Hello everyone. I wanted to let everybody know that I had put my Mangusta project on hold for a few months due to caring for my wife after a severe car accident on August 14th. After a heavy rain there was a stream of water running across the road and when she hit it, her 2018 Subaru Forester spun 90 degrees and into the front of a brand new GMC one ton pickup. Both vehicles were totalled and the Subaru blew all ten of it's airbags. My wife was beat up pretty bad and fractured two vertebrae in her neck which required her to wear a neck brace for 3&1/2 months but thankfully her injuries did not require surgery. She was able to remove the neck brace two weeks ago and according to the orthopedic surgeon at Iowa University Hospital has healed quite well. So, as life begins to get back to normal I've made some time to work on the Mangusta again. Mostly I have continued to work on repairing the engine covers and should be finished with both of them soon. But also I found someone locally to make the new rear suspension upper lateral links for me with heim joints at both ends. I thought you might be interested in seeing the pictures of these parts and I will continue to post again as soon as I make some more progress.
Greg, I've been wondering about you, and was hoping that you were just busy with putting back together cars (and not family...and wonderful that she is doing so well, these miracles of healing are really precious).
And I know that making those links is not hard--but making ones that look so great certainly is (!) Lee
Greg,
Glad to hear your wife is doing better!!! Do what you gotta do! The GOose will be done when it is time!
Cheers!
Steve
Wow Greg, the engineering is that Subaru certainly did its job! Hats off to the engineers.
Sad to hear but great news your wife is ok. I’m sure the Mangusta can wait, hope she fully recovers and you guys have a relaxing Christmas.
all the best
cheers
Larry Tucker
Glad to hear your wife is recovering, as Larry said,the goose can wait... the links look awesome, I considered doing that on 898 but decided to stick with original instead... Were those custom made or off the shelf parts?
MH
Mike, the links were made for me by Uelner Tool and Die in Dubuque, Iowa. Tom Uelner is a true car guy and made these for me himself. Both links along with the additional heim joints cost me $240.00
I've been restoring cars for the better part of 45 years now and in all that time I've never had to deal with aluminum all that much, other than some minor straightening. But the engine covers on my Mangusta had some severe galvanic corrosion in the corners as well as some minor collision damage. I talked to a couple of shops about welding in the repair panels I would make but nobody wanted to tackle welding aluminum sheet for fear of warping the metal. So, my solution was to use 3M structural adhesive to glue the pieces together which is strong enough to glue roof skins, rocker panels, and box sides onto modern vehicles. Since the engine covers aren't structural I figured the adhesive would work just fine.
Attachments
Fun to look at these photos. I agree engine covers aren’t structural but when opening a gull wing with the cover attached it feels more rigid vs without the cover. Anyways no big deal. Cool tool notches on the links so you can turn them. Thx for sharing.
Yeah, I was lucky, the guy who tackled this on my car is an amazing precision welder...One more thing to take care of--really try to insulate the aluminum from the steel frame--electrically. Meaning the best is to put a piece of tape (even, duct tape) between the steel frame and the aluminum...or paint, anything that keeps the electrical connection in being made.
The opposite approach was in the Mangusta as well, using copper rivets to hold the dis-similar metals tightly together...All those rivets in the engine covers between the aluminum panels and the steel braces, they are copper--and also copper is used for the intake ports (the aluminum castings in the rear sidewalls near the battery/starter solenoid)....or of course, on the hood. Last place I can think of is on the hood, where even I had a couple of pinholes where the steel cross brace at the midpoint of the hood just touched the aluminum skin...
Greg, its always a thrill to see your pictures---Lee
I just finished the body work on my engine covers inside and out. They are in finish primer but will get block-sanded and re-primered after a week or two. I just have to finish off the doors yet and all the body work is done. 
