Your Easter Project
Discussion
For those that are still building or rebuilding (surely nobody else is daft enough).
What have you been able to do over the Easter break.
I'll start.
A few little odds and sods but the big bits were to lacquer the rear wing and fit the powder coated pylons.
Today, after watching daughter compete in her first hunter trials, was to construct an air box out of aluminum to carry my twin Range Rover 4.6 filters.
The difficult bit is now done and I should finish it tomorrow including all the welding ready for powder coating on Wednesday.
I hope to fire the old girl up later this week. Still quite a few little bits to do before she is ready for an MOT though.
I will try to do a few "taster" photos later this week.
Paul
What have you been able to do over the Easter break.
I'll start.
A few little odds and sods but the big bits were to lacquer the rear wing and fit the powder coated pylons.
Today, after watching daughter compete in her first hunter trials, was to construct an air box out of aluminum to carry my twin Range Rover 4.6 filters.
The difficult bit is now done and I should finish it tomorrow including all the welding ready for powder coating on Wednesday.
I hope to fire the old girl up later this week. Still quite a few little bits to do before she is ready for an MOT though.
I will try to do a few "taster" photos later this week.
Paul
Mark
It's not easy and needs all old lacquer removing (without damaging the weave) and then thorough cleaning.
Mine is not perfect but pretty good for a novice.
I have applied 5 coats of twin pack lacquer, flatted with 1500 w&d then machine finished with "Finesse It" compound then polish.
Cost - about £20 plus my time (quite a bit).
Worth doing though.
Paul
It's not easy and needs all old lacquer removing (without damaging the weave) and then thorough cleaning.
Mine is not perfect but pretty good for a novice.
I have applied 5 coats of twin pack lacquer, flatted with 1500 w&d then machine finished with "Finesse It" compound then polish.
Cost - about £20 plus my time (quite a bit).
Worth doing though.
Paul
Mine came from the Factory with a matt finish and I thought about lacquering it but....
The matt finish causes laminar flow on the surface of the wing reducing drag. The air at the surface tries to stay still, due to the matt finish, which causes the passing air to be in shear. The shear of the passing and stationary air is less friction than the air to surface friction.
Plus it’s a lot of hard work.
Plus if I want to make it look pretty I use black shoe polish.
Steve
The matt finish causes laminar flow on the surface of the wing reducing drag. The air at the surface tries to stay still, due to the matt finish, which causes the passing air to be in shear. The shear of the passing and stationary air is less friction than the air to surface friction.
Plus it’s a lot of hard work.
Plus if I want to make it look pretty I use black shoe polish.
Steve
Storer said:
.....What have you been able to do over the Easter break.
I'll start......
Was looking forward to spending some time out in her, but wet weather put paid to that, so instead I decided to tackle my wing mirrors with an angle grinder (yes really). To cut a long story short, I always preferred the look of the can-am mirrors, but in order to be sure of passing IVA I kept them at full height to ansure correct field of view. I've been meaning to lower them a little ever since. It was consigned to next winter job-list, but swiftly promoted to the top of the list this wet weekend. Before and after photos below... overall height reduced approx 90mm. Of course it's all personal, but I think they look great, and well worth the effort. I'll start......
Paul
Those lowered mirrors do look much better and I bet you can see under the wing too.
I may add a protective film as I will probably do the front etc when she's complete.
I hate cleaning shoes so using boot polish must feel like boot camp!!! All the aerodynamic reasoning just sounds like an elaborate excuse to me Steve.
Paul
Those lowered mirrors do look much better and I bet you can see under the wing too.
I may add a protective film as I will probably do the front etc when she's complete.
I hate cleaning shoes so using boot polish must feel like boot camp!!! All the aerodynamic reasoning just sounds like an elaborate excuse to me Steve.

Paul
[quote=Steve_D]Mine came from the Factory with a matt finish and I thought about lacquering it but....
The matt finish causes laminar flow on the surface of the wing reducing drag.
This is interesting Steve, where did the info come from. ?
Airliners guzzle tons of fuel each trip and minor savings (decimals of percentages) are all adopted these days.. Id be interested to learn more on this.
The boat racers had a similar theory on flatting their hulls to break down drag but its very difficult to get a definative answer on.
The matt finish causes laminar flow on the surface of the wing reducing drag.
This is interesting Steve, where did the info come from. ?
Airliners guzzle tons of fuel each trip and minor savings (decimals of percentages) are all adopted these days.. Id be interested to learn more on this.
The boat racers had a similar theory on flatting their hulls to break down drag but its very difficult to get a definative answer on.
That's weird Paul.
The door mirror stalks look shorter in the second pic to the first!???! How do you do that then? Are they remote-height adjustable? - If so, I WANNA pair!
Seriously though, how robust are they, cos they look a bit 'exposed', but that might be wrong. You happy with these instead of the std fitting?
The door mirror stalks look shorter in the second pic to the first!???! How do you do that then? Are they remote-height adjustable? - If so, I WANNA pair!
Seriously though, how robust are they, cos they look a bit 'exposed', but that might be wrong. You happy with these instead of the std fitting?
V8 Vum said:
That's weird Paul.
The door mirror stalks look shorter in the second pic to the first!???! How do you do that then? Are they remote-height adjustable? - If so, I WANNA pair!
Seriously though, how robust are they, cos they look a bit 'exposed', but that might be wrong. You happy with these instead of the std fitting?
I reckon they are much more sturdy than the standard GTR mirrors - the support stems run right through the door, bolted at the lower underside of the door. In the 2 years I've been on the road there's never been a problem - they are technically still within the extremes of the car (same as the standard GTR mirrors, so you'd scrape other things before taking a mirror off. Mirror heads bolt into the top of the stem so if the worst happens they are easily replaceable The door mirror stalks look shorter in the second pic to the first!???! How do you do that then? Are they remote-height adjustable? - If so, I WANNA pair!
Seriously though, how robust are they, cos they look a bit 'exposed', but that might be wrong. You happy with these instead of the std fitting?


Cheers
Paul
738 driver said:
Steve_D said:
Mine came from the Factory with a matt finish and I thought about lacquering it but....
The matt finish causes laminar flow on the surface of the wing reducing drag.
This is interesting Steve, where did the info come from. ?The matt finish causes laminar flow on the surface of the wing reducing drag.
The 'Too much like hard work' and 'Shoe polish' bits were true.
Steve
The basis behind laminar flow is that the layer (laminar) of air that is in contact with the surface moves quickly and smoothly.
In WWII aircraft started to appear with very smooth flush-rivetted wings in order to achieve this and reduce 'form' and 'parasitic' drag, The Mustang was an early success and achieved high performance and good efficiency/range because of it.
Mosquito pilots could gain an extra 20-30 kts through cleaning and polishing the aircraft as that had a smooth skin and also achieved laminar flow.
My guess is that a smooth, shiny finish will be a lot more efficient than a rough, matt finish...
In WWII aircraft started to appear with very smooth flush-rivetted wings in order to achieve this and reduce 'form' and 'parasitic' drag, The Mustang was an early success and achieved high performance and good efficiency/range because of it.
Mosquito pilots could gain an extra 20-30 kts through cleaning and polishing the aircraft as that had a smooth skin and also achieved laminar flow.
My guess is that a smooth, shiny finish will be a lot more efficient than a rough, matt finish...
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