CFD's Build Thread
 

Well, seeing that fall is right around the corner and my workload tapers off now, I will be able to finish most of the projects I've started on my car as well as a handfull more I will be working on.The pictures of my car below have some of my prototype parts on the car, some of the finished parts are ready for installation. I am working on a couple more pieces for my front facia, once they're done I will be removing it for installation and paint. Many of the parts are handcrafted and are labor intensive, if there is enough interest on any of the components I may try to produce them in an efficient manner and offer them for sale, the others I will show what I did so others can try something similar. I will be updating this thread continuously as the projects progress. If there are any components anyone has interest in let me know and I will post pictures accordingly.

Here is a list of the things I'm working on, if anything draws your attention let me know and if they are started projects I will post pics now and as they progress

Tapshift shifters
Fresh air scoops
Front plate/grille mod.
Strut covers
DRL lense covers
Wheel mods. cosmetics and widenning
Consol/gauges
Tunnel brace
Engine dress up components
Tail light mods
Rear facia mods.
Diffuser
Heater hose relocation
Hood mod.

This stuff should keep me busy for a while but I'm always thinkin'

How labor intensive was making that splitter? I really like it. Also......need more pictures. Possibly some so we can get to see her from all angles.

The grilles on the front splitter are the scoops for my CAI. The grilles as well as the scoops are items I have written a program for and can produce. The grilles themselves can be made and installed without to much difficulty, the functional scoops are the labor intensive components, I am researching having a mold made where they can be made of plastic or a composite material, this would make them an affordable mod. The ones pictured ar of aluminum.

I have several pictures of the car from different angles before the heratige grille install that I will post as well as a few of the grilles/scoops from a previous thread.

Nice looking car. Great color!
:stang:

Here are a few pics from different angles

Thanks, I've got a love hate relationship with black cars and bikes. lol.

Here is one of the scoops and grilles.
http://www.camaro5.com/forums/attach...1&d=1276382384

Here is todays project. My car is my daily driver and I use it to pick up parts and stock. I am sick of picking metal chips out of my trunk carpet so I cut a mat out of a scrap piece of my gym floor. (1/4 " thick recycled tires, indestructable) A little tip. I am always cutting templates that require accuracy. I have found old fashioned tin shears to be very accurate when they can be used, this can be seen by how detailed the cuts are. As a little added bonus it cut down on road noise noticeably

This morning I finished a few small details on what will be my permanent plate mount. The prototype that is pictured on my car is made of aluminum, the final product is the oem plate mount cut down and fitted to the oem grille and welded in place. Here are a couple of quick pics of both the prototype and the finished one.

Todays project was working on my wheels. I had posted a while back I was working on a hub cap to hide the cutouts and lug nuts. I decided I want that look(it goes with the overall theme I am working on) but have taken a different approach. I want them as clean as possible so I made some inserts to fill the cutouts, welded them in place and have pretty much got them to shape. I started machining the pieces that will cover the lug nuts but cannot continue with them untill I clean up the counterbores where the lug nuts go. They do not have clean crisp edges for my inserts to sit in. This is needed to make them dissapear. So by the weeks end I hope to mount them in one of my milling machines and true the holes. While I'm at it I will determine if they will fit in my machines so that I can cut and widden them, if not I will have to send them out. Here are a couple of real quick photo's to give an idea on what I am doing. Hopefully by the weeks end I will be able to post a couple of pics with the holes trued and at least a prototype lugnut cover in place. I roughed out a piece of aluminum to give an idea of what the covers will look like in place.

Welcome to my nightmare lol. Today I am trueing the holes on my wheels to fit the lug nut caps. I should have known being cast wheels every hole and cutout is a different size and far from being completely round. The portion of the holes that I did the welding on came out almost perfect, the portion of the holes that have the factory finish are very sloppy due to the polishing as well as the lug nut holes not being perfectly centered in the counterbores.This will result in every cap being hand fitted. I took a couple of photos of the work I'm doing and you will see what I have to deal with. No biggie just a ton of labor. I do not recomend paying to have someone do this, buy custom wheels lol.

Well now, I HAD two choices, I could have left the wheels as pictured above and polished them and be done with it, all in all it would have been fine with a very suttle difference from the stock wheels but since when have I been known to leave well enough alone.lol. So The only other way would be to resize the holes to a larger diameter and take the chance of breaking through my welded inserts, which I suspected would happen and it did. Now I have to grind out the area that broke through, weld in new pieces and resize the holes one more time x 4 wheels x 5 holes not a cost effective endeavor by any means but when done I'm hoping it will be worth it. That's it for today on the wheels.

Just for fun I tried setting up a wheel to see if I could cut and widden them but they are to big for my equipment. Doing 16" motorcycle wheels is not a problem but I guess I will be sending mine out if they don't end up in the scrap pile.

Spent some more time on my wheels today. I set them both up in the milling machine and resized the holes as well as truing them. If you compare yesterdays photo's to these you will see how much cleaner they are as well as round. Looking down on them it is really evident.Now I have to grind out where the cutter broke through the insert and make new ones then clean up the whole one more time, all this because these wheels are all over the place and actually pretty sloppy. I added a counterbore to hold the lug nut covers in place, a slight change in design due to the holes not being concentric to the lug nuts.

Had no time to work on my wheels but I did have a chance to make a template for the smoked lenses I will be making for my DRL's. I took a few quick pictures so you will get an idea of what they are. Overall looking to achieve a "stealthy look"

:popcorn:

Back on my wheels again, all the welding is done, holes trued and ready to start on my lugnut covers tomorrow. At least now I have round, true holes to work with.The only catch is all the stock I bought for the covers is too small now that I had to resize the holes but no biggy, I go through aluminum like broken teeth in a bar room brawl. Here is a shot of the final holes.

Finished roughing out one of the lugnut covers, I like the cleaner look of the wheels but am unsure of the lugnut covers, here's a couple of quick shots of them.

I'm done with wheels untill I am ready to pull the rears of for widdening and then I'll finish my mod to them as well.

While I am working on my DRL lenses I decided to start on some underhood improvements, I wasn't in there by choise which sucks but as you cans see in the photo's other than my strutcovers and CAI it is stock, this will be changing soon.

Looking good. I actually like the lug nut covers on the wheel. Gives it a much cleaner look than the OEM ones.

Here is the next step in my build. This will be a product I might decide to sell for anyone interested but for now you will have to guess what they are.

:popcorn:

Well, this is what the brackets above are about. In an attempt to clean up the engine compartment, one of the things that bugs me the most is the coils and wiring on top of the engine. The heater hoses have been addressed elswhere, the wiring and fuel lines would be next but their positioning would be determined by other components so I figured start at the bare engine and work up so that led me to the coils. The brackets in the post above are bare basics for those who have already dealt with other components. The ones in the pictures below will allow use of stock wiring and hoses and is an easy install.. It significantly cleans up the area, as well as raising the coils slightly and allowing air flow . This would also allow for painting, powdercoating or polishing the existing valve covers for a custom look. These motors are one of the best features of these cars so why cover them with junk?

Those coil brackets are a good idea, George. I painted the two large one-piece OEM brackets, but I like your fix better. Undressing the valve covers will probably help dissipate some heat as well.

Nicely done.

I could never figure out why GM put the coils so close to the engine, they are affected by heat and this definately lets more air flow for cooling. The coils now sit about 1" above the covers so it really opens up the area quite a bit as well as allowing for moving of the wiring harness below the coils so they don't show nearly as much.

looks great

Thanks, I've got about another hours work and I will have the coils mounted on the final bracket and will be installing them on my car for the ride home, I will post a few pictures of the installed and wired.

Here are a couple of pictures of completed brackets ( minus fiish), with coils and all wiring in place. Much cleaner than stock. I am working on hardware and a couple of mounts for the stock wiring so these can be offered as a bolt on kit for anyone interested. I will be posting them as a new product in the very near future. I'm hoppig to post some pics by next weeks end with mine completed, wrinkle black valve covers to maximize cooling and polished brackets. Coil covers may be in the future as well.

I think you need to start selling those strut covers. I'll take two red ones.

These strut covers?
http://www.camaro5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=156348

How did I miss that? Whenever it's convenient for you, I'll buy a set (hopefully with red powder coat). :D

I'll try to powder coat a set tomorrow I'll let you know how I make out .

I'm sure they'll turn out great, just like the rest of your projects.

Had a chance to play with my coil mounts and valve covers. Went with black covers and polished coil mounts. From here I will do my heater hoses and then decide whats next but most likely I'll be staying underhood for a while.

While under my hood I decided to address my front facia at the same time as some of the components tie in together. I decided to scrap my Airaid CAI and design my own. I alread have air intake scoops on my lower facia and was going to weld in the mailslot but instead decide to tackle the functional mailslot issue and have succeeded. I have been taking some pics as I go along but will not be able to post them untill later.

I am trying to see if I can make the needed components in a way so this can be sold in kit form.

You will want to stay posted for this one:thumbsup:.

:popcorn:

Worked on the mail slut a bit. I was hoping to have the scoop tacked up today but I ran out of Argon so no more welding until next week, bummer.

This is what I've gotten done, roughed out the mail slot, the oppening is much bigger than you would think, modified the radiator support, fabricated the upper deflector, this directs the airflow to the radiator, when finished it will direct air into the scoop that will go to the CIA along with my lower to scoops. I will be building my own CIA that will completely isolate air intake from anywhere near the engine or radiator, totally fresh air intake. The biggest step now will be programing the outer frame and grill, this will be key in making the openning blend cosmetically.

Here are a few photo's of where I'm at.

Worked on the scoop for the mail slot, couldn't do as much as I wanted because of running out of argon but the front and rear pieces are made and that's all I can do untill I tac them together. I did change the shape of the top baffle .I duct taped them together to give an idea of what it will look like, you will have to use your imagination a bit.

:popcorn: interested to see where you go with this

I better go someplace fast, I've got a big hole in the front of my car lol.

Acually I've got everything figured out, the only thing I have to decide on is if I am going to direct the air from the scoop to the original snorkel or if I am going to fabricate the filter housing and intake tube from scratch.