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Total from 2021
1498hr
Jan 3
2021 was not as hoped, and to be honest bit lazy and discouraged
with what's happening in world cause Covid pandemic and general not
having been to motivated. Never the less still managed to make some good
progress. Pulled HVAC boxes after making final adjustments to the
plugs, will need to trim, perhaps make interior dividers and adjustments
once heater core and evaporators are identified and purchased. Mounting
for quarter panels are adjusted and extensions to B pillar had been
fabricated. Unfortunately some of the changes caused couple items that
will need to be adjusted. Like rear trunk hinges/mounting will need to
be looked at and most likely roof panel will need to be narrowed down,
which is not terribly bad as it has indent in it and adding filler would
not be ideal. Fenders contour and head light opening had been adjusted
and finalized which will leave inner sill need to have hinge box
added and bonded into the fender. Lip to frunk will need to be extended
and once all is filled and surfaced prepped new moulds and parts will be
pulled. Last large item was the rear firewall upper panel and lower
speaker boxes plugs and parts where pulled.
For this year will need to focus and finish following
- adjust rear deck lid frame hinges and lid support
- make all mounting points for all interior and outer panels
- finish and body work speaker boxes, make lower cover panel
- adjust all panels for final fit
- make upper windshield trim
- finish seatbelt mounts and possibly adjust rear upper panel to fit
- mount and adjust HVAC boxes as needed
- remake fenders after final adjustments to sills, etc..
- door mounting, latches and inner structures
- the big PITA... headlight housings. I think that after fender
adjustments there is enough height projectors to fit though depth is
still an issue but it may overcome with pumps in lenses
- movement mechanism for rear spoiler
- As always, anything and everything else that needs to be done.
Jan 8 1hr
So to start another year, with 10'c below freezing outside and garage
hovering around 7 on positive side decided to head out and do something.
Anyway it only managed to stay out an hour as it started to feel cold in
bones. perhaps its a sign of getting older.
Anyway, decided to work on rear tail light buckets as its something that
will need inner structure to support light fixtures (PCB) and
controllers/drivers. So scraped off all the prickly fibres sticking up
and dust that had collected. Taped of the insides so that filler would
be much easier to pull off when finished and laid first layer.
Outside edge around lens is rather chipped will have to fix it or
perhaps remake new buckets
Feb 10 4hr
Decided to split some connectors apart from main harness and get some of
the cross wired connectors separated so that will be easier to route
them around them the car. Don't want to cut what have already as
its labelled and though it sometimes its heavy and accward to move
around. Not sure what's better, get another uncut full harness which
would not be a bad idea or just salvage what is available. Will have to
get sub fuse boxes and power feed splitter for engine bay. Another
thought was to find a completely different fuse box and adapt it to the
Honda stalks. Then it will be rather difficult as 99% of cars are front
engine so finding that unique fuse box might be problematic.
Feb 20 1.5hr
With cold snap and just not having much drive to do any work, not much
had happened as hoped. However with temperatures bit above normal and
some sun decided to get out for a short bit. So pulled off, trimmed and
sanded inner filling of tail light and resurfaced it to make it more
uniform. Also did some trimming around HID headlights.
Summer will come fast now so will have to focus on making those
plugs to be ready to make moulds and parts once summer comes.
Feb 23 3hr
trying to get some more work done on MICU wiring to decode and get some
individual plugs done and identified. got few connectors identified for
stalk and steering wheel buttons done.
Now with isolated wire for some of them i.e. stalk will be able to decode
CAN signals for lights and wipers
Mar 6 1hr
Not getting much work as hoped but more of same on the tail lights. more
sanding and more filling. Run out of material so will have to get some
more
Mar 16 0hr
Got to thinking marking all those wires for the interior systems
harness. why do it and have it re arranged after the fact. Since this is
a custom harness any way all its needed just the identification of wires
coming from steering column and how which wires correspond to particular
position of key. From that point the MICU can be arranged any way its
necessary
Mar 19 1hr
got out and had the rear tail lights trimmed and sanded. Filed in any
small voids on some surfaces and build up other edges
Mar 22 1hr
Got the tail lights buckets cleaned up again and re-skimmed most of the
surfaces. Its quite think so may take some time to cure. Had it reshaped
closely now to what they should look like when finished. Will start
sculpturing recesses to mount PCB inside next time around provided
contours look OK
Mar 25 1.5hr
more work on wiring and instrument cluster. Got immobilizer harness
identified, not sure if it will be implemented from the start. never
the less will have it wired and have circuit provisioned.
Added dash brightness driver drivers and changed come of the connectors
and warning lights wiring
Mar 26 2.5hr
Will have to change at least one of the I2C expander chips as will
require PWM signals for dimmers and will be easier to offload it to
hardware rather then having un-needed overhead in CPU.
More re-working of instrument cluster boards.
April 11 1hr
Changed PWM circuit for light dimming on instrument cluster power supply
board, it will reduce software overhead from MCU
April 24 1.5hr
not motivated as should in doing anything on the car as of lately and
should be doing all the light plugs to get any thing done this year and
get some closer to that light at end of the tunnel.
Decided to clean up garage from fall as never really got to it as should
have before winter. Never the less started cleaning up speaker and HVAC
boxes. Will have to make couple small pieces for speaker boxes as they
need to be bonded and to get them finished. Same really applies to the
HVAC. Have the outer shell but will need all the internal, gating and
get some cores to get them fitted. Though mounting may not need any of
it so will probably try working on that.
Apr 30 1.5hr
Bit more work on the tail light housing. Got them trimmed again
and primed as they where dry and the primer will indicate of areas that
need to be filled. Then had backs marked and set, though after pulling
the blocks they may not be parallel so will need to have them adjusted.
Will need to trim and sill in to see how it will look before making to
drastic of an action
May 1 3.5hr
Had to adjust the inner back fill on the tail light and had them
refilled smooth. Made some cut outs to speaker and HVAC blower boxes,
though messed up on the HVAC not realizing that one of the screw holes
was in place and had it cut out. Not sure how to go around to have it
fixed at moment. Debating of re-fibre glassing the piece in or putting
piece of metal bar in.
Need to press on with the lights as that will take some time to make
them
May 8 1hr
just had the tail buckets cleaned up and threw some primer on them. Had
them filled in as well to even things up left to right
May 14 4h
finally had a bit more productive day. Again got the tail buckets sanded
down again, there is still lots of work on them left but are getting
close to shape one more filler layer after primer dries and should be
able to start working on the PCB recess's and finish pack side.
The bigger part was after some deliberation as don't think plans from
last year would had worked got the front HID housings to fit after
making some drastic cuts to them. Now will just have to get everything
prepped and filled in as there are some rather large cavities to be
filled. I guess making tiny trims here and there just does not work.
Will have to do similar thing to the LED housing and get them done ASAP
as they are holding off other things from being done.
May 15 1.5hr
rested and with fresh head, got around and masked off all the areas
where filler could possibly bond to and used the news paper as the
divider for most of the areas so hoping that nothing will break off when
taking everything apart. Will let it cure and dry bit longer and have it
sanded down even with the fender possibly will try to adjust all the
projector bezels/ trim as it will be easier this way as everything would
be still kind of bonded in place and not move so making measurement
would be easier. Once all that is done then can work on the back end of
the housing with out effecting other work and can work on the LED
housings not to mention all the other things that need to be done.
May 23 2hr
short trip in garage just sand headlights flush to fenders which will
have to be adjusted later for thickness of lens and sanded down rear
buckets. Rear ones are ready to be trimmed for PCB recess though they
still do need some back side filling but it will not interfere with the
trimming. Front windshield is still missing upper trim, so got some
materials and build barrier and hopefully it will serve as way of easier
way to pull it off the lug. Anyway made up a piece about 16 long and
filled in filler as way of building up the bulk of the plug. propped it
up so it would not droop and hold shape
May 25 1hr
More fiddling on the tail light housings. Filled in left back of left
one as it was bare and adjusted level. Hopefully it will be straight and
symmetrical to the right side.
Pulled windshield plug off, unfortunately cracked in half most likely
cause of not having enough time to cure. Not sure what to do will just
leave it for couple of days to mull it over as it is just a small piece
May 29 0.5hr
Too many things on the move not much time for the car.
Now that the plug had some time to dry, mind it that its raining and
humid so it does not help. Decided to trench out the 2 pieces and bond
them together with a piece of some sort of rod in the trench to hold it
together.
June 5 2hr
Can not do any thing lately, the spring 2 month destruction looks like
its turning out to me dragging for additional 3 months over a summer.
As Saturdays are pretty much a right off Sunday (today) was almost the
same. However had to take a look at daily driver and as I was out
decided to extend garage stay and do some work.
Hoped of having to work on the front light however turned attention to
tail lights and upper windshield trim. So got the buckets straightened
out and chipped all of the goobers. Right side needs more attention then
left but is not that far off. Got them skimmed and will trim next day
when set.
June 11 0.5hr
quick little trip, got the inner part of tail light buckets shaped and
re-skimmed. Build up bit more of upper center of windshield trim
June 14 0.5hr
trimmed inner part of tail housing. getting close to carving out
retaining surface for LED pcb
June 19 2.5hr
did some time plexing work while doing some other chores. Never the less
got the tail light buckets shaped from last fill, primed and re-skimmed
and filled other heavier deficiencies. Carved indentation in upper
windshield center section as it will serve for mounting, primed and
re-skimmed.
tail light housings are virtually ready minus the fact that shoulders
need to be carved for PCB mount. Once ready moulds can be made, etc...
Will not be able to do much after the trip, but will need to do some
work on the HID headlight at least and move onto LED in order to move on
with rest of the fenders. General form of headlight buckets will allow
to be work on parallel while doing other things on the car.
June 23 2.5hr
Made some good progress on the tail lights and finally carved out recess
for mounting PCB into it. There are still some small areas to be fixed
but they can be worked on while the recesses are worded on. Made one
mistake though and it probably should had thought of it while making the
external mould. Never the less the 1" back spacing for the PCB will need
to be 0.75". While carving first housings noticed the issue and
went with the smaller recess half way through it. Will need to
have that corrected.
Also had the upper windshield piece sanded down and all 3 pieces primed.
June 26 2hr
busy weekend never the less squeezed couple of hours end of day. Got
tail lights re-sanded and with some re-surfacing and small fix of one
corner they should be ready for mould making. Moles may need to be sanded
down before pulling parts but overall should be OK. Same applies to the
center of the upper windshield section.
June 28 0.5hr
a very quick fill/skim of minor spots on tail lights, Just need to
resand and be ready for moulds
June 30 1hr
finished with the tail lights inner housing plug there are some spots
that should be fixed but they can be corrected on the mould by sanding
it down. May still fix it while working on other things. center section
for windshield is complete as well. not sure if would be possible to
complete everything on the car. as it probably would be best to remove
it and flip it upside to make the plug. Problem is that the A pillar
trim is not bonded to the frame so by removing it and flipping it will
risk of cracking it.
July 1 3.5hr
Finally got the HID headlight bucket plugs out and came out nice dry and
all in one piece. Continuing on. Carved out HID buckets to a point of
being way over what's been needed but then its just material that will be
refilled. Set everything up, fixed all separation materials and refilled
everything. Rough look it looks like they will have betten lens contour
then originally so maybe the wait was a good thing. Will have to wait
for bit for it to dry and have it reshaped and refilled if necessary for
any areas that may be low. Never the less very happy with the progress
and may actually have them done this year
July 7 1hr
Really need to put some more focus on the car as its kind of dragging
and it does not look like there is enough progress. Never the less got
out and made a template of interior fan baffle and started making a plug
for it.
Will need a lot more work for it but its something to go by and see how
it will turn out. Its negative at the moment but thinking of making a
positive image so that actual part could be pulled from it. Will have to
see how it will work out
July 9 2.5hr
inner blower plug should had enough time to try and as practically was
just standing up it should had enough air flow to dry. So pulled the
form out and it separated cleanly for change. let it setup for bit
longer while working on headlights and had it sanded down and primed.
Shaped and sanded LED headlight housings, had to sand down some of the
filler on left fender as it did not looked right. Probably lowered
leading edge close to 3/16" and now it flows so much better. Will have
to make adjustments to the HID headlight plug as it will stand out that
much higher now.
looked into inside kick panels regarding back spacing for speaker(s).
With the frame / chassis tubes there is not much more that can fit other
than maybe 4x6 or 5 round speaker and that will make it very tight. So
maybe the best solution to it will be to make as big of a recess as
possible then see what will fit on couple different test panels and
their position.
July 14 1.5hr
After some contemplation about front kick panels and speaker size,
figured to make as big of an opening as possible. Cover grill will cover
the speaker no matter how big the opening is and it will not be locked
to one size of the speaker. Made a rough cardboard form and build it up
with couple layers of plaster letting it set up.
Skimmed inner HVAC blower cone to fill some air pockets.
July 15 0.5hr
pulled cardboard off the speaker form and let it dry in the sun then had
it primed
July 23 1hr
sanded down speaker indent and re-skimmed. Sanded down HVAC should
and re-primed
July 25 1hr
trimmed HVAC shroud height and build top flange
July 26 0.5.hr
quick trim of HVAC fan shroud and prime
July 27 0.5hr
quick and hopefully last re-skim on HVAC inner fan and kick panel
speaker plugs
July 28 0.5hr
quick surface scuff and buff and another coat of primer for speaker
recess and HVAC plugs
July 31 3hr
Squeezed couple of hours onto the car between some house work and being
a chauffer.
Finally pulled the fenders off releasing LED housings, left one had a
small crack on tip of it and knew of it when was shaping it while it was
still wet. Had that glued with instant glue. Will see how that will work
as the wood glue takes long to dry and has much thicker film. The
instant glue soaks into material but not sure how it cures so that will
be a test.
Got the kick panels measured off and traced cut-outs for them, will have
to cut them out when the add the parts are made and ready to bond them.
It will be very close tolerances so will see how they will come out.
Started looking at making template for front trunk mount latches. Panel
right at the nose has this bend in it so not sure how that will allow
for adjustment of it. Need to put at least 3 bolts in and 4 would be
ideal.
Aug 5 1.5hr
Started looking into front trunk latches of how to make them and more as
to how they will fir and mount them. Pulled out couple latches planned
for it and started making cardboard template
Aug 6 7hr
Something that should be simple ended up to be extremely long time. A
lot of time was spend making the template and more so of the front
mounting fold towards front. With the 2 face and angled sheet metal on
the sides.
Needless to say started with right side had to make some adjustments to
the mount while making it out of the metal. Had to make extra changes to
the front part as it was starting to pass indent for mounting latch loop
thus making some minor alteration to the adapter and the bumper. Left
side was rather quick as it was basically mirror of right one and the
way the actual latch is made the loop mount much easier.
However discovered that small section of the bottom will interfere with
part around brake booster so that will most likely need to be fixed
before bonding to the skin
In all a long day but moving forward. Will just need to make bolt plates
that will be bonded between panels and she will be done. Plus the fact
that the hinges need to be fully welded holes enlarged and
fastening nuts welded to chassis
Aug 9 0hr
still have the Honda harness spread out on one of the work benches and
started thinking. what is the point in having it to reverse engineer all
of the circuits from it. Already have all of the crucial parts decoded
from the fuse block interconnections along with key switch and harnesses
between it and going to individual circuits. Decoding the PCB is
pointless. Just make it a way to suit the car and move on
Aug 13 6hr
Needed to re-drill couple holes of when brake booster cover was added to
windshield frame and mounted left trunk bracket. Got the test inner
panel mounted.
Test fit and mounted right trunk loop. Looking at left side latch is too
much forward due to the fact of asymmetric latch design. Came to solution
of moving latch backwards inch and half however the face would need to
be extended as well. To solve the problem of latch length decided to cut
hole on side so the latch would be going through slightly. After making
the new bracket realized that had it bent for right side. Running late
in day decided to quit for day and came back to it next day after
deciding if should remake the bracket or flatten and rebend
Aug 14 1hr
quick hammer and dolly to flatten front left latch bracket and re-bend.
Looks like calculations for resizing seem to work however did not tried
the hook loop so that will be the telling point
Sep 3 1hr
Cut out and threaded 4 pieces of 3/8 plate to be used as nuts which will
be bonded into windshield frame surround for bolting dash top to.
Prepped 2 18" plates to be used as bolt re-enforcement for hinge mounts
in front hood
Sep 4 1hr
So as the bond in nuts are ready for dash mount to be bonded in, Took
the windshield surround out and after some adjustments to the
shape of the thinner ones had them all bonded in.
Interesting enough, now that the dash is actually bolted in the A pillar
trim actually fits perfectly. OH SO glad that did not take sander to
them and have it adjusted.
Good lesson to learn, if something does not work or fit, leave it alone
and come back later on once other dependant parts are in place properly
Sep 9 0hr
picked up pail of resin and gallon of body filler
Sep 10 3hr
Picked up pail of resin other day so its time to make some mould's and
parts. So made up some edges/partitions for tail lights those will be
made into inner parts holding the control circuits and actual LED board.
With that also prepped kick panel speaker recess and fan blower inner
trim. lastly mounting flange's for rear speaker boxes that will need to
be later bonded to main part of the box
Sep 11 6.5hr
Very productive day in garage and inside with electrical system.
Had 6 pieces of various parts made, the 2 support/mount braces for
rear speaker boxes, kick panel speaker recess and inner HVAC fan shroud.
Used bonding potty around corners on tail lights, not sure how that will
work but will have to wait as it did not hardened before laying up fibre
glass so will have to see.
Decided to spit up all the wires on fuse box to bunches of separate
plugs rather than having them crossing between branches. It made things
a lot cleaner with steering column branch as it separated from 2 other
plugs. Will have to see how they all will need to be routed as some will
have to go to the fuse box and some to different systems. So time will
tell, Will just have to mount the fuse box and start laying them out.
Sep 16 0.5hr
it had been long enough to have the parts cured. so decided to pull all
of them apart and see how they had come out. As expected the sharper
corners had bubbles in them and will need to be fixed before pulling
parts out of them. The other thing is that the bonding filler that was
applied to other corners did not cured and is still soft. Not sure if it
was mixed improperly or there was problem with hardening agent or not
enough or needed air to cure. In any case those areas will need to be
fixed as well.
What ever it is, will need to move on, fix what needs to be fixed and
make parts and move on
Sep 19 4hr
After looking at the inner tail lights moulds decided that it would be
better to fix them and pull part rather then fix the plug (inner part of
the housing) which is cracked when the moulds where pulled and having
them recasted. Also there is some of the left over bonding compound left
which would also need to be cleaned and most probably fixed before any
waxing and PVA can be applied to it.
Continued labelling circuits not just fuse numbers and adjusting wire
map and cluster PCB
Oct 1 1.5hr
cleaned up the pulled moulds and skimmed left tail light mould trying to
fill indentations and surface defects.
Oct 3 1hr
cleaned up and sanded left tail light mould. skimmed and sanded down
right mould and speaker mould for kick panels. Still there are areas
needing attention.
Oct 9 4.5hr
trimmed speaker boxes, ground surfaces for bonding and bonded main box
with back support .
underestimated amount of work is required to fix the inner tail light
moles, however after some more work today they are getting close of
being ready
Oct 10 3.5
So found the cause of issue with the bonding putty that I used for
making molds. As it seems I should have used MKEP as hardening agent.
Bond on the speaker box is hard like rock. Filled in some spots on the
dash and they are hard already.
Finished with tail lights inner moulds and speaker kicker recess. Will
have to sand it down with 220 grid for smoother surface, otherwise they
are ready to go.
Oct 14 1 hr
primed twice to build up some thickens on the three moulds. Will do fine
sanding next day and prep it for making parts.
sanded down all the extra stuff from dashboard, The bonding putty is
good alternative to fixing gel coat and harder then body filler.
Oct 15 1,5hr
Sanded down primer down to 220 for the 3 moulds. waxed and PVA
Oct 20 0.5hr
gel coated the 3 parts as it supposed to get wormer next day so
will lay up glass on top of it
Oct 22 2.5 hr
Since the moulds are ready, cut up some mat and glass everything in. With
sunny warm day the resin cured fast.
Oct 23 3hr
Pulled and trimmed all parts. sanded down outer housings and fitted the
new inners. Will need to figure out mounting for the housing first
before bonding both parts together.
Trimmed down the speaker recess considerably and cut down hole in the
left outer kick panel. Mixed up bonding putty and bonded the recess into
the panel
Oct 24 2hr
sanded down extra bonding putty of left kick panel, still need to cut
off the extra recess flanges and fill in the holes left over from screws
holding the pieces together while curing.
cut out flanging for front trunk to make return flap for apholstery and
correct some edging, Need to get some glue to glue the flanging onto the
fenders as don't think tape will hold it
Oct 30 3hr
Got out to continue on the fenders. Got the formers finished. Since
extensions to the fenders will be reworked there was no need to prep the
formers i.e. wax and/or PVA so the formers will be just roughly stripped
and resurfaced. Got the HVAC fan shroud and speaker indent for
front kick panel waxed. However as the speaker indent needs to match,
gel coat needs to be applied first.
So, got the fenders laid up along with the HVAC second part as had it
missed couple weeks ago.
Nov 1 0.5hr
Pulled of most of the card board formers and parting on the fenders. They
will need to be trimmed time allowed. Pulled inner HVAC mould away from
the plug. The first part just popped out. Never seen anything popping
out of plug or mould like that before. Maybe it was the long curing
period as it was probably close to a month now
Nov 6 3hr_L.jpg)
still recovering from some wild flu bug and not feeling well, but had to
go out and do something as it was nice sunny day and most likely will
not have much of them till next year.
So as the major part of the rework was to be around nose of the fender.
The fibre glass build up was heavily grounded down to provide more of a
recess at the very front. Unfortunately never finished the right fender
as had to do something else scheduled and will need another 15-20
minutes.
Bit disappointing part was that the covers for the latch strikers where
not big enough and had to cut them off and also the left roll down trim
got curved which also needs some adjustment. So maybe will try to do
something to them before getting into more grinding on the right side
Nov 13 3hr
continuing grounding, got the right fender finished grounding to be
similar to left, trimmed down left kick panel. gel coated second speaker
insert for speaker kick panel
Nov 19 0.5hr
bonded temporarily speaker box's together with blocks and screws to hold
form before bonding. Ground the protruding screw tips and edges to make
it flat so that when back filled glass will lay flat and be easier to do
so.
Nov 26 2.5hr
Dealing with a bit of kidney stone, but if there is no pain there is no
gain some times......
Prepped inner fan blower box/shroud, cut up some more fibre mat and laid
it up. Bonded speaker boxes and additional speaker indent for front
kicker panel
Dec 3 2hr
Not the best week, picked up flue from daughter and still recuperating.
However went out to garage to take a look at something and decided to
work on some parts. So got the kick panel speaker insert trimmed and
hole cut in the kick panel. Just needs to have couple holes drilled for
screws and have it bonded.
Trimmed HVAC fan baffle. for some reason its not fitting as expected. So
rather of cutting it and having it destroyed decided to leave it alone
and gather some thought
Dec 9 0.5hr
run out for a very quick half hour to garage to bond up the speaker
insert on the kick panel. Drilled couple fastening holes mixed bonding
putty and bonded the 2 parts.
Dec 23 0.5hr
WOW time flies. Run out to sand the extra bonding putty of from the kick
panels and make them smooth and square. Right panel still needs to have
screw holes covers that where holding the 2 parts together as they where
just removed.
Speaker cavities are bit eliptical perhaps like tear drop with 5x8.25
inches which should fit 4x7 or 4" speakers possibly 4.5"
Total
1628.
hr
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