It's hard to follow up a couple "first drive" posts with regular build content, but that's all I've got for a bit,
After getting a little dust on the rig I knew I better wrap up a small project before I drove it any more,
The lowest point in the chassis is a tube, with plates on both sides which form the lower link mounts, these mounts ended up forming the perfect are to trap a good amount of mud/dirt & debris, not only that, but it will also be one of those areas that provides a not so nice facial every time a pressure washer is pointed at it, I recognized this issue right away, & knew I would have to fill this void with something, preferable after powdercoating,
After a little research I decided to try a good deep pour two part epoxy resin with a metallic pearl mixed in,
The kiddo has messed with hobby casting resin before so we conversed on this project a few times, I mentioned possibly putting some LED light strips in the void before filling everything in, of course that got a big approval, (should also net me some street cred with the local ricers!)
Anyway, long story short, when they say you should do a test pour, maybe don't make the final project your test piece. Turns out epoxy resin, especially one designed for deep pours really don't like cold temps, & of course the week I do this project it never got to 40*
So, after 24 hours the resin was just as liquid as the minute I poured it,
On the plus side, the resin goes dormant under 40*, so it wasn't a total loss, or big mess to clean out, I just had to add heat,
A couple 300W work lights, setup right on top of this area got everything curing,
Unfortunately the reintroduced warmth in the shop woke up more than some dormant epoxy, the next day I was welcomed by a nicely hardend product, infused with about a half dozen trapped flys,
Either way, I had about 7 days of cure time to work out how I was going to fix it,
While waiting, & after the last drive, I decided an exhaust gas temperature gauge would be a good addition, & knowing the headers would be off again, I put the CNC router to work modifying BBC exhaust gaskets to fit my application better,
After every big block chevy header gasket on the property was modified, the headers were removed & the weld in bungs & temperature probes were installed,
A couple hundred mile trip to pick up spare sheet metal parts, & making a few repairs mentioned earlier pretty well took up the remainder of those days off, so after another work week my 7 day cure time was up,
After pondering things a bit, I decided another pour was needed, this time using a tabletop epoxy, since I only had about 3/16 of an inch in depth to work with, I didn't really care for how the pearl looked so this time I tinted the resin with a dark blue acrylic, to try & burry the current mess, before anything was mixed, I took a die grinder & dug out the fly carcases, then scuffed the surface of the first pour, & finally mixed & poured the final layer, this time putting the heat to it right away,
The following morning & was much happier with the results,
Allison was pretty happy about the LED's as well,
Ricer approved!