else ever wants to do this I will post a PDF of a step by step wiring diagram I have been doing as I progress.

 

Just to let everyone know also, if there is anyone out there who wants air con in their car, but cant track down all the bits, you don't need to if you decide to do this mod, simply put there are only 3 components you need to install air in a Zed as far as under the dash hardware and non of them need to be genuine.

 

#1 The in dash air condenser (it a simple alloy unit pretty much available from a number of modern cars)

#2 A controller such as the one I'm doing.

#3 The in dash condenser casing, this is just a plastic casing square in nature that bolts up to the generic Z system installed in all zeds, it can easily be fabricated from aluminium.

 

I'm more than happy to do a drawing with measurement of it as I will be dropping mine out in the next few days to line up the ducts.

 

In the engine bay it just the simple bolt on hardware, beats paying a $1500+ for an aftermarket unit or trying to reserect a 30+ year old original.

 

Cheers

 

John

[peter mc]

Sirpent you are a gun this will be one of the best zed in the world when finished