Priya's SX/4 project

[doneagle]

          HI    Priya    thank you for the info on the sensor ..he had to do some math to know how to space the groves ...
                  I bet that tuck some time to set it all up .. on the filters .I have an old tractor 1945 A C --C model the gas
                  filter is the one with the glass bole on the bottom .the gas comes in the top and has to go through a
                  stone like filter before it goes to the carb ..most of the fine sediment is trapped in the glass bole    I
                  am going to get one and put it on silver and see how that works we will see ....

                  coil over plug system  that has to be nice ..............don         

[priya]

I added an armrest/cupholder to my SX/4.  I started with the console shown below.  I don't remember who I bought it from but he made a perfect cut where the black line is and I used the rear portion to fashion my cupholder/armrest


Started by making the cup itself out of fiberglass:


I cut the hole in the front part of the console and laid fiberglass cloth on the inside of it.  I used a flat tip on a soldering gun to melt the cloth partially into the plastic.  I then cut small chips of ABS from a broken grill and melted them in acetone overnight.  With the plastic/acetone mix about the consistancy of maple syrup I spread it thinly over the cloth melted to the plastic to make a more solid attachment.  Then another layer of cloth melted in with the soldering gun and more ABS dissolved in acetone to completely cover it and so on.  You have to put the mix on in thin layers or the surface hardens before the stuff underneath does and you get bubbles in it as the acetone underneath trys to evaporate through the hardened surface.
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After I had 3 or 4 layers of fiberglass cloth bonded to the underside of the ABS plastic I made cuts through the cloth covering the hole so I could use fiberglass resin to bond the cup I made into the console.  I slipped the cup through from the top, positioned it and put resin on the loose cloth laying on the cup being careful to keep the resin off the ABS surface of the console as fiberglass does not stick well to ABS.  After the cup was bonded in place I filled the underside of the cupholder area with short strand fiberglass.  In order to bond the short strand fiberglass to the entire underneath area the last layer of fiberglass cloth I put on was only partially embedded in the ABS with the soldering gun so that the underside of the cloth was sticking to the ABS but the top of the cloth was still clean so the fiberglass could stick to it as seen in the third picture in this post.


I got the console to the point where you see it below and was just going to paint it and my husband said that's mickey mouse, you need to build up the console to be even with the top of the cup.  So,  I got a can of expanding foam insulation  to build up the area around the cup planning to fiberglass overtop but the fiberglass dissolved the hardened foam so it was on to plan B.  Plan B was to use expanding foam for autobody use which is put in A Pillars and so on of new cars to stiffen them and provide sound deadening. The autobody expanding foam was almost $100 for a small tube!  The fiberglass didn't dissolve that so it was full speed ahead.


I built walls out of cardboard and taped them to the console to contain the expanding foam and it worked well enough:


I used a serated knife to rough in the shape of the foam and then sanded it to finalize the shape:


I then cut fiberglass cloth to cover both the plastic and foam part of the cupholder.   On the lower plastic part I again used the soldering gun to partially melt the cloth into the plastic and then dissolved bits of ABS plastic in acetone and put thin layers of that over the lower part of the cupholder as you can see in grey in the picture below.  I then put fiberglass resin on the cloth covering the upper foam area (green) once again being careful to keep the resin off the ABS and the ABS off the resin.  Several layers of fiberglass cloth took a very long time.  Then I sanded down the cup holder area to make it level and a few more times had to build up fiberglass resin and ABS after sanding as I'd sanded down to the cloth and still had low areas.



I had a lot of trouble with the acetone creating bubbles after layering on the liquid ABS.  I poked holes in them with a pin, pushed them down, sanded again, more liquid ABS and so on.  It took a very long time to get an even covering of ABS.  Eventually I got it painted.  The console was apparently not out of an Eagle so I had to shave the bottom part of the console to make it fit the Eagle trans tunnel.


I had a local upholstery shop redo the foam armrest in a purple fabric and here is the final result:

[MortenB]

Nice job.  I also have a console from a Spirit that I plan to install.  Mine has the gage pack, which is also going in.  And, since the floorboards are slightly different between the Eagle and the Spirit, I will have to cut part of the bottom edge off.  Mine is already re-upholstered; ready for install.   I just have to remove the seats and maybe carpet so I can see how much to shave off.  I hadn't thought of the cupholder idea.  Though with my manual shifter, there might not be room.  Maybe someone else has a good idea of where to put a cup holder.

[priya]

Morten, I'm pretty sure you could put a cupholder in the same place I did and it wouldn't interfere with your manual trans.  With mine in place if I pull the trans into 1st there is still plenty of clearence between the shifter and cupholder.

[vangremlin]

Nice work Priya!  And thanks for the detailed write up. 

I have a question for you, I just picked up an Eagle shifter console from the junkyard, it has the cubby hole instead of the gauges.  Anyways, the outer portion of it is broken in two, one break at the top and one break in the front.  They are clean breaks and I think I can put it back together.  How would you recommend putting it back together?  I was thinking maybe epoxy in the breaks themselves and then fiberglass and resin behind the cracks, but in your write up you said fiberglass doesn't bond well with the ABS plastic, which I'm assuming the shifter console is made of.  Thanks.

Oh, and thanks for the compliment on the perfect cut 

[priya]

Nice work Priya!  And thanks for the detailed write up. 

I have a question for you, I just picked up an Eagle shifter console from the junkyard, it has the cubby hole instead of the gauges.  Anyways, the outer portion of it is broken in two, one break at the top and one break in the front.  They are clean breaks and I think I can put it back together.  How would you recommend putting it back together?  I was thinking maybe epoxy in the breaks themselves and then fiberglass and resin behind the cracks, but in your write up you said fiberglass doesn't bond well with the ABS plastic, which I'm assuming the shifter console is made of.  Thanks.

Oh, and thanks for the compliment on the perfect cut 

I wouldn't use a glue.  I've done this type of repair where I embed fiberglass cloth in the ABS many times and its quite strong.

If they are clean breaks what I recommend is to first clean the backside of the repair of any dirt, oil, or paint.  Then wet the broken ends in acetone and push them together and hold until they bond.  This will initially be a weak bond and if you let the acetone drip on the front of your console it will leave noticeable marks where it runs on the painted surface.  Perhaps dip a q-tip in acetone to keep the dripping to a minimum and put a piece of masking tape on the front side of the break to minimize soak through.  Alternatively perhaps skip this step if you are very concerned about keeping the exterior surface looking as is.  If you're painting afterwards you don't need to worry about dripping acetone on the exterior surface of your piece..

Next, cut a piece of fiberglass cloth to cover the backside of the break.  You can use a heat gun with a flat tip to partially sink the fiberglass cloth into the ABS.   Alternatively if you repeatedly wet the fiberglass cloth with acetone and rub the cloth into the ABS you can eventually sink the cloth partway into the ABS as well.  Find a piece of broken ABS you can use for glue.  Remove any paint on it (I used lacqer thinner and paper towels).  Get a small jar with a lid that you can get your fingers into the bottom of.  Break off small pieces of your scrap ABS (I use two pliers to make larger pieces and then a side cutter to make them smaller) put them in the jar, add acetone to cover, put the lid on and let sit overnight.  You can put use bigger pieces of ABS if you want, it just takes longer to melt in the acetone.  In the morning stir your acetone/abs solution and make sure it is evenly dissolved.  If its too runny leave the lid off for 15 minute intervals and check its consistency.  If its too firm add some more acetone.  You want it about the consistancy of maple syrup.   I recommend using nitril gloves to do this part. I've done it with bare hands but the hardened ABS is pretty tough to peel off your fingers, especially if you have done it a few times although you can eventually wash it off with acetone if you keep at it. but this is also hard on the skin. I place just one finger of the nitrile glove on my forefinger, pull it tight and bunch up the rest of the glove in your hand.  Dip a bit of the acetone/abs mixture on your forefinger and smear a thin layer on the fiberglass cloth of your repair.   Give it an hour or more to solidify.  If bubbles appear in the abs shortly after you put it on,  poke them with a needle and push them flat (this is a sign that your layer is too thick).   Add layers of ABS/acetone solution until you can no longer see the fiberglass cloth.  Then take another layer of fiberglass cloth and imbed it overtop the first one using either a flat tip soldering gun or repeatedly rubbing it with acetone.   Take some more ABS dissolveed in acetone and add think layers again until you can no longer see the fiberglass cloth.  Once done, try cutting off any excess cloth and ABS with a utility knife, of if its too think sand it back with 80 or 120 grit sandpaper, smooth with 220.

Only a couple of layers of cloth embedded in ABS on the back of your crack will likely be strong enough.  If its a high stress area maybe add a third layer of fiberglass cloth and ABS covering.

[vangremlin]

Thank you so much for the detailed instructions!!  I'll let everyone know how it turns out.

[priya]

Thank you so much for the detailed instructions!!  I'll let everyone know how it turns out.

No problem.  If you use the heatgun method, keep an eye on it and make sure its not bending your console as well as melting the fiberglass cloth into the ABS.  My heatgun on one occasion stopped producing enough heat to easily melt the fiberglass cloth into the ABS and I pressed quite hard to get it to work better and it bent in about a 3 inch diameter area of the armrest (the rightmost side of the grey area you see in picture #8).  I ended up trying to fill up the depressed area with ABS and was quite annoyed with myself.

[priya]

WooHoo!  I'm glad to see all my photobucket pictures are back.  I don't know when that happened but I gather Photobucket decided charging everyone for their service wasn't working out.   

[priya]

I wanted to update my Eagle project with the latest changes I've made but Photobucket says I've already got 69 more pictures than the free account allows so unfortunately I can't post the pictures I took.  I'm putting in a very large high efficiency fuel filter from a Cat diesel with 2 micron filter capacity.  The reason for this is there's a lot of rust sediment in my gas tank and new tanks are not available.  This rust sediment has been clogging my 390 Holley carburetor something fierce as you can see from this earlier picture:



Ordinary automotive filters have 30-50 micron filtering capacity and that's been allowing all manner of crap from the tank to get through the filter.  Hopefully this new filter is going to solve the problem which causes a rough idle which is a major annoyance to me on a new engine.  Sorry I can't show you the photos of the installation I made.

[vangremlin]

Hi Priya!

Good to hear from you again!

You can also attach photos to the message, there is a button right below the box where you type in your message to "+ Attachments and other options."  Would like to see the setup you've come up with and hopefully it works for you!

[priya]

Hi Priya!

Good to hear from you again!

You can also attach photos to the message, there is a button right below the box where you type in your message to "+ Attachments and other options."  Would like to see the setup you've come up with and hopefully it works for you!

Thanks Vangremlin, I'll have at it soon.

[priya]

Since I got the car done I haven't put a whole lot of miles on it, you can see the odometer since rebuild is just under 5,000 km.

Here's the filter and a base for it my husband made out of a chunk of aluminum.  We were going to initially put it on the strut tower but it was pretty tight there so we moved the starter solenoid and other wiring from its factory position to make space for the filter and housing.

Here's the picture of it after my husband made the fuel lines and we moved the electrical to the strut tower.  After several dumps of gas down the carb it finally filled the filter and started - no leaks!

I've also finally started on fixing the rear spoiler.  It was damaged a couple of years back when I backed into Ward's Truck.  I've got the damage fixed and its ready for someone to paint it for me.

Is there anyway to intersperse my pictures with my text?

[86Woodgrain]

Hey priya, do you happen to go to the Saskatoon cruise night in August? I am not in Saskatoon but I try to go every year. I have not seen your car there. I plan on going this August too, I really look forward to the event. Not sure if I will bring my 86 wagon to it or not yet, we'll see how much progress I make.

[priya]

Hey priya, do you happen to go to the Saskatoon cruise night in August? I am not in Saskatoon but I try to go every year. I have not seen your car there. I plan on going this August too, I really look forward to the event. Not sure if I will bring my 86 wagon to it or not yet, we'll see how much progress I make.

You know, I have not gone, except I think but one year I was there for a bit parked at the A&W on 8th street maybe around 2016.  Nowadays I have the Eagle put away in a tiny car box until the fall when I swap the Eagle the Eagle into the garage and the Corvette into the tiny car box.  The way we've been doing it I won't be making it to the August cruise night any time soon.  Sorry about that.