Atom's 2 door Amazon wagon Project:Headquarters

[Atom]

Amazing build. Curious as to how you tied the hydro ebrake in? T fitting or seperate calipers? Dis it interfere with the foot brakes at all?

I just ran from the rear output of the main master into the input of the ebrake master and then out of that master to the rear brakes. When the ebrake is off there's no real change in pedal feel. When the ebrake is applied then the pedal is super firm.

Osom ride bud! Just wanted to ask did you polished body to get rid of the dust when you painted it or you just left how it came in first place? Because in pics body looks mint ...=_=

I did not polish out any dust. I wanted a vintage feel to the car so I used single stage paint and left it to patina.

Adam

[Little Red]

That came out of left field.

[Atom]

So, I've been super busy on this project, but just can't keep up with the forum posts/updates. So until I have a bunch of time to get beck in here and update section by section, here's a mini picture grenade I just pulled the pin on. When the weather get stupid bad I'll have more inside time available and be able to spend time in front of the computer.

[Atom]

I know this will peeve some people, but 2 months with no update? C'mannnnnnnnn

How about four years?? Better late than never?

['70dim]

Care to share some details on the taillights? Where did you get those LED boards?

[Atom]

Care to share some details on the taillights? Where did you get those LED boards?

I machined the blocks out of acrylic, inserted individual LEDs, soldered the legs together, soldered rows together, added wires and connected them to voltage reducer/stabilizer boards I got from Amazon.

[MikeyRa]

YAY! Thread revival!

[JuusoEt]

Been reading this thread few days, and man awesome work! Shame i cant see those pictures from few years back.

[Atom]

Been reading this thread few days, and man awesome work! Shame i cant see those pictures from few years back.

If you open it with Chrome and add the “photobucket embed fix” to your Chrome browser then refresh, they’ll show up. It’s the second embed fix that’s listed that works.

[Atom]

[Atom]

Sorry I'm so awful at incremental updates. It's a bit more difficult here than on other forums. here's some new pics. Out enjoying the car these days!










Couple of articles:

Petrolicious

Jalopnik

[Atom]

Spoiler:

I’ve always wanted to build a hatch spoiler for this car. The first thing I did was make a template of the contour of the top of the hatch out of 1/4” MDF. Then, when I had it shaped the way I wanted, I made several copies with the table router to create a mold to do the top part of the spoiler.



Easiest way to make a part off this is to glue down some foil and spray it with PVA mold release.



Then I vacuum bagged a layup of two layers carbon and two CSM fiberglass layers.



Then I figured out about how much I wanted it to stick out and trimmed it to match the contour of the hatch opening. Adding holes to access the hatch mounts.



Next I masked off the top of the hatch. The tip here is to plan ahead. Lay down some double backed tape and mask over that. That will create space for adhesive later.



Next I laid down three layers of CSM fiberglass and while it was still wet I added the top layer.



Once dry, trim and check fit.



Next, tape off all the outside surfaces and add two part expanding foam. Then shape with razor knife and sandpaper (shapes easy)



Then I brushed on a layer or two of fiberglass resin to create a skin then bondo smooth



Next, mask off (again) all the outer surfaces and add multiple layers of masking tape around the edges. Then I gently (so it doesn’t crush the foam) vacuum bag two layers of carbon to the bottom.



The reason for multiple layers around the edge is so that you can grind the new carbon back around the perimeter until you get to the tape and the other surfaces will be safe.



Next comes a couple layers of clear gel coat. Interesting note: fiberglass resin is air inhibited. Meaning that it stays tacky when exposed to air so that you can add layers and have them stick to each other. In my experience, if you want a surface cure on your gel coat, you can spray PVA over the gel coat and it’ll seal the surface. Then when you sand the PVA will peel off.



Once it’s sanded flat, I clear coat with automotive clear to add UV protection.



Then it’s time to install. I use a combo of 3M tape (now stick) and urethane adhesive (long term stick).



Rinse, dry, repeat. The whole process took about a week of mornings and evenings in between trying to troubleshoot my cooling issues. It’s not perfect, but it sure is good enough.

[Atom]

Splitter:

[Atom]

Dumb little detail that no one will probably ever notice, but I gold powder coated the lug nuts to match the factory gold anodized hood letters.



Getting started on the muffler. I’m gonna work on the car all weekend to try and get the exhaust buttoned up.

[Atom]

Aluminum portion of the exhaust weighs 15 lbs, so I went from 60.5 to 28.5 total. Don’t know what it sounds like just yet. I’m about 90° worth of weld on the last joint from being done and ran out of argon.