rocmar
Where Eagles & Angels....Dare to Fly...
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Montecresto
Montecresto el segundo
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Thanks rocmar, yes drain holes are a must, i think im gonna put one in each front corner and one in each rear corner. Thanks Monte, yeah i seen the red and black coolers at walmart and thought that it was meant to be! Lol The jury is still out on whether im gonna paint, line-x, powder coat, or leave it aluminum and just clean it and make it shiney. My friends are telling me powder coat or line-x. My one buddy suggested black powdercoat on the outside and red line-x on the inside. Thats kinda neat but we'll see. The bed will eventually have 2 aluminum stacks in it in the front left and right corners. The one behind the drivers seat will be an intake, while the one behind the passenger seat im going to put there with intentions of it being an exhaust stack, but if that fails i can just make it a second intake snorkel.
Ok all. I messed with the aluminum bed a little today. I added a few ribs underneath it to support the cooler and straigten out the floor. Welded in the border that goes around the cooler. Put stainless eye bolts on either side of the cooler sticking up from the bed, and stainless eye bolts on either side of the cooler under the handles. I got some turnbuckles from tractor supply to hold the cooler in. I did a couple finish welds, but i got plenty more to do. I might not do anything more to it for a couple of weeks. The next major thing is the stacks. After they are installed i will finish weld everything and decide on color or bare. Heres some pics. I hope you like!
Went and got a couple pieces of 3" aluminum tubing today for my snorkel and exhaust thats gonna go through my bed and behind the cab on my p500. I cut it on the chopsaw and turned the chopped off piece around and welded it back on at an angle. I was aiming at it being a 90° angle being i set the chopsaw at 45°, but i musta looked at it crooked because its slightly less than 90°, more like 85°ish lol. Anyway, i like it better, so i gotta make sure to do the 2nd one to match. Anyway, i smoothed out the welds with a flapwheel to make it look a little better. I dont know when i'll be able to make the other one because my wife has got me running all over the world for the holidays. When i make the other one i will begin the process of cutting holes in the bed and installing the snorkels and making aluminum clamps to hook the snorkels to the p500 rollcage. Ok, enough typing. Heres some pics. I hope everybody has a merry christmas!
So now that the christmas holiday is over i finally got a chance to mess with my p500 aluminum bed project again on my last day off. I cut the 2nd stack at the same angle as the first and cleaned it up with the flapwheel. While i was at my wifes cousins house on christmas eve we were leaning against his truck having a few beers and i noticed a scrap piece of aluminum expanded metal. I asked him if he was throwing it away and he said he was so i asked if i could have it for my snorkel inlet. He said it is the piece of metal that protects the screen on a screen door from being kicked out. He gave it to me and i made one of those screens on the inside of the snorkel like the aftermarket snorkels have. I cut 2 pieces of 3" aluminum tubing about an inch long each and i cut a slit in each one. This enabled me to make it smaller where each piece can fit inside the 3" snorkel tip. I marked each piece where i needed to cut it to make it smaller where it fits inside and i welded the seams back and smoothed the weld bead out on the outside of the ring so it will slide inside the tip. I layed the ring on top of the expanded metal sheet and marked it to be cut out. I cut it out and sandwiched the expanded metal between the 2 rings and tack welded the seams on the outside. I smoothed the tack welds out with the flap wheel and tapped it into the intake tip with a piece of wood. Its a tight fit and i doubt it will rattle out, so i dont think i gotta tack it in like i originally planned. I cleaned the shop up early today because ive got a couple of honey do's to get done, but i'll try to actually get the snorkels installed next weekend. I hope yall had a good christmas. I hope yall enjoy the pics.
Montecresto
Montecresto el segundo
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Im not sure on the colors monte. Im kinda leaning towards just bare aluminum the more i look at it, but who knows. If i am able to turn the stack on the passenger side into an exhaust stack like i hope, if i paint it, i imagine it would have to be high temp bbq grill paint but im not sure. I dont know if line-x could stand up to heat. Im not sure if powdercoat could take the heat either. Who knows, its 3" diameter, with no restrictions except for angle of the exhaust tip, it may not get too hot at all. If i do leave it bare aluminum it will all get cleaned up nice though.
Montecresto
Montecresto el segundo
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Well clearly whatever you decide upon will be very nice and totally unique, great job!
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Ok update on the aluminum bed build. Well i guess its kind of a bed/snorkel build lol. I took the bed off and carefully marked and cut out a 3" hole in each front bed corner with the plasma cutter, i had to place the holes so when i put the snorkel tubes through the bed they would miss the factory rear rack bars. They stick through the bed about an inch and a half. I made a few brackets that are gonna bolt to the back of the seat headrest brackets and weld to the snorkels. Nothing is welded or bolted just yet, just have everything mocked up. I'll do that tomorrow. Im also gonna weld a little bracket between the top of the bed and the snorkel also, i havent made those brackets yet though. I ordered some 3" to 2.5" 90° silicon couplings for the bottom of the aluminum tube where its gonna turn and reduce to 2.5" pvc and go to the airbox. They are the 90° couplings that people use on turbos under car hoods, plus i ordered them in red so it matches my color scheme! Lol Anyway, im sure youre tired of reading so i'll just post the pics now. Hope you like.
I worked on the drivers side snorkel today as long as i could stand it. Not only is it freezing here but i got to the point where i was making mistakes so i just decided to quit while i was ahead and come inside where its warm lol. I squared the snorkel up how i liked it and drilled a couple holes in the drivers side headrest bracket to bolt on the bracket that holds the top of the snorkel. That bracket is welded to the top of the snorkel. I made a small tab that i welded from the top of the bed to the snorkel at that same level. Also where it goes down through the hole in the bed i put about a 1" long weld bead on it instead of welding the complete hole seam closed around the snorkel. I figure the gap could help with water drainage lol. I trimmed the amount of snorkel where only about an inch and a quarter sticks through the bottom of the bed. I trimmed a little off of the fancy red 90° coupling on the 3" side and slipped it on and hose clamped it. I rerouted the 2.5" shop vac hose and cut some off and stuck it in the 2.5" side. All i need now to finish this side is some silicon and a 2.5" hose clamp. But being honest, i think im gonna do away with the shop vac hose and get black pvc and fittings. The shop vac hose was just an emergency fix to get me through a weekend ride we went to a while back. I'll jump on the passenger side tomorrow and make it mirror the drivers side. Im just not gonna hook anything to the bottom just yet because im hoping i can turn that one into an exhaust stack. Once i get it welded on and matching the drivers side i'll start studying exhaust tubing and bends and sizes and stuff like that. Anyway, heres some pics. I hope yall like!
Ok update time for my p500 aluminum bed/snorkel build. I didnt really do a lot today. I drilled the passenger seat head rest bracket and mounted the passenger side snorkel/exhaust bracket to it. Lined the pipe up how i liked it and after standing back and looking at it from 18474846263 different angles i welded it to the snorkel lol. I didnt make the little tab yet for it that goes from the top of the bed to the pipe like i did the drivers side one because i feel i may have to take it on and off a few times if i attempt to make it an exhaust pipe for fittment of exhaust couplings or something. Once i get all that figured out and plumbed it will get the little tab welded in and the little weld bead down where the pipe goes through the hole in the bed. Also, i removed those pesky seatbelts. Because who needs those things right?! Lol The reason i want to run the exhaust up the pipe in the passenger side is because twice now its shut off on me in deep water over the stock exhaust and i just was able to get it started before the water filled up the exhaust and headed for the engine. I may not be able to do it, but im damn sure gonna try. I'll probably get the black pipe and fittings in a couple weeks to replace the shop vac hose, and also take a cut off piece of the aluminum tubing to the auto parts store and test fit some exhaust elbows and try to plan a route and work it out in my head how i can do the exhaust. If they put a man on the moon, a frickin exhaust stack can be ran on a p500 is how i see it. Anyway, thanks for sticking with me. Heres a few pics to tide you over until next time.
That looks good, wish I had that kind of talent with a welder. I picked up an aluminum bed off of a Yamaha golf cart on Craigslist for $80. Was trying to get a plastic bed from a Landmaster LM400 but they wanted more for shipping than the bed cost. This bed left room for my fender bags to mount behind the cab, also makes it easy to get to air filter and spark plug once you remove the access panel.
and can't wait to see how the exhaust works once you get it hooked up, I would say you will need a weep hole so it doesn't fill up with condensation.
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