HM-2030 Build Log - The Storm Ahead

[Greg K]

Greg, do you have an after pic. of your loom rework?

I just reworked the clamps and how they were fastened. Loom was not changed.

[Greg K]

Accomplished a couple of things, but nothing really major. Had some unexpected visitors, showed and talked about the car for about 2 hours. Anyhow, I decided to massage the rough openings for the side vents and exhaust pipes. They look so much better now. My plan is to bond weld mount studs I picked up for the side louvers, may get these on tomorrow.
I had the side pipes on before for show awhile back. I opening up the rear bracket slot to 11/16 of an inch to fit the silicone bushing. Bushing has a 3/8 bolt opening, but going to use a 5/16. This should allow the exhaust a little movement and still be firm.
Should be hanging side pipes tomorrow too.

[Greg K]

So the side pipes went back on today with the gasket at the flanges and think the bushings will work well, not snugged up in this pic. My drivers side ended up looking good where it ended up, the passenger side ended up about 3/4 of an inch more inboard than the drivers side.
I still wanted to remove more material from the wheel opening on the body, was going to leave this till paint, but looks like I'm going to do more. I back cut the flat area on a 45 and sanded a little, left just enough to hand sand later and round the edge. Think this is going to make the wheel openings look better as I was thinking of leaving a flat area, not anymore. I'll tackle the rest next weekend.

[Greg K]

  Oh...I also ran the motor after installing the pipes and sounded pretty good, a little mellower than the open headers.

[Bruce N]

Oh...I also ran the motor after installing the pipes and sounded pretty good, a little mellower than the open headers.

LOL. But not much!

[Greg K]

A few weeks back I made some initial cuts on the body wheel openings. Wasn't really happy with them and was going to wait till it went to paint, and saw what I could do last week, I cut and sanded more off. It helped I had the day off and what great weather today and few hours later I had all of the wheel openings done and happier in how they will look. Once sanded and shaped a bit more by hand, I think they will turn out great when it becomes time to paint.
Have one before and after and some more afters from today.

[s_reynolds]

Looking good. I had to work on mine as well to get them in better shape.

[Greg K]

After massaging and improving the openings for the side vents, I bonded some stainless studs to the inside of the body and have them mounted. And if I can round up enough help next weekend, will drop the body back on for the first time in over a year.

[s_reynolds]

Greg, that's the way I mounted my side vents as well.

[Greg K]

With the hurricane this week, didn't make any definite plans not knowing how long it would hang around, we just got more rain and wind mainly Thurs night and Friday.
Going to try to round up some to possibly get my body on tomorrow. Prepared a little more with adding the bulb seal to the frame. replaced what was on top of the firewall and also reattached the cockpit stripping with black adhesive. The flashings for the roll bar downtube and fuel tank inlet I made awhile ago, so thought it may be easier to do with out the body on so I finished them up.

[Greg K]

Had the day off today and took care of a few more loose ends before dropping the body on tomorrow. Had to open up the rear portion of the side pipe opening on the driver's side a 1/2" to clear the pipes. I measured from the threaded rod inside the body to the opening and found it too long after measuring the slot for the bolt in the cockpit tub to the pipes. Now we have clearance or it would have hit the pipes. Checked the passenger side and it was good.
Added weather-pack connectors to the front marker and rear tail light pig tails, mounted the head lamp buckets, still have to add weather-pack connectors to the head lamp pig tails, but will wait till after the body is on. Should get interesting after the body is on, still much to do.

[Greg K]

Body is on...went pretty smooth. It's sitting on there pretty good and not way out of whack  wheel opening heights are fairly close on both sides and spacing from wheels pretty close too. There will be some tradeoffs here and there, but pleased how it is sitting at the moment.

[Greg K]

Back at it today with some small stuff...Worked on the nose brackets, front quick jacks and parts. Installed the nose brackets, spotted the holes that needed to be drilled for the quick jack bolts, removed to drill and then reinstalled the brackets. Mocked up what Hurricane sent, said 7 inch bolts but were actually 8. I wasn't planning on using the yellow zinc bolts anyway. Made some 6" studs out of stainless threaded rod, added chromed acorn nut to one end with thread locker, some chrome and stainless washer in between with the chromed spacer included with the quick jacks finished off with stainless locknut on backside. I also used the rubber grommets in the body.
After finishing the front I worked on the rear hardware. Made up some 4.5" studs just like the front and cut some 5/8" .095 wall stainless tube to make spacers for the rear. Spacers will go thru body and and rubber grommets back there instead of the body being squeezed by the spacers provided. I plan on polishing the spacers up a bit for a little more shine.

[Greg K]

Got a little bit done today between taking the wife to lunch and grandson's 2nd B-day on Zoom for two hours since they are across the country from us. I was able to prep the outer fender panels, will be adding rubber edging to the upper and outer edges. I'll also bond another stud between the exhaust opening and side vents to give them another attachment point with an angle I'll make. Also worked on getting the front lights wired. Really like the output of the Hella DOT housing and Oracle LED bulb. Sun was still out but came back later to see after it got a bit darker this evening with just one wired up. Tried an amber LED in the turn signal, but wasn't happy with it, standard bulb went back in.

[Greg K]

Finished up the wiring to the lights on the passenger side and and attached the outer fender panels today.