At 01:16 AM 12/21/99 PST, Riley Marquis III wrote:
>I know for a fact that Bricklin VIN 1801 has the rear tank integrated into
>the rear bumper. The production date for the car is 6/4/75. My car, VIN
>1758, has a production date of 6/2/75, just two days prior.
>Can anyone tell me exactly where to look in the rear bumper area for the
>"port" I should connect the air line to, assuming my car has the
>bumper-integrated tank?
Riley, et al.
Jim Kelliher is correct that it is an aftermarket system. Now comes the
hard part. It is my understanding that Terry Tanner (now of Bricklin Parts
& Service of VA) perfected and started selling the air door systems under
the company JTs. Once he started selling them, several other Bricklin
vendors went into the business of coping his design with little variations
here and there. I believe Terry's initial design was using an add on
accumulator to the back side of the rear bumper. It is a long rectangular
box about 3" square. It is welded to the bumper mounting pads on the
bumper. I don't know if the use of the rear bumper as the accumulator was
part of Terrys later systems or one of the ideas of one of the companies
that copied Terry's design.
This other design, makes use of the fact that the rubber bumpers are mearly
a large rubber cushion over a large steel box. So by drilling a couple of
holes into the steel box, they have an accumulator - FREE! (An asside,
the Company did the say thing with the head lights vaccumn system, someplace
along the line, they gave up the coffee can on the frame, and drilled into
the steel box in the front bumper, for a vaccumn resivor.)
As to where to look, I don't know. Simply look all over the back side of
the bumper. This is where the 8 mounting studs are. If you see something
that looks like an air filler (for a tire), that's it. If not, you should
have a 3"square box welded between the 2 mounting pads for the bumper.
>Also, Would the insulation for the floorboard/firewall do a better job
>blocking out heat and noise if both sides had the shiny space age material
>on both sides, as opposed to one side? If they do pretty much the same job,
>should the silver side go closer to the floor pan (face down) or closer the
>the underside of the carpet(face up)?
Riley, a couple of points here.
1. From Thermodynamics and Heat & Mass Transfer, insulation is modeled like
series resistors. Therefore, for a given material, the thicker it is,
the better it insulates. However, there is a practical limit to how
thick you can have the insulation on the inside floor boards. So you
what the "BEST" insulation (the highest R factor) you can get.
2. A silvery surface (ie. aluminumn foil) is one of the best isulators you
can have as it reflects vise slows (insulates) heat transfer.
Consiquently,
you want the reflective side towards the heat source. So for the interior
you want the shiny side towards the fiberglass floor/firewall. If you
opt to put this on the under side of the car, around the xmission tunnel,
you want the shinny side towards the heat source so you want it away from
the fiberglass parts.
Jim and I sat down at my house one afternoon and looked through the JC Whitney
catalog and looked for the part # the Kim had referenced in his article.
We could NOT find it, but there were 3 different insulations. I purchased
the one that is 48"x24' for about $95 (including shipping). This stuff has
a fiberglass strand reinforced foil (maybe mylar) backing. The insulation
looks like the blue & white carpet underlayment you can get at a carpet
shop. Except that it also has strands of string or something going through
it. This makes the hole thing pretty strong and tough to cut.
The material Jim purchased comes in a smaller roll for less money, but it
takes several rolls to do a car. His is more of a closed cell foam with
2 or 3 mylar sheets in it, one on the top and bottom, and one in the middle.
As I said JC Whiteny sells several different types. Some come in various
thicknesses. Most people suggest that you use the 1/2" thickness and NOT the
1" thick material.
My initial estimate is about 90 sq ft to cover the car. So far, I've got
mine installed on the firewall, the pass. side foot well, and have a piece
cut for the drivers side seat area. I don't know if I'll have enough to
do the entire interior or not. I'll let everyone know in the next week or
so when I finish the job.
Kim makes a very good point in his article about getting a NEW pair of good
scissors. A friend that is an professional upholsterer lent me a pair of
his "good" shears - I couldn't cut the stuff with them. I tried a brand new
single sided razor blade as I have a box of 100 or so. That didn't do a very
good job of cutting it either. My wife had purchased 3 pairs of scissors,
that look "cheap" They are not the massive ones you think of, these are very
light and thin. They seemed to cut about anything around the house, so I
tried them. They work great!!! They're the only thing I've found that cuts
the material that I have. The material that Jim purchased may cut easier.
Hope this helps.
John
John T. Blair WA4OHZ email: jblair@exis.net
Va. Beach, Va Phone: (757) 495-8229
48 TR1800 65 Morgan 4/4 Series V (B1109)
71 Saab Sonett III (71500840) 75 Bricklin SV1 (0887) 77 Spitfire
Morgan: www.team.net/www/morgan
Bricklin: www.bricklin.org
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