O-Blog

Gisteren vertrokken van Leuven (GroepT) naar Parijs luchthaven om dan van daar uit te vliegen naar ShangHai, jammer genoeg vlogen we met een “oude” Airbus A330 en hadden we dus geen onboard entertainment of stopcontacten, dus dan maar films zien tot de batterij van de laptop leeg was en dan wat proberen te slapen.

Na een lange en vermoeiende reis aangekomen in ShangHai en dan met de Maglev en de metro richting ons hotel (Liang An Hotel), met de Maglev haalde we snelheden tot 431km/u en dit was zeer indrukwekkend (een echt staaltje Chinees pronken).

Eenmaal aan het hotel aangekomen en we onze bagage hadden uitgepakt hebben we even wat gerust en dan onze eerste Chinese maaltijd binnengewerkt in het hotel.

Nadat onze magen terug gevuld waren was het tijd om onze eerste uitstap te maken en dit was richting NanJing Dong lu, een zeer grote shopping straat met enkel mode winkels, hier werd al duidelijk hoeveel volk er in ShangHai rond loopt.
Na deze wandeling zijn we ergens iets gaan drinken en gaan eten, dit laatste was niet echt schitterend :s.

Om de dag af te sluiten hebben we ook nog een boottocht gemaakt op de Bund rivier, hier konden we genieten van het prachtige uitzicht op de moderne gebouwen.

Hieronder enkele sfeerbeelden van de dag, geniet ervan.

En nu na meer dan 35u zonder bed, eindelijk slapen

After the car was completely stripped I started with the body work. The body work consists of 2 parts, repair rust spots and prepare the car for the paint job.

Every rust zone has been steel blasted, sanded and treated with zinc. All the rust holes will be repaired by a welder for the best result.

After all the rust was removed I sanded the glossy layer away so that there would be a good coat for the new paint to attach.

In the mean time I bought a Sparco 10 points roll-cage from Biesheuvel and installed it in the car, the cage is not yet bolded in to the car because there’s some welding to do.

As my welder isn’t available for the next 3 weeks, I’ll be working on the cable harness. The harness will be checked and simplified.

I’ve just bought some of the suspension and brake parts, so that I won’t have to wait for them when the car comes back from the welder. Here is the small list of the parts.

• Billstein B12
• Tarox G88 (front + rear)
• Ferodo DS3000 (front + rear)

All the rubbers (suspension, engine, differential) form the car will be replaced by teflon parts from Janssen-revisie.

The first thing that you have to do when rebuilding the car is completing stripping the car. Many people think that’s easy to strip a car, but believe me it’s a hard job. Most of the parts haven’t been loose for over 20 years, but with a lot of patience I was able to strip the car without destroying it.

Let the pictures do the talking

TIP1: When stripping a car do it piece by piece, label everything, store every bolt and nut in the appropriate bag so that you’ll be able to put the car back together.
TIP2: With the possibilities of the digital era take as many digital pictures as possible. You can’t take too many pictures when stripping a car.

The next step is preparing the car for the paint job. Update will follow soon.

A couple of weeks ago I bought my first BMW, I’ve chosen the E30 320i from 1988. I will completely rebuild this car for track use only. The previous owner already changed the M20B20 engine with the M20B25 engine. So my track car will be powered by a 6 inline 2500cc engine that produces 170hp stock. The driveline hasn’t been changed, so with the stock 320i differential and transmission, the car will out perform a stock E30 325i.

I’ve started this project not only because I love cars and racing, but I want to become a race engineer. To become a race engineer you have to be the best and experience is required before any attempt is made.

To gain as much experience as possible, I’ll try to do everything myself. Somethings will be done by others because I don’t always have the required knowledge or gear.

I will periodically update my blog so that everyone who is interested can follow the progress. When you have suggestions or remarks feel free to post it as a comment.

Earth Hour started in 2007 in Sydney, Australia when 2.2 million homes and businesses turned their lights off for one hour to make their stand against climate change. Only a year later and Earth Hour had become a global sustainability movement with more than 50 million people across 35 countries participating. Global landmarks such as the, Sydney Harbour Bridge, The CN Tower in Toronto, The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, and Rome’s Colosseum, all stood in darkness, as symbols of hope for a cause that grows more urgent by the hour.

Earth Hour 2010 takes place on Saturday 27 March at 8.30pm (local time) and is a global call to action to every individual, every business and every community throughout the world. It is a call to stand up, to take responsibility, to get involved and lead the way towards a sustainable future. Iconic buildings and landmarks from Europe to Asia to the Americas will stand in darkness. People across the world from all walks of life will turn off their lights and join together in celebration and contemplation of the one thing we all have in common – our planet. So sign up now and let’s make 2010 the biggest Earth Hour yet!.

The previous 2 weeks we were constructing the robot and the building, so here follows a picture update.

This is the To-Do list of the hardware side of the project:

• Transmission engine-chain
• Wheels for the robot
• Water-detection module
• Water hose

Keep reading my blog, updates will follow…

 Biker with a fancy outfit that I’ve spotted on the French highway.

As you may have read in my previous post I’m following a course called EE (=engineering experiences) where a group of students have to develop and build something. For EE3 we’ve to create a robot or a system that works automatically. We’ll have to use FischerTechnics for the hardware and LabView for the software. Our team (=Load ‘n Go) decided to build a fully automatic filling-station for gasoline trucks.

I’ve created a Google SketchUp sketch of the base of the station. The base will not be too special because the main goal is to use FischerTechnics parts (which we will be using for the top-module) and to develop a program to control the automatic filling.

The top-module with the sensors and rotating parts will be gliding on the 2 rails on top of the base, I’m currently working on that module so I’ll post the next sketch in a couple of days.

More information about the project will follow soon.

The first 2 weeks of my second year at GroupT went by very fast and we already have a lot of work, but don’t worry I will definitely find the time to do some nice things this year to write about .

At GroupT we have every year 2 course called EE (=Engineering Experiences) where we have to develop something, this year we have EE3 and EE4. For EE3 we have to develop and create a robot, I’ll try to post some work-logs on my blog so that you can review our work and post some comments on it.

I’ve planned a short-ski weekend the 31th Oct. – 1st Nov. – 2nd Nov. at the Zermatt ski-resort and a 10 day ski trip to an(@ this moment) unknown location after the first examination period. During those trips I’ll take a lot of pictures and post them here.

During the F1 weekend at Francorchamps I’ve tried taking pictures of the F1-cars and I immediately found out that it is really hard to take good pictures of racing cars, so I’m going to attend some races and practice a lot on taking pictures.

I’m also organizing the fifth edition of the DD-Lan party but you’ll have to wait some more for further details .

I’ll keep you updated and don’t forget to check my blog once in a while.

Yesterday I woke up at 6am to go and to take some landscape pictures during sunrise. Below is a selection of 3 pictures of the set, let me know what you think of it .

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