iceageg Posted October 26, 2011 Share Posted October 26, 2011 Greetings from Denver. Last week I purchased a 92 XE-V6 manual. Silverton (a fellow member of another online club) pointed me at this community and BAM! . . . here I am. Me? CAD manager by trade and currently employed in that capacity as my 9-5. The family buisness is aircraft parts and maintenance, mostly custom. We have a patent and several certified parts for a number of light aircraft (Cessna, Cirrus, Mooney, Diamond, etc.) Our specialty, custom supercharger kits. We're the only people determined/dumb enough to go to the effort of certifying this type of system in aviation. As for my Pathy . . . former mechanic's car. 215k with all new front end (timing belt, water pump seals) with damage to the front bumper and some rust starting in the typical places. She will never be a beauty queen but she runs great, heat works and that's all I required from this purchase. I have already made a few trips to the wrecking yard and to a few local part-outs for corner lights, rear glass hinges, armrests, window switches and that sort of stuff. Biggest problem right now is finding a center consol for a manual that isn't completely busted to $h!t. At this point it looks like I am going fab one out of fiberglass and a wood frame like I would a speakerbox. I'll make sure to take pics and post a thread about when I get there. Otherwise she is just going to be maintained and taken care of. No plans for building her into anything more capable than she already is. I will try to find a way to put a supercharger on her though . . . can't bring myself to look under the hood of anything and not try. Anyway, I am happy to help with CAD work, some fabrication or an extra set of hands when I can. Depending on what's in the hangar at the time I have some excellent shop space too. A must have for working on anything during a rocky mountain winter. I look forward to getting to know the group. Ian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Precise1 Posted October 26, 2011 Share Posted October 26, 2011 Howdy Ian and welcome to NPORA!! Thanks for the intro, it's always good to 'meet' people. Working on planes sounds like fun. What type of CAD do you specialize in?? Professional curiosity is all as I'm a machinist who currently dabbles in AutoCAD and SolidWerks but not on a serious level, just as a work tool when needed. B Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iceageg Posted October 26, 2011 Author Share Posted October 26, 2011 Howdy Ian and welcome to NPORA!! Thanks for the intro, it's always good to 'meet' people. Working on planes sounds like fun. What type of CAD do you specialize in?? Professional curiosity is all as I'm a machinist who currently dabbles in AutoCAD and SolidWerks but not on a serious level, just as a work tool when needed. B Thanks B, I am a long time MicroStation superuser/developer, with some AutoCAD and TurboCAD experience. Have dabled in Pro-E. Have never had a chance to use SolidWorks for some reason, but would like to. I have done lots of cartographic work, parts design (much of which has been delivered to machine and sheet metal shops) and now work for a rail company. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dowser Posted October 26, 2011 Share Posted October 26, 2011 Welcome Ian. Seeing how you're in Denver and want to maybe put a supercharger in your Pathy, You may want to take a look at the Ronin Wheelers forum as well. They are all a bunch of Nissan enthusiasts based out of Colorado and more then a few are very capable of doing anything you can think of with a Nissan. There's a gentleman that goes by the Username AK9849cy on these boards and Ryan Gee on the Ronin Boards that is planning on a supercharger install on his newest Pathfinder Project and there have been some developments in the past by a company that used to go by L&P performance. You guys should talk, you might be able to help each other and the rest of us to get something more developed out there. More information on this forum then any place else on the planet having to do with pathfinders in general. Your best friend will be learning how the search function works cause its almost a guarantee its already been discussed at length. Enjoy the new ride. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nunya Posted October 27, 2011 Share Posted October 27, 2011 Welcome! For your center console issue you could always swap something else in (there's a couple stick shift guys who went with fitting a console from a Jeep Grand Cherokee in... CUPHOLDERS!) If Silverton sent you here you can't be too bad either Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trogdor636 Posted October 27, 2011 Share Posted October 27, 2011 Welcome. My parents live in Colorado, in Creede. Pretty much the middle of nowhere. But my stepdad is currently working in Denver, and he is in the aircraft industry as well. I'll have to figure out the name of the place he works for, he contracts out for different jobs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iceageg Posted October 27, 2011 Author Share Posted October 27, 2011 (edited) Dowser, Thanks a bunch for those references. I'll surely be looking them up. I've scoured the archives of a few online forums. If the search engine works fairly well I should be necro-threading in no time. If I manage to make a functional center console I will try to document it well enough for others to duplicate. Rest assured that any supercharge development I manage to pull off will be documented and rendered in CAD for duplication. r Nunya, I'll dig around and try to find any info they may have posted about the Jeep console. I thought some about trying to get something else to fit but I'm sort of looking forward to the custom thing at this point. Besides, it will be good for the kids to learn about fiberglass and we are starting to outsource some composite work at the airport now, so more knowledge/practice for me can only help on that front too. Trog, I havn't ever had a reason to head up to Creede, but I have traveled 160 more than my share of times. Pretty country down there. If your step dad works at Centennial airport he likely knows who we are even if he doesn't know us directly. Ask if he knows Forced Aeromotive. I would encourage everybody else to check us out too. Not much that applies here, but seriously cool gearhead stuff to be sure. Edited October 27, 2011 by iceageg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trogdor636 Posted October 28, 2011 Share Posted October 28, 2011 Creede is beautiful to visit, but I get bored easily so anything more than a week and I'm going nuts. If I had my Pathy while I was visiting it would be more entertainment. I actually like Denver, one of the few places I would consider relocating to from Cali. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teixeira Posted November 1, 2011 Share Posted November 1, 2011 Pics? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iceageg Posted November 1, 2011 Author Share Posted November 1, 2011 She just got her first full exterior bath yesterday. Interior detail is scheduled for today. She's not a beauty queen but looking much better now. Will take some pics soon. Supposed to get snow tomorrow. Might make for some good photo ops. I was looking at/making plans for the custom center console the other day. Judging by the near impossible to find nature of intact factory units I am now planning on making a few of them. Not sure if there is much demand for 92' rear half consoles but it wouldn't be all that hard to make 5 at once instead of 2 or 3. Have the plans in my head. Just need to put them down on paper and get started. Food for though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iceageg Posted November 13, 2011 Author Share Posted November 13, 2011 (edited) Pics? Sorry about the delay. Populate photobucket usually isn't very high on my list of things to do. Here she is . . . Also, I started on the custom center console last weekend. Got it all rough drafted in CAD and yesterday I got the skeleton assembled. Today I will start the forms for the skin. Edited November 13, 2011 by iceageg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teixeira Posted November 13, 2011 Share Posted November 13, 2011 Looks good and on a Christmas spirit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dowser Posted November 13, 2011 Share Posted November 13, 2011 I'd love to see the console. CAD, and skeleton versions. Thats something I've wanted to attempt for years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nunya Posted November 13, 2011 Share Posted November 13, 2011 Is that your tailpipe haingign in front of the tire? Jeebus man, that thing looks like it scrapes speed bumps! I got a side exit setup and its nowhere near that low (when I have the full 'tailpipe' on). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iceageg Posted November 14, 2011 Author Share Posted November 14, 2011 Nunya, Yes, that is the tailpipe you see exiting in front of the rear wheel. The PO removed the muffler and his solution to getting the emissions tested was to weld that monstrosity on. Even worse than the location is the way it is attached. Eventually it will be replaced. The truck runs and there are things that are more irritating than the placement of the exhaust. No center console is one, power steering leak is another. Still need to fix the lock timer too. Too many projects. Dowser, I have been taking pictures as I go. I will put a build thread together when there is more to show. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dowser Posted November 14, 2011 Share Posted November 14, 2011 Well that's Great! Looking forward to that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teixeira Posted November 14, 2011 Share Posted November 14, 2011 Well that's Great! Looking forward to that. Me too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iceageg Posted November 27, 2011 Author Share Posted November 27, 2011 Finally posted some of my progress on the center console. Things are crazy busy with my other projects so this has taken a "as time allows" seat for the moment. MMy better 95% wants her console though. We all know that if mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clkindred Posted November 28, 2011 Share Posted November 28, 2011 What the heck!? We have not gotten ANY snow down the road here in the Springs. Well... I should not be surprised, that's Colorado weather for ya' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heloflyboy Posted December 2, 2011 Share Posted December 2, 2011 Welcome.Good luck on your supercharger cert. The FAA is so fun to deal with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iceageg Posted December 2, 2011 Author Share Posted December 2, 2011 Welcome.Good luck on your supercharger cert. The FAA is so fun to deal with. We got our first STC about 7 years ago. Now we have 4 with a 5th in the test plan stage now. We meet with them next week to get the ball rolling. The first one was almost impossible because nobody had done anything like it before. The whole test plan had to be made from scratch. Now they are all pretty much the same. Still a big effort though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heloflyboy Posted December 2, 2011 Share Posted December 2, 2011 Congrats on that.I'm a helicopter guy myself although since economy went to crap I have not been flying helo's much. My wife bought me an airplane, nothing fancy just old piper cherokee. It's only about as fast as my helo was,but it is cheap to run. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iceageg Posted December 2, 2011 Author Share Posted December 2, 2011 Congrats on that.I'm a helicopter guy myself although since economy went to crap I have not been flying helo's much. My wife bought me an airplane, nothing fancy just old piper cherokee. It's only about as fast as my helo was,but it is cheap to run. We had a Piper Arrow when we started development on our first design some 20 years ago. That is a teriffic airframe. Not real confidence inspiring flying out of Truckee on a hot July afternoon though. We have always thought our system would be a perfect match for the smaller helicopters. Went so far as to contact Robinson and try to get something started with them but that ended up falling through at the time. It is almost time to open that door again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heloflyboy Posted December 3, 2011 Share Posted December 3, 2011 We fly mostly out of South Lake Tahoe. We just fly in and out early in summer month's and watch density alt. Super charger on Robi would be nice. Old man (Frank) would probably be hard sell,but now that son is running things it might be possible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iceageg Posted December 3, 2011 Author Share Posted December 3, 2011 The project we currently have before the FAA is for the Lycoming IO-360 as it exists on the Diamond DA-40. We have gone to fair lengths to ensure that it will also bold on to just about any other Lycoming IO-360 with little modification. As with any STC it is the first one that takes the most effort. Once it is certified exspanding it to other airframes and engine sub-types is a comparativly easy effort. The big question with other airframes is the potential need to bump the cowling. We have done 337s on a number of aircraft based on our earlier STCs. Whether you are interested or not feel free to give us a call some time. All of our contact information is at www.forcedaeromotive.com. Oddly enough, we got a call from a gentleman in Tahoe this week who is interested in a system for his PPonk powered 182. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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