You can probably guess by all my activity lately that I’ve been working on my pack. I got my pack shell from Loveusmokey on E-Bay and some of you may recall that the bumper doesnt fit. My bumper was also purchased from Loveusmokey, and that is going back to them for a replacement. The pack came painted with a flat black, but the paint job was probably just for show on E-Bay. It wasnt very even but again who cares about that. I had to remove most of the paint just so that I could attach most of the components. You dont get a very good bond when you attempt to glue to paint.
To start I buffed most of the paint off, smoothed out the surfaces a little, I did very little bondo work, but I did build up some of the pack using some resin to reinforce what I felt were weak areas. I stripped all the paint from areas where I needed to use expoxy, and also used some mechanical fastners where needed.
This first image is the site of the Injectors. The pack came with pre-drilled holes, but I didnt like them at all so I filled them in with resin and decided to attach my injectors a different way. I didnt get a perfectly smooth surface, so I put a little glazing compound on that, and sanded it flat. I bored out some sockets and then mounted a dowel inside the socket with glue and a wood screw from behind. Then I fit the PVC over the dowel and into the socket for a very tight fit. I used very little expocy to secure the injectors in place. They are about 1/2 shorter than Steffans plans. I initially had cut them to the plan, but they just looked wrong to me. I looked at a ton of images from the packs here, Planet Hollywood and other places and I finally decided to cut them down just a touch. I think they turned out great!
Here you can see the pack shell about ready to receive the injectors, as well as augmentation to the Filler Plug and I Beam. (feel free to correct me if I get the terminology wrong on the plug and beam)
In this image you see an Ion Arm from the Shop (thanks AJ) installed next to the booster and PPD. The interior of the Ion Arm was hallow, and like the Injectors I mounted a small block of wood to the Pack Shell, fastened it from behind with a screw and some epoxy. I fit the Ion Arm over the block so that it is very sturdy. I was going to fasten the Aluminum block with the brass rods (also called Ion Arm I think) before I mounted this, but I had a hard time holding onto the bolt inside that long and narrow box. In the end I decided that I could always glue that on later. I also had to cut out the site for the power cell. I drilled some holes down the center, and then took small drum sander on my Dremmel until I had a straight edge. I used a square file to hit the corners so that they are nice and sharp.
Here is the area that I added some resin. I wanted to build up the edges a bit so that it wasnt so brittle.
Here is another shot, the pack on its back now as I begin to dry fit the injectors, filler plug and beam.
Finally I get to the point where everything is installed (except the bumper) and I have thrown a very light coat of primer on the pack. Here are three images from different angles.
And I cant say thank you enough for all the help everyone gave me. The messages, comments and instructions have been invaluable. I’m kind of at a stand still now until I get a better fitting bumer. I may play with some mounting hardware and try to fit it to the motherboard in the mean time. Again, thanks for your help and support.
