OK, I don’t know if it’s really a Kohler sink or not, but it works with the alliteration. I’ve got only a little over a week before the First Hawaiian Auto Show where my FX is actually going to be shown! Sounds like one of them reality shows, NOT. So today I continued work on the custom engine gravel guard belly pan. Last I left, the sink was almost to the point that I could eyeball it into place. I continued to trim pieces out and make cuts and bends to get it to fit. J cruised in, I had it to the shape that would fit pretty well now. He jumped in and with his skill with the tin snips we cleaned up more spots and put in a final bend for clearance. Something of a milestone, we drilled the first mounting hole!
Here’s a tip, something I’ve experienced a little before, working stainless steel will wreck your cutting tools. Stainless is actually a fairly poor conductor of heat, which is one reason why it makes good exhaust tubing, so what happens is your cutting blades and bits quickly overheat. I’m now four blades and a couple dulled drill bits in on this project.
Dave shows up after having spent a day at the shooting range. We now have another set of hands, to drill holes and start the backing block of 2×4’s on fire, almost. Two more mounting holes are in and the pan is bolted up. Looks good! We’re ending up not using four of the original mounting points, but I got one alternate point and Dave starts working on an extension plate to get one other mounting. This SS pan is so much stiffer that it doesn’t look like its going to be a problem missing a few mounting points. It’s pretty much cleanup trimming at this point, we put in a cut for access to the oil drain and clean the edges. J goes to work on the electric fan project for his sled.
So here it is, Ckucky’s freebie kitchen sink fully customized by the boys and bolted up to the FX16, all ready for the public eye to gaze at in awe. There’s a real ugly corner that you can’t see to well in this picture, but that’s what happens with a virgin effort. If I were to ever find another free sink, I’d know what to do now. Anyway, this looks solid, lot more than the orignal ineffectual plastic splash guard, of which I only have one even after going through 4 FX’s. It also extends over the oil pan so will hopefully prevent the dents in the oil pan that I already have. It’ll get field tested in a bit over a month, so we shall see!
test
test2
test3
This is another test.
This is test #5
test6
I wonder how many Rally X cars we’ll see now with sinks mounted under them.
Hello?