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build diary April 16, 2006: Well, yesterday wasn't much better when it came to frustration. One of the things I did with this latest piece of glass was make it symmetrical. My previous versions were not. The bending of the channel went quite easily after all my hard-earned lessons last time. The plywood was 0.8mm thicker this time which actually made things a little more difficult. The nice thing about a symmetrical top is that instead of having to set up my bending tool twice, I simply turned the piece of channel around and did both sides that way. A bit of Scotchbrite on the aluminum and it looks really good. I hopped into the Seven to run down to work because I wanted to touch up some welding on the side support. That went well - and the Seven refused to start. It was the same symptoms as before except that I never managed to get it running again. I spent a long time on the phone with my friend and boss Bill to no avail. The current thinking is that something in my original ECU is damaging the processors in the chips. I'll try a new chip in this new ECU and see what happens. Argh. Today was set aside to do some work on my trailer. It's been having some cracking problems where a loose fender once vibrated badly. I've been patching it up but it was time to fix that for good. Some hefty angle iron and some fun with the plasma cutter and it's much better. I wouldn't tow a 3000 lb vehicle on it, but 1300? No problem. Once that was done I stuck the windshield on the side supports and went to bolt it up. Uhoh. My previous glass wasn't symmetrical because my scuttle isn't symmetrical. I also put the side supports a little too high and it was difficult to get the windshield level as it teeter-tottered on a high point in the middle of the scuttle. Some choice words, some oversize holes and it's done. The flat top makes a level mounting crucial. So how does it look? Fantastic. The rounded top has bugged me since I first put the windshield on the car. The new design, about 1.5" lower in the middle, looks much more aggressive and is still out of my sight line. It was a little frustrating but I'm done. And that concludes the last full day I have to work on the Seven before the Texas meet. Mark Rivera reports that his car is running well. With a 12 psi turbo on the engine, it should really scoot. Chris Fiaccone's bike-engined car will also make mine look slow. I'm going to look like the sad also-ran! entry 1203 of 1439 |