Hello all.
Work has been mostly suspended on #1601 for the past few months, but
it's picking up again. Back in the spring I got the frame stripped bare
in preparation for sending it off to the fabrication shop to be used as
a reference for the brand-spanking-new frame I'm having built.
With the frame "finished" for the time being, this summer I turned my
attention to the body. After some experimentation, I've decided to go
further in trying to remove all of the acrylic from my original panels,
then re-work the bare glass to prep it for paint.
First I'll share my experiences with the acrylic, then the latest
developments in the frame fabrication saga:
Removal of Acrylic:
=====
Since I'll be replacing the chassis, rear suspension, much of the
interior, the tranny, some window glass, wheels, tires, and seriously
rebuilding the engine, I'm kind of desperate to hold on to _some_ part
of the original car. The panels are solid and relatively straight, but
they're pretty cracked. I can't bring myself to also replace the body,
especially when there's a workable glass body hidden under that cracked
plastic, so I'm going digging for the glass.
The techniques I tried include:
1) Sanding with an orbital sander
2) Grinding with an angle grinder (6000 RPM)
3) Brass wire wheel
4) Chemical stripper & paint scraper
5) Chemical stripper & brass wire wheel
So far, 5 looks like the way to go. I did all of these experiments on
the driver's side front fender, and by the end seemed to have a workable
system for stripping off the plastic.
The stripper I used is called "E-Z way" and is very nice. It eats the
plastic while leaving the fiberglass underneath unharmed. It's a bit
pricey, and it takes a fair bit of effort, but right now it's more
palatable than any of the other options, and a lot easier to handle than
replacing all those panels.
The technique goes like this:
1) Rough up the surface with the ultra-fine brass wire wheel
2) Soak rags in stripper and drape them over the surface
3) Cover soaking rags with plastic to prevent evaporation
4) Let it sit for about 20 minutes
5) Peel off rags (some plastic comes with them)
6) Remove softened plastic with the wire wheel (switch to
scraper when you get close to the glass)
7) Go to step 2.
Once I've done some more (I'm planning to do the hood and passenger side
fender next), I'll report back to let people know how it's going. I'm
hoping that I can get a system going that makes it feasible. By doing
large areas, and several at a time, I'm hoping that it can go at a
decent pace.
Chassis Engineering & Fabrication:
=====
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I know that this car will
never handle like my RX-7, but I'd like it to handle better than a 90's
minivan. The original frame is seriously wrecked due to rust, and has
some problems with stiffness due to the design. Also, it has a
live-axle rear suspension which I'm not too crazy about. The solution:
I'm having a new frame fabricated by some friends of my uncle who build
race cars.
As some of you may remember, I did some research into the T-Bird as a
donor car for 3 areas: EFI, the 5-speed manual tranny, and the
independent rear suspension. As it turns out, it's unsuitable for all
3. The EFI system doesn't work with the Motorsport wiring harness for
retrofitting EFI to an older engine, the 5-speed is only available in
the Super Coupe, and isn't a T-5, it's a special Mazda unit (nice tranny
but I don't want to get into oddball parts), and the IRS is both weak
and expensive.
Apparently, something tends to go pretty wrong with these rear ends when
they don't have a whole lot of mileage on them (I was told it's common
for them to go by 25,000 miles, but that sounds awfully low). The fix
is to buy a complete IRS system out of a wrecked car, so as a result,
most T-Birds in wrecking yards have either a bad IRS, or have already
donated theirs to a road-going T-Bird.
The frame guys did manage to source a 70's Vette IRS though, and haggled
the owner down to a pretty decent price. We'll be going with that rear
and a coil-over setup. Should be pretty trick.
As for stiffening the chassis, all joints will be gusseted, a 4-point
partial cage will be going out back, and the front will be reinforced as
follows:
1) A hoop connecting the front frame rails in front of the
firewall
2) Each side has a brace running longitudinally from the hoop,
to the strut tower, down to the front of the frame rail.
3) A brace running transversely connects the two strut towers.
A rack and pinion setup to replace the old recirculating ball unit is
also under consideration. Once the frame is in the shop (within the
next month or so), they'll measure it to see if they can source a
reasonably priced rack box that will fit.
The goal is to have a chassis that can handle the torque of a pretty
serious motor if I decide to get crazy with it in the future (right now
I'm shooting for about 350hp at the crank, but I want to leave my
options open), but more importantly: to be able to deal gracefully with
the higher loads that will be imparted on it by (maybe wider) lower
profile tires, stiffer wheels, poly bushings, and stiffer shocks.
The frame guys will hold on to drawings of everything they do so that if
this setup ends up working well it could be replicated or refined if
there are other Bricklin owners out there with similar intentions.
Sometimes I feel like the only guy in the world trying to build a
sharp-handling Brick. Maybe there's a reason for that ;)
--
Phil Martin pmartin@isgtec.com
"Art disappoints me when it is too little like life,
Life disappoints me when it is too much like art."
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