The journey of one man and his Mule(s)

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Magic Beans
Posts: 4789
Joined: Thu Nov 24, 2011 1:01 pm

Re: The journey of one man and his Mule(s)

Post by Magic Beans »

Morning all :)

It's been a bit special this weekend huh \:D/

After a couple of days eating meat, building man forts out of hay (including the recruiting of minions :lol: ) I came back yesterday evening ready to crack on again. First up was taking the edges off the metal from where the grinder has shredded it.

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After filing and a wash down

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Cut to a long time later, after a huge amount of tweaking to get things lined up again

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Test fit was a success so I marked up the point of the inner arch where the speed flaps needed to end. Ensuring there's plenty of tyre room etc

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Cut. This time without finger grinding. Although my many wounds have kept getting knocked all weekend.

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Scoring the surface to mark where the bends need to go

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As I don't have a vice or any proper metal bending tools I had to improvise. So what I decided to do was clamp a metal ruler along the edge which was being bent, to ensure that line was followed. Then doing the same thing in different parts of the fold

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With it bent roughly into position I then used a mallet and a flat edge (good old spare decking) to bash it all straight (this is before)

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Both sides now done the edges of the flaps etc could be filed down, to take the sharp edges off

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All done it was finally time to remove the plastic film and reveal the nice clean metal underneath :)

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All reassembled and ready to be mounted back onto the car.

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It was pretty late by the time this was done so I called it quits for the night. Hopefully I'll get chance to finish the job completely tonight, if not it'll be tomorrow.
craig
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Joined: Sat Dec 18, 2004 3:44 am

Re: The journey of one man and his Mule(s)

Post by craig »

Top job squire, makes me want one now, but got plenty of other things that need sorting first. Mainly building a car. :lol:
Magic Beans
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Joined: Thu Nov 24, 2011 1:01 pm

Re: The journey of one man and his Mule(s)

Post by Magic Beans »

Don't DIY it! It takes bl**dy hours to do and is a massive PITA :eye:
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Peter Gidden
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Re: The journey of one man and his Mule(s)

Post by Peter Gidden »

Looking good Phil - much work indeed. :thumleft:
synXero
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Re: The journey of one man and his Mule(s)

Post by synXero »

Stellar effort regardless of impacts! Now the rest of the underbody.
Magic Beans
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Joined: Thu Nov 24, 2011 1:01 pm

Re: The journey of one man and his Mule(s)

Post by Magic Beans »

Thanks guys :oops:

Should have it all mounted and assembled by the end of the day, so when there's a break in the weather I'll take it for a shakedown run. If the results are good I'll make plans to do the rest. The other panels should be much easier in theory and should fit any MKII :)

The front end is so much more solid now, as the tray pulls everything together and the bolts into the underbody also add rigidity. I can't imagine the bumper flapping around at speed was doing anything to help the handling of the car :?
Magic Beans
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Joined: Thu Nov 24, 2011 1:01 pm

Re: The journey of one man and his Mule(s)

Post by Magic Beans »

I decided to get up early this morning and finish off the front end, so I can finally get it out of my head and get some proper sleep! :eye:

First up was mounting the bumper back on fully, along with all bolts etc. Next up was bolting the attaching the undertray to the stock underbody trim, to ensure it doesn't move at all once it's all in place.

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The blue area should have a sign saying "Coming soon: Custom arch liners and no more views of the floor" :lol:

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Due to a break in the weather it was time to roll out and get all the bits bolted back on.

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Some of what needed to go on

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Arch flares and sidelights on

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Lights in

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Just one thing left to go on then....

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One of the flaps

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I got to wondering if anyone else has made one of these before and incorporated speed flaps into the design :-k

Must resist the urge to start working on the custom liners before Le Mans 8-[

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Job done :D Just need the rain to move along so I can test it out...
craig
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Joined: Sat Dec 18, 2004 3:44 am

Re: The journey of one man and his Mule(s)

Post by craig »

Nice work Phil :clap:
Ben
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Re: The journey of one man and his Mule(s)

Post by Ben »

Looking good \:D/
2001 BMW M5 (Bahnstormer) | 2004 RX8 231 (the Racecat) | 2001 Volvo V70 (Swedish eBay barge)

Previous:
1989 MR2 Mk1b T-bar | 1988 MR2 SC Super Edition
pistol pete
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Re: The journey of one man and his Mule(s)

Post by pistol pete »

Looking good buddy
Magic Beans
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Re: The journey of one man and his Mule(s)

Post by Magic Beans »

Thankyou gentlemen :)

Looks like the weather's going to be compliant this weekend, so I can finally get this thing officially back on the road :D Shame it's taken until June to get there though :shock: Time to dig out the GoPro me thinks :whistle:
dawesy
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Re: The journey of one man and his Mule(s)

Post by dawesy »

top work there phil, very pro looking.
be good to see if the flaps have helped
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Moo
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Location: Newmarket, Suffolk

Re: The journey of one man and his Mule(s)

Post by Moo »

Seems like every time I don't visit the forums for a few days there's loads of changes :lol: Very impressive work :clap:

Considered doing something similar with my bumper years ago. Will be interested in hearing the results and I might have to re-visit this area if your findings are positive 8)
Magic Beans
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Joined: Thu Nov 24, 2011 1:01 pm

Re: The journey of one man and his Mule(s)

Post by Magic Beans »

:thumleft:

Taking it out for a proper run tomorrow so will report back with the results. Might take the GoPro out with me and get some footage, to make the most of the better seasons while we have them :)
Magic Beans
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Joined: Thu Nov 24, 2011 1:01 pm

Re: The journey of one man and his Mule(s)

Post by Magic Beans »

So it's been another nice day 8)

Who'd have thought it would be June before I got to do my first proper run in the car?! :shock: It was worth the wait though..

I'm pleased to announce that the front end work has made a noticeable improvement to the car's handling. The car feels generally a lot more solid and when cornering long bends at 70 mph that floaty/understeery feel is reduced. There's room for improvement, which I think the liners will bring, as it completes the package. Sufficed to say the efforts so far have been worth it :D

I forgot how fast this damn this is though.... :eye:

**Edit** Turns out Adrienne was taking (bad) photos along the way :lol:

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Last edited by Magic Beans on Mon Jun 03, 2013 8:22 am, edited 1 time in total.
pistol pete
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Re: The journey of one man and his Mule(s)

Post by pistol pete »

good to hear buddy, :thumleft:
craig
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Joined: Sat Dec 18, 2004 3:44 am

Re: The journey of one man and his Mule(s)

Post by craig »

Good stuff Phil, that interior looks pretty fresh. :thumleft:
pistol pete
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Re: The journey of one man and his Mule(s)

Post by pistol pete »

loving that interior :thumleft:
Moo
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Location: Newmarket, Suffolk

Re: The journey of one man and his Mule(s)

Post by Moo »

^^ Indeed, interior looks well clean and fresh.
Magic Beans
Posts: 4789
Joined: Thu Nov 24, 2011 1:01 pm

Re: The journey of one man and his Mule(s)

Post by Magic Beans »

It all looks a bit like a mobile amusements on that photo :lol: It's not really distracting in the flesh but it's not as stealth as I'd like. I have designs on something very different, like nothing I've seen in a '2 before. Not sure if it will ever become a reality though :-k

An another note... After seeing the state of things up in the Pyrenees at the moment I thought I'd better fast-track fabricating some arch liners, instead of waiting until we got back 8-[

This is going to be somewhat of an express build photos wise, as my dinner was calling and I wanted to get the front piece mocked up tonight :lol:

God bless ample packaging from order purchases :D

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Cut to some cutting and tweaking having been done

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Needed more height so broke out the big bit and transferred the template across

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More tweaking and cutting later I had the finished article.

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I need to add on a bit at the side as I didn't have enough board width. It's marked on the template so no dramas to add on. All being well the other side should then just be a mirror of this. :pray:
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