Cosmos Cruizer

[Boddaker]

Congrats on being our Featured Mod for March 2013!

Awesome, thanks for the feature!

And this thing is pretty sweet! It will be a welcome addition to the Bod Mod Garage. Thank you so much!

[Boddaker]

Got the top bars modded and relocated last night.

Since the bars would be mounted straight up, I had to get rid of the angled flat ends.

After filing the ends, I drilled and tapped them to accept an 8-32 socket screw.

I placed the bars onto the case and adjusted their height with wood blocks until I got them where I wanted them. Then I whipped up a couple mounting brackets from 1/4" flat bar stock. This case will be quite heavy and these bars will need to support the weight, so merely attaching them straight down into the case's top panel wouldn't be prudent, especially now with the 420 rad cutout. These mounting brackets will distribute the lifting forces across to both sides where the case frame is stronger.

Here are the top bars mounted to the brackets.

A close up shot of the front bracket. I still need to secure them to the case frame.

Once I got the positioning of the bars, I used cardboard templates to mark the ends, then transferred those markings over to the foam piece and cut the holes.

A look-see from the front.

The bars are not completely parallel to each other. I widened the spacing more at the front to go along with the overall look of the case.

Here's a quick wide shot of the whole case from the side.

Now that the bars are in place, I can continue shaping the foam, adding some contours down the center and working around the bar ends. If all goes well this weekend, I might actually get the foam fiberglass-ready.

[Boddaker]

Just a quick update... Got the surface smoothed out, and added a depression in the center which will be under the bars, and that will continue on down to the back panel.

Just for fun I set the bars back in place and tossed on the oval decorative pieces for a look-see. I happened across those at the local auto parts store in the dressup section. :thumb:

Ok back to it...

[SXRguyinMA]

Funny to see those oval pieces - I usually only see them on beat up old civics lol

[Boddaker]

Funny to see those oval pieces - I usually only see them on beat up old civics lol

lol I know. I'll have to wait til I get the case painted and see how they look then. If it looks too cheesy, I won't put them on.

[Boddaker]

More progress on the top panel, getting some primer on it after much sanding and bondo...

I know it's only one picture, but it pretty much sums up the work done thus far.

[msmrx57]

I know it's only one picture, but it pretty much sums up the work done thus far.

Doesn't it seem strange, all that effort and not much visible progress? Getting things shaped and smooth is sooooo labor intensive but has such a HUGE effect on the finished product. Looking good so far and anxiously looking forward to more progress(this theme is right up my alley).

[Boddaker]

Still working on the top panel, but it's been in a holding pattern until I can get a good dry weekend to do some fiberglassing. (which might actually be this weekend <crosses fingers> ). In the mean time, I've been skipping ahead to the front grill. So here is some of that progress:

Using 1 1/2" x 1/8" aluminum flat bar, I cut 18 pieces down to size. This is the first half.

Next I started rounding the bottoms to match the curve of the side panels.

The cutting is followed by the filing.

All 18 pieces rounded. A bit more work is needed to get them all the same.

Next step is to drill mounting holes through all pieces. I wanted the grill to come out more in the center, so I staggered each piece by 3/16" before drilling. I double and triple-checked the spacing, and made sure the pieces were square at the bottom before clamping them together.

the 3/16" offset was about the max I could go, leaving me with a 1/4" between the hole and the edges of each end piece.

Half of the grill done, with temporary acrylic spacers added just to see how it looks.

Looks pretty good, now to do the other side. You can also see my badass cardboard mockup of the front bezel where the lcd screen, fan controller, and key switch will go.

Repeated the same process for the other side, and assembled all together. I love the stepping!

And finally, a shot of the whole thing in place.

Can't wait to get the top edges done, and the whole thing polished up. It's gonna look shaweet!

[TLHarrell]

That's a great looking grille on there. Very classy.

[msmrx57]

SWEEEEEEET!!!! Love it!!!