Tuesday, October 14, 2008 - 07:37 pm, by: Ben Lipman(Ben12a)
Cheers Shaun. I only found your thread last night. I'm going to have to read it again slower, or print it off. It seems you have done some of the things I want to do, and I've tackled some of your future ideas.
The sunroof is made frome a single 900x600x3mm 'hobby panel' from the local Mitre 10. It cost me $35 but scanned at $45. It seems the price is about to go up.
I simply laid it over the hole and used a permanent pen to trace the outline. The front edge (I think) is straight so I used the straight edge of the perspex as a start point. I used a jigsaw with a fine blade to cut it out and then used coarse sand paper and files to do the final shaping.
I used alloy right angle and alloy strap(bar) to make the bracing, setting it all 3mm from the roof surface. It is all held in with rivets. A word to the wise when you go to drill the perspex- let the drill do the work. I pushed too hard and cracked several holes on the first go. The second time around was much easier as I just used the first as a template, and drilled with some MDF sheet as a backing. No cracks. I also used some sealer suitable for use with poly carbonates that dries clear on all the bracing, and of course the gaps around the edges. Hopefully this will dampen any vibration and reduce fatigue on the perspex holes etc.
Pen maybe moving all the track car type threads to one location. This will only aid in the sharing of information in my opinion.
Thanks for the heads up on the steering lock etc. Work will slow down now I am back working. I had a week off looking after the boys in the hols and had a list of stuff I wanted to get done. I'm back in the list phase again so I can get ready for the next burst of energy.
