gt38088

this is casey stoner displaying perfect yin yang hehe

KiwiSean

Yeah, it's a dark flat blue. I saw it parked outside the day before but was going past in a cab so didn't have time to snap it.

And no, definitely not going to buy it.

Maxem

Hint taken.
The test plates for the leather seat faces and door panel embossing pattern came off the CNC today. Left side is 3.0mm diameter pillars which when pressed will make a geometric dot pattern. Right side is 3x6 elliptical pillars, which will make a pattern not too dissimilar to basketweave if you half close your eyes and stand at 10 paces. I used 10mm thick extruded aluminium bar and machined to 3mm deep with a slight chamfer on top of each pillar. Will go in the leather press next week for a trial.
If it works, I'll do bigger plates for the real job. The challenge is pattern matching when the press plates aren't that big and you have to move them around the hide. If it doesn't work I'll go to plan B which is yet to be dreamed up.
There is a mild concern that we might punch the leather through.

Macca

Dave. Very impressive! You really are creating a custom interior! Its lucky you have access to an autolathe - I cant see many of us on here achieving something similar. Im certain it will be worth the effort. I get more enjoyment from the interior of my 993 than almost any other single aspect and never regret the $$$ and sweat that went into it...

Do you have a photographic timeline of the work done on the cars body, chassis and engine etc to date? This may be covering old discussions that I have not been party to but was wondering how progress is going and if you are on track to have everything completed by the end of the year?

John McM

Dave, great work. True trailblazing.

Btw I have a new tool next time brakes need bleeding.

Maxem

I've asked Steve to keep on top of photo's and he sends them through. I've only seen the car about 4 times since it started and it doesn't look much different each time but the amount of work done is never apparent when the body is being worked on. Steve also did the bulk of the de rusting and crash damage prior to me getting involved so there is a gap there in the picture history. When it is close to the end I might do a build thread on early911's registry or similar. Progress is OK and I'm not pushing hard so it is drifting a bit. Xmas not looking likely. I am Ok with this because the prolonged dreaming, sketching and planning makes for a pretty settled specification. Last night I did a bit of work on the door arm rests. Aluminium sheet, welded, bent and generally beaten around to make a nice longish form which will be natural and the welds will show. If it looks crap, I'll cover them with leather. Also got some groovy door map pockets going in alloy sheet. Could be good, could be crap, either way I only have time invested.

Maxem

A few of the many door panel ideas. The final is settled but no drawing yet. Simpler on the swiss cheese treatment and the passenger one will be almost as long as the door but the drivers somewhat more simple. So, the door arm rest is the aluminium fabricated structure with leather padded topping and that and the map pockets will be anodised natural or a bronzy shade to match the leather. Or something like that

Maxem

The arm rest structure beginnings. The two holes will be short stubs of aluminium tube sticking out just slightly with a nice weld around them. (Access holes for the fixings). Structure will be partly folded and partly welded. My alloy welding is crap so need to revert to the pro's to get the quality I want - similar to an alloy bike frame job. Finish will be scotchbrite then anodised which will dull the welds a bit but they will still be on show. Love that stuff.

Maxem

My welding on the garage monster was a bit short of the mark.

Maxem

The door release pull strap will emerge out the front of the arm rest as a leather loop in case you were trying to figure that one out......

Macca

Now that's what Im talking about Dave!

Great idea regards the door handle and storage tray. Clever thinking having the passenger longer than the drivers. These will look a superb mix of industrial and traditional leather when finished with your brown hide and faux weave welted/"box weave" door card.

You are really getting into this and I implore you - if I had have run my project from NZ I would have certainly looked to do more of the same (as it was getting classic grey leather matched in NZ and fedex'd to where my CF seats were built in Asia for covering by the factory was about the limits of my ability!).

I didnt tell you about the custom CF RS door cards did I? They made these for me, sent me the pictures just before shipping them - I looked at them as it occurred to me they were LHD units (993 has two power switched for windows on drivers side but one on passenger as you will recall). They had had 6" speaker holes already custom cut and bevelled into the CF sheets for my Focal Glass with cross overs). Theres me thinking they probably just reverse them for RHD - i.e. swap sides). Purely by chance I mention it to find that they aren't double sided (i.e. not wet finished on reverse side), the manufacturer has cocked up and he has to make a whole second set ($1500usd) so I now have the only RHD ones I know of on the planet - at least from him and he's the only one I know doing them! Alot more work goes into these projects than people give credit for. Like going through 3 sets of internal instrument & interior LEDs to get a set that were passable for colour/warmth ha ha.

I digress. Its looking really good Dave. I guess the fine line is between Mad Max and Matrix (thinking the seats they lay on to go into the matrix).

Im liking the leather loop release but I think you will need to be careful with the execution in order not to make it too wild west. Keep it simple I guess but you can play with it at the end.

Keep up the good work and the pictures when able. The seat project is a big one - have you decided on a way forward with that?

O2GO

^^^ Nice to see it coming along Dave. The journey can be a lot of fun I guess.

I'd be pissed if the number plate was identifiable. I have thought of publishing the video of my crash but figured it would bite me in the **** one day. Happy to show it on a big screen in private on the 7th.

Thanks to John's video prowess we have multiple angles and slow mo modes too :-)

Nice idea. I need it to be a road car though.

John McM

I'll add it to the video log, including Chris M and Neil. Turn one is biting a few butts.

Macca

I confess I'm very curious to see "Kings of Spins" featuring our own Mr Hanna as "Test Dummy Doug"!

Just found this quote by John Glenn first astronaut to circle the earth and thought it a light reprieve...

“I guess the question I'm asked the most often is: "When you were sitting in that capsule listening to the count-down, how did you feel?" Well, the answer to that one is easy. I felt exactly how you would feel if you were getting ready to launch and knew you were sitting on top of two million parts -- all built by the lowest bidder on a government contract.”
― John Glenn

Macca

Actually John. I think more accurately "not turning at turn 1" is biting butts. Its a bit hard to blame Turn 1 when no one has had a chance to turn the wheel and go around it!

It would appear the front straight, like Manfield and a few other NZ tracks has an issue with water and sipperyness over the start grid lines after rain of a certain volume. I suspect you have to change your line along here when it pelts down maybe fit far left of track where its higher and doesn't pool. But I could be totally wrong as I've never driven there in the rain ha ha!

Im must confess although I botched the turn in point for Turn 2 and 4 all day at HD on the 16th I didnt have any issues at all with turn 1 and I think I have cured my fear of it. I still respect it but was actually getting a bit of a high piling into it at 230+kmph in the GT3 (and in one case when overtaking the Gulf 964 left my braking a bit late and had to correct a bit of over steer with steering mid way around). Ive realised that it reminds me of driving home from town at night after a beer or two in the pitch dark on potholed roads with no footpaths or street lights and the locals walking on the road only become evident when they show their eyes and/or teeth. I am definitely a Type A personality then!