Project Eclipse: June 22 Update

Well, another school year has come to an end, and with it, Car Club begins to shut down.

Looking back, this year's car club has seen over twenty members work passionately on Project Eclipse.

We have completed many parts of the rebuild and are looking forward to September, when we can tackle stage two of creating our BR Spirit Car! It will have a new interior with a host of audio/visual gadgetry, all designed by members of our club. In doing so, students of all grades will use the skills they have learned in various technology classes at BR to construct a creative and usable machine.

Since the start of Project Eclipse, we have invested over 600 hours collectively for the rebuild, and are ready to dedicate more time to the completion of the project next school year.

Many objectives have been reached in the rebuild. To see which components have been rebuilt and completed, check the link here.

Our Eclipse is now on it's way to First Professional Collision, one of our generous community partners, for a new coat of paint. We would like to also thank other members of the community who were able to donate their time/ equipment towards this important student success initiative at our school:

• Halton Automotive Parts and Supplies
• Crave Systems Computer Sales and Service
• Future Shop Home Theatre Department

The Transportation Technology program at Bishop Reding has seen many of its graduates find rewarding career opportunities in the workplace. We will continue to educate and prepare students for the challenges and successes after high school, and support their goals in becoming meaningful, caring contributors to the community.

As Car Club wraps up another successful session, we wish staff, students, parents and friends a safe and enjoyable summer.

Mr. Da Silva

Project Eclipse: June 2 Update

Car Club runs into its last month this school year, and what better time to address a real challenge than now...

One downfall we have noticed with the very cool vertical door set up, is the fact that if closed improperly, the vertical door system has a tendency to fall out of alignment with the door striker very easily...ALMOST TOO EASILY! When this happens, the procedure for realignment involves removal of the fenders for adjustment and it an hour long job! 

After a lot of contemplation and discussion, Car Club students concluded that we could attempt to cut a large hole in the fender which could accommodate the adjustment procedure without having to remove the vehicle's fenders. Then we could create some form of discrete cover for the holes.

So, with fingers crossed, we used the plasma cutter to slice openings in each fender just over the main stop bolts. We now have access to the adjusters.

If there is one thing that Mr. Da Silva tries to teach to his students every year, it is to learn the art of being resourceful! If at first, you cannot attain an answer to a problem, use your skills and means to FIND or CREATE an answer with what you have. It is with this frame of mind that we set to find a way to cover the awkward holes in the fenders.

After MUCH experimentation and different material use such as wood, acrylic and aluminium, we devised a way to use sheet metal and bend it to conform to the fender contours to cover the access holes.

After shaping the covers, we painted them black and had an idea to make them pop from the fender in a unique way...

We moved to our vinyl cutter and plotted a graphic of engine side vents used in old race cars.

Once cut and applied to the metal covers, we decided to use pod magnets to keep the covers in place without the sight of screws. So far, the vehicle looks decent with the new "louvers." 

If we can teach students to be resourceful enough to find creative solutions to complex problems, we have succeeded greatly in our objective as teachers.

Watching students make these connections is a reward for everyone! 

Now, with the vertical door issue solved, the Eclipse can now wait ready for its exterior paintwork as the school year comes to an end.

Project Eclipse: May 26 Update

Today in Car Club....

With an new clutch hydraulic line installed, the Eclipse can now take a few steps, and move under its own power! The drive train is complete!!!

Now, with that said, it is very difficult to move the BR Spirit Car with no interior, so we focussed our efforts on attaining some sort of normalcy in the vehicle's passenger compartment.

After pressure washing the carpet, Car Club students worked to tidy up the chassis and floor area of the gutted Eclipse...

We had to remove old speaker wires and a bit of rust from the floor area. However, once tidied up, we were able to reinstall the front carpeting and the driver's seat.
Now the vehicle can be safely moved around the compound during the next steps of the rebuild.

There is some talk of turning the car into a two seater instead of the conventional four seat configuration. This would be to allow for a more creative design of the interior with more subwoofers and audio gear in the mid and rear section of the car. Only time will tell.

Next week, Car Club will tackle one of the peskiest challenges yet with the Eclispe....the finicky vertical door issue...

Tune in next week for the answer!

Project Eclipse: May 19 Update

Car Club continues, with another week of off the wall thinking and problem solving....

As the Eclipse naps in the shop, we leave it be in order to enjoy some other student challenges and accomplishments.

One of our senior engine rebuilding students competes in local tractor pulls. He was kind enough to bring to school one of his many hand built custom tractors. Once rolled off the trailer, he took us through the process of transforming the factory lawn tractor into a mean heavy hauling machine! 

The tractor can run on alcohol, has a lengthened chassis, and can pull over 5000 pounds on a single run! This crafty student has been able to create a single piston engine that can pump out more horsepower per cylinder than a high power V8 sports car! Well done!

After the tractor tour, two other engine rebuilding students had completed work on a very unique science project within our course. Mr. Da Silva issued a challenge to create and build a digital fuel injection system for the V8 and V6 engines that were being rebuilt, so they could run digitally, instead of the old carburetor set up.

So, after learning the principles of basic digital fuel injection, we used old car parts and new Arduino microprocessor technology to assemble an electronic fuel delivery system. It ran off the Arduino processor and its own program designed by the students who had learned a great deal about electronics engineering in Mr. Mazer's engineering program.

The main components include the Arduino processor and breakout box...

A solid state relay for control isolation and load capacity...

 A GM throttle body with low pressure fuel injectors

And a computer with the Arduino environment to run the software for the system...

After our V8 engine sat on the test bench, it took some fine tuning of the injector pulse width, but after a few tries, we brought the old Chevrolet 305 cubic inch V8 to life! It was a very exciting moment for everyone!!!

Teachers vividly appreciate the passion within students to synthesize the knowledge they have learned in class in a manner which helps solve or improve challenges in real world scenarios. Mr. Da Silva is certainly proud of the combined efforts of his students! Way to go!!! 

Until next week, we will keep our motors runnin'!

Project Eclipse: May 12 Update

Our apologies for the delay in blog updates this month,...

Today after school, we had deviated from the Eclipse rebuild in order to focus on some other work.

Two of our regular Car Club members helped to perform some more real world work on a

Honda Accord. The vehicle received some routine maintenance in the form of an oil change, battery cleaning and headlight restoration. By using simple tools and the right procedures, hundreds of dollars can be saved in maintenance work.

Our junior level students helped to build something "out of the box." Toying with the idea of alternative energy, we studied how small engines have been converted to run on compressed air instead of gasoline. This concept has been around for over 100 years, finding its origin with old steam engines. So, as we like a challenge in the auto shop, we worked to take apart an old two stroke gas engine and build an electronic air injection system for it.

We removed the spark plug and attached an air hose to the combustion chamber...

Next we added an electronic hall-effect sensor to determine the proper timing of the air injection.

After which, we installed an electric air valve and pressure regulator to proportion the air pulses.

Here is a picture of the final assembly with a 12 volt power supply and air hose for operation

And with a little luck, it starts on the first pull!!! Look mom, no gas!

We are always finding challenging problems, and enjoy creating and testing solutions for them in the auto shop. In fact, problem solving is a wonderful part of learning in any classroom as well as at home. 

Let's keep on working hard, solving problems, and inventing great things as the semester continues!

See you next week!