MetroXFi.com

Logan County WV Car Show Pictures

Rick — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 21:44:31 +0000

Here are pictures from the car show today at Logan. The car is looking good and runs really well other than out of alignment but I will fix that soon.

Last Minute Details Before the Car Show

Rick — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 00:44:47 +0000

The car is more or less done and I just had some details to tend to. The only major thing was to repair the broken headlight cover on the passenger side. It was pretty easy just using some scrap acrylic I had from making my window. Just duct tape it to one edge firmly and let it stick out so the weight of the acrylic makes it bend the proper direction. Then just put some heat to it by using a lot of halogen lights.

After it has bent to shape while it was still hot I put the glue on it and quickly put it back together so the glue would dry fast. Then let it cool down and dry and cut off the excess. Once that is done all that is left is to mask it off and paint the border black.

And it is done

The board and upside down jackstand are holding the side skirt down while the glue on it dries. It came away from the body and did not want to stay put so there is enough glue on it now it should be stuck for a long time.

Car should be ready to show off tomorrow. There will be a lot of good pictures of it soon.

Fixed Wheel Bearings and Inner Fenders

Rick — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 00:42:02 +0000

Took the car out and drove it over the weekend and the only real problem was one of the wheel bearings was bad. I had to order the bearings and wait for them to come in. They are on the car now and everything else is good for now. While It was up in the air I went ahead and fixed the front inner fenders. They were pretty easy to seal up, I just used plastic and screws to attach it.

I took the pictures before painting them so it would be easier to see how they fit. I will probably need to trim around the axles and tie rods to make them clear without rubbing but they seem to work ok for now. I will try and drive the car about 25 miles tomorrow then start cleaning it up for the car show Saturday.

Belly Pan Complete

Rick — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 02:56:40 +0000

finished up the belly pan today. I still need to cut a door into it for access to the bottom of the engine but I can do that when I remove it to clean up the engine bay. I used a good bit of bracing on the front to make it fit properly. I had to trim around the wheels a good bit to get it to not rub the tires. The only real thing left to do is to build the front inner fenders. I will work on that this weekend if the weather is bad. If the rain quits for a while I will probably get the car out and get some good pictures of it now that it is basically completed.

The exhaust is about an inch away from the Coroplast so it might possibly melt it over time. If it does I will just cut that section away and replace it with aluminum flashing so the bottom will stay nice and smooth. I ran out of screws so I will have to go back later and attach the covers on a bit better but they are on good enough for now. After the car show I will be taking the entire cover off the bottom anyway so I can get the wheels aligned. I also put the trim back in the trunk so it is looking pretty good now.

Nobody will steal gas out of this car now with the gas cap in the trunk. It might be annoying to fill it up but as little as the car needs gas it isn’t a big deal. The second picture you can see how deep the trunk is. I can get small stuff in there but it is only about 14 inches high from the floor to the trunk lid so nothing big is going to fit in there.

Side Skirts Painted and Belly Pan Started

Rick — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 01:59:33 +0000

First thing today was painting the side skirts. I had them prepped yesterday so other than covering the tires with garbage bags and wiping the car down they were ready to paint. Now the car looks real good from the sides. The pictures don’t look that good but I will get it out and get much better pictures as soon as the bottom is done.

After they had a chance to dry for about 6 hours I started putting the last stuff together. I had the brackets already made up for the seats so they are finally bolted down now and secured. The Coroplast belly pan is pretty straightforward to install now that the bottom of the car is totally flat with nothing in the way. I only got the rear sections done. I am trying to install it in a way that the main parts can be removed if needed to work on the car easily. I will probably make a center section in the front cover that can be removed to get at the engine without taking the entire front panel out. It will be used for changing oil and any minor work that needs done. Anything larger will require removing the whole panel but that should not be that hard really.

I will probably leave it white since there is no way it can be seen easily. I will have to take the back bumper off and fix some bad places in it next so while it is off I will paint the inside black where it can be seen from the back grille as shown in the second to last picture.

Side Skirts Installed and Ready for Paint

Rick — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 02:30:50 +0000

Made up the mounts for the side skirts and belly pan down the sides of the car today. Going to paint them first thing tomorrow then I can start mounting the underbelly pan. The main parts of the framing for the belly pan are in place I just have to go around the wheel wells somehow. I will figure that out when I get to it.

So tomorrow’s pictures should show a really nice looking car and so far I am on schedule to hit the road in the car this weekend.

Start on Rocker Panels/Underbelly

Rick — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 02:25:23 +0000

I put the car on jackstands and started messing with the side skirts trying to fit them in place. I got tired of squeezing under everything so I figured the easiest way to do this was get the car higher in the air so I used my engine hoist hooked to the front bumper to lift the car high enough to give me plenty of clearance. I used the old 13 inch rims and tires as a safety under the wheels. One good thing about the car now is it is so stiff it can be lifted like old cars used to be by the bumpers. I could lift it a few more feet in the air easily, but where it is at now is plenty. The side skirts are not painted yet but they still make the car look better.

With the car high in the air now I can start framing up the underside and finishing up the last details.

Hauled off the old XFi Shell

Rick — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 03:36:05 +0000

Didn’t get much else done on the good car today but I did get a lot of the mess cleaned up. Including loading up the old xfi shell and a bunch of scrap metal laying around in the way.

There isn’t much left of the old car now. Almost all of it is in the new convertible body. The car was light enough that it only took three people to lift it up and set it on top of the rest of the junk going in for scrap metal.

Passenger Side Rear View Camera Made

Rick — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 02:18:05 +0000

Another day without a lot of progress that looks good on pictures. I did manage to get the passenger side camera made up. I used fiberglass on this side instead of bumper filler. It seems like either one of them works so it was no difference once they were finished.

Drivers Side Rear View Mirror Made

Rick — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 01:21:40 +0000

I made up the rear view system for the drivers side. I cut the base off the stock mirror to use as the mounting surface to attach to the car. I then aimed the camera and got it positioned how I wanted and held it in place with duct tape. After that I used some epoxy bumper repair material to glue it all together solid. After the epoxy dried I used body filler to smooth it all out and sanded it out to a good shape.

It still needs painted so the shot of it on the car is not the final thing. I just have some primer on it now the weather was getting cool enough I decided to wait before painting it. It barely sticks out of the side of the car so it seems like it will work good once it is painted and mounted solidly.