Couldn't resist getting a pair of some proper Vitaloni Californians:
Absolutely not relevant for now, but thought I'd get a pair to shelve while they're still available. The rectangular Renault 30 mirrors don't suit the A310 IMO.
Keeping on the subject of bodywork: Due to company politics, all Alpines had been wearing Renault losange badges only since the complete Alpine takeover by Renault in the early Seventies. And the cars were officially called first Alpine-Renaults, then later in the Eighties Renault-Alpines. My car was no exception and it should wear the Renault losange like this:
But I (like many other owners) prefer to emphasise the original Alpine bloodline and call the cars just Alpines instead of Alpine-Renaults. This is to celebrate the great heritage of these rare and honour the memory of Jean Rédélé, the creator of the Alpine marque back in the Fifties.
To cut a long story short (but you've already noticed I can't really do that...) I bought this:
It's a 75mm Alpine front badge that Renault fitted to the 1990 Alpine V6 Turbo 'Mille Miles' special edition instead of a Renault losange, as a nod and tribute to the Alpine heritage.
It's proper chunky and quite thick:
To keep motivated I took a break from the suspension and steering parts, and decided to have a go at bodywork for a while. A nice little project would be to integrate that round Alpine emblem into the nosecone of my Alpine.
Test fitted to see how that would look like:
Thought it has to be mounted vertically halfway between the upper and lower edges of the headlight pods. The origial Renault losange is lines up with the upper edge, which doesn't look right to me.
The badge is quite thick, so just drilling two holes for the locating studs and sticking the badge on the bodywork would look incredibly DIY. Many have done just that and believe me, it doesn't look right....
So I'd have to somehow sink the badge flush with the bodywork like the factory did in the 1990 Mille Miles. It just remained to fathom how...
I guessed the recess would have to be fiberglass since so is the bodywork. ;D But how to make a mold? I took my Vernier calliper and started digging around in the garage. Half an hour later and I'd found this:
Hmmm......
Close enough, that'll have to do. Some fabric tape later and the sides were flush with the slightly larger diameter bottom:
Then slap on some filler to, well, fill things up:
Give it a bit of sanding to smooth things up:
Then put some red paint over it to make the surface less porous. Then cut some pieces of fiberglass matting:
My first attempt at fiberglassing so please bare with me:
After sanding off the excess it started to look like this:
I also draw a line where I should cut. After cutting became the moment of thruth: could it be removed from the mould?
Managed to get it off in one piece. Trial fitted the badge:
Get the idea?
Next needed to mark up the center of the car and the vertical middle point:
The point of no return:
*gulp*
*another one*
;D
Then put the badge in the hole just as a proof of concept, held the badge from underside with my hand while holding the camera in the other:
Then did some minor fine adjustment with a round file so the recess piece could be pushed in place:
I'd deliberately made it a tight fit so I didn't need any gimmicks to hold it in place. Then drilled small holes in the recess for the badge's locating studs:
Next I needed to make sure the badge sits exactly true:
Then trimmed off most of the excess protruding material. Glued some pieces of plastic sheet of uniform thickness around the hole to act as reference points:
Once I was sure the recess was true in all directions, I moulded it in with some polyester resin:
Once the resin had cured I sanded away the rest of the protruding excess material using an orbital sander. Then gave it a quick coat of primer to create a more uniform appearance:
As you can see the shape in the middle of the nose is wedge-like (or how's that called?)
Just had to do this little side project even though in no way relevant at this point if you think about the priority of jobs. But I've found it helps to keep up the mojo to do something completely different every one in a while.
Absolutely not relevant for now, but thought I'd get a pair to shelve while they're still available. The rectangular Renault 30 mirrors don't suit the A310 IMO.
Keeping on the subject of bodywork: Due to company politics, all Alpines had been wearing Renault losange badges only since the complete Alpine takeover by Renault in the early Seventies. And the cars were officially called first Alpine-Renaults, then later in the Eighties Renault-Alpines. My car was no exception and it should wear the Renault losange like this:
But I (like many other owners) prefer to emphasise the original Alpine bloodline and call the cars just Alpines instead of Alpine-Renaults. This is to celebrate the great heritage of these rare and honour the memory of Jean Rédélé, the creator of the Alpine marque back in the Fifties.
To cut a long story short (but you've already noticed I can't really do that...) I bought this:
It's a 75mm Alpine front badge that Renault fitted to the 1990 Alpine V6 Turbo 'Mille Miles' special edition instead of a Renault losange, as a nod and tribute to the Alpine heritage.
It's proper chunky and quite thick:
To keep motivated I took a break from the suspension and steering parts, and decided to have a go at bodywork for a while. A nice little project would be to integrate that round Alpine emblem into the nosecone of my Alpine.
Test fitted to see how that would look like:
Thought it has to be mounted vertically halfway between the upper and lower edges of the headlight pods. The origial Renault losange is lines up with the upper edge, which doesn't look right to me.
The badge is quite thick, so just drilling two holes for the locating studs and sticking the badge on the bodywork would look incredibly DIY. Many have done just that and believe me, it doesn't look right....
So I'd have to somehow sink the badge flush with the bodywork like the factory did in the 1990 Mille Miles. It just remained to fathom how...
I guessed the recess would have to be fiberglass since so is the bodywork. ;D But how to make a mold? I took my Vernier calliper and started digging around in the garage. Half an hour later and I'd found this:
Hmmm......
Close enough, that'll have to do. Some fabric tape later and the sides were flush with the slightly larger diameter bottom:
Then slap on some filler to, well, fill things up:
Give it a bit of sanding to smooth things up:
Then put some red paint over it to make the surface less porous. Then cut some pieces of fiberglass matting:
My first attempt at fiberglassing so please bare with me:
After sanding off the excess it started to look like this:
I also draw a line where I should cut. After cutting became the moment of thruth: could it be removed from the mould?
Managed to get it off in one piece. Trial fitted the badge:
Get the idea?
Next needed to mark up the center of the car and the vertical middle point:
The point of no return:
*gulp*
*another one*
;D
Then put the badge in the hole just as a proof of concept, held the badge from underside with my hand while holding the camera in the other:
Then did some minor fine adjustment with a round file so the recess piece could be pushed in place:
I'd deliberately made it a tight fit so I didn't need any gimmicks to hold it in place. Then drilled small holes in the recess for the badge's locating studs:
Next I needed to make sure the badge sits exactly true:
Then trimmed off most of the excess protruding material. Glued some pieces of plastic sheet of uniform thickness around the hole to act as reference points:
Once I was sure the recess was true in all directions, I moulded it in with some polyester resin:
Once the resin had cured I sanded away the rest of the protruding excess material using an orbital sander. Then gave it a quick coat of primer to create a more uniform appearance:
As you can see the shape in the middle of the nose is wedge-like (or how's that called?)
Just had to do this little side project even though in no way relevant at this point if you think about the priority of jobs. But I've found it helps to keep up the mojo to do something completely different every one in a while.
.
Guess I'll have to just turn the car upside down to keep the matting from falling while the resin is curing? ;D
