Fiberglass mag cowl

[Oldhaven]

All good suggestions, but considering the amount of work involved, I guess I will just save up for a polished alloy cowl from VOC spares and modify it, saving the cut out bit as Bill suggested. Might as well support the spares scheme, and I imagine it will be a nice thing to go with the manual advance magneto, adding some value if I ever want to sell it.

Ron

 

[Ken Tidswell]

It is quite easy to make a magneto which does not require the cowl to be butchered. . this is a slack wire configuration but you need to buy a new end for the magneto so that the control wire points downward at the bottom LHEnd. A man in Coventry who does not advertise a VOC person, does them . No doubt others will do it if you ask them nicely, a man in Halesowen who does advertise is good at this sort of thing. Think about it. the part is available at a price. Ken

 

[Bill Thomas]

Or, You could Dump the lot, No stands, No Cowl, Less weight, And if anything goes wrong, You can get to it easy !!, Cheers Bill.

 

[Pushrod Twin]

That's very tidy Bill, what is the ignition unit?

 

[Bill Thomas]

Hello Roy, It's a Rita, I always wanted a "D" distributor, We had a bloke built new ones, But when I had the money, He had stopped doing them, I needed something quick, And that is all I could get, I hate it !!. I have since bought myself some old "D" distributors, So I will not get caught again, Even got one for the Comet !! Cheers Bill.

 

[Jim Richardson]

A bit new age but is there anybody on the forum that could scan and 3d print one.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Oldhaven]

A bit new age but is there anybody on the forum that could scan and 3d print one.

I could model it in CAD and get it done, since I have access to an SLS machine, but the cost would be prohibitive. For structurally sound and temperature safe parts from 3D printing, the material and machine time cost is pretty high for a one off part that big, though the mag cowl is the perfect application for it. Someday, maybe not too far off, this will be relatively common, but we are not quite there yet. If someone was willing to invest in a high end 3D printer and go into the repro parts business in a very big way, they would likely do well. The parts can be painted or plated and look right. The weight savings for racing parts are pretty amazing too. Some big pockets racing companies are doing this now.

Ron.

 

[Ken Tidswell]

It is quite easy to make a magneto which does not require the cowl to be butchered. . this is a slack wire configuration but you need to buy a new end for the magneto so that the control wire points downward at the bottom LHEnd. A man in Coventry who does not advertise a VOC person, does them . No doubt others will do it if you ask them nicely, a man in Halesowen who does advertise is good at this sort of thing. Think about it. the part is available at a price. Ken

The end of the mag for this conversion is off a magneto suitable for a Royal Enfield. Barry Bassett did mine . Ken

 

[bmetcalf]

My fiberglass mag cowl:

 

[wmg73141]

I'm not quite sure what the problem is here but GRP work is not exactly rocket science, anyone competent at maintaining a Vincent or doing a decent DIY job for that matter can handle it.

I’ve done quite a few sucessful “funnies”, mainly for R&D work, over the years, anything from turbocharger casings and experimental porting for gas flow work to a body shell for a Shell Mileage Marathon “car” and even a sea toilet for my sailing boat and I was a swarf maker, GRP was certainly not my game.

Yes it’s smelly, messy, itchy and time consuming but then so is keeping pets or children for that matter . . .

If you already have a standard cowl then you are already half way to the basic “plug” needed to make the mould, if what lives underneath wants more room then car body filler or even Polyfilla can be applied to the cowl and shaped and blended to provide the extra room. The filler will do no harm to the cowl and will clean off easily enough when the job is done.

From the cowl/plug you then detach the GRP mould. This then is the shape from which the new cowl will be made. Bosses for fixing points can be made from aluminium and encapsulated during the laying-up process. To get holes in the right place in the new cowl carefully mark the holes onto the mould from the old cowl/plug, when the mould is released from the plug it should be drilled to take short rods with conical ends. The pointed ends, set just proud, will provide a centre mark in the new cowl moulding for later drilling. Make sure they are well coated with a release agent so that they are easily removed before parting the new cowl from the mould.

The laying up process is the simple bit, the planning and preparation are the harder part. You have to be able to think in reverse or mirror image some of the time but it is not beyond the wit of man.

One last thing, a high finish is desireable on the mould, any defects will be cruelly reproduced if using a gel coat, the moulding can of course be painted to hide your sins.