Clear engine cover made

[sickbananas]

After getting all the materials together last week, I took on the task to make my clear engine cover this weekend. Here are some pics of the finished product, if any one is interested in making something like this, I will post a how to with pictures.

[CraigM]

Wow! That looks great!

What's that little cutout on the driver's side? Any noise/heat issues that you've noticed?

And I would certainly like to hear more about how you made it!

[Coxey]

Me too that looks great seen another thread on here some where with a similar mod

[sickbananas]

Let me start by saying that I have been driving for +-2 years without a cover. Without a cover, it does not get hot inside unless you are stationary, or open the windows. Opening the windows cancels out the vacuum that pulls out the hot air and makes the cabin extremely hot. I also don't have any insulation around my engine bay as you can see in my pics and my soft top with all its mechanisms have been deleted as I have a Zeintop. Without the cover, the car is extremely noisy inside which will certainly not be everyone's cup of tea.

It would not be fair for me to comment on noise as I am so a accustomed to driving in a noisy car, which is not for every one. In the short time before I cut my cover to do my mod, I drove the car with the cover on but without the insulation, soft top delete etc as mentioned, comparing that to now with the clear cover, there is no difference in terms or heat or sound IMHO.

The cut out on the left is for sound, it sit directly above my cone filter, so when removed it creates an awesome sound inside the cabin, well that's my opinion at least.
I'll post a few pics to show the steps of what I did.

[CraigM]

Very cool. Bet it looks sweet through the Zeintop!

[amitmishra4]

Subscribed! Looks really nice.

[shockandawe]

I want one are making more? I'll buy one sir.

[sickbananas]

I will post the steps with pictures a little later of what I did, this is the standard cover that I have cut into and modified just in case anyone was confused.

[sickbananas]

[sickbananas]

Okay so here are the first steps. I drilled out the rivets to remove the 4x upright posts that the storage compartment locks into. I then riveted the holes to close them off.

I marked out the hole I wanted using some blue masking tape, and decided on a radius I like for the corners. The cut out allowed for a 1 inch clean border for the window to seat onto. As you can see I stayed away from all the moulded and indented areas to avoid sealing problem that would of also not looked good.

I opted for a 2mm thick lexan/polycarbonate as it can take the curve and potential heat. I marked it so that is was 1" bigger all the way around.

I then drilled the mounting holes in my lexan as seen in the pic, I opted for more securing on the bottom because of the curve. I then lined up my pre-drilled and cut window with the hole in my cover so that the two lined up as intended. I drilled the centre top hole and slotted it to allow for fine adjustment. Using some temperary screw I secured the top hole, lined every thing up and nipped the nut and bolt. I then worked myself down towards the curve by drilled each hole through the cover and bolting it down as I was going.

[Porsche9]

Nice work and explanation.

[sickbananas]

Thought I should finish this DIY guide by explaining my final steps to the finished product.

My first bit of explanation covers how I 'dry' fitted my clear window, after this I made my sound cut out above the cone air filter, I then cut an oversized piece of carbon fibre to cover this hole so that it overlapped the hole enough for a seal. I used 1/4 turn quick release pins with matching recepticles that I riveted onto the engine cover.

I now scuffed the engine cover with 320 grit sand paper and sprayed on some plastic primer, after is was dry I scuffed it again and sprayed my top coat with some statin black. Both primer and top coat I used a good quality spray in a can and I am satisfied with the finish. While I was at it spraying I sanded, metal primer and sprayed red the 5x oem locking pins that secure the engine cover to the body.

When the paint was nice and hard, I stuck on my 1" wide self adhesive foam sealing tape around the edge of the cut out holes for the lexan and carbon fibre cover to seal onto when secured down. The last task was to secure the lexan window down, I used some red anodized allen dome head screws. The screws along with the 1/4 turn locking pins I bought from Pro Bolt.

My engine cover was now complete. I also got the auto upholstery shop to put a piping edging on the 'back rest' carpet to just finish things off nicely as the storage compartment etc back there is non existent. Also note that all the sound insulation, foam and entire soft top in my car has been deleted, when removing all the insulation I removed the contact glue that was left behind and spray painted the completed interior around the engine bay my body color. All this adds to the effect I was trying to achieve.

Next step is some lights that light up my engine bay that would be easy on the eye.

I will post some pics of the final engine cover build steps relating to my explanation above.

[whitedogs]

really cool

[sickbananas]

[Ben006]

Really nice !

How long have you been using it ? Does it get too dirty ?

I drove a while without the carpet, just the cover, and the noise level was totally acceptable

[jaykay]

What did you do for the seal around the perimeter of the cover?

[Sassmatt72]

How has it lasted with prolonged use?
How is the sound change?

Thx, matt

[mikesz]

I gotta tell ya, GREAT JOB! I was thinking doing the same thing! I even bought an engine cover to use. Problem for me is I would rather have rear speakers in the storage shelf but I might do this and swap out the storage shelf for shows. Other problem is I would have to make sure my engine is clean! Any suggestions on how to clean the engine without ruining anything?

[10/10ths]

How's it holding up? Dirty? Heat? Noise?

Updates, please.

Thanks.

[fredd5r]

Looks really cool. I'm also curious on how much dirt/dust would get on it after driving.