A Little Engine Eye Candy...

[Badinfo]

Ill do the valve cover and make a cover for the steering box as soon as school lets me...

http://www.capparsa.com/omar/car/engine1.jpg

http://www.capparsa.com/omar/car/engine2.jpg

Oh yea, since this is engine tuning, I figure the airbox mod is good for around 150hp (you know, it deflects heat, lowering intake temperatures...) :D

[Renn 208]

bah! not even a red X to tide me over? Keep editing!

[Badinfo]

Oh the pictures are there, they are huge though. Ill fix that once I get back to my dorm...

Ick, my web host is being very slow today...

[Renn 208]

Ah, gotcha...yep that is one slow server. I'm sure it's sick though...once it finishes loading over here.

[Ashman]

looking good there... What did you make the battery cover out of?

Alon

[speedyTe]

Nice cover

[Badinfo]

Thanks!

What did you make the battery cover out of?

I used a sheet of acrylic. Its melting point is 260f and its pretty easy to cut with a dremel. Its cheap too.

[Brabus]

Very nice!! :0 I like it. What kind of paint did you use? Post a DIY!

[babycarlsson]

Originally posted by Brabus@Dec 11 2003, 05:17 PM
Very nice!! :0 I like it. What kind of paint did you use? Post a DIY!
:werd: Like it!!!

[Badinfo]

Very nice!! :0 I like it. What kind of paint did you use? Post a DIY!

Alright:
You will need
(1) Sheet of acrylic, easily bought at Home Depot near where they keep the key maker. Get the thinner sheet, its easier to work with and costs less.

(A few) Cans of engine spray paint and clear coat. Considering the temperatures experienced in the battery compartment, I suppose you could use regular spray paint, but the only advantage I can see to this is that regular spray paint gives you a better finish than the thicker engine stuff

(1) Dremel or other similiar cutting tool

(1) Sheet of poster board

(1) Sheet of 600 grit sandpaper

Optional:
(1) Bottle of 3M Imperial Rubbing Compound (~2000 grit)
(1) Bottle of Hand Polish
(1) Bottle of Carnuba Wax
(2) Towels or a bunch of paper towels

Method:
1.) Use the poster board to make a template of the opening you want to fill. Its a lot easier than trying to cut up a sheet of acrylic to fit.

2.) Trace the outline of the fitted posterboard onto the sheet of acrylic, use something erasable like a vis-a-vis (more on that later)

3.) Have at it with the dremel. I found the wood cutting bit (looks like a regular drill bit) worked the best (cut-off wheel is too much of a pain). At 35k rpm, it just slides through the acrylic like butter.

4.) Now you have to paint. You have two options. You can either paint the top, as I did, or paint the bottom side (remember, acrylic is clear). [If you paint the top, you will get a finish similiar to your other engine components. If you paint the bottom, you get a wonderful mirror finish that, quite literally, looks like a colored mirror. I wanted to do this but a) Lettering is a pain, because the letters have to go down first, so you have to mask out everything except the letters B) The finish wouldn't match the rest of my engine bay] Anyway, whatever you chose to do, first you must sand down the acrylic with the sandpaper. This is essential because paint will not stick to unsanded acrylic. Even with the sheet sanded down, the paint wont stick very well. So, use a bunch (I used 6) light coats of paint, leaving about half an hour between coats. Let the thing sit overnight before you do anything else.

Optional:
5.) If you don't want to make it look real nice, you are done. If you are a perfectionist (like most of us) You now have to take that imperial rubbing compound and give the cover a once over.

6.) Now, spray on the clear gloss. I put on 2 coats for that extra nice look. Make sure you rub down with the rubbing compound between coats. And let sit for 30 mins between coats.

7.) Now you can just polish it with regular car polish and put on a coat of carnuba to make it easy to clean in the future.

So there ya'll go. Its mostly common sense, but I figured id put it down in writing for the record. I was intially afraid of the acrylic melting/combusting. But its been a couple days and I gave the car a couple hard throttle twisties runs to get everything has hot as possible and I have seen no distortion whatsoever. As I stated earlier, the melting point of this stuff is 260F, so I don't see there being any issues.

On a related note, I was thinking about using the thick sheets of acrylic to make a new headlight lens for the w124, to get rid of the frasnel lens and put projectors behind it. It would look odd with just a single projector, but something like the q45s lights might look sick.

[dshr]

Nice job Badinfo looking good B)

[redline]

Thats wierd, my w124 has the battery in the trunk.

[Badinfo]

Yea, v8 w124s all had the battery in the trunk. Better weight distribution and fitment.

[Tinman]

not bad, man, looks pretty deece. You should make the star on the airbox black too. that'd match too! Looks hot regardless.

L8