I'm sure others can help you with the
fiberglass questions but there is a "simple" trick to lining up the holes
for dzus fasteners. You need to make your own alignment tool.
Take a reasonably thin but stiff piece of sheet metal (not aluminum).
Form a large pair of "tweezers" out of the sheet metal. When finished
you will have something that is about 2 inches wide and the length will be
determined by the longest reach you have to make to a dzus fastener.
When you bend the "tweezers" do it around something like a 1/4" rod.
Now braze or weld a short piece of tubing of the same diameter as the inside
of the spring side of the dzus so that it protrudes from one side of the
pincher end of the tweezers. Clamp the pincher end of the tweezers
together and drill through the tubing and through the other side of
tweezers. Now mount the spring side of the dzus, position the body
part where it belongs, slide the tweezers on either side of the body part.
the tubing goes into the hole in the mounted half of the dzus and the hole
on the other side of the tweezers is on the outside of the body part to be
drilled and perfectly lined up with the dzus hidden on the other side of the
body part.
Hope I have explained this well enough, if not
let me know and I'll do a drawing. I think with a little pleading we
could get Jerry Ryan to make up these for all of us.
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, August 28, 2002 5:00
PM
Subject: [F500] Need New
Fiberglass
How do I make my fiberglass look better?
It's pretty rough now. One big crack. A lot of small
chips, where dime size pieces of the edge have flaked off. Most of
the edges are rough. All of the dzus fasteners are rough, as they
were painted with the body after installation. Half line up poorly
with the attachment wire. Several of the fiberglass pieces are
wavey, and have surface defects that just painting won't cure.
I suppose that I could give it all another coat of fiberglass.
But I want a lighter car, and re-surfacing what I have will cost a number
of pounds. And re-locating the dzus fasteners - that sounds
hard. Filling in a hole, then re-drilling the same hole 1/8"
away. Right now it takes a minute and a half to get the body off,
and 5-10 minutes to get it back on.
I spoke with Mike Quadrini, and he has new bodies for the KBS Mk 5/7,
but not for the earlier Mk 3. KBS is either out of business or next
best thing, several weeks of daily phone calls and emails have gone
unanswered. So a new body off the rack is out.
I suppose that I can "make a mold" from the existing parts (not sure
how to do that, but I could learn). But the fiberglass body is a bit
asymmetrical. And the side pods don't go on so good anymore, after
they were squeezed a bit.
Right now, my top idea is to find a local shop, either fiberglass or
race, that will do everything for me. But I suspect that I'm not
going to like the price. <g>
I like Art Trier's wing-nut style dzus fasteners, too. So no
tool is needed to get them off. Not too pricey from Pegasus. A
bit of an aerodynamic loss, I imagine. . . <g>
I suspect that I'll have to install the dzus fasteners in any
fiberglass I get (unless the fabricators will do this, too). Any
tricks? Seems like alignment would be tricky. And they will
only go on nicely if alignment is perfect. Though I suppose if I am
drilling both holes I could clamp together and drill through both layers
of fiberglass at once. . .
Any tricks with aerodynamics? With how much of the engine to
cover or not? I have the GCR, which tells some sizing info.
Chris Eckles
Atlanta
KBS
Mk3
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