hmm. thanks for the tip on the fluid. Can't afford it right now but I'll probably won't need it anyway. The heat coming off of the cat has seemed to have lessened enough to the point that I don't need to immediately remove the cat and hollow it out.
In other news today I pulled all of the computer modules out of the car and counted the volt/capacitance of the electrolytic caps inside of them and I've made a list, here is the list:
Engine control unit ECU 89661-33570
50v 10uf near D101 (4mm diameter)
50v 10uf near D104 and T601 (4mm diameter)
50v 10uf C701 (4mm diameter)
C812 15uF 35v (4mm diameter)
C811 15uF 35v (4mm diameter)
C106 100uF 10v (4mm diameter)
C108 220uF 10v (6.3mm diameter)
Speed Control/Cruise Control 88240-33010 (221000-0880)
10v 220uF
50v 10uF
50v 47uF
50v 47uF
50v 47uF
Computer Integration Relay 82641-YC021 TV088732
50v 10uF
10v 470uF
Cooling Fan Controller: 89257-33010 (072900-0101)
50v 4.7uF
50v 3.3uF
50v 3.3uF
50v 10uF
50v 3.3uF
25v 47uF
50v 47uF
50v 4.7uF
25v 47uF
Climate Control 177300-1202
C100 10V 330uF
C902 10v 330uF
C416 35v 56uF
C231 16v 22uF
C230 50v 1uF
C410 10v 330uF
C500 35v 56uF
C009 50v 10uF
C008 10v 330uF
C003 10v 330uF
C001 35v 56uF
C012 35v 56uF
The flickering of the climate control LEDs might actually be a problem with a capacitor. Anyway I'm going to replace the capacitors next fortnight in all of them and replace the LED globes with incandescent ones, then I can button the dash up semi-permanently until such times as I come up with an easy and quick method of shielding all of the wiring behind the dash against RFI which will be part of the second phase of work on this car.
Right now all I want to do is relax and enjoy myself, all of my bones hurt and my back is giving me a bit of trouble too so I should rest up but that is probably because of these really well worn shock absorbers and springs more than anything else, I've done good working on the car and its taken a lot out of me, so I need to recharge and get back to it in a month or two, for now I'll just mess around with getting the audio system working. I have been taking the car for drives and I'm getting quite good fuel economy. Its registering 272km's driven on 1/2 of a tank of fuel. P95.
The car is just going brilliant.
The help from this forum on this car has also not been forgotten.
In other news today I pulled all of the computer modules out of the car and counted the volt/capacitance of the electrolytic caps inside of them and I've made a list, here is the list:
Engine control unit ECU 89661-33570
50v 10uf near D101 (4mm diameter)
50v 10uf near D104 and T601 (4mm diameter)
50v 10uf C701 (4mm diameter)
C812 15uF 35v (4mm diameter)
C811 15uF 35v (4mm diameter)
C106 100uF 10v (4mm diameter)
C108 220uF 10v (6.3mm diameter)
Speed Control/Cruise Control 88240-33010 (221000-0880)
10v 220uF
50v 10uF
50v 47uF
50v 47uF
50v 47uF
Computer Integration Relay 82641-YC021 TV088732
50v 10uF
10v 470uF
Cooling Fan Controller: 89257-33010 (072900-0101)
50v 4.7uF
50v 3.3uF
50v 3.3uF
50v 10uF
50v 3.3uF
25v 47uF
50v 47uF
50v 4.7uF
25v 47uF
Climate Control 177300-1202
C100 10V 330uF
C902 10v 330uF
C416 35v 56uF
C231 16v 22uF
C230 50v 1uF
C410 10v 330uF
C500 35v 56uF
C009 50v 10uF
C008 10v 330uF
C003 10v 330uF
C001 35v 56uF
C012 35v 56uF
The flickering of the climate control LEDs might actually be a problem with a capacitor. Anyway I'm going to replace the capacitors next fortnight in all of them and replace the LED globes with incandescent ones, then I can button the dash up semi-permanently until such times as I come up with an easy and quick method of shielding all of the wiring behind the dash against RFI which will be part of the second phase of work on this car.
Right now all I want to do is relax and enjoy myself, all of my bones hurt and my back is giving me a bit of trouble too so I should rest up but that is probably because of these really well worn shock absorbers and springs more than anything else, I've done good working on the car and its taken a lot out of me, so I need to recharge and get back to it in a month or two, for now I'll just mess around with getting the audio system working. I have been taking the car for drives and I'm getting quite good fuel economy. Its registering 272km's driven on 1/2 of a tank of fuel. P95.
The car is just going brilliant.
The help from this forum on this car has also not been forgotten.
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I am having the passenger airbag replaced under a recall here next week, am just hoping the wrench doing the work doesn’t tear out any of my audio wiring, should be out of the way, but...
I find success at a dealership about as often as I enjoy a trip to the dentist.
Take care of your back, have had something going on myself these past two weeks, am just hoping it will pass...
I find success at a dealership about as often as I enjoy a trip to the dentist.
Take care of your back, have had something going on myself these past two weeks, am just hoping it will pass...
Has that been done yet and did they mess around with your wiring?
Thanks!
Wouldn't you know it my foot gave out on sat because I didn't heed my own advice and I kept on working.
I take strepsils every now and again and have been doing so all winter to heed off any colds that I might end up getting as a result of a sore throat, it seems to be a good functional deterrent against the cold.
As the weather warms up I've been using and leaving on my desk fan overnight and leaving the window cracked open and as a result of that I've been getting dry throats, those are usually a good way for me to get the cold.
In other news.
I ended up sending the incorrect 1MZ-FE back to the wreckers and they sent me a replacement.
I also received the polymer capacitors from RS but no projects as of yet have formed in my brain on how to use them, haven't looked into it properly as of yet either. Maybe a solar regulator project would be nice with these caps then I can place the regulator out in the sun and not have to worry about the thermal ratings of the capacitors.
I also ended up pulling the car battery out of the front of the car, and I received my battery box, and I've been placing the battery box in various locations of the boot in an effort to try and find a suitable location for it that will least affect the driving feel of the car. directly underneath the rear parcel shelf and over the rear wheels seems to be the most sensible position. I forgot just how heavy a car battery can be, easily weighs 3x more than my toolbox.
Some ideas involving rolling my own NiCD starter battery have popped into my head too but I fail to see how I can get around the thermal runaway and cancellation of charge problems associated with a NiCD battery in a car. Some ideas involving flat battery packs for a starter battery have popped into my head too. It seems very inefficient to be mucking about leaded batteries in our day and age when rechargables are so readily available.
I've also completely emptied my car of any and all stuff in the boot, down to the bare metal. I ended up installing some dynamat xtreme on the rear boot lid. I also took the car for a drive and have clocked up 413km on the tank of fuel, there is now only 1/4 of a tank of fuel left so I cannot drive it anymore until next payday. That equates to 10L/100km of fuel economy which is quite good for an engine of this size, I heeded tubelab's advice and kept it in 1:1 drive ratio and didn't use overdrive gear at all even at highway speeds of 80-90-100km/h. I drove around the lake at night which was pretty relaxing.
The car feels amazing without anything in it, I've caught the super lightweight bug. I now wish that I owned tools made from aluminum alloy or carbon fiber. Can always dream can't I?
I also am thinking about air damming the front of the car, and thinking about various ways or methods of lightening the car even further.
Ideas such as:
removing the power steering pump and looping the rack hoses
removing the side window glass (crazy, amirite?)
removing the spare tyre and replacing it with a run flat tyre
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Keep in mind that the battery will need a cabinet or box of some sort and a breather to the outside. That stuff has kept me from doing good hat you are. When I was 16, I attempted to put an auxiliary gas tank in that position...
New airbags should happen on Saturday morning, am going to take pictures of the trim pieces that will be removed before the appointment so I can have something to fall back on if they tear anything up.
New airbags should happen on Saturday morning, am going to take pictures of the trim pieces that will be removed before the appointment so I can have something to fall back on if they tear anything up.
Honda?
My Element was on the short list for the recall since it was originally a Florida car and high humidity exacerbates the problem. The igniter is the only part being changed and they have a procedure to change that without messing with the airbag itself. The only issue with the Honda dealer service was some sticky residue left on the steering wheel and dash. Others have complained of getting their car back dirty but I live on a dirt road and haven't washed my car in years so I wouldn't notice any extra dirt.
The airbag idiot light used to randomly light up on cold (below zero F) days, and hasn't lit up since the trip to the Honda store, but there weren't too many sub zero days last winter......just 15 consecutive days between 0 and 32 leading to a $600 electric bill. Even the 6 year old Walmart battery survived the winter....and died a few months back on a 96 degree day.
Now, the Circuit City installer making a giant mushroom cloud out of my stereo wiring was a different story.
I bought a Projecta BB285:
PROJECTA BB285 BATTERY BOX CARRY CASE 12V 80AH CAR AGM DEEP CYCLE DUAL SYSTEM | eBay
Only problem is that its NOT sealed and in fact has various vents going around the top
I watched a video of an aluminium battery box kit for a mustang in the US and it is much higher quality, but one thing that I noticed was that the battery box came with a small plastic tube for venting, I can't say enough about this but I don't believe that will be sufficient enough for gravity-fed lighter-than-air hydrogen gas to dissipate outside of the car, I think its a gimmick, as the video presenter also stated.
I believe a much better alternative would be a fan-forced venting system with a piece of conduit venting to the outside of the car. However finding a fan to round hole adaptor might be difficult. I'll go down to Bunnings I'm sure and find something eventually which will allow me to connect some foil ducting to the side of a battery box.
Some conduit off of a vacuum cleaner perhaps would be suitable, it has the rigidity that I require and the right length and I can probably pick up some for free.
2 pcs 28mm Connector Inner Dia. Vacuum Hose Conduit Tube Universal Pipe | eBay
Now I just need to find a fan of a suitable size.
Here is one. All I need now is some conduit to go over the outlet of the fan: DC Brushless Cooling PC Computer Fan 12V 5028s 50x50x28mm 0.25A 2 Pin Wire AU | eBay
I could mount that fan on the inside of the plastic battery box, possibly in the lid, and then use a step drill to drill a hole in the side or top of the box for the oulet to come out of, then get some plastic conduit to go over the outlet with a clamp. I can then wire it up so that the fan comes on when the ignition is turned to the on position.
Its either that or relying on the air vents which are in the car as standard to vent explosive gas out of the boot and for the rear seats to provide a sufficient enough air seal around the rear parcel shelf opening to prevent the hydrogen gas and oxygen from escaping into the cabin of the car. Netherless an exploding boot would be a nice experience for someone into that sort of music.
I'm 100% sure that I'm going to end up wanting to try out flooded deep cycle batteries instead of sealed ones at some point so it is essential that I solve the problem.
I've thought about drilling a 40mm hole and inserting a 12v brushless DC fan and wiring it up so that it turns on when the ignition is in the ON position, a 85 amp dual battery solenoid which I'm buying on Monday will also be wired in the same fashion. The dual battery solenoid is a source of spark so this battery venting problem must be solved. Maybe possibly mounting the dual battery solenoid underneath the boot somewhere to the metal framework would be a good idea, that way it won't be a possible source of ignition inside of the boot anymore.
I found some 0.33mSQ red hookup wire on RS that I'll buy too, to do the job with of running a cable from the ignition fuse box under the drivers steering wheel to the boot, and a second cable also for a second switch to go to the fog lights on the front of the car that I recently installed.
RS Pro Red, 100m XLPE UL3239 Hook Up Wire, 0.33 mm2 CSA , 6 kV dc 22 AWG | RS Components
XPLE is rather interesting.
I also found some rocker switches to go down where the footwell is so I can turn things on and off if I need to. One for toggling the 85amp solenoid, just in case I need to turn it off for some reason, can't imagine why. and one for fog lamps.
RS Pro Rocker Switch SPST Illuminated, On-Off Panel | RS Components
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although the solenoid is sealed from the atmosphere so it should be fine to leave inside of the boot.
In other news I made a M6 8.8 grade high tensile bolt explode today while I was doing the starter battery box installation and wiring of said installation. I simply torqued it down far too much, it can be easily misleading just how much torque you've applied when you are using four washers. On the second attempt I ended up using spring washers and had less of an issue as they grabbed a bit/dug in as I was torquing it down so it gave me a reminder just how much torque I was applying.
Always wear eye protection kids.
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In other news today I started my car for the first time with the battery in the boot. Was slightly slower than usual but it cranked over without issues. Voltage drop between the front of the car/alternator and the battery in the boot was entirely non existent without a load applied to the alternator, as soon as I turned the headlights on it reduced by 0.01v at the boot end.
Voltage was sitting at 14.70v, nice and healthy, at both ends while the engine was running.
I think my starter battery is getting a bit old, reason why I say that is after I took it for a long drive last week/fortnight the battery voltage was sitting fairly low at 12.60v AND the little liquid eye indicator was showing that the battery was flat (clear), I suspect that it has a reduced amp hour capacity, wish I could check it somehow. Leaving a certain wattage of headlight on for a few hours after its fully charged and has been resting for a few hours perhaps? Then time it and do the math on the amp hour capacity... Might do that at some point.
If its just low on electrolyte then I cannot top it up, its a sealed calcium-calcium battery. Sure, I could break open the lid and top it up but I don't want to have to do that, I would much rather just replace it with a new flooded cell if its starting to go south.
Its a Supercharge Gold Plus, getting quite old now at least 5 years old, I expect my batteries to last at least for 10 years of use as I keep them in good condition with a regular trickle charge with a solar panel. SuperCharge GOLD PLUS - Supercharge Batteries
I don't know it just makes me nervous somehow with that eye indicator being white like that when the battery voltage was at 12.60v. Makes me wonder if the electrolyte inside has evaporated and hasn't recombined. If thats the case then its like a pressure vessel waiting to explode and I should probably get it out of my boot and replace it with a flooded cell that at least has the ability to vent the gas and not contain it. I do have some experience working with sealed lead acid cells and if you ask me they are more trouble than they are worth.
Voltage was sitting at 14.70v, nice and healthy, at both ends while the engine was running.
I think my starter battery is getting a bit old, reason why I say that is after I took it for a long drive last week/fortnight the battery voltage was sitting fairly low at 12.60v AND the little liquid eye indicator was showing that the battery was flat (clear), I suspect that it has a reduced amp hour capacity, wish I could check it somehow. Leaving a certain wattage of headlight on for a few hours after its fully charged and has been resting for a few hours perhaps? Then time it and do the math on the amp hour capacity... Might do that at some point.
If its just low on electrolyte then I cannot top it up, its a sealed calcium-calcium battery. Sure, I could break open the lid and top it up but I don't want to have to do that, I would much rather just replace it with a new flooded cell if its starting to go south.
Its a Supercharge Gold Plus, getting quite old now at least 5 years old, I expect my batteries to last at least for 10 years of use as I keep them in good condition with a regular trickle charge with a solar panel. SuperCharge GOLD PLUS - Supercharge Batteries
I don't know it just makes me nervous somehow with that eye indicator being white like that when the battery voltage was at 12.60v. Makes me wonder if the electrolyte inside has evaporated and hasn't recombined. If thats the case then its like a pressure vessel waiting to explode and I should probably get it out of my boot and replace it with a flooded cell that at least has the ability to vent the gas and not contain it. I do have some experience working with sealed lead acid cells and if you ask me they are more trouble than they are worth.
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Modern Battery Problems: Calcium/Calcium Premature End-of-Life - CTEK Battery Chargers
Might be worthwhile investigating alternative chemistry starter batteries, if I'm going to have a dual battery setup, the second one being a deep cycle, I can always flick the switch on the 85 amp solenoid and recharge a supercap starter battery. Provided I add some resistance in series to limit the current flow.
If I'm going to be running my amplifiers it might be a bit stressful on the starter battery too. An alternative is sought after.
Unless I make both the starter and auxiliary batteries both deep cycle types...
Might be worthwhile investigating alternative chemistry starter batteries, if I'm going to have a dual battery setup, the second one being a deep cycle, I can always flick the switch on the 85 amp solenoid and recharge a supercap starter battery. Provided I add some resistance in series to limit the current flow.
If I'm going to be running my amplifiers it might be a bit stressful on the starter battery too. An alternative is sought after.
Unless I make both the starter and auxiliary batteries both deep cycle types...
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I remember my uncle had a Triumph chopper 40 years ago, used a capacitor to eliminate the battery. Not sure how that really worked out or what they used. Sounds like a thermal nightmare with the current associated with starting a car however.
My car is a 2009 XRS model with the larger Camry/Scion 2.4 engine. I was lucky and found one with a manual transmission, dark gray metallic.
My car is a 2009 XRS model with the larger Camry/Scion 2.4 engine. I was lucky and found one with a manual transmission, dark gray metallic.
nice.
hey phase. I think I found a use for those 16v polymer capacitors...
Could probably be used for stiffening the power delivery going to my amplifiers, and my head unit, maybe...
I can't think of much else to use them for though. Starting a car, no way.
All I need now is some supercaps for my ECU to keep the memory alive and some diodes to prevent them from backfeeding to the battery terminals and making a spark when its disconnected.
I think I'll skip the idea about using supercaps as a starter battery replacement, too risky and costly. I think I'll simply go with a dual Century D23LT Deep Cycle battery setup.
Product - Century Batteries
Its a shame that this ECU has an integrated security system, it complicates things quite a bit when wanting to keep the memory active because if the alarm is triggered and the starter battery is disconnected the memory supercap battery might be drained very quickly.
It would require some thinking, might be best to just forget about it. Unless I can find the output of the 78L05 regulator and place it on the output side with a resistor in series, might be worthwhile doing. The best option would of course feeding the main cpu, or whatever chip memorieses driving style/tunings with 5v from a supercap.
I've decided that I'm going to attempt to create a plywood floorboard in the boot and mount two battery boxes to the floorboard in stead of mounting the battery boxes directly to the metal framework. Wish I had thought about this before drilling three holes in the floor pan, but meh.
hey phase. I think I found a use for those 16v polymer capacitors...
Could probably be used for stiffening the power delivery going to my amplifiers, and my head unit, maybe...
I can't think of much else to use them for though. Starting a car, no way.
All I need now is some supercaps for my ECU to keep the memory alive and some diodes to prevent them from backfeeding to the battery terminals and making a spark when its disconnected.
I think I'll skip the idea about using supercaps as a starter battery replacement, too risky and costly. I think I'll simply go with a dual Century D23LT Deep Cycle battery setup.
Product - Century Batteries
Its a shame that this ECU has an integrated security system, it complicates things quite a bit when wanting to keep the memory active because if the alarm is triggered and the starter battery is disconnected the memory supercap battery might be drained very quickly.
It would require some thinking, might be best to just forget about it. Unless I can find the output of the 78L05 regulator and place it on the output side with a resistor in series, might be worthwhile doing. The best option would of course feeding the main cpu, or whatever chip memorieses driving style/tunings with 5v from a supercap.
I've decided that I'm going to attempt to create a plywood floorboard in the boot and mount two battery boxes to the floorboard in stead of mounting the battery boxes directly to the metal framework. Wish I had thought about this before drilling three holes in the floor pan, but meh.
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Oh by the way the ECU that I got from the wreckers (89661-33270) has the exact same leaking capacitor as my original one (89661-33570), pcb has damaged traces in roughly the same area too around the same capacitor, the 220uF one.
The two ECUs, My original, 89661-33570 and the one purchased from the wreckers, 89661-33270 appear to be identical internally except for a few components that are present in the one from the wreckers but absent in my original ecu. Notably: R815 and T807 are present in the one from the wreckers, 89661-33270.
IC751 is also different. The wreckers one, 89661-3327 has a "D151803-2600" whereas the original one from mine has an ic of "D151804-3670".
Questions are abound on weather or not it could be a direct replacement, I would need to consult the ECU pinouts to see what those 'extra' components go to and see weather or not plugging this wreckers ecu into my car would cause any damage or not. A job for another day.
Same engine, same transmission, same car, same ecu pinouts, different year, 1994 (wreckers ECU year) vs 1997 (my original).
Attached pic shows red arrows where there are two additional components in the wreckers ECU (89661-33270), pic is of original ECU (89661-33570)
The two ECUs, My original, 89661-33570 and the one purchased from the wreckers, 89661-33270 appear to be identical internally except for a few components that are present in the one from the wreckers but absent in my original ecu. Notably: R815 and T807 are present in the one from the wreckers, 89661-33270.
IC751 is also different. The wreckers one, 89661-3327 has a "D151803-2600" whereas the original one from mine has an ic of "D151804-3670".
Questions are abound on weather or not it could be a direct replacement, I would need to consult the ECU pinouts to see what those 'extra' components go to and see weather or not plugging this wreckers ecu into my car would cause any damage or not. A job for another day.
Same engine, same transmission, same car, same ecu pinouts, different year, 1994 (wreckers ECU year) vs 1997 (my original).
Attached pic shows red arrows where there are two additional components in the wreckers ECU (89661-33270), pic is of original ECU (89661-33570)
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Not entirely sure what I'll be doing this fortnight on the car, only really have $200 to play with and I've already spent $60 of that on ebay. Might not be doing anything at all, might instead be focusing on gardening/growing food. What I really need right now is some lightweight plywood or aluminum or plastic flooring for the rear boot of the car because things back there are looking rather spartan with the bare metal of the boot in there.
I thought it would look ok with just exposed painted metal but its really honestly getting on my nerves and I thought that I would consider some options to make the boot into a sort of kitchen of sorts for camping and/or cooking.
However whatever material that I eventually use will need to be lightweight as any weight in the boot will change/alter the acceleration rate of the car considerably and I've gotten rather used to the spritely acceleration of having no spare tyre in the boot, or no jack, or carpet, or tools. Easily outperforms a Mclaren P1 in a drag race.
In other news I bought some 3x 12v cigarette lighter socket surface mount for the front of the car so that a passenger sitting in the front seat, and myself in the drivers seat, can use a laptop and recharge an ipad and power a GPS and operate an inverter (inverters are quite noisy usually though).
I also bought a 2x cigarette lighter socket surface mount outlet for the rear seats of the car so that I can sit in the back and use a laptop, charge an ipad, use a usb light, light a cigarette, and any passengers can also do the same.
I'll be using some 12-14 AWG twinlead wire to power the sockets, feeding them from the auxiliary battery in the boot, going into the car from the boot via 12-14 AWG for the lowest possible voltage drop. I hate voltage drop with a vengeance.
Also got some Raspberry Pi cases, would love to try out a Rpi in a car for a security system possibly.
I thought it would look ok with just exposed painted metal but its really honestly getting on my nerves and I thought that I would consider some options to make the boot into a sort of kitchen of sorts for camping and/or cooking.
However whatever material that I eventually use will need to be lightweight as any weight in the boot will change/alter the acceleration rate of the car considerably and I've gotten rather used to the spritely acceleration of having no spare tyre in the boot, or no jack, or carpet, or tools. Easily outperforms a Mclaren P1 in a drag race.
In other news I bought some 3x 12v cigarette lighter socket surface mount for the front of the car so that a passenger sitting in the front seat, and myself in the drivers seat, can use a laptop and recharge an ipad and power a GPS and operate an inverter (inverters are quite noisy usually though).
I also bought a 2x cigarette lighter socket surface mount outlet for the rear seats of the car so that I can sit in the back and use a laptop, charge an ipad, use a usb light, light a cigarette, and any passengers can also do the same.
I'll be using some 12-14 AWG twinlead wire to power the sockets, feeding them from the auxiliary battery in the boot, going into the car from the boot via 12-14 AWG for the lowest possible voltage drop. I hate voltage drop with a vengeance.
Also got some Raspberry Pi cases, would love to try out a Rpi in a car for a security system possibly.
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Not sure what that extra driver circuit is for, could probably find out if you dig around enough, but I’d be inclined to get the same number. Have see many of those for reasonable prices on the auction sites. For other cars, that is...
I think my trunk panels have always been Masonite, well that’s the USA terminology anyways.
Is a fairly dense composite board made using a steam process.
Airbag recall maintenance went well, they also reflashed the ecu, adding a feature to make sure I didn’t apply power when the brakes are applied. I don’t race the car on a track, never have used trailing braking myself, only maybe in the snow a couple times, so I won’t be missing anything.
I think my trunk panels have always been Masonite, well that’s the USA terminology anyways.
Is a fairly dense composite board made using a steam process.
Airbag recall maintenance went well, they also reflashed the ecu, adding a feature to make sure I didn’t apply power when the brakes are applied. I don’t race the car on a track, never have used trailing braking myself, only maybe in the snow a couple times, so I won’t be missing anything.
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sounds more like a bug to me.
The word masonite popped into my head last night too, no idea what it means, I'm about to go google it and then buy some if its not too heavy. I want something as light as possible but also strong. About to leave for Bunnings.
I think you're right about the masonite thing, just looked at the wikipedia photos and my original boards out of the car (which got wet and one is broken anyway) are the same material. Might go and get some then.
Masonite - Wikipedia
The word masonite popped into my head last night too, no idea what it means, I'm about to go google it and then buy some if its not too heavy. I want something as light as possible but also strong. About to leave for Bunnings.
I think you're right about the masonite thing, just looked at the wikipedia photos and my original boards out of the car (which got wet and one is broken anyway) are the same material. Might go and get some then.
Masonite - Wikipedia
I had one look at the masonite and put some in my trolley when I went around the other isle and had a look at the plastic products, corflux was obviously out because its full of air and it hasn't got the rigidity that I need. But in with all of the thin MDF products I found a material that was rather interesting.
Aluminum Composite panel.
Perfect, more rigid and durable than masonite. Completely impervious to moisture and it comes pre-painted, and its fairly cheap.
AND its about the same weight as masonite, possibly even slightly lighter per area.
It has two layers of thin aluminum sheet sandwiching a single central core of plastic. Apparently widely used for buisness signs. Yachts, Interior Kitchen panelling.
The specific product that I got is called "Aligloss" and is made by Gunnersen – Wood Panel & Decorative Surface Products in Australia and New Zealand
810x1220 in size. "White/Black Aluminum Composite Panel" 3mm thickness. AliGLOSS - Gunnersens
Aluminum Composite panel.
Perfect, more rigid and durable than masonite. Completely impervious to moisture and it comes pre-painted, and its fairly cheap.
AND its about the same weight as masonite, possibly even slightly lighter per area.
It has two layers of thin aluminum sheet sandwiching a single central core of plastic. Apparently widely used for buisness signs. Yachts, Interior Kitchen panelling.
The specific product that I got is called "Aligloss" and is made by Gunnersen – Wood Panel & Decorative Surface Products in Australia and New Zealand
810x1220 in size. "White/Black Aluminum Composite Panel" 3mm thickness. AliGLOSS - Gunnersens
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I have used lots of that material, is made for signs facades on buildings, gas stations, is made under different names depending on where you are.
Not a bad choice, but it may be good to treat the edges, since the aluminum portion is only .25 mm thick, and could become a hazard. Maybe some edge guard of some sort?
The only other product that may be one to look at that I can think of is the corrugated clear polycarbonate, 10mm thickness. Is pretty tough for impact, as long as there aren’t any holes in it.
Not a bad choice, but it may be good to treat the edges, since the aluminum portion is only .25 mm thick, and could become a hazard. Maybe some edge guard of some sort?
The only other product that may be one to look at that I can think of is the corrugated clear polycarbonate, 10mm thickness. Is pretty tough for impact, as long as there aren’t any holes in it.