Continuous Improvement

[walt mckenna]

On her way out through the garage the other day, my wife said, "I thought you were finished with that thing two years ago". The truth is that I never want to be done. My current pet peeve is the little rattles and thumps I hear when driving on a rough road. Last week I found the solution to a noise that's been bugging me for a while and it was related to the doors. There is a space between the inner and outer skin and if you thump on either one with your finger, you get a hollow sound that is the source of some rough road feedback. I filled the space with foam insulation from an aerosol can and not only did that particular feedback go away but the doors have a much more solid feel/sound when you close them. I would appreciate hearing from those of you that have discovered other sources of rough road feedback.

[chopthebass]

That's a neat idea!

[68GT500MAN]

Be careful not to overfill, there have been some that learned the hard way.
Doug

[edwardb]

In addition to being careful to not overfill, make sure to use the right foam. There are different varieties. Some low expansion, some not. Anything other than the low expansion is really asking for it. As Doug said, some have learned the hard way.

[skullandbones]

Walt,

I'm glad there are like minded people out there who will never finish the roadster. I have also thought of this project but haven't found the time to get to this one yet. I guess I can do it while improving the door latch adjustment and adding the missing part of the latch that FFR deleted. I've always loved the look of the complete latch. I do have some of the low expansion foam. BTW: I worked for a boat company that manufactured house boats. One day we were fitting out this high end 52 footer when an engineer showed up to add the foam floatation that the customer had ordered. So he calculated the volume needed to incorporate into the voids in the bow and open spaces in the side of the hull. We began pouring in the liquid and distributing it as evenly as possible. Suddenly like magic the liquid transformed into a yellow/white foam that started filling the spaces. You could feel the heat coming off the surface of the foam. Then the engineer realized that he had miscalculated the dose needed. It was too late. The bow opened up like a thin aluminum beer can. Pop!!! Oh well. Back to the drawing board. Moral is calculate twice and pour once and leave lots of escape holes.

Great idea. I will have to try this one asap.

Thanks,

WEK.

[walt mckenna]

Thanks to all for pointing out the foam expansion problem. I should have included that caution in my original post.

The procedure I used was to drill a hole in the bottom of the door cavity the same size as the straw on the foam dispenser, mount a bright light on the opposite side of the door from where I was positioned, and then meter the foam in until I saw it cover the metal plate inside the door. This procedure left plenty of expansion room for the foam. I thought that if that wasn't enough foam to cure the problem, then I would foam the top portion of the cavity, but that was not necessary.

Leave the foam straw in the hole until the foam is almost set or some will run out the hole and if you don't clean that up while it's wet, you will need a grinder to get rid of it.

[DaleG]

Great idea!

So, what color is your car, that you can see through the doors? What light did you use?

Cheers, Dale

[walt mckenna]

My car is still the red gel coat. I used a portable shop light with two 250 watt Halogen lamps. Once the door is painted, you may not be able to see through it no matter what the light source.

I have not painted it because I go to the track as often as I can and I want to avoid buying a new shell and a paint job if something bad happens. Even though I consider my car a high quality build, I do not intend to take it to car shows or otherwise display. It is a blue collar machine that is driven the way that Carroll Shelby intended (sorry Dave you may still be sensitive about that name).

At this years Ford Nationals in Carlisle, PA, Ford Performance had a Coyote crate engine mounted on what looked like a dyno cart with a small radiator & gas tank, control pack, gauge cluster, and open headers. A large crowd had gathered because it was obvious they were going to fire this thing up. The technician explained the attributes of the engine (as if we didn't already know) and mentioned that the control pack had a "Grocery Getter" mode and a "Track Day" mode (he had it set for track day). He woke the beast up and it purred like a kitten even in the track day mode. All hell broke loose when he took that thing to 7,000 rpm. Those on the open header side of the engine, scattered like they had just stepped on a nest of Yellow Jackets and those of us on the other side of the engine started worshiping at the 5.0 Coyote V8 altar.

I have a 4.6 Terminator motor out of an 04 Mach1 in my car and I really like the engine, but if it ever decides to grenade on me then a Coyote crate engine will be its replacement. The bellhousing bolt pattern is the same on both engines and the motor mounts are in the same location.

[Connedale]

Terminator out of a Mach?

[walt mckenna]

I had a tech inspector at a NASA event refer to it as a Terminator, but I did some research after your question and I think he was mistaken. It seems that even though the 03 & 04 Cobra and Mach1 engines share the same basic architecture, it was the Cobra that was referred to as the Terminator. Thanks for pulling my head out.