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  #231  
Old 02-14-2020, 12:22 PM
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heinke heinke is offline
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Post Front Clip Substructure (cont.)

I’m back to working on the front clip substructure. I’ve done a lot of work, made quite a bit of progress but it’s not the kind of progress that comes across in pictures. Since the last progress update, I’ve re-located the passenger side door hinges, purchased and installed drivers side door glass, installed new windshield pillar weather seals, and adjusted door positioning such that the side glass seals well against the windshield pillars. All this was necessary in order to determine the door skin front edge locations for both sides of the car. In addition, proper clearance for windshield wiper operation was made by adjusting the supporting sheet metal edge upward via hammer and handheld sandbag.

So now I’m able to continue building out the front clip substructure with an objective to achieve a ¼” gap where it’s skin meets the front edges of the doors. I’ve found that a combination of two different guides are needed for this: 1/8” rod marking the desired opening outline, buck stations showing front clip and door skin profiles. I started using only the rod and found it moved too easily and thus wasn’t sufficient for maintaining the targeted profiles.

Al 5052 .063 sheet is cut, bent, shaped to form the front clip edge in front of the doors, welded into place, and then drilled for fasteners to substructure. Since this is the initial outline of the skin shape, there are no other references in place for guidance. Thus I’m taking extra measures to make sure it’s right. The drivers and passenger sides are not copies of each other as the framework needed to be different to provide for wiper arm clearance.

Drivers side:


Passenger side:






From here I’ll continue building out the supporting sheet metal in a similar manner to the bottom rear corner of the front clip.
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  #232  
Old 03-18-2020, 03:56 PM
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heinke heinke is offline
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Post Back to the doors

I back burned the Miura project over the last few weeks as I was focusing on getting my GTO project car road ready. That done, I’m back to working on the Miura in between joy rides in the GTO.

I had built out the sub-structure sheet metal for the front clip edge adjacent to the door front edges. Before final trimming this piece, I had a nagging feeling I’d be sorry if I didn’t have the final door frame and hinge locations nailed down. The main part missing for this was to fabricate the rear door posts that are the mounting locations for the door striker bolts and alignment pins. Since I had modified the C4 door frame rear edges for the “swoopy” Miura door shape, I would need to design the door posts myself. These needed to have structural strength and I wanted to tie the door posts into the roll bar to give increased supporting strength of both them as a combination.

I decided to build the door posts out of the same 1 ½ by 3 inch by .125 wall 6061 aluminum rectangular tubing that the roll bar is made from. The door striker bolts and alignment pins are pieces scavenged from the C4 donor car. I decided a double post design would work best given the angle of the door latch and striker pin.







With the door posts in place, the doors and side windows have been adjusted for proper closing and sealing down the windshield post. The door posts are only tack welded in place at this point as I think it will be smart to make sure they will work as designed for the things around them prior to final welding.



Now I can go back to working on the front clip and be assured for the door frame and hinge locations. In other words, I can trim the front clip sub-structure edge and know the clearance needs with the door front edges.
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  #233  
Old 03-18-2020, 07:09 PM
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Steve Hamilton Steve Hamilton is offline
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Hi Joel
Looks like all the planning and mock up is paying dividends!
I enjoy following your well thought out projects.
Thanks for posting
Steve
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  #234  
Old 04-15-2020, 10:47 AM
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heinke heinke is offline
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Post Front clip fender liners

I had a couple of things come up on the GTO which resulted in a couple more weeks away from the Miura project. I’m back on it now and decided it time to shape some metal!

So far on the Miura I’ve been working on a lot of structural framework stuff and decided it’s time to do some of what really was the inspiration behind the project to begin with. I set out on this project because I wanted to metal shape a body from scratch and well there’s just a lot of stuff that needs to be in place prior to shaping up the bodywork. I’m not starting on the actual bodywork yet but making fender liners certainly involves a bunch of metal shaping.

The front fender liners on a Miura are an integral part of the front clip and get raised and lowered as part of the one piece front clip. So not only do they need to surround the wheels allowing for clearance as the wheels go up and down and turn but they also need to clear the chassis tub and frame members as the front clip is raised and lowered. I decided to build them “in place” so I could factor in the needed clearances each step of the way in constructing them.

I started by bending up a ½” square tube to the shape of the wheel opening. The station buck was used as a template in bending this tube into the complex shape for the wheel opening.





I decided to use AL 3003 .050 sheet for the fender liner. My first choice would have been .040 sheet but I didn’t have any sheets that thickness in the garage and with the COVID-19 shutdown, I decided to go with what I did have. I decided to start from the top and work downward. A TM Tech style air power hammer was used to shrink the front and back edges downward.





I’ll be attaching the fender liner inside edge via a bracket to the front clip framework so that edge was positioned adjacent to it. Next I worked backward by cutting and shaping another piece. The shaping is predominately shrinking on the front and back edges. That went well enough but I discovered my thin aluminum sheet welding skills are very rusty. I tacked up the pieces with the TIG with the later tacks being much better than the first dozen. I then broke out the O/A torch for the actual weld. Let’s just say that while the weld turned out fine, it wasn’t picture worthy. It did clean up nice with some filing and planishing.





So far, so good. While this is fairly rudimentary metal shaping, I’m finding it a lot of fun. More to come.
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  #235  
Old 04-15-2020, 06:14 PM
Fargoman Fargoman is offline
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Do you think the clip would gain strength by having the inner liner attached to both the inner rail and wheel arch?

You;re doing a lot better than I could. Keep at it.

Great concept and I look forward to reports.
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  #236  
Old 04-15-2020, 07:22 PM
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The metal shaping is the best part of our hobby that is for sure.
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  #237  
Old 04-15-2020, 07:33 PM
cliffrod cliffrod is offline
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Looks good, Joel.

As a chef, the seemingly endless prep we do is called "mise en place". It's well worth the effort because it makes the fun part of actually cooking much, much better. I don't think Metalshaping is any different...
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  #238  
Old 04-17-2020, 10:16 AM
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heinke heinke is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Fargoman View Post
Do you think the clip would gain strength by having the inner liner attached to both the inner rail and wheel arch?

You;re doing a lot better than I could. Keep at it.

Great concept and I look forward to reports.
Yes, I plan to leave the 1/2" square tube and attach the liner to it. I still need to figure out a way to mount the tubes bottom end as it is currently being supported by a part of the frame that doesn't raise with the front clip.

I did a test with the coilover shock removed and the suspension fully raised to its uppermost position. The tire can be turned lock to lock and still easily clears the liner and tube.
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  #239  
Old 04-21-2020, 11:12 AM
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heinke heinke is offline
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Post Front clip fender liners (cont.)

More progress…







My O/A torch welding is getting better but still not picture worthy. The metal finishing for it is getting easier as I am starting to get away with using less filler metal. Maybe the next weld joint will be picture worthy.
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  #240  
Old 04-23-2020, 10:57 AM
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heinke heinke is offline
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Post Front clip fender liners (cont.)

First, I’ll start this post with the technical stuff. Here’s an adequate O/A weld on this fender liner. Not great but good enough.



Still a bit too proud but it has 100% penetration and the tacks have been fully integrated/melted into the weld bead. I’m finding it a bit challenging to get enough heat down in the middle part of this big panel to flatten the bead as the aluminum is very efficient in wicking away the heat. I think I need to go up another tip size but I’m using the largest tip I have. I guess it’s time to buy the next larger tip size.



This is the type of weld bead I’d like across the whole panel except for the obvious hole I blew in it. With a flat bead like this, the only finishing step needed is planishing to smooth out the warpage. On the last 3” near the panel edge, I’m getting the heat needed to keep the bead flat as the circumference of the panels radiator effect is getting smaller.

Ok, back to the fender liner itself. It’s now fully extended down the front.



I did the front first so I can tilt up the front clip with the fender liner attached to determine the clearance at the back while tilting. In the back, the fender liner is positioned right near a cowl triangulation brace.





More to come…
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