get some acrylic or polycarbonate, a bit of heat, etc
Printable View
get some acrylic or polycarbonate, a bit of heat, etc
Could you adapt the alpine windows from the disco to fit the rear quarters? Their already curved and laminated.
Thanks for all the tips and info guys.
bacicat - Great advice, thanks for that! Does sound very fiddley, but if the windows are indeed laminated, I might give it a shot (I wouldn't have anything to lose!)
Slug Burner - Should the exercise of getting some custom windows made be ab****ely rediculous, I'll definitely look into this option you suggest, I hadn't considered it!
Angus - I had a look at the quarter windows you suggested (I think you meant the small ones that are in the rear doors), they are a bit too small for what I was thinking, but then again, they could be an option!
I was again in the workshop for a little while. I noticed that the roof is a little bit flimsy in between the front support that runs across and where the curved section I made starts. So I think I'll be needing to re fit the original roof support in a new location. So I started the prep work on that:
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...12/09/1083.jpg
I also pulled off the cylinders, and the tray frame to start the process of fitting the rear wall. Below is what the trial fit looks like. The height of this panel is basically perfect. The only place that needs further modification is extending the width which should be easy enough to do:
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...12/09/1084.jpg
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...12/09/1085.jpg
If you are wondering why I have the roof covered, it is because I've put an electric blanket on the roof to help the epoxy cure, it's been a bit too cold in Melbourne!
Hello All, I'm back.
Spent some time in the workshop, though it wasn't anything amazing. I sanded down the roof some more and i'm now at the stage where some body filler is needed. It's definitely looking like I have some serious hours of sanding ahead of me...
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...12/10/1422.jpg
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...12/10/1423.jpg
Also I repositioned the original roof stiffener and bonded it to the roof. Later I will weld in the pieces which join it to the roof frame.
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...12/10/1424.jpg
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...12/10/1425.jpg
Also, i've bought a TIG welder, should be arriving next week. Time to start learning how to TIG weld!
Hi Stirling
No I actually meant the curved alpine windows in the back roof section of the discos. These could be awesome corner windows, however it would be a pain fabricating the surrounds for them unless you chopped em out if the roof.
Angus
TIG welding is nice and staight forward a steady hand and lots of practice. The project is looking great cant wait to see the end result.
I would like to thank Taro for coming out and helping me in the workshop today. Many hands do make for light work.
Welded in some spacers onto the frame. The rear skin will be attached to these areas:
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...012/10/404.jpg
Cut out some areas on the ribbed rear wall to go around the horizontal beam of the frame. The wall will be welded directly to the beam in these areas to act as a support:
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...012/10/405.jpg
And this is the trial fit up of the lower wall with the upper panel I had laser cut and folded:
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...012/10/406.jpg
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...012/10/407.jpg
In addition to what is shown above, i've also spent a heap of hours bogging and sanding the roof. I still have a heap more hours to go on that...
Also, I gave the TIG welder a whirl. Certainly needing some practice there!!
Hello All,
A quick update. I've been blending in the roof into the body work using body filler. It's proving to be quite a slow process.
I recently hit a big snag, and a lesson learned. I was originally using scales to measure the ratio between the filler and harderner. And towards the end I figured I could eye ball the right amount of hardnerer. Anyway, needless to say, I ended up applying body filler over quite a lot of the fibreglass which didn't cure after a week. The result was me needing to spend about 6 hours scraping it all off! Lesson learned.
Also, I've now fitted the roof support. I welded the bits together in the overhead position using my less than amature TIG skills. Results were ordinary but serve the purpose, a learning process none the less.
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...12/11/1154.jpg
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...12/11/1155.jpg
Some more time spent playing today, mostly on the roof, bogging and sanding.
I was finally down to the point where I was just touching up inperfections and circling them with a pencil. There were a lot of them:
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...12/11/1070.jpg
After a lot of sanding i'm now down to the point where the roof is about 95% finished, a little more bogging is required here and there and then I need to go over it with a finer grit paper.
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...12/11/1071.jpg
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...12/11/1072.jpg
Also, I welded in 2 cut down bolts to the spacers to allow me to fit the rear panel on and hold it in place. It is very likely i'm going to be fitting it and removing it a lot while I work out all the parts around it such as the lower wall and the rear quarter windows. So this makes my life much easier. If you look closely in the photo below you can see each of the bolts on the panel. When it comes to final installation, I will cut the studs off and plug weld the holes to the frame.
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...12/11/1073.jpg
You have patience