Mr. G. Brettin's Slow Motion Leg Hump

gbrettin

Last leg of the cold side completed. I had a bit of fire under my A$$ to get out there and wrap it up.

YouTube removed my music, AC/DC Highway to Hell. Apparently 30sec of a 25 year old song is too much... so lame.

gbrettin

Looks like the CF mould full on sh1t the bed. The pin on hood has been dashed for now. You guys have seen the whole process, cradle to grave. The corners of the hood require too much work to bring back up correctly. The issue is not with the low spots on the side of the hood, but rather how the mould is down away on the corner. The mould needs to be stiffer which would require additional layers of fiber glass OR a carbon fiber shell. I would have done a CF shell if the mould met up properly in the corners. The mould was really starting to work out in a lot of areas. A line must be be drawn the line in the sand somewhere.

I'm going to make a one-off pin on hood for my car and apply all lessons learned; however, I will resume that early fall when temperatures are perfect. I'm also shelving the cowl for now too. Next hood will be perfect on the tooling gel and a shell of carbon fiber. The price difference is not that big and will be WAY easier to move around. I am slightly disappointed but not at all shocked by a setback. I learned SO MUCH from the experience. Well worth the material waste IMO.

Moving on, I started in on doing the hot side. I used lots of tape and time to get the adjustments right. Working with pies allowed for really trick piping configuration. I'm 100% going to have a pro TIG the pipes due to visibility and leaks. The pictures pretty much do all the talking on the pie cuts. It's tedious but give great results.














Final pictures before mould hit the trashcan...

Take note at how the front of the mould was rebuilt, it was completely garbage previously


These sides of the mould really started to come out well. The front right corner would need to be built up and there is extra work needed to crisp up the corner.


Back side of the hood looked great


Left and right sides look great after being rebuilt



Left side could potentially be built up


Right back corner ended up being the deal breaker. It was close but I feel I’d spend 100+hours trying to get it perfect.

BettyZ

Still looks better than Seibon

__________________
'14 MB Nismo | Boost Lab 6870 1.32 AR 553 HP / 471 ft.-lbs.
Betty Mods

gbrettin

I'm not aiming for that Fly1 fitment.

Ghostvette

Props dude, I continue to be amazed at the level of detail you are putting into this build.

__________________
2015 Magma Red 6MT Sport Tech/2012 Fairlady MB 6MT Base (RIP 08032018)https://www.nicoclub.com/FSM/370Z/Coupe/

Rusty

What you need to do. Is to put some wood bracing on the backside of the mold to make it rigid.

__________________

浪人 - 殺し屋
"The Difficult Anytime, The Impossible By Appointment Only"
http://www.the370z.com/members-370z-...o-journal.html

gbrettin

Yeah, that crossed my mind too Rusty. I'm just going straight to a CF shell next time.

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

Rusty

I would still put some bracing in.

__________________

浪人 - 殺し屋
"The Difficult Anytime, The Impossible By Appointment Only"
http://www.the370z.com/members-370z-...o-journal.html

gbrettin

It definitely wouldn't hurt! I plan on using my 12k and laying it at 45 degrees multiple layers. Trust me, it will be good with 5 layers.

https://compositeenvisions.com/carbo...m-toray-t-700/

madwi

When you get it all worked out, I'll take one in CF.

gbrettin

I'm going to mould duel intake humps right into the hood. After I get my one off hood I could open the doors to make something for everyone else. I need to square up the focus on getting my car running because LS Fest East is in September. I'd like to drive my car there... I've also said the same thing about getting the car going for Zdayz and here I am poking around at turbo plumbing. I'll say it's more along the line of a nice idea to make it at this point if I want to be completely honest with my self.

If you guys really want a pin on hood, let me know. Material costs are approximately 200 and I would guess I'd wan't around 1000 to make it worth the time. You could buy what ever carbon fiber materials you want for the look, I really don't care. It definitely would be a unique piece because I'm not going into the business of CF, more so just recouping cost of supplies.

And Madwi... I'd make you help on your since you are somewhat local. lol

madwi

I ain’t afraid of working. could be really interesting. I was just ******* around but now you made the gears turn lol

gbrettin

IG @ gbrettin
Used all my pies and I need more! The metal stand was inspired by Ironman.

Hot side is going to 90 down near the header side. Near the turbo I'm going to try snaking back towards the frame. I'll try joining the two with a straight pipe that parallels close to the frame.

---------------------------

Some additional thoughts from IG... A new blade was put on the harbor freight band saw, it still sucks. lol . The pies are cut at 9 degrees and then cleaned up. I grind off the burrs with a grinding wheel, sand the pie flat with a 80 grit sander and use a air grinder inside. For the love of god, anyone doing this... wear safety equipment or you will get a metal burr in your eye. No I haven't gotten a burr in my eye but I have a healthy fear of it happening.

At this rate, the hot and cold side should be ready for welds in a couple weeks. Not bad eh? On the off chance my buddy is busy and can't hit the welds (which they have been a lot) I checked with a local welding shop to do the TIG welds for the hot side. I only showed them the pie cuts that lead up to the header for both the passenger and drivers side. I was expecting a quote of something like 300 dollars for both.... nope, they literally said 20 dollars. I probably need to go in person and show them but I was very clear with them on the phone stating I want show quality TIG welds on many pie cuts. ... so yeah, really confused. BUT if it's 20 bucks AND they do great work... I shouldn't hold my breath.

So yeah. Progress.

Oh, on a different note... I've been considering going full race car digital dash and ripping out all the wiring on the car to keep life simple. I'd need to run one of these:

Leash Electronics Street/Strip

I really like the OE cluster so I'm going to give that a go first. The less work I need to do at this point... the better. Like I said, just toying with the idea, not at all set in stone.

gbrettin

IG@gbrettin

Ok so I had a bunch of pie cuts and now I don't again. Had to redo the angle near the tire because I'll need more than a sheet of paper for clearance. Last picture is pretty cool because it reminds of bond. Bah bah BA bahAaaahhhhh.

-----------------

Before you savages say anything, there's a gap in the pie cut tube. lol

Rusty

Give you a little tip. When welding that many joints. You will lose some length as the joints get pulled together from welding. What you want to do. Weld everything up, but for one joint. Made that last cut a little longer. Then you can trim to fit, and then finish welding. The a mount of shrinkage you have depends on welder skill, amount of heat used, and amount of filler rod used.

__________________

浪人 - 殺し屋
"The Difficult Anytime, The Impossible By Appointment Only"
http://www.the370z.com/members-370z-...o-journal.html