dr bob

Jerry,

Think about making "dies" for radiused bends, and your shop press to do the forming segment by segment. Poor-Man's press-brake.

Jerry Feather

Thanks Carl and Dr Bob. All good suggestions. You can see from the pictures that the bend just above the middle of the rear panel is pretty well complete and is formed at a pretty good curvature which I did in my 20 inch bend brake with a half inch round bar welded to a quarter inch flat bar that I clamped the workpiece under to do the bend. The last three or four degrees that I couldn't do with the brake itself I did by clamping the workpiece under the radius bar then clamping two heavy flat bar pieces to the upper part and bending it with the extension of the bar clamp.

I have three brakes, including one combination press brake with a shear and roll. It too is not heavy duty enough to bend .090 material, maybe even annealed. I have a fourth bend brake that I have been working on off and on to fabricate and for longer material. It is 52 inches long and designed to function as a box brake, but it will box either way, which is hard to explain.

Jerry Feather

I have a little bit of a good start on the center support post. I am making it out of half inch plate and it is pretty much being formed by hand in the mill and band saw with some grinding for final fit here and there. Then I'll drill and tap it to match the top plate and put two holes in the bottom plate and floor to hold it there.

M. Requin

You, sir, are having waaaay too much fun! This is a great fab project to follow along- thanks, Jerry!

Jerry Feather

Thanks, Martin. I had been forgetting to stop by the All Metals place and try to pick up a short piece of aluminum tubing to make the front tunnel out of, the tunnel for what and where I think the oil filler neck will end up. I was looking for about 3 inch tubing with a heavy enough wall for this project. I finally stopped by there yesterday and found that all they have in that size or even close is .035 wall which is too light.

Then on the way home when I was trying to think where else I might look for some tubing it occurred to me that I have a sheet metal roll and I don't even need a complete tube, just a chunk off the side, so after I got home I found a piece of .065 or .075 6061 and rolled a nice tunnel myself. I'll post a picture later, but now I need to check on an engine block to see if the one I made is long enough.

Jerry Feather

Here are the pictures of the front tunnel.

SwayBar

Any updates?

SwayBar

Any updates?

​​​​​​3 years sure went by fast...

Jerry Feather

This project is one of a few that are peripheral to the Radical Custom 928 project. I have the development of this intake pretty well along so when I get back to and finish the body work on the 928 I will be better able to finish up some of these other projects that go with it. With this one I am now kind of in the throws of indecision about the need to remake the sides and maybe some of the bottom of the body of the intake out of heavier aluminum, mainly because of my thoughts about the engine being able to suck the thing out of shape in the event of a heavy deceleration. I am thinking about going from the .063 sheet to .090. Since I have the sides made already it will not be too difficult to duplicate them in the heavier material. I am also thinking about putting some kind of blow back valve on the upper rear of the intake.

For some odd reason I took on the extensive project of trying to make the early belly pans, and I have pledged myself to finish that project before I go onto something else.

SwayBar

Glad to hear it's still on your radar!

Instead of almost starting over, is it possible to externally brace what you have right now?

Doing so will allow you to finish this one up sooner and prototype it, and then apply all that knowledge to a 2nd one which would be made out of thicker material, etc.

Jerry Feather

That is actually an alternative that I have kind of had in mind, and it or a version of it is also possible. However, my thought is to brace it internally rather than outside. I might put two or three verticle rods inside on each side between the intake tubes and from the heavy base up to just under the aluminum plate on the top, and located at some of the top bolt location holes. That alone would give the intake plenum the strength I think it might need. If it would come to a second version with heavier material I think I have a second set of Hans' intake bases that I can work with. Thanks for your thoughts about this and for your continued interest.