Jerry Feather

Adam, what are you going to do about the rocker trim for your car with the new flares, now that it no longer fits at the rear of the door opening and in front of the new flared wheel opening?

Jerry Feather

Jerry Feather

Let's recap where we are with this project.

I have developed the liner so it will consist of two components on each side. I have been calling these the inner half and the outer half. The inner half is going to be the foundation for the liner on each side. Depending on the model of th 928, the inner half will be mounted into the car in various ways. The inner half will be the same for all of the cars except for the mounting systems, which I have not developed fully yet.

I have a fully developed form for the inner halves and have a lot of the development done on the form for the outer halves. The outer form will be a "transformer" style of form and will be made so I can change some of the components in it that describe the outer edge of each different version of the wheel well liner depending on the model of the car, and now, I think, depending on the various versions of wheel well flare or rear "fender" design. That means that various r3ear fender flares may be able to be accomodated with not too much additional tooling for the shape and width of the flare.

Today I took off a little early and worked on the form components for the mirror side of the S4 version of the outer halves of the liners. I have it and the other half setting up in epoxy now so I can finalize the shape later, but will have the first version of the outer form done so I can blow a pair of outer halves this weekend. Once I have the S4 version finalized I know enough about the difference from the GTS to do them fairly quickly. It takes about 3 hours to make the form for each side of the outer half form.

I hope I can get much of that done before the second weekend in Sept so we can do more final fitting in the GTS.

Jerry Feather

Jerry Feather

Just because I am not posting every day does not mean that I am not working on this project almost every day. This week and yesterday I worked on sculpting the form components for the S4 version of the outer edge of the outer half of the liners. I also worked on fitting them to the basic form so that they can be removed and replaced with the GTS version when I have those sculpted. I'm going to work on thos a bit today also.

I had the sculpting almost done then blew some of the outer liner halves, in my mind, and then decided I needed to change the form a bit. I did that yesterday. Today I am going to try to finish the form and blow one pair of the outer halves for real for trimming and fitting. I also have to put the inner half back in the car to do the fitting, but I don't have it quite in its final form yet. I think I can do some of the fitting the way it is though and will be able to tell if I need any major change to the outer form.

Then I will post a picture or some.

Jerry Feather

Jerry Feather

I have also been working on some of the mounting brackets for these liners in the S4 cars. I have two mocked up for the left side, as mentioned before, but I have refined their design some for duplication in aluminum. I picked up a piece of aluminum, actually two pieces, one in 063 and one in 080 to try to do some forming of those. I don't have a hydraulic press brake, but I do have an armstrong one that may work ok for right-angle bends at least in the 063. I'll need to fabricate some forming blocks for the press to make the bends with sifficient radius so the aluminum does not break. It is tempered, so needs a fairly broad radius bend.

In addition, I have obtained some tinnermans for the mounting screws and some duplicate screws, but a tiny bit longer, for doing the mounting. The tinnermans are only good up to 2mm thickness, so I doubt that the 080 is going to work anyway. I can cut the shape of the brackets out in my band saw and then finish the edges then bend to pattern, if I am lucky.

I also got a sample of some connectors to fasten the outer half to the inner half. Boy, ar they expensive. They cost about a buck apiece and I am going to need about a dozen per side. I have 4 or 5 different versions of those now so hope I can figure out just which one will be best. I think I will do a mock up of some of that today and see how the fasteners work.

Did I say before that I have some closed cell seal for the joint between the liner halves. It looks like it will work great.

Jerry Feather

Herman K

Jerry we're firming up our driving schedule for our trip to Grand Junction.
We will travel from Dallas to Mosquero on the 7th then on the 9th we'll make the (461 mi) run from Mosquero to Grand Junction so we'll arrive between 2 and 3 PM in Grand Junction. (Let us know what’s good place to stay that’s near you is) Our EDTA from Grand Junction to Glenwood Springs is around 3PM on the 11th. Further (not confirmed) plans are to start our return from Glenwood Springs on the 12th perhaps via Aurora, CO ( a visit with Mr Merlin) and Mosquero, NM before returning to Dallas on the 14th

Jerry Feather

Great, Herman. Near us are the La Quinta hotel and the Holiday Inn and Suites. Both are within a half mile. Looking foreward to your visit and some progress on the GTS liner mounting brackets. Call me at 970 243 8513 when you get to town. They will tell you at the office where I am with my afternoon trial. The office is just across the street from either of the hotels.

Jerry Feather

Jerry Feather

Today I got the form basically done for the S4 outer half of the liners. If the outer half fits then it is done. If not I will need to make the adjustments to get them to fit. Then I will need to develop the components fot the GTS outer halves. I'll be working on that this week and next weekend.

Here are some pictures of the first blow of the outer halves for the S4. Can you see the outer halves hiding in there outlined and surrounded by all the waste plastic? If not, I have already trimmed one of them out and have it hanging on my assembly stand with the latest of the left inner halves. I have it clamped up with the little strip of doubler that will go around the wheel arch.

I'll post a picture of that composite tomorrow.

Jerry Feather

Jerry Feather

I decided not to wait. Here are some pictures of the two halves mated up on the assembly stand with the clamps for the strip of doubler. The doubler is not glued on--I was just seeing how it was going to work.

Jerry Feather

77tony

Exceptional. T

pcar928fan

Hope these work well! I will need a pair of them for the back of my '94!

Alan

Jerry - looks like the plan is coming together nicely - literally!

James - lets face it - you will want lots of these...

Alan

Jim M.

Looks great Jerry, keep it up!

Arnoud

Thanks Jerry, for your continious effort & picture progress postings - almost there!

leonard928

Jerry, looks terrific. Looking forward to the progress.

Jerry Feather

Today I spent my shift finishing up some busy sork for these liners, which is converting scrap plastic into washer-like items for doublers for the mounting points for these liners. I also put the last, best-fitting inner half back into the car and then marked it for the mounting holes in the flange where it connects to the original points via brackets. I'll take it out later then drill the holes and then put it back and try to drill the correspondint holes in the bracket mock-ups. I think I am goig to end up making the holes in the brackets into slots so there will be some flexibility for mounting in the field.

This week about all I got done was some more of the busy work. I now have about a mixed-nut jar and a half of the washer like doublers so I can do some production when I am ready without stopping to make some more.

Today I put the new outer half in the car after the inner half was put back into place, to see how it is going to fit. Of course I was not lucky enough for it to fit completely the first time, but better than it might have. It fits in terms of the overall length, but its width is off both front and back. In place, it does look really nice--and maybe later I will go out and take a picture of the halves together if I can get a decent perspective. I don't have the car up high enough to get good pictures of the liner installed.

So, I spent my time working the form and its components over. I have them just about finished and am going to cover the repaired areas with epoxy and then finish them out tomorrow.

I also started the basic wheel arch form component for the GTS version of these liners. I laminated some material for one side and when it cures I'll laminate some for the other side tomorrow.

Jerry Feather