Made plexi windows today!!

Made plexi windows today!!(pics included)

My last day of school was yesterday so I worked on the pinto most of today.

I'll be pulling the engine tonight but for some light afternoon work I pulled the rear and 1/4 windows and made plexiglass replacements. I even tinted the pass side to see how it would turn out. "If I can remember to", I'll take some pics tonight.

So far I've stripped a pile of stuff off the car as it will be my first dedicated 2.3 drag car. Everything you can name from the interior is gone including the dash(metal) and heater core & A/C box. The car used to be tight to sit in, but now sitting in the driver's seat I can't touch anything except the steering wheel and drivers door.

I made a deal with a guy a while back for a 1 piece fiberglass front clip, doors, and both bumpers. I am looking for 2000lbs with everything including me. I got serious about the weight loss. I've taken out both shoe laces, I cut my hair, took one lense out of my glasses etc.

freakintiger said:

Bring on the pics! They may just inspire me to build a model of your car, I'd just need an SVO kit for the motor, a Pinto kit and a ton of scratchbuilding!

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Be sure to save all of the little trees that the parts come on. They make great cages.

Red said:

Make sure you hit the can before you race. #1 AND #2.

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I forgot to mention that but thats part of my daily track routine anyway.

140cilx said:

Was it hard making those glass replacement? how'd ya do it, where'd you get the stuff, how much diff in weight would you guess? Tutor us.

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Actually it was really easy, just getting the window seal back around was the hard part. I used 1/8" plexi that came from a local sign company. I got a 4'x5' sheet for $5 because it had small cracks all the way around it. I measured my back window and its still smaller than the cracked area. They also threw in some scrap pieces that were big enough to do each side window.

I laid the plexi down and then the window on top of that. The window is concave so I rolled it to one side and traced around the glass, rolling it as I went. To cut it, I used an air rotary cut-off and cut all of the long straight lines first. PRACTICE ON A SPARE PIECE FIRST!!!! if you're not careful that thing will take off of your line if you've had a beer or 2. Make 4-5 cuts for the corner and then use the edge of the cutter to smooth the corners.

This produces a ton of really itchy dust, so cover up as much as possible.

Weight...Guess?....nope. I got serious about the windows after my first one broke in my hand trying to put the seal back around it. The glass by itself weighed 4lb 1oz. The plexi with the seal and tint weighed 2lb 5oz.

I see this isn't much but the back window is about 3.5'x3' and weighs the same as the hood. I'll be attching the rear glass with the 1/4 turn Zeus fasteners from jegs. The side windows I may use 1/4", slide it up in the seal and make a bracket to hold it there.

The window after the first trial fit.



I mean stripped


Before:


Overview:


Now:

89' RICE COOKER said:

i see a bottle of NOS by your creeper. what do ya got planned with that?

great pics. looks like a project. can't wait to see some times.

are you rebuilding that motor or do you already have somthing lined up?

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My plans for the bottle is to fill it back up I finished that one off this week.

My plans are to drop that engine in and get the car running and the chassis set-up. After that I'll put the stock rebuilt engine in it.

Dr. said:

is plexi NHRA legal or do you have to use lexan? I was thinking they would not allow plexi windows.

Dr.

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I don't think so, but I only plan to run at my local track for the first 3 weeks so that will give me time to switch it later. The local guys don't really care, I ran 7's a bunch and they never enforced the helmet rule.