BUILD-OFF CHALLENGE: Tygaboy's '75 LS3, It seemed a good idea at the time... Options

[markhoward]

That so cool!

[Dion]

Holy beeswax Batman!

[Cairo94507]

It's nice to see so many bees but it would be better to see them from a a distance. Glad you did not get stung. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

[tygaboy]

The bees are have been re-hived so it's back to the boring task of tuning. I had the 3rd remote session this morning, having put in a couple shakedown drives to gather more data.
I'm learning a lot by watching the tuner do his thing and make changes based on what I tell him. Interestingly, while there are certainly specific targets/ranges for things like air/fuel ratio and timing, a whole bunch of stuff is down to "how do you want it?"
For example, going full lean on decel means you'll get some popping out the exhaust. You don't like that? Add a bit more fuel and the popping goes away.
I told him when I come off the pedal, it felt like it should have more engine braking effect. He messed with idle decay and some of the timing parameters and now it does.
And you wonder why I'm so enamored with all the electrical bells and whistles... It's like magic!
@markhoward Mark and @buddyv Robert are coming by on Saturday and I've asked them to drive the car and see what they think. I'll leave it to them to report back on their experiences.
I'll end for now with: Man, this thing runs GOOD! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/driving.gif)
Driving video soon, I promise.

[tygaboy]

I don't know whose car this is but its 53 - 93mph, 4th gear roll-on performance seems decent. Sounds OK, too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxGs3F_-Dcw

[tygaboy]

With the car back in action and running really well (!), it's time to make progress in some other areas. I picked up that cool air dam with the wide cooler opening and today was getting an idea of if I'll like the look of what I'd planned for the mirror image cut out in the front bumper. That glamour pic is my the photochop inspiration and others are the initial result on a junk front bumper.
The bumper opening will get a return all the way around the cut-out, just like the air dam has and the car's nose will be painted black so the area behind the opening will disappear.
I think I like it!
BTW. the air dam is just sitting on blocks/spacers so give me no crap for how things line up.

Anyone have a nice front bumper they don't need? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/poke.gif)

[Morph914]

Great work Chris! I really enjoyed the electrical porn (IMG:style_emoticons/default/evilgrin.gif) Can’t wait to see it all done, and go for a ride. Do you have a paint scheme picked out yet?

Cheers,
John

[Cairo94507]

@Tygaboy - Hey Chris, I like the opening; once you get it finished I think it is going to look very nice and more importantly, function well. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

[roundtwo]

Looks like a clean and functional design.

What did the test pilots think about the car on Saturday? Still shaking in their shoes with ear to ear grins? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/w00t.gif)

[Shivers]

Bee herding. lol

That would look killer if you can keep it that small. Looking at a water pumper, the front opening for cooling has always been hard to get past for my eyes. This would look tough.

[tygaboy]

I'm so unaware of the world outside the Red Barn that I didn't even know there was a Petaluma Cars & Coffee on the 3rd Sunday every month. Bill, my buddy with the Speedster, called this morning saying "...hope to see you there...". So I decided to head down.
You know it's a "traditional hot rod/muscle car" crowd when they walk right past a near perfect Speedster without even looking at it! I'm sure they thought it was a kit car. Maybe not surprisingly, my car got a ton of attention, what with the LS and all, zip tied license plate not withstanding.

It was a bit chilly this morning and I can happily report the GTS Classics' seat heaters are awesome!

[Shivers]

A car like yours, as a kid, I'd look and wonder how they managed to get 20 pounds of stuff in a 5 pound bag...And make it look good. Bet it was great to just get out (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[tygaboy]

Tool Whore Alert! A got a slip roller from a buddy who needed it moved. For those who may not have heard of this tool, it's essentially a roll bender for sheet material. Same concept of three rollers, one of which is set to apply pressure to material as it passes across the other two. More pressure = more shape into the material. Plus, you can adjust the pressure differently, side to side, and get very cool / interesting effect, cones, etc.

Anyway, today I wanted to make progress on the openings in the tail panel so I cut a shape that I think compliments the look of the car and hides the center latch and support area. Once cut, I gave it the slip - roll, that is. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/lol-2.gif)

This is one of those "get a feel for it" things: set it "loose" and see how much the panel moves, check fit, adjust, roll again, check fit. You know the drill. It turned out nicely.

[tygaboy]

Then I cut up a crappy engine lid grill and fed it through the slip roll. It works on perforated material just fine, too.
Here's pic of the empty panel - to give you a feel for the overall look - and one where I'm just holding things in place to show the effect of the grill.
I love the way you can still peek in there and see all the mechanicals - and that it matches the engine grill.
Still some trimming to do but you get the idea.

[tygaboy]

A car like yours, as a kid, I'd look and wonder how they managed to get 20 pounds of stuff in a 5 pound bag...And make it look good. Bet it was great to just get out (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

@Shivers - thanks for the kind words! Yep, it's been a hoot to drive the car again, especially now that it works so much better. If you can't tell, I'm back to being motivated about making progress on things I've neglected or just not yet focused on. And I'm totally with you on the radiator opening shape. I've never seen one that I think looks cohesive. What I'm trying to do with this set up is about as good a look as I think I can come up with.

Most importantly, I'm feeling pretty good about the drive to WCR in July!

[tygaboy]

Looks like a clean and functional design.

What did the test pilots think about the car on Saturday? Still shaking in their shoes with ear to ear grins? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/w00t.gif)

@roundtwo Todd - With the rain on Saturday morning, maturity prevailed and we opted to reschedule when the traction weather would be more conducive to WOT application! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/driving.gif)

[Maltese Falcon]

Love the OE 914 engine grille mesh; re-purposed on those rear vents are the bees knees Chris !
Looks like this (very similar) mesh is what floats the boat for Porsche's late 911R too...what's old is new

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/marty914.jpg)

[horizontally-opposed]

With the car back in action and running really well (!), it's time to make progress in some other areas. I picked up that cool air dam with the wide cooler opening and today was getting an idea of if I'll like the look of what I'd planned for the mirror image cut out in the front bumper. That glamour pic is my the photochop inspiration and others are the initial result on a junk front bumper.
The bumper opening will get a return all the way around the cut-out, just like the air dam has and the car's nose will be painted black so the area behind the opening will disappear.
I think I like it!
BTW. the air dam is just sitting on blocks/spacers so give me no crap for how things line up.

Anyone have a nice front bumper they don't need? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/poke.gif)

Loving that rear mesh, Chris!

And too funny about that air dam. I wonder if it's the one I sold years ago after not getting around to mounting it. I didn't want to cut it up to match a narrow car. I believe I got it from a friend, who bought it for his 914-6 with GT flares from Peter Stacy at Kinesis after falling in love with the front spoiler on his dark blue car with red wheels. No wonder the car and its spoiler looked so good—Peter was an Art Center grad.

https://www.iwsti.com/threads/my-1970-914-6.89073/

I remember the one I had being a high-quality part, even in the flat black it came in. I don't think very many were made, and not sure if Peter still has the mold—but it would be cool to see these re-popped.

[Cairo94507]

@tygaboy - Look what I just found - similar design to your rear panel (which I like).

[tygaboy]

@tygaboy - Look what I just found - similar design to your rear panel (which I like).

@Cairo94507 Michael - Yep, I've seen a few with some sort of cut out rear panel and it's certainly not an original idea on my part! I will say that after looking at it for a bit, I think I'm going to try stamping or otherwise creating some inward dimension around the grill openings. Then try and give the grills a radius so they poke out from the panel a tiny bit. Everything just plain flat isn't quite doing it for me. Though if I fail miserably at making this new look, I'll claim I love flat! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)