Creating UBERCLAM! Was "Repairing the clam"

[Stan]

Originally Posted by MickOpalak

What happen to your wife? That sounds horrible.

Musta been all the hand sanding of the clam Randy had her doing! (jk)

[Beanie]

I am very impressed, as always, Randy. I did a really big fiberglass job once, turning a fiberglass-bodied hatchback into a convertible, and know how long it takes to get it done to the point that you would not know it had been worked on. Do you ever just sit around and do nothing? You're making us all look so lazy.

[Irishfan04]

Seriously. Everyone chip in, let's buy Randy a Sam's-club sized vat of Cheetos. That'll smooth out the laziness curve nicely...

[Irishfan04]

http://www.thecoffeeweb.com/searchre...?CategoryID=34


Found it. Sweet. If anyone wants to chip in, let me know. Randy, please PM me if you want free, delicious, laziness-inducing Chee-tos.

[Beanie]

Originally Posted by Irishfan04

http://www.thecoffeeweb.com/searchre...?CategoryID=34


Found it. Sweet. If anyone wants to chip in, let me know. Randy, please PM me if you want free, delicious, laziness-inducing Chee-tos.

"Cheetos Crunch: Buy individually or in case of 104 bags"

That ought to do it. Maybe the inevitable Cheetos powder could be worked right into the Chrome Orange? For texture.

[Randy Chase]

Originally Posted by MickOpalak

What happen to your wife? That sounds horrible.

She was playing indoor soccer, she plays sports every day. In this game, she decided the other player was not going to score. Both players collided and fell. My wife braced her fall with her hand, sending her hand into her wrist and causing the joint at the end of the arm to split into small bits. The doctors implanted titanium plates to hold everything together.

Hey, kinda like my clam. She will be back. Better and stronger than ever. UberWrist!

By the way, I do like cheetohs a lot. Maybe we can incorporate them into the clam.

Today's update- Bill got up at 4:00am, I got up at 5:00am to go back to work on it. We installed the clam back on the car. Man, this is no simple task. I mean it is not rocket science, but you have to do a lot of things, and some of them are not easy.

But we got the clam on the car and then I drove up to the Club 111 autocross in EL Toro. Unfortunately, we ran out of time and never aligned the car after the rear track brace installation. FYI, over 2 INCHES of TOE OUT on the the rear tires is not a good thing.

I got the car up to El Toro in 100 miles of white knuckled driving where we reset the toe using a crappy tape measure and the softtop stays as straight edges.

The clam hit some cones square on and never felt it.

[JnC]

Originally Posted by Randy Chase

My wife braced her fall with her hand, sending her hand into her wrist and causing the joint at the end of the arm to split into small bits. The doctors implanted titanium plates to hold everything together.

You know, if she ever gives you grief in the future, just remind her if she was a horse they'd shot her.

I'm kidding of course. That sounds extremely painful. One thing in her favor seems to be sports and a good metabolism. Here's to a rapid recovery.

[trompazo]

I got caught in a sudden unexpected ice/snowstorm yesterday which the Neovas didn't like too much. Needless to say, I now have a crack in the undersurface of the front clam.

In repairing it, I would like to strengthen it to prevent future cracks from curbs and cones.

Randy, do you think that getting it repaired at a fibreglass shop and then pouring in the FOAM B to the inside of the clam would make it much more resistent to cracks?

I slid into a curb so slowly that I could have stopped the car with my hands, but it still gave it a couple of nice cracks. Given that it can get kinda chilly here during some events, I'm now concerned how it will stand up to cold cones.

[JWA]

Is "Cyclone" spelled with an S in Canada?

[trompazo]

Originally Posted by JWA

Is "Cyclone" spelled with an S in Canada?

No, it's spelled with an "S" everywhere. The GMC Syclone (fastest production truck ever made) was actually never sold in Canada and only sold in the US and Saudi Arabia (stangely).

In 1990, this was the coolest thing I ever read and wanted one ever since: http://www.sportmachines.com/magrack...ver_11-90.html

[Randy Chase]

Originally Posted by trompazo

Randy, do you think that getting it repaired at a fibreglass shop and then pouring in the FOAM B to the inside of the clam would make it much more resistent to cracks?

I think you have some options. One would be to simply build up the inside with another layer or two. The clam material is quite thin and bendy, yet brittle. So if something bends it more than 15-20 degrees, it cracks. So I think stopping the bending is a good thing.

Now I would like to make a general warning. Some ability to bend is a good thing. If you contact the ground with the bottom of the clam and this scrapes, that is not good, but if the clam bends up 1" because it can, then maybe you miss out on major damage. I have this small concern that my UberClam may not bend and at some point, I might find out the real downside from what I have done.

But I don't think so. I just want someone else to understand the concern.

IN MY OPINION... the flex happens behind the front and I only beefed up the front. I am finding that removing the winglets and plinth also means I don't contact the ground anymore anyway. So not removing them will not have that advantage.

At this point, I have sections with only foam in them and sections where the foam is sandwiched between hard layers of fiberglass or carbon-kevlar. Either case seems extremely more rugged to me. I think now that just adding the foam inside would have done a lot by itself.

P.S. The UberClam is now officially on hold as a project as I need to not have any more distractions from my business for a few weeks as we get ready to ship our new recorder out.

[soulmn]

How dare you put the lotus on hold!

soulman

[Randy Chase]

Sorry. Had to. Much work to be done right now. Putting almost everything on hold. No autocross. No track day. Cancelled everything.

One small update. I have noticed how well the new clam clears sloped driveway entrances and exits now. I can even take some of them that I used to slow down to a crawl, at a higher speed. And there is no contact. Removing the plinth and the winglets stopped the contact points.

[soulmn]

Pass that hint along to lotus. I do get tired of scraping or making sure that I angle into every driveway to avoid the scrape.

soulman

[raggedy1]

I like the winglets

[soulmn]

Don't get me wrong, I like the look of the winglets, but I would rather not scrape.

soulman

[shay2nak]

So is this what the new 2007 Elise/Exige "bumpers" will consist of? Just strengthening of the clam?

[Randy Chase]

Originally Posted by soulmn

Don't get me wrong, I like the look of the winglets, but I would rather not scrape.

soulman

I will be putting new "winglets" back on.. but as a separate splitter that is bolted on and replacable and stronger than the clam. With sacrificial polycarbonate rubbing strips.

[Randy Chase]

Small update. Clam has been on the car and all the layers of added carbon-kevlar and fiberglass are done.



The clam now needs a few things.

1. Alignment. It is not quite right as we rushed putting it back on.
2. Drilling new holes for the grill.
3. Re-install oil cooler grills.
4. Final gel coat and sand
5. Paint.
6. Custom splitter
7. Custom skid guards

I will not put any more film on the clam.

I need to find a place that can do the gelcoat and painting well.

[babak]

It's a very clean look, I really like it. What do you have in mind for the splitter?