Zed Body Kit Start

Last Summer, amid the economic restart following the CoViD-19 shutdowns, I ordered and received a fiberglass bodykit for a Datsun 280ZX. It arrived too late to be wrapped into the body work, and I ran out of warm weather anyway. Today, I restart the body work on Zed (1979 Datsun 280ZX), with hopes for having Zed painted before I run out of summer this year. Even though there is considerable Summer left, my time is less available this year than in years past. Boo has injured her arm/shoulder, preventing her from moving it per Dr orders, so I am doing a lot more not-car stuff these days (read: lawn care, housework, etc) which all take precious minutes. 

Back to Start

bumper gap set

While Zed was parked under a canopy / car port all winter, that is not the same as sitting in a climate-controlled garage. Or even an unheated garage. Rain does not fall straight down, and wind blows organic material around. So, when I was ready to focus on Zed, I had a few steps to just get him back to where I had left him last Summer. I had been using his interior as a staging area for parts and boxes while working on the sound/noise contain effort in Hapy (1972 VW camperbus). So, logically, the first thing to do was to vacate the interior and shop-vac it out.

Next, the body panels needed a cleaning. Rather than use a hose, I hand washed him with a bucket and scrubber sponge. Still, I was unable to free some of the green haze that had appeared. He would need a sanding in order for the next layer of paint to adhere anyway, so I left what remained to be addressed by the sanding. I pulled out the body kit that had been stashed inside and cleaned it too.

Front Fenders

d-side bumper

I had spent some time wrangling the front bumper last Summer. I could only get so far because I had not completely solved for the fenders yet. Now that the driver fender was ready, I could move forward. I started by simply mounting the fenders with M6 stainless bolts. When I fastened the bottoms, the fenders ballooned out into their proper shape. I had not realized how flat they had been sitting until then.

Rear Bumper

The rear bumper was the closest to being complete, and after spending so much time on just getting things back to the way I thought they were, I wanted a win. I started fiddling with it and I discovered that I had not really prepared the steel rear bumper hidden within: it had rust spots on it and it was still dirty from when I bought it. More cleaning with a bucket and a scrubber and then sanding, rust treatment and a shot of Rustoleum got it ready enough for use. No, I don't really like the idea of Rustoleum on this project anymore than I think you do, but this will protect the bumper well enough, and once I sand a key into it for the epoxy to grip into, the paint choice really won't matter much anymore. After the paint cured (or 48 hours later...), I re-attached the bumper, making sure the height was completely flat, with the same distance between the tail body panel and the top of the bumper. It is into things like this that so much time is lost. Bolting on a bumper takes, like 10 minutes. Getting it exactly height-right, took more like 30.

p-side bumper

Once the steel bumper was set, I returned the fiberglass bumper to position to get it exactly where I wanted it. After some time spent fiddling with it, I was able to set the bumper such that the gap is the same across the rear, from corner to corner, and the seams along the rear quarter panel were consistent as well. I drilled a hole inside each wheel well near the top of the bumper and set it for good with a pair of M4 bolts. With the height set, I set the spread (tilt in or tilt out of the bottom of the bumper) of the lower edge. I controlled this with a second set of holes lower in the panels. Again, I set 2 M4 bolts through the bumper into the rear wheel well. I may eliminate some of these bolts later, after the epoxy sets.

Side Skirts

setting the spread

With the rear bumper looking good, I shifted forward to the little skirtings that run under the doors. I was not 100% convinced these were necessary when I bought the kit, but now that I have them roughed in, I like them. These kits are one-size-fits-none. While that was not really true with the rear bumper, it was definitely true with these side skirts. The length is quite good, and the fit into the wheel wells was almost perfect. I say almost, because I had to cut a small chunk out of the top of the passenger side skirt for it to fit. The issue with these skirts is with the little lip that runs the length of the door jam. These are designed to sit on the outermost edge of the door threshold, but the design has 2 problems. First, the lip is fairly thick so the door does not easily close on top of it, if the door is set at the right height. Second, and perhaps more important, the lip is not at the correct angle from the outer edge of the skirting. So, if you set it in place on that outermost edge, either it is in the right spot, but completely blocks the door -or- the whole skirting curls under the car too much, not aligning with the fender lines and looking horrible. I resolved by cutting off the lip with a hacksaw. Yes, that is a rather destructive move. I considered all the plastic panels on the ToyoTruck and the panels that run under the doors do not have a lip hanging on the door sill. These will now be a same.

fun with Bondo

With the lip removed, I was better able to control the angles. Similar to how I managed the rear bumper, I first set the height by getting the under-the-door edge just a smidge below the door opening. I set the height temporarily with clamps and then bored holes, used more M4 bolts to hold the tops in place.  I added a bolt on each side, near the leading edge of the door, to hold the section of the skirting which will attach to the front fender in place. I will use this bolt for setting the epoxy, but will remove it, or cut the head off, after the epoxy sets. Next, I set the spread so the rear outer edges aligned with the rear bumper lower leading edges. Because of how the skirts were constructed, this left a small gap at the top rear of the skirt. If I pressed the top against the side of the car, the bottom of the skirt would stick out too far. The picture below shows how it lined up. Because of the curve of the body, it is not immediately visually clear that the bottoms align, but they do. 

Body Fill the Gaps

d-side skirt rear

Around the internet, Bondo is a four-letter word. No one admits to using it, but practically everyone does in some capacity. If I were a master fiberglass guy and had all the time in the world, I might have built-up the trailing edges of the side skirts with fiberglass. That would have been the "right" way to do it. I don't have that skill, nor the materials, and, like I indicated at the top, I really don't have that time. So, I chose Bondo, and went full-on ShadeTree with it.

I have the panels attached exactly where I want them, held on with bolts. I don't want to remove them apply some material grind some down, re-attach, wash-rinse-repeat, in hopes of getting it right. That could take all Summer and still might not look that great. I want to apply filler to the fiberglass but not create a Bondo-bond with the side of the car. To resolve, I grabbed some non-stick spray from my kitchen and shot the steel body panels where I needed to fill a gap. I then cleaned the fiberglass with oil/grease cleanser, leaving the non-stick on the steel and I filled the gaps with Bondo. Is this how a pro would do it? I sincerely doubt it. Did it work? It worked well enough to define the lines. Once teh Bondo set up, I freed the panels, leaving them loosely attached. There was not any Bondo stick to the steel. I sanded things smooth and did another pass to get the seams really clean. Last summer, I tried to resolve the don't-stick by taping plastic to the steel, but no matter how well I set the plastic, there were minute folds which appeared in the dried Bondo. The non-stick spray left a predictably smooth line.

Sanding

body sanding fun

I re-attached the rear bumper and the side skirts after sanding the Bondo smooth. Then, I set into sanding the entire car with 320-grit. As I mentioned above, simply cleaning the body was not enough. Besides, I chose to not sand the primer last year, believing it would better protect the paint over the winter. It needed to be sanded before the next coat, be it more primer or color. I will be priming the fiberglass body panels anyway, so I may shoot primer on the rest. I'll decide that later.

I am about 2/3 done with the sanding of the whole body (fiberglass and steel), working from the rear forward. Once the sanding is complete, I will be setting the height of the front bumper ends, and perfecting the front bumper seams like I did with the rear bumper and side skirts. After all that, the fiberglass will be removed one last time for priming.

That's it for today. Thanks, as always, for following along-

Phil and Phrends Road Report

A few weeks ago, I changed tactics on the sound deadening / interior refresh so Hapy would be ready for a trip to see Phil and Friends play in Eugene. Today's post covers that trip. For my US readers, Hapy belated Independence Day.

Unrelated: Northwest String Summit is having their final festival this year. While this may not arrive as news to some, it may be to others. I failed to get tickets, and have given up looking for myself but I am hoping you might have a line on a pair for my friend and his caregiver. My old dear follow-the-Dead friend was diagnosed with MS a few years ago, and he is now mostly confined to a wheelchair. I don't know how many festivals he has left in him, so I'm using my 'Miracle ticket mojo' to help him get to one more. If you know someone who was going to go onto CashOrTrade, Craiglist or something to offload a pair of tickets and a parking pass, please consider routing him/her/them to me so I can connect them with Mayhem, the merry fester.

Terrapin

rest area

The last time Boo or I saw Phil Lesh play live was 2013. Now, nearly 9 years later, we had the opportunity to see him play with his son, Graham. Over the years, Boo and I visited Phil's now-closed venue, Terrapin Crossroads (TerrapinCrossroads.net is gone now too), but we had not been able to align a trip with a time he was on-stage. When we heard he was coming to the Pacific Northwest, I jumped on tickets, with a hope that we could catch 2 shows, knowing that he may not pass this way again. The closer venue, the Cuthbert Ampitheater in Eugene, offers reserved seats for those willing to pay a premium. Again, I figured our chances to see Phil are decreasing with each year, so I got us a pair of seats maybe 20 feet from the stage, in the center of the house. Arguably, this was the closest I've been to the stage occupied by a member of the Dead since my touring days, and it was really special to see the facial expressions and the non-verbal communication between the players.

On the Road Again

Before we could take our seats, of course, we needed to get there. Boo worked the day before, so I assembled the usual gear without her. This has become virtually automatic, since we have it fairly well organized: 3 milk crates of stuff plus the canopy, bedding stuff, a large water cooler and emergency stuff. Since I had emptied my overflowing toolbox into that new tool cabinet, I needed to assemble a smaller tool set for the road. Rather than carry everything, like I used to, I grabbed my 10mm and 13mm ratcheting spanners, a small set of sockets, a pair of stubby screw drivers and a pair of longer handled screw drivers, a couple pairs of pliers (one needle-nose, one regular) and a couple pairs of scissors (one fine, one larger shears). Last, I tossed in my multi-meter, some wire connectors and a roll of electrical tape. I figured that if something broke beyond those tools, we would flatbed home.

Boo and Hapy, pre-func

On travel day, we assembled a couple of days of clothes, a small cooler of drinks and snacks and hit the road, stopping for some B20 at the corner filling station. Reflecting the new reality, our corner station was charging more than double what we paid in 2019 ($6.05/gal versus $2.99/gal). The price has continued to climb since then, like everywhere else, it seems. The freeway leading to the interstate was very busy, and crawled slow, but it allowed Hapy time to get up to temperature and settle down. Most of the squeaks and moans that used to plague our trips were gone, leaving the low drone of the engine and a wind-whistle near my left ear, coming from the door seal.

By the time we hit I-5 South, his engine temp was steady at 185*. South of the I-205 interchange, traffic spread out a little bit, and we could just cruise. We had all day to get to the Cuthbert, so we didn't push Hapy too hard. We knew that the speedometer reads slow, believing that when it reads 60mph we are closer to 65mph. For fun, we tried to calculate exactly how fast we were actually going by taking stop-watch times between mile markers while I tried to hold speed at 60mph. Of course, holding a steady speed on uneven ground in traffic is not exact. Nor is clicking a stopwatch as you pass a mile marker. Still, we determined that when the speedometer reads around 60mph, we are actually going closer to 62mph. I guess, it's not as far off as I thought.

Wheel

Stu, Phil and Graham

Just the fact that we were talking about speed and speedometer accuracy describes the drive... by what we were NOT talking about: temperature, struggling to keep pace, electrical gremlins, thrown codes, etc. From start to finish, the engine temp peaked at 190*F and that was on the uphill south of Salem where I have seen Hapy's temp climb upwards of 200* in years part. We were able to take the hill in 4th gear, holding steady at 60mph on the speedo. So far, so good. The drive south was dry until around the Corvallis exit, when the rain started. The road remained clear, and traffic good all the way to the venue, but it was a harbinger of things to come.

Of course, we did discover or encounter or develop some things along the way. For example, when I installed the stereo head unit into the glove box, I did not include the metal cage that would have locked it into the box. Why? I wanted to easily remove the head for the inevitable installation of an amplifier. Well, without that cage, pushing buttons with more than the lightest pressure caused the head unit to slide backwards into the holder. Yep, that happened. Repeatedly. So, I will be putting in the cage, and will figure out how to manage an amplifier install which includes a removing the head unit from that cage later.

We discovered that one of the tail lights has a dim brake light. It is not out, it is just dim. Also, that weird issue where I cannot turn off the engine without my foot on the brake pedal re-appeared even after I cut off the entire diagnosis plug. Clearly, I will have to cut off that diagnosis wire from the driver side taillights. If that doesn't work, I may replace the wires from the brake switch to the taillights so any weird grounding from 50+ year old wiring goes away. This may also address the dim bulb.

Speaking of brakes, on the way home, Hapy lost his vacuum/boost brake assist. This could be something as simple as the hose nearest the booster got some brake fluid on it and compromised it to the point where it failed. Or, this could be as big a deal as the booster unit itself has failed. Since Hapy is over 50 years old, and the brake booster is original (and has a healthy coating of rust), I will be assembling parts expecting the worst.

Truckin'

Unbroken Chain

With these downsides, it would be easy to dwell in the negative. Those issues were the only ones we encountered. We used and greatly appreciated the 2-way dome light by the slider. The single position was really handy when we first got back to the bus after the show. Otherwise in the dark, we could find the camping chairs, some snacks and bev's without reaching for a light, shining a flashlight or even setting muddy-foot inside the bus. The floating speakers and the headbanger speakers were very useful for the pre-func after someone parked right next to us, preventing us from hanging out next to the slider. So, we moved to the rear of the bus, popped the rear hatch, and moved the speakers. Boom, we're wrapped in sound, comfy as can be.

 

Regarding Hapy functioning, the rear anti-sway bar had Hapy holding the road like never before. There is considerable open farmland south of Salem where there are fairly consistent, strong gusting winds. The winds are especially strong when a storm is approaching, as it was on this drive. In past years, encountering those winds has been a white-knuckling event, buffeting the bus, pushing us into either the next lane to the left or into the shoulder. Not this year. I drove in a relaxed body position, with gentle arms and shoulders, the entire drive. I felt the wind, but it didn't move us. The topper of it all, though, has to be the new front seats. Unlike prior drives, where I felt like someone had driven over me by the time we got to our destination, these Sprinter seats were so comfortable, my body felt like we had driven across town, not 2+ hours. I believe the relaxed posture and happy body were a result of the anti-sway bar, the stiffer shocks and the new seats combined.

Cold Rain and Snow

After the show, we waited for the crowd to thin before leaving the parking lot. As we started to leave, the staff pro's had assembled in a line with their flashlights to start shepherding stragglers, so our timing was spot-on. The exit routes fairly easily onto I-105 and then on to I-5 North, so we started our way north. By the time we left the lot, it was almost midnight and as the miles ticked by the show afterglow started to fade. Hapy was driving so well, though, neither he nor I wanted to stop. He definitely didn't want to. His temperature was holding at 185* no matter how fast we went. There was a point when our speedometer hit 75mph (the rpm counter near 3500) when we passed a truck and Hapy just cruised without a bump in his temperature. Eventually, I couldn't combat the fatigue. So, we hit the rest area just north of Albany to grab a nap, vagabond-style.

Once we had things set up, we intended to use the USB chargers in the headbanger. They work great, super-fast charging, but they cast a blue light that is super annoying at night. So, I will be covering the LED's with black electrical tape to dull them.

I mentioned the rain on the way South. We had intermittent sprinkles through the evening, but it was mostly clear during the show. It remained clear for our drive as far as the rest area heading north, but when we awoke the next morning, the rain had set in. It appeared to have been raining steadily overnight. It was constant, but varying in intensity from moderate to heavy. And, it was colder, like mid 40F's.

 

rare picture of me

We packed up the vagabond, returning Hapy to a drive-able state and headed back onto the interstate. It was at this point that a lack of a defroster became apparent. Of course, Hapy has never had a working defroster, like most type2 busses, but still, after driving more modern cars, it is becoming a glaring gap in the wet/misty Pacific Northwest. We wiped down the windscreen and front windows with a towel, and pressed into the rain.

I Will Take You Home

Driving Hapy has become such a pleasure, but in interstate traffic, when you can't see terribly well, in rain so heavy that the ruts are becoming hydroplaning ponds, the joy fades. Of course, the brake booster was no longer functional, so I had the need for extra stopping distance playing with my mind as well. By the time we got to Salem, we needed some breakfast to consider our options. The weather system which had settled over the northwest was still just moving in from the southwest, moving northeast, covering our entire trajectory with heavy rain. This was projected to continue all the way to Seattle, our intended next show. As much as I love Phil, and as much as I really wanted to be there, I feared I would be a mess by the time we got there. Then there would be standing/dancing in pouring rain followed by camping in pouring rain, packing up in the pouring rain, and then driving 5 hours back home in... you guessed it... pouring rain. Our best guess was that we were looking at 8-10 hours of driving. I just couldn't do it. So, for the first time since I bought Hapy 20 years ago, the humans gave up before the machine did.

After breakfast, we hit the highway and went home instead of continuing on to Seattle. In the end, this was probably the better choice for Hapy, and for us. We stopped wanting more, but perhaps more importantly, we stopped before Hapy really gave out. I have brakes to fix, a stereo to mount, a pair of USB chargers to dim and a defroster to figure out, in that order of importance.

Thank You For a Real Good Time

I didn't really mention the show, and I won't be posting independently about it. It was a lot of fun, and they played well. We hope we get to see Phil again, but if we didn't, our last time spent with him was far from Plain Jane. Quite the opposite: the jams were tasty, the arrangements purposeful and the execution spot-on. If I had any disappointment it would be the keyboardist (Steve Molitz) not being loud enough in the mix during his solos. He was rippin, but we had to strain to hear his leads over the rest of the band. Arguably, he was putting the most energy into the performance, almost like he was playing with Joe Russo.

This was a highly successful trip. While I will have some work to do before the next one, it is always easier when you are building on success rather than trying to resolve after a failure. Fair warning: the blog may go quiet for a while as I re-enter the work for Zed.

Thanks, as always, for following along-

Phil and Friends setlist:

Set 1: Ripple - Brown Eyed Women - Cosmic Charlie - Loose Lucy - Scarlet Begonias - Sugaree

Set 2: Help on the Way > Slipknot > jam > Dark Star > long jam > Unbroken Chain > another jam > a "Jessica" jam (very Allman Bro's sounding) > Slipknot reprised > Franklin's Tower - Not Fade Away

enc: Phil's Donor Rap - One More Saturday Night

Hapy Test Flights

After a fall/winter/spring of making modifications to Hapy, we took him for a test spin. Today's post covers that, the discoveries made and resolved and then another test drive.

The Changes

First, off, let's recap some of the changes since we last drove Hapy. Recall, that last run was a drive to Cornelius after resolving the stammer by cleaning up the vacuum lines and appliances. That was our last drive (except for the decibel tests) in those loaned-by-GratefulEd seats. We now have Sprinter seats. The old flooring was removed, CLD, jute insulation and MLV was laid in it's place. Of course, we have sound deadener all over and the stereo is operational (it was before, it's just better). On the mechanical side, the engine has a "cold" air intake now and there is a rear sway bar for handling. It is a different feel. More different, I think, is my familiarity with driving him. I have been driving GoRo (the Audi A4) and ToyoTruck, which are much more modern. So, my frame of reference is a little off and the Sprinter seats sit much higher, so I have to lean over to reach the stick now, especially when pulling away from a stop sign. I find myself hunched, and twisted to look left for oncoming traffic. Regardless, I think it will take a few drives to re-acclimate to driving the old bus. Looks like there will be more bus driving ahead. Sweet. One thing worth noting, I think: again, for the entire drive (albeit a short one), we didn't have the stereo on. Funny how much effort I put in and how little it gets used on the road. There is just something about riding in the bus that lends itself to no radio, and carrying on a conversation instead.

The Drive

On to the drive! Hapy started right up like he had been driven the day before. The throttle is super responsive, and the engine drove like a champ. He still doesn't like 2nd gear, but I haven't done anything to address that (it might be my install of the Scat short-throw shifter). The overall low-end drone is MUCH quieter, but some rattles remain, especially the screens in the jealous windows. I probably have them installed incorrectly (this video shows correct). Hapy still stops well, and he takes corners WAY better. There was almost no sway around street corners; of course, we did not drive very far nor very fast. We simply drove to a nearby park, played with the dog and returned home by way of the local c-store for some ice cream on a stick. The combo oil pressure / temp gauge still works great, and we did not throw any codes. While we didn't get above 35mph, the sound inside the bus never grew so loud that we couldn't talk at a conversational level. We could not hear the hum of the tires at all, and we really did not notice the sound of the engine. We could hear it, sure, but it was not as ever-present as it used to be. Recall, I used to describe the noise while driving the bus like sitting in an old metal shed next to a running a diesel generator, in a wind-storm. It is definitely not like that around town. I will execute a full decibel test lap to test the noise at highway speeds, but first, there are some things to fix.

The Issues

First, the exterior lights continue to produce phantoms. The brake pedal causes a bunch of the exterior lights (like the front running lights?) to light up, but not both brake lights. Also, the turn signal doesn't work when the brake pedal is pressed. No pedal and no running lights on... and the blinkers work. I remembered that I had the exact same experience when I took Hapy on that decibel test drive (buried in the Hapy Noises - Part 2 post). So, nothing I did over the winter caused it, but nothing fixed it either.

Probably equally important, the fan switch no longer triggered the fans to fire up. After we returned home, I found that one of my wiring bits had become disconnected. While repairing, I noticed how hot the wires would get during testing, and decided that I had gone too thin a gauge in some areas. So, I replaced the merged fan ground wires with individual 14ga grounds, and improved the supply-side to 14ga as well. The fans now both work, and the wires are air temperature.

The speedometer didn't work. I must have disconnected the speedo to get into the dash at some point over the winter that I don't remember and failed to reconnect it. This took no brainpower, just lots of patience opening up the dashboard, and trying not to upset any of the wiring back there.

We dropped into that awful 1200RPM limp mode right before we shoved off, but it only happened that one time. Believing I had fixed that before, this was especially frustrating. I must have bumped the wiring connection at the pedal while installing the jute and MLV. I checked those connections (pressing the joint-points firmly between my fingers), but nothing felt off. After multiple drives since, Hapy has not dropped into that 1200RPM limp mode again. 

Last, Hapy had not yet received his annual Spring cleaning (after-photo is at the top). So, he had a blanket of pollen on his pop top, moss on his window seals / windshield wipers, dull looking paint and dirty windows. The spring wash is the biggest of the year, taking a couple of hours, but it is so worth it.

Exterior Lighting Diagnosing

I have tried so many times to figure this out, and so many ways, but I had not been successful. I won't list them, but between resistance and voltage testing everywhere, running test wires the length of the bus, and replacing things, I thought I had tried everything. This weird brake light thing had been a recurring phantom for years, practically since I first did the engine swap. One of the frequent causes for the issue to return after being gone for a while was a remove/install of the battery. This always seemed strange. Sure, the battery is part of the electrical system, but why would it re-conjure an electrical ghost? It occurred to me this time around that the old 20-pin diagnosis plug is back by the battery. Perhaps my incomplete removal of that plug and related wires is a contributing factor?

Unable to determine this through my prior methods, I did something completely different. I removed the tail light assemblies from the bus, letting them loosely hang in the body holes. I took a different 12V auto battery, and ran a test wire from its ground post to the body ground point next to the main on-board battery. Using a fused wire, I touched various light circuits to see which ones worked as expected and which did not. All of this time, I had believed the issue was in the passenger tail-light: it is the light fixture closest to the battery, so I thought I was bumping something while installing the battery. Nope. The tail-light circuits would fire the correct lights. When I ran the same test on the passenger light fixture, lights were batty like I described above.

I checked the wiring diagram related to the driver tail light, and noticed that there was a tie-in between it and the battery location: the old test plug circuit. The yellow circled 9, 10 and 12 which tie into the driver tail light all correspond to the pin numbers in the plug. I knew that the running light was the one that was lighting up in-error, so I figured that red wire was the compromised one. I cut it off at the tail light, and the phantom behavior ended. Both brake lights illuminate when I step on the brake pedal, and all the running lights light up correctly (and only when I turn on the lights, not when I step on the brake).

 

I ultimately cut off all of the wires going into that old diagnosis plug at the plug, and cut the diagnosis wire from the passenger-side rear turn signal. I will probably have to go back into the driver side and cut off the remaining diagnosis wires to make sure I have really exorcised the electrical demons.

Victory Lap

With the brake lights working, the speedo showing speed, the fans firing and the body looking clean, Hapy and I were ready for a test. I figured that I had numbers for the test lap around the neighborhood from last Fall (documented here), so combining a test lap with a decibel collection made sense. Other than all of the changes I made for sound containment, there were no only other variables. Well... I took one lap, but it started just pouring rain, so I took another one. After that one, I realized that I did not know which "filter" to use on the reader because I didn't document that. I know I made a choice last time, though. Still, I think the test was valid enough for my not-terribly-scientific method. This time, I just used the default "A" filter. I did one last lap, but discovered at the end that I had failed to start the dB recording. Sigh...

Fall 2021 (pre-sound absorb) test:

Sitting at idle (900 RPM): 60dB

Around town (less than 40mph): 65dB +/- 5dB. 75dB peak

On the byways (above 40 but under 55): 65dB +/- 10dB

Spring 2022 (post-sound absorb) test:

Sitting at idle (900 RPM): between 55db and 60dB

Around town (less than 40mph):  60dB - 65dB. 70dB peak during highest-rev

On the byways (above 40 but under 55): 65dB - 70dB

Looking at those numbers, I am not impressed, nor do I expect you to be. That was a LOT of work for not much gain. I hit my original goal of dropping the overall sound and the peaks by 5dB, but after the initial drive-about experience, I was expecting more. Again, I need to remind myself that 5dB is actually a large span. Consider, 60dB is normal conversation and 70dB is a running vacuum cleaner. That is a huge difference for an increment of 10. Also, consider that in the link I used for sound level references, it includes "passenger car" at 70dB. So, if my drive around the smaller test loop only peaked (and even then only twice) at 70dB, then Hapy is quieter than a typical passenger car inside. Okay, maybe I'm feeling a little better about it. One last thing to consider.... if I used a different filter last time, then the numbers collected last time should have been much higher, or my efforts were a complete waste of time and money. Since the perceived noise is so much better, I am inclined to believe that I used filter A last time too, since that is the default. Here's an interesting link about filters.

 

At this point, Hapy is ready for summer, and it really could not have happened any later. While I intend to circle back on parts of this project, I do not expect to have to take Hapy off the road to do so. Yes, the furnace needs a re-do, the fridge cabinet is still in pieces, neither the headliner nor the carpet is in... he is still ready for camping. So, for the next few months, we are going to enjoy that, and I will be returning my attention to Zed. Last Summer ended with Zed still in primer. I would like to end this Summer with him painted, and ready for interior work over the Fall/Winter/Spring.

Well, that's it for today. Thanks, as always, for following along-