Sterling #460B -- ydeardorff's

[ydeardorff]

After many trials, and tribulations, my unicorn has been caught!

I now understand about the crowd these cars draw, To explain to those whom don't know. Nothing short of a traffic accident will draw so many people so fast.
My old Bradley GT2 was nothing like this...

In the time it took me to roll the car off the trailer,... the local sheriff, about 12 passers by, and 5 cars all stopped to gawk at the car.

A note to the newbie owners out there,... the first time you hop into your car,...
Close the top SLOWLY!
I found out my noggin is about 1/2" taller than the roof. OUCH!*kicked my butt*

My first ride was a jump start, then three blocks long before the positive terminal on the battery came loose.*laugh* It ended right in front of my house.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDDMyODakwU"]YouTube - Delivery[/ame]

She is now nestled into her new bed, complete with nightlights.

 

[thestevie]

congratulations and welcome to the owners club*thumbs up*

now I cant wait to see some of those ideas you had come to life.
hint hint rear lights...

yours is in better condition then mine when I first got it.
looks like an awesome place to start.

any chance of a few pictures of the inside?

are those Christmas lights in the car port?

 

[ydeardorff]

Thanks,

HE HE,
All in good time my dear Watson,
First I need to get her road worthy and registered, then Ill look into those other things.

But one of my first changes most definitely will be to fix the tractor like shifter. I swear the handle to this thing is as high as my face. LOL

Here's some of the interior,.... And like I said, I'm not for certain on the drop pans depth, I think I was told 4", and its not enough. LOL

Oh, and no those aren't Christmas lights, but rather a spool of rope lights I had stuffed in the closet.

 

[farfegnubbin]

All right Yaughn!! *thumbs up**thumbs up**thumbs up* Congrats on the new toy. I'm excited for you.

As you have already experienced...get ready to draw way more attention than anyone ever should.

There will be much to talk about over the months, but from what I can tell from photos (and things you've said), I think you have a wonderful starting point for you project.

My thought of the day is in regard to the headroom/drop floor/pedal position issue; when you have time, try experimenting with the angle of the seat as well as everything else. I'm 6'2" and I found that I'm comfortable if my seating position is slouched way back. Early on, I realized that no amount of floor-dropping was going to give me a traditional driving position. On my red car I have a 2.5 inch drop. On my blue car, I have more like a four inch drop -- which starts to cause problems with speed bumps, etc. But anyway, in BOTH cars, I had to lean the seat back.

I noticed you have fiberglass bucket seats. That's fine. If they AREN'T reclining and you find that tipping them backwards throws your thighs too far up towards the wheel, don't be shy about looking for antoher seat or cutting those to a new angle. Many of us have had to do stuff like that. If you feel like your head is planted in the roof AND you wish you were a little closer to the pedals, I bet that the culprit is the angle of the dangle...err...um...I mean the angle of the seat.

Take a seat out and lean up against a plank set at different angles. You'll very quickly find a "setting" that works. And then make your seat match it.

(I know you probably on your way to all of those same solutions on your own, but I just thought I'd share some of my experiences.)

Again, congratulations!!

 

[farfegnubbin]

Now that I clicked "submit" and then looked back at your photos, I think more than ever that changing the angle of the seat will magically improve your driving experience. Your seats look very upright. Imagine if they were laid back about 7 to 10 degrees; your head would arc down at least and inch and I think you'll like where your feet end up, too. I found in my car that, after I leaned the seat back to where I fit, I then had to add a little head cushion so that I didn't feel like I had to hold my head forward a bit. But now that I have it all calibrated, the car feels like the world's coolest-looking Barcalounger.

Lean the seat back (or take it out and use a plank), then add a balled up T shirt behind your head, and tell me what you think.

 

[ydeardorff]

Thanks Warren Ill try that. Getting whopped on the head isnt very inspiring*kicked my butt*

That, and getting the linear actuators hooked up, is very high on my to do list.*thumbs up*

 

[Nic]

Excellent! So glad you were able to find a car Yaughn. Very happy for you.

 

[ydeardorff]

Thanks Nic,

I'm looking forward to seeing more of your work too!
But also looking forward to starting my own projects here soon! *thumbs up*

Ill be heading out to sea next month. Ill try to take my goodies with me. and work on some projects while I'm out to sea.

Yaughn

 

[ydeardorff]

Mirror install

The rear three mirrors are now installed. At least now aside from a plate, she looks legal. Ill work on the rear view camera this weekend.

 

[ydeardorff]

Illuminated shifter surround with push button starter

I purchased a fleabay shifter knob that has a nice illuminated start button concealed within it.

I cut off the stock shifter which was waaay too tall. The stock shifter in this car makes me feel like I'm shifting a tractor. So it had to go.


After that I added a home made shifter surround ring, and shift shaft fill piece.

I took a round plastic ball (gerbil exercise ball), cut it in half, and painted it silver. I then swedged the shift shaft extension to the ball with a home made brass swedge I made.

During the build I needed a gap filler as the mounting bolts were too long and scraping the freshly painted ball, so I nabbed a piece of 1/4" thick Plexiglass (old headlight bay cover), and added some EL wire to it by grinding out a pattern with my dremel and hot gluing it in place.

Now my upholstering skills are to be nicely put, poor, at best. This center console top is still a bit wide, but it was just a mock up to see what the shifter would look like. I had a chunk of gray vinyl laying around and it worked out nicely.

The design still needs a bit of tweaking, but so far I like it.

There is a black trim ring still being made to go around the base of the surround. But the shifter base glows with a nice subtle blue hue at night. Over all I'm pretty happy with the results so far.

More to come!

 

[farfegnubbin]

Dude...I LOVE it. *thumbs up*

See, this is kitcar-dom at its very best; you took several inexpensive, mundane, totally unrelated parts and creatively grafted them together to produce something that looks cool, exotic, and entirely believable. A hamster ball...no friggin' way.

I tip my hat to you.

Keep it coming!

 

[ydeardorff]

center console and dash remod

I spent some time this weekend getting some long over due work done on the car.

I installed the hydraulic roof actuators and pump. Got the cylinders purged of air, and the pump primed. I need a better ground, and thicker wiring to run the system, but it works for now.

Center Console:
I started making a mock up in first card board, then plywood, and finally spray foamed the center console to a good stopping point for now. This isn't the final shape, or the exact location, (as it may need more adjusting to get it "just right") but its a good start for me to see what the next step is on it. Having the built pieces modular, and removable , also helps me to assess what adjustments I need to make off of my sketches, and photos without making any permenant changes to the car yet.
It looks bulkier than it actually is, the base is only 5.5 inches wide, and the top is 8 inches wide.
Next will come body filler, more sanding, then fiberglass (and TONS of detail work)*thumbs up*

Here's some pics.

And yes, there is still plenty of leg room!

 

[ydeardorff]

Tail light assembly completion

Finally one of the tail light assemblies has made it to completion.
Very heavy duty unit and very solid.
The LED's are a bit overwhelming and leave sun spots in your eyes, so an additional diffuser will be added on top of the outer ring of LED's.

The red on the LED holders is reflective red traffic tape which should meet the requirements of the DOT for rear reflectors on the car.

Now on to sealing the back up, and repeating this 3 more times.Then on to making the surrounds and lenses for them with a vacuum former.

Oh and most of these photos were taken with the flash on to tone down the red a bit.

 

[ydeardorff]

The current idea is to place these into an outer lens like that of the 2006 miura concept. Placed behind a clear vacuum formed lens that will match the cars body shape.

One thing that is kinda cool, is the inner set of LED's when lit by themselves, combined with the shape of the housing, makes it look like the tail cone of a jet engine.*thumbs up*

here is a couple more pictures.

 

[thestevie]

they look awesome
I really like the look of the reflective tape.

you did a great job

 

[ydeardorff]

Dash update:
Nothing much to really see yet, but its getting closer everyday. I sit in the car and reassure I fit in this equation every day!
The rear center console area will need some tweaking, or should I say shrinking still.*thumbs up*
Also heres a picture of my goal at the end of construction.

On a side note, after upgrading the wiring to 10 gauge wires, and connecting directly to the battery, the hydraulic motor for the top no longer tries to melt the wires. It opens in about 18 seconds. Im working ideas, for a way to assist the hyd motor on opening.

Again, this is all modular in the build process, I can pull this out at any time with no changes made to the car yet.*thumbs up*

 

[letterman7]

Looks good, Yaughn! Great job with the taillights - I know they were a bugger to get right. Here's a link you might enjoy just for the build photos: English Russia Lithuanians and PU-foam

 

[ydeardorff]

Thats outstanding!
Although I dont care for the stomper sized wheels. LOL (remember those toys when we were young?)

Hes got far more energy for the project than I. I like the sterling as it is for the most part. I wouldnt dream of going that far on it.

I will admit I a long time ago started thinking about the mclerling photo by JMD alot.

A word too the from the experienced,... dont get in a hurry with spray foam. If you lay too much down at one time, youll just end up with a gooey nightmare that sticks to everything. *proud*
Be patient....

Im hoping to at least get to the body filler stage by july.

I have been given an allowance by the wife, so here shortly, Ill have a new tablet PC with GPS for the center console, a new 2008 cbr 600rr gauge cluster, momo steering wheel, and my honda pilot headlight assemblies. Oh and dont forget all the parts I need to build my vacuum former....
So its gonna be christmas in June for me! *rock on*

 

[Nic]

Excellent progress. Although I'm very happy with my dash, this makes me want to build another one.

 

[ydeardorff]

Dash update 6-19-10

After some scrutinizing I had to reshape the center console as it was not right.

I still have some symmetry issues, and other minor fixes that need attention.

The arm rests (OMG handles) aren't right yet but its getting closer.

I was a little bummed when my new gauge cluster didn't come yesterday. the fed ex tracking page said out for delivery, but didn't show up. I was hoping to mock it up in place to get some much needed geometry information. Since the steering column mount, and the gauges will be basically sitting on each other. I have to work my design around them. My goal is to have the dash perfectly smooth when the unit is folded away.
One of my goals is to ensure the interior looks like a blank canvas when the car is turned off sitting undefended in a parking lot. I hate thieves, and Id like to give them as little to shop for as possible when I'm not around. So my goal is everything wil be hidden on the dash and center console. hopefully hidden behind lexan, or with some type of cover over it in the stowed position.

I am having one hell of a time finding heater controls that are small enough, look modern, yet will not need anything special to work. IE like a computer. (the 2008 Honda civic controls arent what Im looking for styling wise, yet are good in the size dept.) Perhaps simply stealing the knobs and using simple pots, and rotary switches will give the illusion of an OEM system, without the hassle of trying to wire in a computer based heating system. Also, my coveted mini kei truck heater matrix's have come up missing on eBay. So That will have to be worked out later.*very frustrated*
I'm needing to get this dash to a solid stopping point before I leave, as the foam will not last until next spring after my deployment. So Im kind of on a time line as well, which doesn't help.