budget v6 spider makeover - Page 3

**alfavulcan** · #31 (**permalink**) 03-07-2009, 06:52 PM

marked and cut spider bellhousing to mate w/ v6 bellhousing flange. deja' vu all over again. started sanding the engine compartment to get ready for primer. i will probably weld in the engine brackets tommorrow . i am not going to drill the motor mount holes until i have a transmission bolted in to exactly locate everything. i also dug out my airdam that i actually made several years ago for my last spider project. it is a plug to make the actual airdam and just needs to be slightly modified to merge with the serpent flares.

**Charlie DiMarco** · #32 (**permalink**) 03-08-2009, 10:09 PM

Hi Alfavulcan,

I'm diggin on the airdam your making. I was wondering what you had planned for the front end intergration with the fender flares.
Keep up the good work!

**alfavulcan** · #33 (**permalink**) 03-09-2009, 08:22 AM

thanks charlie. the airdam in the photo is a plug to make a mold. it is just a lot of sheetmetal, bondo, god knows what else, i think there is even plaster of paris in it. depending on the weather, i'll start pulling the mold this week

**alfavulcan** · #34 (**permalink**) 03-18-2009, 08:49 PM

finally welded in the the mounts and supports. 1/4" steel plate and 1/8" angle gusset. the sheetmetel screws are just to keep everything tightly located until it was welded. the flat plate is a little oversize and will be trimmed back once final location of mounts are determined after trans is mated to engine. final cuts made on bellhousings[deja vu all over again] to within 3/8" of final stack height. the two halves will be machined to final height to ensure they are flat

**alfavulcan** · #35 (**permalink**) 03-30-2009, 07:28 PM

after a week fighting the creeping crud, i was finally able to finish the bellhousing and sent it off to be welded. hopefully this time it won't dissapear. also removed the carpeting and started chipping off the heat/vibration material. a good portion of it was really cracking and coming off and really needed to be removed. hopefully i should be able to locate the engine/transmission combo this weekend and then prep the engine compartment for paint.

**alfavulcan** · #36 (**permalink**) 04-05-2009, 09:07 PM

finally recieved my bellhousing from the welder. seems like a good job with no warping evident when i bolted everything up. i also recieved my new seats by konig. they are quite narrow and i sit low with as much or more head room than the stock seats. top goes up and down just touching one shoulder bolster. this is on the passenger side which is narrower. one problem though was all the colors really sucked. i will probably have these re-dyed or recovered as the the electric red is way too much. any way i bolted up an old transmission to my mock-up motor and will place the whole shebang in tommorrow to line up the motor mounts. then i should be ready to paint the engine bay

Alfasixnut · #37 (**permalink**) 04-08-2009, 08:59 PM

Looking good!
Glad your new Aluminium welder did the job this time!!

adelspyder · #38 (**permalink**) 04-09-2009, 07:53 AM

Now that’s neat welding!

Just a suggestion – as the welding process would have reduced the strength of the bellhousing near the weld area (anywhere from 50% to 65%), you may want to consider having it heat treated to T5 or T6 specifications (after you have finished all of the welding on the bellhousing of course!). A good foundary (or anywhere that manufactures wheels, etc) would be able to do this for you reasonably cheaply (here in Australia, I paid around $8 to have a bellhousing heat treated to T6 specs, that’s around 80c per pound!).

All the best,

Dino

**AlfaVeloce** · #39 (**permalink**) 04-09-2009, 08:56 AM

I was just wondering the same thing, Dino.

Also, how did you hold center line so that crankshaft of the engine lined up with the input shaft of the transmission perfectly? Or did I miss something.

bianchi1 · #40 (**permalink**) 04-09-2009, 12:50 PM

i have allways wonder about this..in the v6 converions, what about future repairs.. some of those exhaust maifolds are really close to the body of the car..

**alfavulcan** · #41 (**permalink**) 04-09-2009, 04:35 PM

hello dino. that is something i was thinking about and you have convinced me to have it done. larry, i had another 2.5 v6 that took a 3/4" id plumbing pipe that also was slightly smaller than the input shaft tube of the 115 bellhousing. a thin sleeve made up the difference and i was able to run the pipe straight through the stack to the crank socket and lines it up till it spun free with no drag. mind you there is no play in the bellhousing or crank. i made need to dial in the final thousandths with a dial indicater once i get the verde crank drilled for a 115 pilot bushing.i had to do that before with a lakewood bellhousing on my old 350/350 corvette back in the late 70's. no existing manifolds will work. i have a set of shankle v6 headers and a pile of 1 1/2" tubing that i will have to built like a jigsaw puzzle. george

**alfavulcan** · #42 (**permalink**) 04-11-2009, 05:58 PM

i finally placed the engine/ transmission combo in the chassis to locate the motor mounts. also i brushed 2 coats of polyvinyl alcohol then 2 coats of mold release wax on the front spoiler plug. the pva is a water soluble mold release. tommorrow i will lay on 3 layers of 8 oz fiberglass cloth if the temperature is warm enough and it doesn't rain too bad. if not i will do it mon or tuesday. i am using epoxy rather than polyester resin as it is stronger and i also have a couple of gallons of it from working on the sailboat.

**alfavulcan** · #43 (**permalink**) 04-12-2009, 12:04 PM

i laminated the front air dam this morning. three layers of 8 oz cloth smoothed out with a small diameter smooth foam roller. the biggest problem was chasing out all the air bubbles. i finally just used a pin to puncture each bubble and it layed out flat. if it needs more stiffness i will either sand it down and add more layers or reinforcement to the backside. i will pop it off the mold tommorrow after letting it cure for at least 24 hours

**alfavulcan** · #44 (**permalink**) 04-12-2009, 05:22 PM

the spoiler has cured enough to check for stiffness. 3 layers of cloth is not near enough. after it cures completely overnight, i am going to sand down any rough spots and lay down a layer of mat and 2 more layers of cloth. hopefully that will do it

**alfavulcan** · #45 (**permalink**) 04-12-2009, 08:39 PM

the epoxy cured enough for me to sand it down and lay out mat instead of cloth. BIG MISTAKE. i never laid out mat before except in small pieces and it would not lay down in all the bends. i ended up pulling it off and throwing about $20 worth of mat and about 10 oz of epoxy in the trash. plan b. i pulled the molding off and it held its shape quite well. it is still too thin but i will just reinforce it from behind in smaller sections. should be ok.