.

That's one of my assistant's name - I don't think he'd get the joke.

Damn.

Joe? Sue?

ahh... out of ideas, I never did see much point in naming cars anyways

I've got a Stahl header that is going to handle exhaust duties on the 242 for the next incarnation (after the head work gets done etc). Purchased used from a TBrix member, it was a little worse for wear. This is at least the 3rd car this header has been on and it has one very ugly repair after the collector (which wasn't mentioned until after the Paypal had cleared). Anyway, I'm getting it ceramic coated and wanted the be sure the it would hold together.

Here's the start point - looks good from 5 feet.



Closer up - the ugliness shows. The pipe after the collector was increased in size to 2.5" and the original (still in there) had rusted through.



Either the welder was unskilled, distracted or blind (perhaps all three) - looks like someone did it with a coat hanger.

I ground all that mess out of there and cut in along the weld line - pits everywhere.



Hacked off the flange and got it ready for the V-Band clamp.



Welded it all back up (I couldn't get a good picture of this weld - it's pretty nice in real life).



Here's the V-Band - who says you can't get a MIG weld to look pretty?



Off for blasting and ceramic.

Cool. Looks good Craig.

I want your talent and patience.

Age and practice. One is chronology, the other is just stubbornness.

Patience is where a majority of the talent comes from, does it not? That's why I have no talent...

I've got neither

Ok, while we're in the deep freeze, I spent the weekend freezing my backside off in the garage making new door panels. The old ones were rotten and falling apart, not to mention moldy. Sure they looked good from a distance, but they didn't even have clips holding them in any longer. New was called for and I've got a couple of dead cow skins in the house to use up.

Here's what I've come up with.



Not much you can do with this panel if you are planning on keeping things mostly stock. The map pockets stay, the arm rests stay, the speakers are going to be mounted to the doors and holes cut in the leather (well, punched). So what I want are some design ideas for the rest. There is a lot of rather boring area to do stuff with.

What I was thinking was I could add in the chrome strip either along the bottom like it is stock or put it higher like in the older cars. For chrome I'd use polished stainless rod (1/4 probably) or maybe I would just brush it - could be aluminum. Thoughts?

Here's stock...



Here is the quick blurry mock up.

Bottom mount.



And on the top.



The door cap part is not on the panel at this point, so there is some topography to be added to the panel yet.

Which one should I do? Other ideas/photos etc.

Craig

I would be thinking brushed stainless in what you refer to as the "top" location, or just above the profile where the speaker is mounted. Should look awesome whatever way you decide Craig

brushed metal always looks classy. find a way to do some brushed accents other places in the car and it will all tie together nicely. Its coming along very nicely

I vote for brushed aluminum. Ok, so are you going to put any rolls in up top in the stock accent area? If you are, the brushed stripe needs to go down low. But if not, up top. I really do think its going to need something up top by way of accent, as that is a lot of bare leather going on.

For comparison, just because I have one (that is reportedly unmodified)

It has a 2.25" collector on it.



And overall
(ignore the cat vomit my cat decided to give me while I took the picture)


Jordan

Thanks Jordan, Boy that makes quite the little turn there. I was told this one fits perfectly, now I doubt that somewhat. We'll see when it all comes out from the ceramic coating.

Craig

So that's two votes for up top. I tend to agree. Greg, I'm not going to do the pleats as it is too much fiddling around for a look that I don't think I want. If I was doing anything, I could see a suede accent there in black. I don't think I'll do aluminum as the chrome accent on the dash would make that look weird - but brushed stainless would be good. Now to settle on a size, either 3/16" (shown) or 1/4"

Thin or thick - I'm thinking thick.

I'll get the panels test fit tomorrow night (too cold out there now) and then get the foam put on. Ready to cover on Saturday.