Many of you Mid-Ohioans have seen my GMC in person with the "Frankenchief" sirens mounted in the bumper, and may have noticed they were always in a perpetually "unfinished" state, in that the cones behind them were never installed:
Quite frankly, I hadn't done it until now because I could never really wrap my head around how to do it, without my brain working so hard my ears would begin to bleed. But with a local International Meet coming up I figured I needed to get on it. As it is it's probably already too late to get things chromed, but I digress...
Take a minute and try to process what I am attempting to accomplish here...first you have a cone, made of metal, with compound curves. What you want to do is make it sit flush with the bumper, which also has compound curves (not only is the front of it rounded, but it curves closer to the vehicle the further out to the edge you get.)
For months I would think about this as I was doing something else, like taking a shower. Sometimes I would think of a solution as I was drifting off to sleep, but forget what it was in the morning. In the end, I returned my brain to the third grade, and got out my flexible rulers, protractor, magic markers, tape, scissors, and cardboard and went to town. It fought me all the way, but I actually have one almost done...
here are some pics. NASA is doing anything this in-depth:
Note the complex algorithm that translates into "failure":
Aformentioned "scissors" and the remains of a hundred templates:
Here you can see what I am trying to cover up:
The rough cut. I only have two of these, so I'm hoping not to screw something up:
Cleaned up and roughed into place...there is a bumper bolt I need to cut around, so it is still sticking out about a quarter inch more than it should (sorry about the blurry phone cam pic, they always look great on my phone):
Getting close...I think it's going to look nice when done:
Quite frankly, I hadn't done it until now because I could never really wrap my head around how to do it, without my brain working so hard my ears would begin to bleed. But with a local International Meet coming up I figured I needed to get on it. As it is it's probably already too late to get things chromed, but I digress...
Take a minute and try to process what I am attempting to accomplish here...first you have a cone, made of metal, with compound curves. What you want to do is make it sit flush with the bumper, which also has compound curves (not only is the front of it rounded, but it curves closer to the vehicle the further out to the edge you get.)
For months I would think about this as I was doing something else, like taking a shower. Sometimes I would think of a solution as I was drifting off to sleep, but forget what it was in the morning. In the end, I returned my brain to the third grade, and got out my flexible rulers, protractor, magic markers, tape, scissors, and cardboard and went to town. It fought me all the way, but I actually have one almost done...
here are some pics. NASA is doing anything this in-depth:
Note the complex algorithm that translates into "failure":
Aformentioned "scissors" and the remains of a hundred templates:
Here you can see what I am trying to cover up:
The rough cut. I only have two of these, so I'm hoping not to screw something up:
Cleaned up and roughed into place...there is a bumper bolt I need to cut around, so it is still sticking out about a quarter inch more than it should (sorry about the blurry phone cam pic, they always look great on my phone):
Getting close...I think it's going to look nice when done:
