Wrapping up the body detailing, I did mention I broke the shutter control actuator while removing in from the hood. I didn’t document through pictures how I made this part, but I did re-create one of the parts and took a pic. The picture below shows the shutter control actuator on the prototype. Photo credit Richard Wolfram.
I wasn’t quite sure at the time how I was going to make this part, so I basically winged it. The original thought was to make it out of styrene, but I quickly disputed the thought knowing one accidental bump would wreck the part. So my brain trust felt it would be best to make the actuator out of .010 x.030 flat brass wire. So, I cut off about a scale foot and then center punched a dimple in the middle of the wire. I then drilled a #80 hole through the dimple. The hole will be for the control arm of the actuator.
Using my Xuron flat nose pliers, I placed the tip of the pliers centered over the #80 hole. I bent both sides of the wire downwards. A little tweaking here and there to the part gave a nice U-shape. I trimmed off the supports so they would be a tad longer than the factory part. This gave me the room to file the part level across and then file a slight angle on the supports. With a few swipes of a small round file, I was able to match the contour of the hood. I checked to see if the height of the part now matched the factory part. I didn’t want the new part taller, but if it was a little undersized, it would be ok.
The hole I left open for the new actuator was too big so I ended up plugging the second hole on the hood from the old actuator and sanding the area smooth. Next, I double checked my location for the actuator and made sure it would sit nice on the hood, I placed a mark in pencil for the location which was centered on the newly plugged hole. Then I dabbed a little CA on the support ends and placed the actuator back in its location. I let this dry and made sure it was perpendicular to the fan shroud and vertical. I then used the #80 drill and inserted the drill through the hole on top of the actuator and carefully drilled a hole into the hood. Now I will be able to add more stability to the whole setup on the top of the hood. The control rod for the actuator was bent using .012.
Inserting the control rod into the actuator gave me the location to drill a #80 hole into the fan shroud. Next, I cut just enough of the control rod to slip into the fan shroud and dabbed a little CA to set it in place and also glued the rod going into the body.
Now I can make the shutter control rod. I use .012 and bend a 90 degree on the end that will reside in the actuator. I slide the rod through the eye bolts and trim the 90 to just fit in against control rod. I dab some CA along the eye bolts and at control rod to keep the shutter control rod secure. I trim the end of the shutter control rod back just far enough so it will not scratch the cab.
The hood detail is complete, moving on to the cab.