1971 Firebird Build ("The Other Woman", a.k.a. Project "T.O.W.")

[Vince@Meanstreets]

Originally Posted by carbuff

That's about what I felt like doing today! I don't think fiberglass will respond quite as well to the sledge though.

Hey Bryan,

You know its going to happen with the pressure supports. What I like to do is glass in a pair metal spar supports length wise to keep the hood flat.

Hinges with correct geometry should have zero upwards pressure when collapsed.

[carbuff]

At this point, it looks like I'm going to replace the hood. The two supports are creased, just front of the hinges. I don't know that those can be fixed. We could potentially reinforce the areas, but I'm not sure that will be enough.

Vince, I was wondering about that also, the pressure. I'm thinking we need to pull the hood and see what happens when we compress the hinges. I have the Fesler hinges, I've had them for about 2 years, so I don't know if the design has been revised or not. I did swap out the struts since the ones I had wouldn't hold the hood up, thus these are stronger. But they "feel" right regarding the pressure it takes to close the hood.

The direct sun definitely heated things up to the point it softened, which started the problem... An expensive lessen. I'm going to touch base with Albert about his carbon hoods and get his thoughts on this type of problem with them...

[Vince@Meanstreets]

Originally Posted by carbuff

At this point, it looks like I'm going to replace the hood. The two supports are creased, just front of the hinges. I don't know that those can be fixed. We could potentially reinforce the areas, but I'm not sure that will be enough.

Vince, I was wondering about that also, the pressure. I'm thinking we need to pull the hood and see what happens when we compress the hinges. I have the Fesler hinges, I've had them for about 2 years, so I don't know if the design has been revised or not. I did swap out the struts since the ones I had wouldn't hold the hood up, thus these are stronger. But they "feel" right regarding the pressure it takes to close the hood.

The direct sun definitely heated things up to the point it softened, which started the problem... An expensive lessen. I'm going to touch base with Albert about his carbon hoods and get his thoughts on this type of problem with them...

With the hood strut shut should not take any effort to hold down...on my Ringbrothers version it was held compressed with a small tie strap.


I have fixed cracked ones in the past.

Do a couple cuts before and after the damaged sections. You can then push down on the hood to match the fender line. You may have to support the front higher.
I made a conture gauge that spans the whole length of the hood out of 3/4" plywood that matches the fender and hood conture perfectly( just did a trace on one side with the fender then cut it with a jig saw). Clamp it at a few spots then you can add a metal spar (aluminum rectangular tubing works well) and fiber glass mat and resin the underside while clamped in the conture gauge.

On the spar you can cut the glass hood supports and fit them in to sit flush. Its a bit or work but Erik seems like he can handle it.

Going with one of Alberts CF units would be good too.

Let me know if you do get rid of the hood. I'll be more than happy to take it off your hands.

[carbuff]

Looks like we discovered the reason for the hood issue today. Eric and I removed the hood and did some measuring on the angle of the hood hinges. It seems in the effort to get the back of the hood down, the hinge was basically "bottomed out" and pointing upward. So we were putting the hood in a bind when we were closing it. Thus, when it got hot out in the sun, the bind caused the supports to give way.



Self-inflicted wound here... We were able to adjust the hinges with the hood removed so that they sat down more naturally, and when we reinstalled the hood, it lays down much better (except for the leftover bow in the middle).

Eric thinks he can cut into the channel that forms the support and reinforce it with some aluminum, then re-glass over it to make it looks ok. That sounds better than having to acquire a new hood and having it repainted! So I'll let him have the car back next week to start on that. I stole it from him for the weekend to drive around and "tune" a bit. Yeah, that's what I'm doing.

[carbuff]

Speaking of tuning. Yes, I drove around for a good while today. I want to get some time on the engine, and do some more tuning as well. I'm still learning the Holley EFI setup, but so far I really like it! The biggest obstacle is just knowing what to tell the system to do, and discovering what the engine likes and what it doesn't.

It's idling great at 800 rpm. At cruise RPM I have it requesting about 14.5:1 AFR, and that seems to be working pretty well. I have a little hiccup on the spark advance when suddenly stomping the throttle under heavy load, but I'm working on that one. I also noticed that I have some knock retard during WOT, and I'm going to have to pay more attention to that. I have 2 knock sensors attached, but some tuning may be required before those are really reliable (I don't hear any pinging, but the sensors seem to).

The car drives great! I had the windows up and the AC going today. While it won't make the car "cold", it was definitely comfortable. The car is surprisingly a little louder than I expected, but not obnoxiously so. It rolls down the highway in 6th gear very happily so far too. The suspension feels very smooth, and it has great straight-line traction so far!

I hope to get her on a chassis dyno in the next few weeks and do some more WOT tuning. Hard to know what is really helping or not when running the street.

Oh, Eric installed the new Recaros which I purchased this week too! I will try to take some pictures tomorrow. They definitely aren't as "sporty" as the Sparcos were (as in, they don't have the 'hold you in place' supports), but they are going to be much more comfortable for longer drives. Once I get the harnesses in, I shouldn't be going anywhere...

[GregWeld]

[FETorino]

Originally Posted by GregWeld

Hinges
Seats
Seat mounts?
On road pictures

Anything?

[carbuff]

You will have to enjoy this one for the moment... I'm headed out in her now and will get some this afternoon!

[carbuff]

Pictures!

First, the new seats. These are the Recaro Specialists M. Eric made new mounts to mount them as low as possible. I can definitely feel a difference in the height to my head/headliner. These don't quite have as much bolstering as the Sparcos did, but they are very comfortable for me.



The driver's side mounting plate:



The clearance to the side where the adjuster is. Plenty of room:



Clearance to the harness bar:





Folded up.

[carbuff]

Here are a couple of pictures of the 'bow' in the hood. This is after removing the struts, this is what's left now that needs to be fixed: