Bojo's 73 Project

[tony-muscle]

For Tony-muscle

Here are some pics that you asked me about for the Ram Air mod to make the air cleaner base work with the MSD distributors. In the end I bought a repop Ram Air base ($250.00) and cut out the indented area at the front, doing this you can't use the "Front" sticker that would normally on the front of the cleaner base.

Here I measured the diameter of the dizzy cap and outlined the radius with a sharpie and used a dremel to cut out the material. I cut the sides down to the ridge. You can use the dizzy cap as a template but add about 3/8" more to give you some clearance for the plug wires. Use a strip of sheet metal and weld the new sides on.

Here I got a piece of sheet metal and cut it to covet the top of the dizzy. The blue is body filler that I used to make everything look nice. These are old pics I took and didn't have a pic where I welded the top plate.

Hope this helps.

Thank you. Awesome work. Nice weld!

 

[jbojo]

10/3/15

Been thinking about this for a while now and I wanted to clean up the look of the front grill area. When the hood is open its too cluttered between the front grill and the radiator since I added the fan driven tranny oil cooler and the ac hoses on the passenger side. I have decided to try to make a fiberglass radiator cover to hide that gap that you see with the hood opened. Been trying to figure out how to do this and I think that I know how to make the mold for this cover. I have my old grill that is no longer usable so I will use that to create the leading edge of the cover. I know that there is one after market one available but not for the hoods with the locks and I have heard there are fitment issues with the ones that are available with the non lock hood covers. There was a thread that mentioned where one was made for the car in the attached pic but I contacted them and they don't make them anymore. So during the next month or two I will be documenting this new mod to try to recreate this cover for my resto project. Probably will be starting this next weekend since there is a show tomorrow.

 

[tony-muscle]

Interesting.... it definitely hides the stuff but it looks kind of modern where they now hide everything. To me it looks more classic showing the empty hole. Can you show a picture of how yours looks like now?

 

[Jeff73Mach1]

been playing with the same idea myself. You can make a pretty good pattern by covering the area with masking tape, trimming to fit and then removing.

I think I'm going to try and make mine out of a piece of thin steel and just fit it to go around the hood lock brackets and release with a small gap.

 

[jbojo]

Interesting.... it definitely hides the stuff but it looks kind of modern where they now hide everything. To me it looks more classic showing the empty hole. Can you show a picture of how yours looks like now?

Tony Muscle

Here are a couple of pics of stuff I want to hide.

Jeff

I was thinking of using thin cardboard to make the initial template and then transferring to something more durable to lay the fiberglass over. Was thinking of using gelcoat on the mold to facilitate the removal after its formed. Never attempted or done this before so it will be interesting how it comes out. On Saturday I am going to start on the template.

 

[tony-muscle]

You can check the internet for zillions of way of preping for fiberglass molding. I recommend trying a mold release spray to facilitate detaching the panel from the mold.

You also can consider making the piece via a thermoforming process. You can use a sheet of HIPS (High Impact Polystyrene) or Polypropylene if you don't think temps there would get above 180-200F, which will be the about temperature you will need to form the sheet (like shaping sheetmetal but hot), depending on thickness. You can use a heat gun to heat up and form the material. However, I don't know if this would work since the temp range in that area of the hood may be too tight for those materials. Else you could use a sheet of fiber reinforced Polypropylene or Nylon. These two later ones will withstand more temperature, but at the same time will need those high temps to be formed.

I have thermoforming experience in machines, but nor hand making it, but I guess it should work. By the looks of the cover you show in the picture it may have been formed via thermoforming.

 

[jbojo]

You can check the internet for zillions of way of preping for fiberglass molding. I recommend trying a mold release spray to facilitate detaching the panel from the mold.

You also can consider making the piece via a thermoforming process. You can use a sheet of HIPS (High Impact Polystyrene) or Polypropylene if you don't think temps there would get above 180-200F, which will be the about temperature you will need to form the sheet (like shaping sheetmetal but hot), depending on thickness. You can use a heat gun to heat up and form the material. However, I don't know if this would work since the temp range in that area of the hood may be too tight for those materials. Else you could use a sheet of fiber reinforced Polypropylene or Nylon. These two later ones will withstand more temperature, but at the same time will need those high temps to be formed.

I have thermoforming experience in machines, but nor hand making it, but I guess it should work. By the looks of the cover you show in the picture it may have been formed via thermoforming.

Yeah, I thought that it looked like it was thermal formed. I was thinking that if I can construct a good mold maybe I can find some one here that does this type of process and has the facilities to heat and place the material over a mold and form the part. It would be ideal to use a vacuum process but difficult to create a mold for that.

 

[tony-muscle]

You can check the internet for zillions of way of preping for fiberglass molding. I recommend trying a mold release spray to facilitate detaching the panel from the mold.

You also can consider making the piece via a thermoforming process. You can use a sheet of HIPS (High Impact Polystyrene) or Polypropylene if you don't think temps there would get above 180-200F, which will be the about temperature you will need to form the sheet (like shaping sheetmetal but hot), depending on thickness. You can use a heat gun to heat up and form the material. However, I don't know if this would work since the temp range in that area of the hood may be too tight for those materials. Else you could use a sheet of fiber reinforced Polypropylene or Nylon. These two later ones will withstand more temperature, but at the same time will need those high temps to be formed.

I have thermoforming experience in machines, but nor hand making it, but I guess it should work. By the looks of the cover you show in the picture it may have been formed via thermoforming.

Yeah, I thought that it looked like it was thermal formed. I was thinking that if I can construct a good mold maybe I can find some one here that does this type of process and has the facilities to heat and place the material over a mold and form the part. It would be ideal to use a vacuum process but difficult to create a mold for that.

The vacuum forming is an option, but that would be more difficult because of making the mold. It will need a large machine as well, unless you do it in two parts. Since the part is symmetric it may work, but you will have a seam in the middle. A suggestion for a source of machinery would be your local technical college or school. They are always looking for "real life" projects.

My thought was starting with a sheet of the proper plastic and forming it little by little with a heat gun. Got to heat it just enough so it will form and hold. You may have to form it and cool it fast, one step at the time sort of like forming sheetmetal at home. This way would work for a simple sheet bent to fit, but won't have any of the creases or decoration. Those will be harder but not impossible.

 

[Ray]

It. Will be interesting to see what you come up with, I just cut that 8 1/2 inches off the front lol. Ya I know I'm a knucklehead.

 

[jbojo]

Finally got some time and started on the radiator cover. Been thinking of different ways of doing this and decided to made a cardboard template of the cover. Now I will now use that to transfer the design to make a wooden one so I have something sturdy to work with. Once I have the wood base cut out I am going to use small wood pieces to create designs and raised areas on the cover. After I have that done I'll be able to layer fiberglass over it all to create the cover. Next weekend I plan to have the wood base completed. Pics of that hopefully next week.

 

[DK73]

Wow John that is looking good [emoji41] Will follow you project my freind[emoji12] Regards Lars DK73

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Regards DK73

 

[73429mach]

I'm looking forward to how you do things. This is something I would like to try also. Hope you don't mind if I use some of your ideas. Ryan.

 

[tony-muscle]

Awesome.. keep the pictures coming.

1971 M-code Mach 1


After you have the mold you can keep making them and sell them

1971 M-code Mach 1

 

[jbojo]

I got sidetracked by oil pressure issues with the motor again. On my last outing the gauge was reading a little over half while I was on the freeway. After sitting about 6 hours while going home the gauge didn't even made it to the center and while idling it went to about a 1/4 swing on the gauge. I had noticed before that the oil pressure was starting to drop a lot while idling and was wondering if I was having motor issues again.

Today I was going to put the oiling mod on to see if that would help with the pressure and to reinstall a mechanical gauge on the motor. Started to think about the China made parts so I took off the new sensor and installed the original one that came with the car that was still on my motor that's in storage. It has the Ford logo on it and I don't remember ever changing it so it should be original to the car. So before doing the oiling mod I installed this oil sensor and mechanical gauge and started it up. Mechanical gauge went to 85 psi and the dash gauge deflection went to almost 7/8 swing. At idle the dash gauge now stays at 1/2 swing and on the freeway it's just over 3/4 swing.

This was the second oil sensor that I had on the car and it seems that they don't last very long. With the original sensor I get higher readings than the new ones when new. Keeping the mechanical gauge on the motor as a backup now just in case.

Now its back to work on the radiator cover.

 

[eddyw]

Make the radiator cover easy removable.

If you want to clean it up under it(leafs or dirt) or period checking for some rust ...

 

[jbojo]

Make the radiator cover easy removable.

If you want to clean it up under it(leafs or dirt) or period checking for some rust ...

Yeah, been doing a lot of design planning to ensure that it can drop right in and use existing fasteners where possible to hold it in place. I think that I am going to use fiberglass to make the piece and now trying to decide whether to make a one time use form or spend the time to make an actual mold that can be used a number of times. Also I want some design in the cover and not just a flat piece of fiberglass but its adding to the complexity. This looks to be a long winter project.

 

[DK73]

Wow John that is so important to look closely at crap from China! I would never have eny parts on those important place's [DISAPPOINTED FACE][WINKING FACE] Good to hear that you have a original part that works Right every time [THUMBS UP SIGN] Regards Lars

So I'm a proud owner of one Mach 1 73! Regards Lars DK73

 

[jbojo]

Started working on the radiator cover again today, figured I should try to get this done while I have the time. I used the cardboard template that I made earlier and transferred the pattern to a piece of wood that I will try to lay the fiberglass on. I was going to try to make the top level and then mold the hood lock brackets on but I discovered that my trans oil cooler also sits to high and I would need to mold a hump to clear that too. With all these issues I decided to make it so that the cover will rest on top of the hood lock brackets and it gives the cover a slight downward angle to it and it eliminates me from having to do all that extra work. This also has an advantage as any water that gets in to the top of it will run towards the front instead of possibly puddling on a flatter surface.

The first picture shows the outline of the cover that I traced from the black cardboard template. Then I cut the wood pattern out.

The next pic. I took my old grille and clamped it to the wood template so that I could use a shapie to further refine the front of the wood curves to match the grille.

3rd and 4th pics is the test fit, its a pretty close fit. Now I have to locate the hood lock holes and get them drilled out.

Once I finish that I'll spray releasing media on the wood template and then lay the fiberglass on it. This cover will hide all the items I installed between the grille and radiator.

I'll show pics of the fiber glassing when I do that work.

 

[Jeff73Mach1]

looks good

 

[Lekrut]

Hey John,

Any updates??