Car has been nearly stripped back to rolling shell. Just need to finish up widening widebody guards and making plugs and moulds then it can be 400grit wet sanded ready for paint.

Cut metal strip and i'll attach to underside of arch radius to act as guide for foam to rest against.
Using some welding wire i'll get the shape/depth of the arch as i want it. Then foam, some bog and sand to smooth.
From there it will be making a plug to build a fibreglass mould of the final widebody guard.



I'll try and update what I have been doing since January, but I do want to keep pushing through the work to get to paint. Once that is done, then I'm on the home stretch in getting car back on road.

_________________
GT Four Adovansu

"I want to enjoy the powerful and nimble agility behavior."

Proof I finish *bleep* sometimes. The heater setup, and fusebox/ECU mounting was completed in January..

_________________
GT Four Adovansu

"I want to enjoy the powerful and nimble agility behavior."

Today was Labour day in NZ. Labour day means a day off and the opportunity to do fun work.

Over the last couple of months, I have been working on the drivers side wide body guard. Its been hard to get it to the shape I like it, but I'm happy with it thus far.

Pushed car out of garage and allowed me to change a lightblub that had been out for 18 months, clean up and re-arrange the garage and break out the air compressor and blow all the dust off the car.


Removed the side spoiler blocks so I can wetsand for paint.


Removed the bump strips as well using a trim tool. Still need to get the turps and get all the junk off.


I have been slowly hacking away at the 40mm wider guard. Its taken around 2 months on and off to get to this point. Drivers side complete and ready to be moulded.


Current state with my friend Paul over to help me push the car back in the garage.


And back in the garage


Ready for the next phase in replicating the wider guard on the passenger side. Then multi-part moulds of the guards and recreate in fibreglass.


Productive day for me.

_________________
GT Four Adovansu

"I want to enjoy the powerful and nimble agility behavior."

Good to see the update pics looks like you have a good supply of NZ apples to keep the project fuelled!

_________________
Don
GT4DC Chairman
1994 Toyota Celica GT-Four ST205WRC JDM 269bhp @ 0.9bar
1994 Toyota Celica GT-Four Special GT 590bhp @ 1.8bar
1989 Van Diemen RF88/89 Formula Ford 1600
2008 Nissan Patrol GU 3.0L ZD30DDTi 154bhp

Progress is slow but getting there. I may chuck up pics of all the progress, but random updates seem vaguely more interesting than me showing multiple shades of pink/filler.

More work to do and beer to drink

_________________
GT Four Adovansu

"I want to enjoy the powerful and nimble agility behavior."

Thought I'd provide a little update. After remeasuring the completed drivers side panel a couple of times, I moved over to the passenger side guard and adjusted the jig height and angle to 'zero' the position of the jig to the panel. Then I set my measurement points in a mirror image on the data that I recorded and sanded till it fit. Jig works a treat!

_________________
GT Four Adovansu

"I want to enjoy the powerful and nimble agility behavior."

Alltrac.net Responses:
Story coming soon about this - 53 pictures, lots of words and explanation. There is more story about other parts of the car but this just about the jig and panel work

Slow? Do it once, do it right is my motto. I don't tend to do things by halves and I want to do as much of my own work as possible to save money -though this is becoming a worse decision as time continues with a car unfinished. Don't worry folks, outsourcing to panel beater soon. Already in discussions so I'll just pay instead of wasting additional time in an area I have little experience in.

Also, I don't live and breathe the build of this car. To be fair I am in my mid 30's and either find myself so mentally exhausted from my day job that I'm unenthusiastic about working for 3-4 hours in the evening to not utilising all my free time because I want to do other things that normal people do.

Consider this: From end of November to just last week, I pretty much hadn't worked on the car at all. Too busy, didn't care, no motivation. The motivation has come back hard now, I've ramped up my efforts and I'm seeing progress.

After this body work is done, I need to repair my CS bumper but may give to panel guy to repair while I do fibrelgass moulds of the guards. There is also a slight dent on the CS bonnet, so that needs to corrected before moulds are taken.

Once car has come back from panel and paint (full respray/fix) then it is just wiring and driveshaft loops to complete before back on the road. This is the last major hurdle (unless I decide to go aftermarket turbo and build my own manifold.. decisions decisions..) to getting a driveable car

I do wonder if I will actually like driving the car or not haha

_________________
GT Four Adovansu

"I want to enjoy the powerful and nimble agility behavior."

Okay, so haven't updated in ages.
So I've been slowly working on the widening of the guards for since June/July. I showed some finished pics previously when I had moved the car out and turned it around but forgot to give you pictures of what I had done to get to state of the car in the previous picture.

Essentially I made a jig to measure and record data points of the shape I had built on one side of the car, so I could replicate on the other side.

My friend Nick and I were discussing on the different techniques to replicate the panel, and he talked about having measurements at multiple points. Then my brain went into overdrive so I did a rapid fire discussion of my thoughts with Nick, designed it later and then built the measurement jig.

The jig is adjustable left/right, forward/back, up/down to account for any variances in the height of the drivers side to the passenger side. It also is on wheels so I can move it into and away from the panel so I can record the various data points across the panel. Each data point is set at 25mm.

When I first published pictures of my ideas on my facebook, a number of friends questioned the labourious nature of doing this.

Nathan noted that they use profile gauges at the Magoo's Customs for their metal work.
Answer: This jig is like a profile gauge, but ultimately, a reference point needs to be established and be consistant. The vertical board acts as a reference point that can be moved into and away from the panel. I don't need to move from one to the other side constantly to measure a point.
If I used a profile gauge, I'd be moving from side to side a lot and doing multiple measurements and comparisons. I wanted something more static. Also, sanding bog is a little different than forming metal in that I need to sand areas, not focus on spots to shape and form. Also, if I drew a grid on the finished guard, there is little possibility of drawing a grid on a panel of jagged body filler

Blair questioned 'why'? Which then elaborated into some interesting discussion involving 3D scanners, transferring the image into CAD and CNC milling a foam mould. Also the capability of the ol' eye-chrometer to 0.2mm.
Answer: budget to hire hi tech machines to scan and mill the moulds is non-existant (though that led into discussions of favours - generally alcohol or cash related); a mould generally only gives the overall shape of the panel, not the mounting points, which I would have to build in later; I wanted to see if this idea would work.

Dwayne basically noted that I apply the most technical and hardest way of doing things to what people determine as simple.
Answer: While I do agree with him broadly, I know that with two of my friends doing wide body modifications on their cars, they used the eye-chrometer method and it didn't really work out as well as they had hoped. At least for me, I wanted a method to guide my shaping of the body filler to reduce huge inconsistancies between either side, and lets be clear, the panels will not be absolutely perfect. Maybe .2mm differences in areas..
Also the panel was designed to flow and look factory with numerous curves, so it is very hard to replicate (at least in my opinion) in comparison to a boxy shape or hard flare. This modification was to look factory, curvy, integrated. if someone viewed the car, then they should question whether the panel was factory or modified. And I really didn't want something that looked like it came from a catalogue..

here is the standard widebody panel (with a dent in it ) and the metal extension I was going to use to fix the shape of the wheel arch. That idea didn't work, but you can see the extra width required.


I cleaned up the panel and removed the pinstriping decals using a heat gun to lightly heat the glue and slowly remove. You could use a hairdryer to remove the decals. Pinstriping removed in preperation for full body work.


As you can see, the decals need to be removed slowly and methodically as the decal material snaps under tension. After the decal was removed, I removed any excess glue using turps or wax and grease remover.


Mounting the 18x9.5 wheel with washers to space the wheel into the right position, I covered the wheel up to minimise dust and damage to the wheel. Having the wheel on, set the reference point of where I needed to extend to.
I had some custom spacers built at 10mm offset to a) clear the chassis rail on both sides, b) clear the firewall on the guard side, c) clear the interference between tyre sidewall and Tein coilovers.


So when I got my fibreglass supplies, I also picked up some moulding foam. I think its polyurethane based, but not sure. Anyway, its brittle and easily sandable, though itchy as so don't get on your skin or into your eyes!
I cut the foam into blocks with a serrated kitchen knife.


Then used body filler to stick the foam onto the panel.


This is how it ended up. Note, try to not put filler in between the foam as it creates a ridge which is harder to sand when shaping. Where I did end up with a hard ridge, I got some pliers and removed the body filler ridge.


Front profile


I made some sanding tools out of some polystyrene foam


Curved, long and medium length. Sometimes you need more than just a block of cork.

_________________
GT Four Adovansu

"I want to enjoy the powerful and nimble agility behavior."

Starting the sanding


Front profile


Side profile of initial shape


Front profile of initial shape. I had the idea in my head that I wanted to go wider but maintain the soft top line of the factory gaurd but also have some body to the curves. Had to integrate the width but also not look to out of place compared to the rear wide body and factory lines.


I have a well used body filler board that I use. I have used rolls of sand paper and a fair amount of body filler to shape the guards to get to where they are now.


I clean the board and body filler spreader with a craft knife blade after each session. Nothing worse than applying filler with jagged streaks from old filler.


Spreader edges are all cleaned up for best application of filler.


First application of bog. Note I was retaining the indicator initially.


Front profile of body filler


After initial sanding and shaping transitions in, I sprayed primer over the panel and gave it a wet sand. From there, I viewed the panel looking at the transitions and shapes that I had created.

_________________
GT Four Adovansu

"I want to enjoy the powerful and nimble agility behavior."

As you can see from this angle, the shape looks like it has been stuck on. Hard lines top and rear of shape and a funny little S around the mounting hole for the indicator.


Even worse on the car! Looks like something that was stuck on - definitely not what I envisioned.


I sometimes need to turn the panel upside down to apply body filler to the wheel arch to incrementally widen. Note, I am using the factory arch style and not creating a new arch with, say a perfect radius. This is because I will not be modifiying the rear arches, and it would look out of place from front to rear if I change the wheel arch shape.


So I ended up applying a lot lot more body filler with the transition at the rear going close to edge near the door.
This allows a more gradual transition into the wider arch. The indicator mounting hole has now been deleted to allow this and I'll have to cut in a new indicator hole to accomodate the longer transition. Note, I am debating on using an oval style indicator instead of the rounded square.


Front profile. The top line is currently hard in this pic.


Transitioning into the front was challenging especially manging the top line fading into the side lamp mouting position as per factory. I also removed the stone gaurd material at the bottom of the guard using sand paper.

_________________
GT Four Adovansu

"I want to enjoy the powerful and nimble agility behavior."

Building the Measurement Jig:
- The Jig is made from 18mm MDF. I debated using some 10mm clear acrylic I had in the garage, but the sheet I had wasn't large enough to cover the panel.
- I built the jig with measurement points at 25mm, so think of it as 1dpi. I also built in the capability to measure vertically and horizontally.
- The base of the jig is on wheels and the legs extend underneath the car with the car wheel between. This was to distribute the weight of the top of the jig as it hangs over the panel
- The measurement portion of the jig sits on 4x 12mm threaded rod with nuts and bolts above abnd below. This allows X/Y/Z axis adjustment of the jig.
- 6 static/fixed rods are used to reference the jig to the panel before measurements are taken. They mostly lock the jig to the panel when I take measurements. Sometimes I have to push the jig against the panel with my leg to ensure the jig doesn't move when I am adjusting the measurement rods against the panel.
- The 6mm threaded rods have plastic points at the tips to prevent damage to the panel. I used hot glue at the ends and then rolled the end on some wax paper to create a cone/point. No use measuring if you are ultimately damaging the panel with metal.
- There are 858 holes on the vertical face and 429 holes on the horizontal face. While the wheel arch does take a fair amount of space, there was no reason not to drill the additional holes. Who knows where the measurement points may have ended up.
- With the 6mm threaded rod used, it seems fair to use a 6mm hole. Initially I drilled the panels for this, but ended up re-drilling to 6.5mm as the threaded rod was hard to adjust through the hole. This was a better decision as I ended up doing fine adjustment of rod tip to panel by hand instead of using a ratchet or spanner to measure the correct spacing. Again, its labourious, so while there is movement of the measurement rod in the hole, its fair easier to manipulate multiple rods with hands than with spanners or ratchet.
- For drilling the holes, I built a vertical plunge guide for my electric drill. The panels wouldn't fit into my drill press due to the size. Also balancing the panels in the press was a pain, even for the initial holes.
So I ended up building a vertical guide for a hand drill, allowing ease of movement as I did the repetitious drilling. The idea of a vertical plunge guide had been on my mind for a while with my previous experiences as a car audio installer and not being able to get straight holes in wood. You can get guides which have levels, but generally this is only on 1x face. An experienced carpenter is mostly right, but for this job, I needed consistentcy in the angle of the hole for the measurement rod.
- I drilled dimples for all holes before actually drilling. Worked out well when moving the plunge guide quickly across the panel.. drill, move, position, drill, move, position etc
- I cleaned off the excess wood on the back side of the panel and in the hole with a blade. This was to ensure no binding of the measurement rod through the hole. The panel is able to be reversed on the jig to maintain a level of consistancy as I mirror the image. If holes are slightly out of alignment in one direction, then whatever measurement is taken will be matched with the panel flipped horizontally on the jig.
- Each hole was referenced to rows and columns in my excel spreadsheet. A lot of writing in small space haha.
- I have measured the driver's side panel countless times to get the final reference points. As the jig moves around, there is always the risk that the reference of jig to panel to ground will be different. This happened when I moved the car orientation in the garage with the floor not perfectly flat and me measuring the panel the panel again to account for this change.
- In the end, instead of measuring each point, I spread the data points wider to work faster. I figured that if I had an approximate spatial reference, then my sanding and feel of the panel would guide the curvature of the panel which would fit the wider data points. I also changed the order of measuring from all horizontal to a mix of horizontal and vertical. It gives a better spatial representation of the panel at a point in time instead of my initial data recording only on the vertical face at each column of holes.

So I started building the jig. Cut the wood up and then laid out a grid ensuring clearances for the jig frame.


Started on the vertical plunge guide for the drill


Started on the dimples and holes


Close up


This is the vertical plunge guide. The outer piece is a right angle with a flat bottom as the guide, then the drill is mounted with flat surfaces to allow the drill to move vertically against the guide with ease. Allows easy positioning of the guide and then the drill against the guide.

_________________
GT Four Adovansu

"I want to enjoy the powerful and nimble agility behavior."

The type of mess that I ended up with.


Larger sheet of wood = more holes to drill


Back side of drilled holes


Using a blade to clean up the mess


Finished jig covering the body panel


Lots of letters and numbers aligned to columns and rows in Excel


Closer view of the jig


Measuring out the threaded rod to cut with the angle grinder


Cleaned up the threads with die set


Tips of the measurement rods on wax paper

_________________
GT Four Adovansu

"I want to enjoy the powerful and nimble agility behavior."

DJ_Joshee/Josh came around and gave me some motivation..


Another iteration of the panel. Each time I would prime then do a 400g wet sand so that I could feel the imperfections.


Again, the top line was to heavy


One way to fix is add more filler!


Got a point where it was pretty close. This shows all the pinholes and areas of issue that needed to be cleaned up.




Even with a 400g wetsand, you can still get a decent reflection




Panel on the car. The shadow is heavier than it looks with grey primer and unnatural light. The top line is actually quite soft in reality and shouldn't be an issue with white paint.


Jig in place and establishing the reference points. I used a level to reference initially.

_________________
GT Four Adovansu

"I want to enjoy the powerful and nimble agility behavior."

Doing a test measurement. Jig works a treat


Jig gets moved to and away from the guard. The vertical guide sit on the boundary of the inner lip and the horizontal guide sits against the panel. 6 points in total.


Again, more imperfections


removing the passenger side decals in preperation for modifying the passenger side guard.


A skim coat to give a consistant finish across the panel


Final guard as in previous post


Otherside started

_________________
GT Four Adovansu

"I want to enjoy the powerful and nimble agility behavior."

Afterthoughts:
- I should have seriously considered finishing one panel and paid to get it scanned and modeled in foam, or given it to a panel beater to do. Custom work is expensive though, so getting a panel beater to manually replicate the panel would have been costly. If it was in foam, there would still have been finishing and adding the mounting brackets. 3D printing such a large item would have not been cost effective.
- Its taken a lot of time and iterations of the panel to come to a design I like and settled on. Too hard a line, to soft a line, wrong or bad curve/curvature, flat spots, pin holes, transition to the original panel etc. If I had given this to a shop to do, then I would be paying a lot of money for any changes that were implemented if I changed my mind.
- I would figure out a faster way to adjust the measurement points. Maybe buy a load of profile gauges and mount them on the jig? Hard to say, but manually adjusting up to 20 rods across 39 columns to the panel is again, labourious and time consuming.
- Panel work overall is a very labourious job. I'll probably hand the panels to the panelbeater before I take my fibreglass moulds to ensure that it has had a decent once over. Once moulds and final guards are done, that will be it!

_________________
GT Four Adovansu

"I want to enjoy the powerful and nimble agility behavior."