Falcata

[Falcata]

Exhaust surround , because the back panel below the taillights is curved the exhaust tip needs a surround to make it more of a feature , instead of it just sticking out of a hole .
So i built a plug for that piece and when i make the rear mid panel i will insert it into the panel .
So you can see in the first pic at the outside edges of the tip there is a gap , so the surround will fill that and still maintain the look of it sticking out of the mid panel .
Once the mid panel comes out of the mold the center of the surround will be trimmed out .

[Falcata]

out of place a bit but this is what you have to do to make the body wider and have the door open and work with the fender , I didn't want to do this unless i had too .
You can see where it was cut and a piece of tube was welded in to move the pivot point outwards .

[Falcata]

Working on the bottom half of the hood , this was the first mock up I did , I really wanted to do this but it's just too time consuming , If I was building just one , well then I would have gone for it .

[Falcata]

So back to the bottom half that's happening , as you probably know , tons of guys have swapped out the engine for something else , LS3 , 2JZ , even S2000 . there are so many swaps that work with this car as well as mods for the factory VQ35 including turbos , single , doubles , supercharging etc , most 4 cam V6 and V8 engines are very wide , the heads are huge .
So i decided to make some extra room under the new hood to accommodate these add on's.

[Falcata]

More work on the bottom half of the hood , got one unit of glass on it and a skim of Rage Gold filler .

[Falcata]

Wow
Life happens to kick you in the ass sometimes , got hit from behind in my little truck , It was stop and go for a flag person , the guy behind me wasn't paying attention , I am ok .
Also home maintenance , that has been ignored had to get done.
Plus all the covid stuff been a bad month or so , haven't got much done on the Falcata .
So stay tuned , back at it hard now .
Cheers

[JoshRT]

Man, you surely know your stuff! Nice project

[AjzRide]

I was wondering if you could tell us a little more about your dust collector system, I'm interested in making something similar.

[Falcata]

Hi
I will try to post build pics of the 360 degree dust collector tonight if I have time .
Thanks for you interest in it , it works quite well .
Super happy I took the time to build it .

[AjzRide]

Thanks. After two weekends of 100+ degree heat outside sanding fiberglass, I have to find a way to get back indoors.

[Falcata]

Hey AjzRide

Here we go , so I built the boom out of 1 1/2 aluminum soft corner Square tubing , I wanted it to be able to hang and turn 360 degrees , so the hose isn't always on the floor or you have to find some way to hold it where you want it .
It hangs in the hole in the box on one of those bearing turn style things like they have in restaurants on big tables , you might find it at Ace hardware or Harbour Freight .
So the bottom of the bearing plate gets screwed to the bottom of the box .the top ring of the bearing plate gets the boom and the circle of plywood all sandwiched bolted together , the center black ball joint came from a tool supplier here called KMS Tools it's a stock dust collection parts item .
so the bottom of the ball joint is interference fit in the rings and the top is fastened to the box itself .

[Falcata]

Page 2 of Dust collector

I hope this helps , I searched the interwebs for something like this , trust me there isn't anything like it , i went out and bought the bearing plate and the ball joint some dust collection stuff and just made it happen .
I knew what i wanted in my head . ( and that's a scary place )

[Falcata]

I did some research about do's and don'ts with dust collection stuff , no 90 degree corners , tape all the gate joints in case you need to get something unclogged ( t shirt , wallet )
Here it is upside down on the bench so i can install the hoops to hold the tube , there is an attachment piece at the end that unbolts , it can swivel , i haven't had to use it yet , it was for holding the hose over your work so you could be hands free .

[Falcata]

Last page
I machined all the bottom out ridges in the connectors so stuff could flow well , set up router table and miter saw , even have a hand floor sweep pocket .
the dust collector itself is a beast , it's 1/12 hp 2,5 cubic feet per second i think , it required a 20 amp plugin , the lights dimm a tiny bit when it comes on , we tested the draw it draws 75 amps when it starts , i have never seen my Fluke meter read a draw like that , they are usually so fast you can't read them !!!
It lives in this insulated box , its not annoying this way . I have to go now I will try to add some pics of it in use , I have video of it sucking stuff up from the floor .....it's an animal
Cheers

[AjzRide]

Thanks very much.