First I removed a portion of the fiberglass that I had previously applied on the back edge of the door, hot-glued some foam and formed a lip along the edge. The lip was built up from the outside of the door using seven layers of mat and a single layer of cloth. Once done I removed the foam and glassed it from the inside of the door using two layers of cloth tape. A small portion of this lip needs to be ground back as it interfers with the top edge of the air intake when the doors were being closed. Enough lip remains to still give me an effective seal though. Here is picture of bottom panel of the door:

Next I used a wood router and recessed an area in the seat back along the inside edge of the air intakes. I made this recess about 1/2" wide by 1/2" deep. I then glassed in this area and formed another lip on the inside edge. When doing this be sure that there will remain a gap for the weatherstripping between the inside and outside lips!

• 100lbs fixed pressure
• 27.80" extended length
• 10" stroke
• .39" rod diameter
• .87" tube diameter
• 13mm ball studs

These were tough to find and a bit pricey but they were exactly what I was searching for. They are as close to the Datsun nitrogen cylinders as I could get, but with the additional lifting power needed. From what I was able to determine the Datsun cylinders only had about 30 lbs of pressure.

Here are the spces on these stainless steel gas springs:

• 85lbs pressure
• 23.83" extended length
• 9.83" stroke
• .315" rod diameter
• .715" tube diameter
• 13mm ball studs
• stainless steel

They have adjustable pressure so I have them coming preloaded with 85lbs of pressure which I can bleed down as needed. I figured that I needed about 65lbs of lift pressure so this gives me some leeway. The cylinder ball stud will mount about 7-1/2" from the hinge, with the doors being about 24" tall and 28lbs total weight

After locating how they would be mounted I drilled the center for the plunger portion of the popper and using two layers of mat behind and above the angle glassed it into the trunk, before the resin went off I also put a couple more layers of mat and single layer of glass on the topside. Trimmed it up and installed both the poppers. I will probably only be using these to make positive stops for the trunk lid, and plan on putting in some weaker springs so that the pressure from them will not torque the lid.

I also fabricated the top and bottom strut supports for the rear canopy. Since I used some rounded maple strips along the top of the lid I had to make the top supports so that they would fit and look proper so I took some 1" black pipe and split it along it's length and welded on some 1/8" x 1" wide steel to form the sides. Finally I used some 1/8" rounded tabs to form the mounting point for the struts:

I have a different structure for my rear canopy and initially used some 1-1/2" x 3/4" strips of maple along the length. My thoughts are that they would make good strong mounting points for the cylinders. When talking with Shep he told me that the cylinders have a slightly rearward rake when the deck is closed with the difference between the top mounting point and the lower mounting point being about 11".

I had been contemplating putting the cylinders in with a forward rake, the reason for this is that when the deck closed the cylinders would actually help hold it closed, and after much deliberation decided to proceed with this. It took a number of hours to figure out exactly where I wanted to place the cylinder mounts to obtain the desired opening height of the deck, while still allowing the deck to close all of the way. Once finalized I installed the upper and lower mounts that I previously made, I ended up offsetting the top mount about 9" horizontally from the lower mount so they are pretty much pointed directly at the hinges.

These cylinders work out well as I can open the deck 1/2 of the way and it will stay open. They have enought pressure so that if it is opened outside I don't have to worry about the wind accidentially closing the deck. The only negative thing would be that when shutting the deck the last foot of the way the cylinders kick in to assist in closing it, so you can't just let it go!

FYI: if you want to have the rear canopy open as much as possible you need to move the top mounting point as far forward as possible.

IMPORTANT: mounting the cylinders as I did will NOT work with pneumatic cylinders! In using pneumatic cylinders you would have to mount them with a rearward rake, as once you charge the cylinders they will push in the direction that they are pointed, with the forward rake it will attempt to push the lower part of the deck towards the hinges and probably crush the deck if enough pressure were applied!!! There is the possibility that you could mount them horizontally although which would make for a very neat installation.

Here are some pictures showing the result as you can see in the left photo that with the rear canopy closed the springs are very near their maximum compression:

IMPORTANT NOTE: I have been told by the manufacturers that nitrogen gas springs should be installed with the rod portion downwards. This provides the best sealing and lubrication of the cylinder.

With the rear canopy finally operational I decided to work on the latches. So I modified the strikers that came with them by welding them onto some 1/8" angle, located them and bolted them to the deck.

Well - here we go again - reminisent of the problems with the doors... With the swing of the rear canopy you can not mount the latches like I initially installed them, due to the rotation they impact the latches and will not allow the deck to open or close!!! Well been here before - at least this time I have the answer - change the mounting angle of the latches!

So I took a grinder to the old mounts and ground off all of the fiberglass mat that I used to mount them, then using a wood chisel I got underneath the steel plates and removed them. This was actually pretty instructional for me as I found out that they were somewhat difficult to remove (a good thing) so this proved to me that the hole-filled-plates were certainly the way to go.

The plan was to make a domed section directly above the steering wheel so that the cluster would mount into it, slightly recessed. So I put down one piece of 1/2" thick foam, followed by two pieces of 2" thick foam where the cluster would be located, I also allowed for about 2" overhang from the existing wood dash.

BTW: I have switched from using generic bondo to Rage Gold and it came HIGHLY recommended and after using it for a short period definately would pass this on to you. It has a very creamy yellow consistancy, and when mixed with blue hardner it turns the green that you see, it spreads very well, sands easily and no pinholes and I am certainly very happy and will continue to use it for leveling out the body.

Once the resin went off I sanded down the entire surface and applied a thin coat of bondo to the top surface and then sanded it down.

During the day the UPS driver showed up with the door cylinders that I previously ordered from EasyLift, so I got them installed in place and had operational doors. With these cylinders the doors open about a full 90 degrees and provide lots of open area to easily enter/exit the vehicle.

Since I was working on doors I also located and installed both of the side view mirrors. No electrical connections yet but they look like they should work well, I modified them slightly by grinding the lower mounting edge of them so that the mounting angle made the mirrors more parallel, still some more work needs to be done on them but a good start.

The rest of the day was spent using the inline air sander and hitting a lot of the rear canopy as well as door areas. I even got to spread some bondo onto a good portion of the rear canopy. A good start but lots more sanding and initial leveling of the body remains to be done prior to paint. But I was able to start making some good progress and I can see that once I continue working on leveling the body that it will start to move fast.

One of the reasons that I was able to make some good body progress was due to a conversation that I had last night with my good friend Paul Schreiner from PS Composites. I was talking to him about the fact that I really did not have a whole lot of experience in doing body work, he gave me a trade secret that caused me to have an epiphany! He said that for large flat areas that he typically used either dry wall tools or concrete tools!

I removed the side mirrors and using a pick removed some of the foam from around the inside of the mounting holes. Then I took some fiberglass mat and pulled it apart so that there were small frayed pieces, wetted them out with some resin and shoved them back into the holes. What I am attempting to do is to reinforce these holes a bit so the mounting bolts won't crush the single layer of cloth on the inside of the doors. Once the resin went off I redrilled out the holes. I guess that I could have accomplished this with some epoxy but it was easy none the less.

After another day of grinding/sanding/bondo I finally have the body to the point where I can start to think about applying some of the high build primer to it. The doors need some attention but I can shoot them separate from the body and do them at the same time that I shoot the front trunk lid and the glassed sunroof.

I ended up prepping the glass sunroof that I previously made as I will not have time to make the acrylic sunroof before the Oct car show, and need some thing to at least cover the sunroof area for transporting and showing it in case of rain...

I finished masking off the underside and inside the wheel wells so that overspray does not get underneath the bottom. Also got the inside of the rear canopy taped and masked off since the inside will show the underlying wood panels.

On Friday I will prep the shop space by clearing out as much as I can, masking off the walls/cabinets/tool chests with some sheets of 9' x 12' paper drop cloths that I was able to pick up at my local ACE store. Once done I will use a garden hose and hose down the floor, let any dust settle. I have a large exhaust fan the will be used to move air, in additon I purchased some furnace filters that I plan to put into a doorway so that any incoming air is filtered. In addition I will be using another fan at the opposite end to help push air towards the exhaust fan.

Once I let the air filter out for a while then I will hit the entire surface of the vehicle with some Acetone to remove any residue that may be there, and using a tack cloth get rid of any remaining lint particles etc. Last cleaning item will be to clean my air hose so that I do not contaminate this clean area with dust/grit from it. And finally I will apply the primer.

Well since progress went so well yesterday in prepping I decided to go out and purchase the color/clear paints. If I make good progress with the primer I might just have time this weekend to shoot the color/clear coats so I wanted it on hand in case it all worked out.

Took out the MSDS spec sheets so that I knew the mixing ratio of primer/hardner (4:1). This high build primer can be reduced but I decided that I was going to shoot it straight to get the maximum build up.

I shot the entire vehicle (less doors, trunk lid, sunroof) both inside and out with two coats of the high build primer. Here are some shots of the body:

Initially I left the rear canopy attached to the body so that I could get to the bottom of it easily, and after it flashed sufficiently, removed it and moved it onto some saw horses so that I could give it a second coat.

It is amazing what putting on some paint will do, every little flaw shows through! While the pictures don't quite show them they are certainly there. When it didn't have primer you just could not see them, but now that I have a consistant coloration they are visible. It took almost a full gallon of the high build primer to put on the two coats so I will have plenty left over.

Then I spent at least 10hrs sanding down everything, my arms hurt my hands hurt and I have a horrific headache, but the sanding is done. I started out putting on some shorts, a tee shirt and sandles - as I knew that I was going to get wet and messy - and pushed the Vortex out into the driveway.

A while back I bought a book titled "Pro Paint & Body" by Jim Richardson and Tom Horvath, and read it - numerous times I might add. They suggested that once primed you put down a misted guide coat of black paint. This is used so that as you sand you can easily tell where the high and low spots are. Use cheap aerosol paint because you will be sandint it all off anyway. Just mist the paint on lightly and let it dry completely. Then using some wet/dry sandpaper begin sanding keeping the surface wet at all times either using a garden hose or a bucket of water.

I started off using some 220 grit paper on my 6" orbital sander, although I have to admit that in a couple of spots I went and used the inline sander with 36 grit paper (specifically on the floor of the passenger compartment and thresholds of the doors). Once done I went back over all of it by hand with a sanding block using 400 grit paper. And so did this the entire day until I got the surface just the way that I wanted it. While wetting the surface back down I was careful to look at the reflection of the surface caused by the surface of the water as it clinged onto it, figuring that the image that I saw would probably be what I would see once the color/clear coats were shot on.

In the end I probably sanded off about 1/2 gallon of the primer that I had previously put on! Well if it isn't the return of Franken-Vortex!!

Then after cleaning up everything I mixed up some high build primer but this time I used the reducer as I really did not need to have the surface built up and just wanted to shoot on a coat of primer.

Well hands, arms and shoulders are tired from block sanding - I have a lot of respect for body men! The surface is really starting to shine now, there were some small blemishes to fix later but now I think that I have a good base, here are some new pictures:

I have had almost 2 years in building my Vortex project, it has been a great learning experience.

Along the way I have made numerous modifications and divergences from the original plan set, some of them necessary for personal comfort, some for ease of construction and some for styling.

I have recently decided that with these modifications a change in name is necessary however until tonight could not come up with a name that is catchy and meaningful to me, however tonight I have decided on one:

Genesis

This name is meaningful to me as the whole project has well been a genesis and transformation during the build period. Now as the project is beginning to wind down it seems the perfect opportunity for yet another change.

I think that gone unchecked you could do this for at least two/three weeks! A neighbor of mine used to have a saying that I have adopted and used many times over the years, he would come over to help out with a job and when done he would say "Good enough for who it's for.".