Car appreciation... the aesthetics, the engineering, etc

hehe

Ah, 5k more in value at least.

Yeah I know it's not a new thing to do, I mean ac - cobra for one lol.

Think a supercharged smaller capacity (1.5-2.0) v6 would sit nice in an Mx5, too many "will it ever spool" turbo conversions in them at the minute

Mazda mx3 2l?

Gleaming. You can do mine if you like.

On another note, how long should a re-gas keep blowing cold? I had mine done in June and it’s already lost its icyness. I have the aircon on constantly at about 15 degrees, but on average I only drive for about 3 hours a week.

sweet lensflare.

Paging @Ordinata :)

You have a leak.

It should be icy for years, not weeks.

I concur, you need to establish where the leak is and get it fixed, in my experience this will cost a lot more than you want it too.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/i/192301726905

@Dammit

Hah, I was looking at Scimitars last night.

I'm popping down South to collect the Volvo tomorrow (it's been at the detailers getting polished etc), this is why it's going to piss down - apologies all.

It's not looking too bad for a 21 year old car, now that Jim's gone over it again:

As @Hefty said years, hopefully they used some UV Dye in the last re-gas, have a mooch around the condenser at the front with a UV torch, stone damage is the most common cause of leaks, look for oil stains as well

How long is the current shine expected to last? Just interested as I've only ever managed to keep a fading red car ok for a month or two. Wonder what kind of products Jim uses?

He last polished it around two years ago. Since then I've used Aqua-Wax every wash, and waxed it properly roughly every 4 washes.

Some patches of the roof were just beginning to go a very light pink - which is why I decided it was time to go see Jim again.

The biggest change is to the unpainted plastics, which had gone grey again - but that's actually the expected lifespan of the GTechniq stuff, so nothing odd there and a re-application has brought them back to black.

I'd expect this to last another two years - at which point I'll get it repainted, glass out, new seals etc etc.

Two years is pretty good. Problem over here is just the sun. And the enviro water based paints. They just don't stand up!

I was hoping you'd say he uses 'x' product and it stays good. No time anymore for waxing apart from maybe every 3 months.

Just picked up the car, mentioned your question and the answer was to keep a decently thick layer of wax on the car at all times- a wax that blocks UV.

Cool, thanks. It's time to buy some new wax so I'll investigate. About to use my machine polisher for the first time in years to see how well I can rejuvenate the red 306 in my front drive. Might help it pass rego this year...

Ok, bit beyond my pay-grade from a technical stand point here, how does this sound as a process:

• Design intake plenum and runners in CAD package
  
• Test design using CFD program of choice
  
• Create CNC file that then
  
• Machines shape of plenum+runners out of foam
  
• Wrap foam in carbon fibre cloth
  
• Vac-bag it, infuse resin
  
• Dissolve foam
  
  

?

Coolant sufficiently flushed and almost plumbed everything in. Called it a day on the heater hoses, that'll be tomorrow's job as had to modify one of fans due to the wider rad.

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Yep, that's one way of doing it.

I have made an airbox in a similar way before using acetone to dissolve a styrofoam core. I covered the foam in parcel tape to stop the resin dissolving the foam during layup, then peeled what was left of that out of the part.

Happy to help with CAD and design, know a few places that will CNC foam too

I was wondering about the resin/foam interaction, wondered whether you could cover the foam with a layer of wax then pour hot water through the form to melt it out after dissolving the foam.

Would I need a vacuum pump is thae question I am faced with if we go this route.

You can wrap the foam in a few things as a resist - used cling film before too. Parcel tape worked ok for me as long as you take the time to put it on without wrinkling.

Whether it needs vac bagging or not is really down to material choice and shape, e.g if you want to do carbon you will need to vac bag and infusion

At McLaren the vast majority of tooling they make for composite parts are machined from a really high density foam (but split moulds as apposed to a "lost" former)