Heater part two

Okay.

I've built a box out of scrap which will serve as the containment area for my 'sand press' to laminate the heater enclosure.

This was made from some scrap plywood that had been lying aound, and Im hoping it will be sturdy enough to contain the sand for the press.

I'm also performing a test to see if the epoxy I'm using will stick to the poly-ethene sheeting that I plan to use to keep the sand out of the epoxy layer on the heater.

These are the bags of sand I plan to use as weights.

Next post will be of the lamination of the first half of the heater.

Packed up the engine stand from harbor freight for return today

So... I have this engine stand which I purchased in anticipation of pulling the engine on the cougar and doing some cleanup on it and the tranny.

Here's the deal though, I ordered it from harbor freight...and well buyer beware with them. The stupid thing was missing a bunch of pieces. I thought 'no big deal, I'll just have them send out the replacement parts'.

So in August, I sent an email, and they indicated it would take 'six to eight weeks' I figured that was fine, as I'm not exactly moving fast on this thing anyway, and I didn't wan to deal with taking the thing apart to ship out.

So I checked in at 6 weeks to see what the ETA was, and the response I got was that the parts were 'ordered, and I should wait until the 8 weeks had elapsed.

So, october rolled around, and still no parts. I emailed again to check the status and the answer I get is '6 to 8 weeks'. ???? I'm wondering if the parts are ordered at all. I give the benefit of the doubt, and ask for additional informatioon. apparently there is no way for them to know when parts will go out to me...they are ordered from 'overseas' no kidding.

I wait another six weeks, and check in again. The response I get is 'it should take 6 to 8 weeks. at this point it's been 14 weeks from the parts request, and 16 from the purchase of the item.

Okay, I'll take the darn thing apart and send it back. What a pain in the rear. I've been pretty busy, and taking this deal apart and packing it back up is not exactly at the top of the list.

Finally I'm getting around to taking care of this thing. Hopefully the replacement will ship within 6 to 8 weeks and won't be missing any more parts.

Given that it's winter now, it's not like I'm going to be taking the engine out of the car until summer again anyway.

Anyway, what a pain in the rear. Took two evenings to break down the stand and pack it up into boxes.

Okay, next post will be 'Heater Part Two'

heater

Last winter I decided to pull a bunch of things off the Cougar to work on while it was wet outside, and I basically stripped everything out of the the cabin of the car.

Among the things I've removed, the most beat up was the heater. I'll try and work on that part through to completion, and chronicle the process.

I've already removed and dis assembled it. The fiberglass heater 'box' was cracked and crumbling, so I removed the blower housing from it, all the metal fittings, and I'm going to laminate additional fiberglass on the outside and inside to re-enforce it.

I've already filled the cracks with epoxy filler, scuff sanded it and I'm contemplating the layup of additional fiberglass.

The blower assembly had stripped threads on the studs that mount the heater to the firewall. I drilled out the rivits holding it to the heater assembly, cut off the studs and drilled the remainder out of the blower houlsing.


I tapped the holes where the studs were, threaded replacements in, and tack welded them on the inside.


While it seems like a simple solution, it took me a long time of just having the assembly sitting on a shelf before it occurred to me...

I've come to realize most problems I encounter are resolved by putting them asside and letting my subconcious work on them for me while I do other things that are more straight forward to me.

I then painted the assembly with black hammered paint. This was partly because i thought it would look neat, and partly because I had the paint from another project with no foreseeable use.

For additional corrosion protection the inside is coated with a zinc rich primer, and then topcoated with the hammered look paint.

The next step is to glass the heater case assembly referenced earlier. With all the cracks, and generally poor state of the fiberglass originally used, I'm gonig to laminate it with epoxy and a layer of 3 oz S glass inside and out. I figure that should be sufficient to craeate a strong assembly.
In addition to stablizing the deteriorating heater assembly, and my crack repars, the glass will give me a surface to re-build the deteriorated outlet holes with filler

Initially I was concerned with getting a decent layup over the contoured surface, as my shop is not sophisticated enough to have vaccum bagging facilities.

As mentioned abouve, typically when faced with a bit of a problem I don't know how to solve, by just giving it time, usually an alternate solution pops to mind. (sometimes they're stupid ideas but hey.)

In this case, I think I can accomplish something akin to vaccum bag results by layering the glassed component with some non stick film and covering the assembly with a couple hundred pounds of sand until it cures.

Naturally I'll have to build a box to contain the sand, and figure out a convenient way to contain the sand, but at about 12 dollars for 240lbs of clean sand, the price is right.

This should ensure uniform pressure on the irregular workpeice without undue expense. I'll update when I've tried it.

my blog!

I've been working on a 67 cougar on and off for a few years (mostly off) and I think I could document my efforts with a blog!. Hopefully this will be fun