RS Blog 6 - Some Rivets then Full Turtle
Making some progress again after our Overland Bound Miata chaos. Getting more comfortable with using a hammer on panels and just generally drilling holes. Not too much excitement at this point.
“Major” accomplishments include fitment of both side panels and floor trimming.
Trimming little bits at a time is key for clean alignment.
Using tools in new and less safe ways
The floor needs to be slightly trimmed down, by slightly I mean 1/16” on each side….
This gets the front edge of floor perfectly flush, however it presented a few challenges. I don’t have a large shear, nor deep band saw. No real tools meant for straight clean long cuts. Until I remembered my table saw. Quickly ordered an alloy cutting blade and then realized it is wider than my needed cut.
More pondering later and I realized I could space around the blade to get a partial blade width cut. Including some careful clamping and adjustments to yield excellent results.
Flush fit on right side with small gap near pedals, for now I am happy. During final fitment I might adjust a bit closer. ;-)
After learning to gently roll the edges of panels over the chassis tubing I started getting comfortable. For now I waiting on finishing the last edges, the ones that everyone will see, so I can use a longer piece of wood and minimize rippling.
One small note was the elasticity of aluminum. When you bend it against the tube it will spring back a small bit no matter what I did. I suspect the only way to remove this small gap is to take off panels and roll over a slightly small diameter tube. Food for thought before I finish installation with rivets.
For now we roll!
Big thanks to Garrett for coming over and providing the extra muscles to lift up the chassis. Turns out two people can lift it without too much struggle. Pure craziness??? A quick roll over will give me the access to trim, drill and install the bottom three panels. Then rolling back and finish rivets and some insulation. I will get a time-lapse on the return to normal.
