The twill weave is very easy to work with, cuts with sharp shears, and can be completely h
Better Living Through Chemistry
Mark LeBlanc; New Orleans, LA: I really enjoy reading your magazine. It has helped me with my projects. I am looking for the product I read about a few months ago. I think it was about reworking a console. It was a resin-impregnated cloth that you could form and then it hardened when exposed to sunlight (UV rays). I want to use it on the wing for my Vette. I appreciate any help you can give me.
Jeff Smith: The material you're looking for is called HyperFiber, sold by Percy's High Performance. This is a fiber-weave material similar to fiberglass or even carbon fiber. If you've ever worked with fiberglass, you know that mixing the resin with the layers of fiberglass is a messy proposition and difficult for a rookie to do correctly. The beauty of the HyperFiber is that the resin is mixed in the proper ratio with the cloth and then covered with a dry film on both sides of the fiber so no mixing is necessary and your fingers don't get all sticky. Curing the final product is even easier. The trick is to work with this stuff inside, away from direct sunlight. The fiber is easily malleable by hand to create the desired shape. Once the final shape is achieved, simply move the HyperFiber into direct sunlight. The ultraviolet (UV) component in sunlight will cure the resin and within a few minutes, the part will have hardened into your final piece. We played with this stuff at the recent PRI show in Orlando, Florida, and it works exactly as they say. Once formed, the HyperFiber can be drilled, sanded, painted, and ready for use. Percy's says that HyperFiber is impervious to engine heat (although probably not exhaust temperatures), so this product could be used for engine covers or maybe even a cool intake duct! Of course, ease of work and application mean this stuff is a little more expensive than fiberglass. A 12x21-inch sheet of pre-impregnated, HyperFiber wire-reinforced (which is a little stiffer) twill weave is $271.17, but Percy's offers all kinds of different sizes and applications. Some of the more interesting ones are a trans tunnel kit ($347.38) and a mini-tub kit for $748.10. Percy's even offers a trunk pan kit for $529.10. The company also sells the HyperFiber twill weave material dry, and you then mix the resin with the weave as you would with fiberglass. This is slightly less expensive than the integrated material but will require more skill. The same size dry twill weave cloth costs $204.33, and then you must add the resin. You can order any of these parts directly from Percy's on the website.
More Info
Percy's High Performance
Linn Creek, MO
573/346-4409
PercysHP.com
Hot Trans Am
Eric F. Marx; Racine, WI: I have two problems relating to my LT1 '95 Trans Am Firebird. First, the low coolant sensor is located somewhere under the hood. It seems the expensive GM service manuals specifically for this vehicle do not tell a person where this sensor is located. I emailed Pontiac with my question, and you may be surprised to learn that they wrote me back and said that they don't know where it is either. Can you guys tell me where I might find this sensor on the car?
CC Quickies
AFR has just released a brand-new composite intake manifold for the small-bl
Also, I do not like the way the engine coolant fans are triggered by the ECM. The ECM tells the two dual-speed electric fans to come on at low speed when engine temperature reaches 226 degrees, and that high speed occurs at 235 degrees. This annoys me to no end watching my temperature gauge climb to the far end of the scale before the fans start. It would seem to me that they should start at around 200 degrees and shut down somewhere around 195 degrees. I have never seen a car that has a cooling system set up like this. On every other car I have owned, the temperature gauge moves very minimally and the fans cycle quite frequently. Do you know of any way the ECM can be adjusted to modify these settings? It makes me nervous having it operate this way, as I don't think is very good for the aluminum heads that are on this engine either.