Vicoor's Fabrication Challenge

[Vicoor]

Alright Guys-n-Gals,

I want to see what you can do. Air intakes, Exhaust, Suspension, Interior bits and pieces,,,,,,,What ever you can do. I want to see fresh projects, One off stuff. Hand fabrication that can be done by anyone inspired enough to give it a go.

Tell/show us your plan, keep us up to date on the progress, lot's of pictures required.

To get started, I started a project some time ago and now is the time to get it done. I'm woking on an air intake tube for my truck, I made a plug and a mold and have actually made two out of fiberglass. Neither have come out just right. But I've got some ideas for improvement and once I get the fiberglass ones OK, I've got some Carbon fiber sleeve material and some high end epoxy resin and hardener to make a sweeeet carbon fiber intake.

I'll post some pictures of the progress to date tomorrow.

[Jayota]

Post pictures!

I'd post up some of my custom stuff, but they are small and not very exciting. Need some real fab tools haha

[fourwd1]

I custom fabbed everything on my truck, bumpers, sliders, suspension components, winch mount. Even my front spring packs I built by hand. Is that what you're talking about?

[IronNam]

Yup, exactly what he wants to hear.

[Ajones1165]

Guess this kind of counts.
Grille cut and painted/

before


after





just used some Rustolium Automotive paint, i cut out the inside pieces were you can see the corrugated metal i put behind there. just used a dremel with a cut off wheel. the corrugated metal is just held onto the grille itself with some zip ties that go around the little tabs on the backside of the bar that the emblem is on. also, when putting the grille back on, i said screw the grille clips and used zip ties to keep them from rattling. It is SOLID. ill probably have to replace them every couple months but ill worry about that when they break.
will edit this post with some pictures of my interior soon.

[hobbleknee]

Originally Posted by fourwd1

I custom fabbed everything on my truck, bumpers, sliders, suspension components, winch mount. Even my front spring packs I built by hand. Is that what you're talking about?

You didn't make your own tires? Amateur.

[Vicoor]

Yes,,
That counts, but you loose points for the zip-ties

Grill looks good though

I'm not going to get those pics up today, I didn't get a chance to edit them, I'll do that tonight.

Anyone who make their own tires automatically wins the challenge.

[SpartanSaint]

i did that grille set up with my old infiniti g20 grill, minus the zipties..

i'll see if i can find pics. i custom fabbed some 4x6" plate speakers into my buddy's 4runner where the stock speakers go... it was an ugly job, but with the facia plates on, you couldn't tell it wasn't stock

no pics of that tho, and he sold it. i'll see what i can do

[sb5walker]

Originally Posted by Vicoor

Anyone who make their own tires automatically wins the challenge.

Does this count?

[Patty Robs]

Not to sidetrack this great idea of a thread...

But, seeing that grille...

Does anyone know how to go about adding a billet grille? I saw one truck on here (white with police lights on top) that had it, with all the lights set behind it. Any ideas, or even that old picture would be great.

[Vicoor]

Wood tires, how "Flintstone-ish"

I'd say those are not really functional, at least for real driving.

[Vicoor]

Now for some more of my sorted tale.
In order to make a mold, I had to have something to make a mod from. I started with a foam noodle you would use
in a swimming pool (appropriated from my daughter, don't tell her) I duct taped several pieces of coat hange and inserted
them through the center then bent it to the desired shape. then I bondoed the whole thing up


Then I attached a plywood disc slightly larger in diameter and created a radius with bondo for the flared end,

then I finished up the basic shape and coated the whole thing with polyester resin.


then I created a dam that split the plug lenghtwise and coated it all with mold release

Now for the fiberglass

then I flipped it over, removed the dam, coated the other side with mold release an glassed up the other side.split the mold off and trimmed it up
Here is a picture of the plug and the mold halves.

After I had my mold I tryed my hand at making a part, the process involves Bagging the part and pulling a vacuum on the bag to use atmospheric pressure to squezed the composite material and resin into the mold. the fact that I have to force the materials "out" into the mold cavity means I have to bag it on the inside and out (I'll have pics of that later).
The first attemp didn't work very well at all, I didn't get full mold contact, and it actually pulled the bag and material down the tub from both ends making a mess of things, here is a picture of the first try

the second one was better but I still didn't get a good form on the flare.
I am running this secon version on the truck now.

so I extended the mold (which you can see in the previous mold picture) for the upcoming next try.
I'm gong to work on it this weekend, so you can expect more early next week.

[2wickedtoyz]

that looks great for a first shot. i'm going to find some of my projects...

[2wickedtoyz]

these i found from my old cardomain page(i can't remember the password and there is absolutely no support)

[Raffaelli]

Big pics but.....

Drop spindles on my 82 2wd. Uber rare, seen em done once elsewhere. (twistedminis)



Almost a year ago did 95 LS400 32V brake swap...



I got other projects as well. Mustang cobra brakes (second go at a swap) front and rear on a 5 lug g code dually axle,
74 302 ford small block, almost complete, around 275 crank HP give or take. (budget build, like less than 400 bucks.)
Hybrid 20/22R with lots o porting getting a second chance in a 77 celica gt. Got Sidedraft intake, getting weber dcoe/IDF throttle bodies and going fuel injection!

A teaser of a 8.8 rotor on a 1 ton axle. Im too cheap lately to get my calipers...