It was one of the first things dad taught me. I've been using it on every single fastener since I was a kid.

 

w00t!

 

Nice!

 

Nice, first green pic! My installation has been delayed - my spare hood is slightly tweaked, and my body shop has had to put me out a week due to guys calling in sick.

 

I'm done cutting mine, I'm just procrastinating painting it/cleaning all the aluminum dust covering everything in the garage.

It was sketchy as hell cutting the inner skin closest to the outer skin. So scared I was going to zip through the outer with my angle grinder.

I used a christmas tree bit(stepper drill bit) on the corners and it was much easier to control than a hole saw bit.

Also, that damn aluminum just tears apart sanding drums, I went through so many 50/240 grit 1" drums.

 

everyone should.. one tube last 50 years.. i have my dad's bottle that he used to work on cars with in the 80's.

 

I did have a tub of it dry out, but that took 20 years in AZ...

 

+1 to everything in this post.

I think I went through a dozen drums at least.

I was terrified cutting the bracing--but only where it was flush against the hood.

Aluminum dust. Aluminum dust everywhere.

 

mlev - really clean job, I love it

I've done an install with only one sanding drum - the closer to 'finished' you get the corners with your cutting tool, the less work is left for the drum sander.

... and unless it's raining/snowing or there is a zombie apocalypse, cut aluminum outside

 

I used only one sanding drum as well!

 

Stick a 2-3 foot length of ~.5" hose into your shop vac with some duct tape. Gets into a lot of the nooks and crannys that the standard shop vac will miss. After you've used your air compressor's gun of course.

 

Need to replace the hardware but it turned out great. Semi-gloss Black engine enamel.

Wrote up a little(not step by step) DIY on my build thread.

 

Looks great, shoot us a link to your build thread!

-Sean
Singular Motorsports

 

Here you go.

https://www.miataturbo.net/showthrea...=75474&page=51

 

Jeffbuc - you take pretty picures.

I also applaud you for having the ***** to cut such a clean hood. Turned out beautifully if I do say so

-Ryan

 

I finally cleaned my camera's sensor, amazing what a year of car building does to your camera.

Taking my angle grinder to the hood was a very tough thing to do. Half way through the project I started to panic thinking I made a huge mistake.

Does it matter which direction the Gurney Flaps are oriented? I put the bolt hole side facing the rear of the car due to it looking cleaner. I can't imagine it would affect it, but you guys did the "science" on these things. Also, is there an angle that the fins work best?

 

The gurneys are intended to be flipped the other way, which shifts the vertical element half an inch or so backward, but they'll have virtually the same effect either way. Your fin angle looks spot on, ~35*-45* is ideal. Didn't specify because I didn't want everyone to start stressing about trying to measure the exact angle of each fin - if you just bend them till they look "right" you end up at about 40* which is perfect.

-Ryan

 

Awesome. Gracias. If I see no gains I'll know then to flip the gurneys. Thanks for making this painless, as far as DIY projects are concerned. That vinyl sticker template was a stroke of genius.

If you need a test car for future projects...*nudge nudge wink wink say no more*...

 

What do you think about using rivets to hold it in place instead of hardware? I have had bad experiences with bolts in/around my engine compartment.

 

Well, to be fair, the drums I was using were dremmel sanding drums from harbor freight.

The biggest thing was cleaning the long edges--you can't just hold the dremmel at one height, or you cut a groove into the drum. You have to slowly move the dremmel up and down, but it's hard to do that and not pull it all the way out and scuff the **** out of your hood... so I erred on the side of using too many drums and not effing up my hood.