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Somebody dimensioned their star wars cockpit
rovingmind:
yep, i was wondering how rigid that would be if the sides of the plexis were screwed in, a thin metal bracket could be made to go under the outer ends of the plexiglass, right where it goes up against the cabinet. By using metal the ties could be small enough to be almost indistinguishable once its put together. Something on the order of 1/8" steel strap, it could sit right on top the main cab pieces possibly in a routed channel?
Have to look into that once the main pieces are done to scale.
It would be easy enough to leave them out and fasten the whole thing together like an original.
I would appreciate photos of the sit-down racers.
ChadTower:
That's getting into an area that the regular cab builder will have difficulty achieving.
rovingmind:
--- Quote from: ChadTower on May 24, 2007, 09:05:44 am ---
That's getting into an area that the regular cab builder will have difficulty achieving.
--- End quote ---
8)
isn't the whole project starting in that area?
I'm looking at (for myself) having to build a sheet metal brake out of 2*6s to make the seat piece (originaly extruded aluminum i've been told) and possilby a new control panel, and a couple of the marquee brackets and such.
They could have a metal shop form the pieces easily enough. If they decide to build this they will have to have one make some of the parts for them anyway.
That being said......
A thin cabinet brace could be cutout (like the one at the top of the bezel shape wise) of 1x4, this would most likely rest on top of the seatback without actually being bolted to it. It should provide enough rigidity
that only the seat end would need it if the middle cross brace gets doweled and epoxied. That would work out well for those with limited metal working skill and wouldn't take up much internal space. Of course the option to not do any of the mods is always available and just make a giant solid cab. :)
modessitt:
I guess on thing I didn't make clear in my explanations of the pictures, is that the plexi doesn't attach to the canopy at all. The end with holes of the flat plexi screw down to the panel above the bezel on the rear body of the cab. The end of the angled plexi screws to the seat portion behind the marquee above the speakers. The other ends of the plexis meet in the middle on the crossbar. They aren't held down by screws, but rather by the metal bracket that screws to the crossbar.
Just more pictures I need to take to show how that happens.
By the way, the angled metal bracket on the front of the seat. Not sure how that attaches, as there are no obvious screws holding it in place from the outside.
Since I've got a 3-day weekend coming up, I can find some time to get over there and take some more detail pics. Shouldn't take as much time since I don't have to do hardly any disassembly for what I still need to do. Supposed to do some work on it next week, so I'll be taking off the bezel and CP to access the monitor, and should be able to get some pics of that.
rovingmind:
I saw that in some of the reference photos.
Its actually a good thing to clear up for everybody else whos watching this project.
The canopy itself is a beast ( i refer to the entire thing beams and all ) and everybody who has posted about a restore mentions how hard it is to get the thing off and how many screws hold it together.
The original shape of the beams themselves won't be modified to make the canopy removable. At the moment a few screws and a single support board are the only expected additions to the canopy. These would be easily left out to have the original hard screwed parts.
I was just thinking that a few screws along the edges and a pair under the metal strip along with a thin strip of felt or rubber to cushion the plexi against the canopy beams would make it a single piece. Black trim screws with a finishing washer under the head would be a sano install option.
For those worried about the way this discussion is going this would be part of the Alternate options only. I'm doing the original panels first then looking at how to make a separation point for the breakdown cab.