Thread: Stirlsilver's Disco Ute Project

Originally Posted by Epic_Dragon

wow i have gone way past my bed time getting distracted with this thread!! incredible! made way better than a bought one so to speak haha , your welds are so neat as well! is going to be awesome when you are finished!

Thanks for the comment Epic! Though I have to say, my welding isn't great. I'm getting better but I am still very much at the standard of an amature welder!!

Right, I got some feedback from the engineers.

Glazing
Provided I can find a material that satisfies the requirements of the standards mentioned in ADR8/00 I can use polycarbonate. After doing some research I found that ANSI Z26.1 is the only standard which gives any form of hope to use polycarbonate in the rear quarter windows. So I purchased the standard and discovered that glazing is graded AS-1, AS-2, AS-3, AS-4, AS-5, and so on. Generally, the classifications detail the following:
AS-1 Anywhere
AS-2 Anywhere except windshield
AS-3 For rear and side windows rear of the driver only

The above 3 classifications can only be given to glass. From AS-4 and on plastics can start to be used and I have been able to locate Polycarbonate compliant to AS-4. But below is where it is allowed to be used:


I'm going to try and convince the engineers to consider the rear small quarter windows as the location shown in the red box above given the car is being re-classified. We'll see how that goes.

Emissions Testing
Turns out that with my car being reclassified as a commercial vehicle on LPG ADR36 specifically excludes LPG so I am free to turbo charge the engine and all that is required is an idle emissions test. Whoo Hoo!

Lift Modifications
The car will need to be sent to a track and tested in lane change maeouvers to certify the lifting. I still have to think if I want to go this way or not. Maybe with adjustable shocks and a heavy duty rear sway bar I could get away with it? I really don't want to fit a front sway bar as the front axle is so busy with things all over the place.

MegaSquirt
I've basically got the system designed now, however I am really struggling to find ANY information on MS3's LPG temperature and pressure compensation. There is absolutely no information of people who have used MS3 to directly control vapour injectors anywhere! I know that MS3 'natively' supports doing this, but that's it!

Workshop Progress
I spent a few hours today & welded in the ribs for the C pillars:

I just noticed... 50,000 views on this thread!!

Originally Posted by stirlsilver

I just noticed... 50,000 views on this thread!!

That's because of your great work and there are heaps of cheap discos out there waiting for this treatment
Skiboy

Im more than one of those 50,000 veiwers i just cant get enough Keep up the good work mate you have come a long way from the stage 1

Thanks for the comments guys!

I went to the local pick-a-part today to acquire a couple of throttle bodies.



They are from Holden 2.0L Vectras, 55mm diameter and cable driven. I'll have to take to them with a carbide bit to remove all the un-necessary stuff and block up the unused holes.

The reason I am not using the original throttle body on the engine is because two of them will be too big and the engine will be very hard to control at part throttle.

Progress over the weekend:

I welded in the final little pieces to hold the window frame to the body:








And I also made up a couple of little pieces to support the top of the panel:




The rear quarter panels are basically ready to be installed permanently. I just need to get some more 2 part foam and some materials to seal up all the gaps and i'm ready to go. Possibly next weekend it will happen!

Next items to do are raising the suspension perches up by 50mm on the front and rear. So I made a start on that by pulling off the front panels:




And for a bit of a change of scenery. I ripped out the engine loom from the car and the ECU (does anyone want the ECU??):


Because I will need cable and connectors when I fit megasquirt I dismantled the whole loom for future use:

After all the digging through the standards and putting my case forward to the engineers I got the following response:

it looks like AS-4 will not comply for use where it's used as a primary visibility area, but as you mention earlier because your car is going to be an NA category commercial vehicle it is only required to have a minimum of 2 rear view mirrors mounted externally, one on each side. So as the centre mirror is not required by ADRs or the Vic road rules, we can argue that visibility through the rear windows is not required either, so that negates the need for the glazing to comply with the visibility requirements.

So yep you can go ahead and get your rear windows made up from the AS-4 compliant polycarbonate you mentioned, just make sure that if you're cutting it from sheet to keep the bit that has the markings on it or snap a photo of it.

Polycarbonate it is!

So I made a start on the left hand side.





Not exactly sure how I would go about forming the mould for the foam, I figured the best way was to use Balsa wood, wet it, form it and then dry it in a curved shape.



And then it was just a matter of supergluing it in place. What made things difficult in this whole process was the fact that I tried to put cling wrap on the inside to prevent the foam sticking to the wood.



Hmm leakage on the inside.


When I pulled the mould off, I found that there were places where the cling wrap was tight so the foam never took the shape of the curved balsa. I'm going to have a to go around and add more foam so I have enough to sand back to the shape I need.



I found the foam made the panel really stiff, i'm quite happy with it, there is absolutely no flex in the free edge of the panel when you try to push it or pull it.

I would have done more work except due to an injury from stick sparring in martial arts, I need to give my hands a break so this is all I was able to get done. The next side should be much quicker!