Nick Jones Posted May 7, 2023 Share Posted May 7, 2023 On 5/5/2023 at 8:34 PM, Escadrille Ecosse said: So I have also been wearing my Garmin heart monitor strap so I can watch it on the bike computer and have a short breather if the HR is getting a bit high. Cunning. I expect no less Doesn't look like an easy sanding job anyway - too much reach required for comfort. Best wishes for the coming treatment Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Escadrille Ecosse Posted June 14, 2023 Author Share Posted June 14, 2023 As a change from some of the less happy (but nonetheless necessary) rants I am in rather more positive mood regarding recovery from the heart op which seems to be going well if slowly. Helped by the current long spell of rather spectacular weather. So in between catching up on some domestic work, particulalry replacing the mastic and repainting the sills of the sash windows at the front of the house. There has been a little bit of progress of sorts with the car. The warm weather seemd a good time to get the steel bonnet out of the garage and clean it up after taking the moulds off it. Ideal for washing off the PVA with water without any rusting and a lot less smelly using the panel wash to remove the release wax. The primer was only blown on to protect the bare metal and was a bit patchy beforehand. Having had to rub it down in areas and do a bit of panel beating here and there it's now rather less than special. So I've ordered some more primer to tidy it up and protect it while I try and sell the thing on as it is not longer needed and I could do with the room in the garage. And to help there I also chopped up the remains of the 'red' fibreglass bonnet so I can take it to the dump. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Jones Posted June 14, 2023 Share Posted June 14, 2023 Good to hear you are recovering well from the heart shenanigans….. Always good to have a reliable and effective pump! Space in the garage is useful. And Triumph bonnets are space-greedy. I have a Vitesse one sat here awaiting my finding time to make it decent. I should get on with it…. Chopping up the red one is a bit final. Too gruesome to attempt to foist on anyone else? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Escadrille Ecosse Posted June 14, 2023 Author Share Posted June 14, 2023 3 hours ago, Nick Jones said: Good to hear you are recovering well from the heart shenanigans….. Always good to have a reliable and effective pump! Space in the garage is useful. And Triumph bonnets are space-greedy. I have a Vitesse one sat here awaiting my finding time to make it decent. I should get on with it…. Chopping up the red one is a bit final. Too gruesome to attempt to foist on anyone else? Thanks Nick. As you say the bonnets are a challenge when off the car. I have far to many as it is plus the various moulds for making a decent buck, let alone the final carbon bonnet. The red one really was too unpleasant to go on a car. I do still have the original blue glassfibre one. Bit bashed but actually a mostly decent shape. But I really need a clearout of stuff... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BiTurbo228 Posted June 30, 2023 Share Posted June 30, 2023 Glad to hear you're on the mend. I had a mate who had something similar back when we were 17 or 18 which was scary stuff, and he had a similar treatment. Sorted it out perfectly, so hopefully you'll be fit as a fiddle soon enough! On 4/17/2023 at 7:35 PM, Escadrille Ecosse said: I have made an entire one piece tub before using split moulds I could tell you were good at this stuff but that's madness! On 4/15/2023 at 5:28 PM, JohnD said: Following then recent F1 practice, but using far cheaper paper honeycomb, it was almost rigid. The outer skin was one layer of gel with tissue in it, and one of half thickness random mat. The honeycomb was glued to the underside with polyurethane foam and covered with a skin of tissue. As with the ribs the paper gave no strength, it was the the double skin that did. Ah is that how you do it. I had a brief play around with making a paper honeycomb panel with GRP, but got it into my head that the paper needed to absorb the FG resin to produce the strength (which it steadfastly refused to do). Might give it another go, though I can't remember what I was making it for now Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnD Posted June 30, 2023 Share Posted June 30, 2023 (edited) Why? Just to add lightness! Edited June 30, 2023 by JohnD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Escadrille Ecosse Posted June 30, 2023 Author Share Posted June 30, 2023 36 minutes ago, JohnD said: Why? Just to add lightness! Rule 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Escadrille Ecosse Posted June 30, 2023 Author Share Posted June 30, 2023 Got to work on the centre panel for the pattern bonnet from the mould off the steel one. Plan is that this will go on the car while I get the wings in the right place and secured but then take the whole lot off to work on getting it all filled and smoothed for taking the final mould. To avoid distortion while that's going on it all needs to be pretty solid and not twist as I take it back off the car. However there isn't a lot of space underneath particularly that floppy centre section with the engine still in place. I can't fit the box girder like I did with the panel mould so I have gone with a balsa core. A step down in 'techness' from honeycomb (which would be rather involved in this specific application for a variety of reasons) balsa core was used by deHavilland for the Mosquito and is the core of choice today for manufacturing full size wind turbine blades as well as bulkheads and decks of glassfibre yachts. So it has 'previous'. Been looking to try this for years but never really had a suitable application before. End grain balsa comes in sheets glued on one side to a fibreglass scrim to simplify handling but let it conform to double curvature. Gelcoat, surface tissue bonding layer and then 450g CSM and the balsa applied on the wet layup. All held down with some old towels while the resin cures. I also filled the centre rib with a few layers of glassfibre finished with a skim of filler to avoid any bridging issues. The rear balsa panel is 3/8" thick with the front in thinner 1/4" to give a bit more clearance over the front of the engine. Once cured I made the kerfs (bevels) around the edge of the balsa to avoid a sharp step and let the top layer of glass mat lay on smoothly. Easier to lay properly without voids and mechanically stronger. Strips of CSM laid into the wing seam slots and an extra layer of reinforecement over that before the finishing layer of CSM all over. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnD Posted June 30, 2023 Share Posted June 30, 2023 Colin, Fascinating to read your progress! I read "All held down with some old towels while the resin cures." Will that be enough weight? WHen I had glued the paper honeycomb down for the Silverback roof, I spread a plastic sheet (floor cloth) over it and poured dry gravel over that until there was enough weight to press the honeycomb into double curvature. The gravel allowed for more to be added where it was needed. Very adaptable! Have to admit, I didn't kerf the edges of the honeycomb! Just got it out as far as it would bend ( one way easy, the other not!) And relied on the curvature of the beyond bits, and some enclosure, to make them stiff. John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Escadrille Ecosse Posted July 1, 2023 Author Share Posted July 1, 2023 13 hours ago, JohnD said: Colin, Fascinating to read your progress! I read "All held down with some old towels while the resin cures." Will that be enough weight? Thanks John. The towels did the job fine. The balsa is in small blocks and copes well with double curvature. Add the suction from the wet chopeed strand layup and the towels were more a belt and braces than absolute necessity. What is important though is that the underside of the balsa is well 'primed' with resin and laid wet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Jones Posted July 1, 2023 Share Posted July 1, 2023 Ah…. Balsa. Very useful stuff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Escadrille Ecosse Posted July 5, 2023 Author Share Posted July 5, 2023 On 7/1/2023 at 1:59 PM, Nick Jones said: Ah…. Balsa. Very useful stuff It's almost magical. Popped the panel out of the mould this afternoon. Was remarkably easy peasy. I used a new (to me) mould release wax which turned out to be excellent. Stoner (yes really) miracle gloss maximum release was. Did exactly what it said on the tin... Came out nicely and pleased with it. The balsa did an excellent job and the panel is very stiff without being heavy. The areas around the lower half of the headlight recess where I had done some filling on the mould came out fine too. I can now get to the upper half . The Wing finishers also came out a lot better than I hoped. One small area where there was a slight undercut in the mould. Fortunately it was the gel from the mould that came off and not the bonnet. Easily sorted. Next is getting it trimmed and onto the car so I can match up the wings. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Posted July 5, 2023 Share Posted July 5, 2023 Wow! What an excellent result. I've just fitted front wings to a mk3 Spit steel bonnet. Iam having issues with the wings aligning with the reskinned doors. You make it look easy, when I know it's far from it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Jones Posted July 5, 2023 Share Posted July 5, 2023 That looks really good. As Mark says, you make it look easy….. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hamish Posted July 5, 2023 Share Posted July 5, 2023 Top class result. Max effort and skill paid off. Congrats 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Escadrille Ecosse Posted July 10, 2023 Author Share Posted July 10, 2023 Got the thing roughly trimmed and on the car for a trial fit. Had thought that the next step would be to fit the wings and then get on with the fettling. However on reflection I think the first thing to do is match the rear edge of the bonnet to the scuttle for a consistent gap as that will involve a bit of iteration and it's a lot easier to lift without the wings on! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnD Posted July 10, 2023 Share Posted July 10, 2023 Looking more than good, Colin! I would guess that the wheels will "stick out, a cheeky little bit" with conventional wings. Do you intend to add material above the wheel arch to make them wider and contain them, and avoid the need for wheel arch extensions? John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Escadrille Ecosse Posted July 10, 2023 Author Share Posted July 10, 2023 15 minutes ago, JohnD said: Looking more than good, Colin! I would guess that the wheels will "stick out, a cheeky little bit" with conventional wings. Do you intend to add material above the wheel arch to make them wider and contain them, and avoid the need for wheel arch extensions? John Thanks John. The top of the wheels do stick out a cheeky bit. Combination of the wider wheels/tyres and me widening the track about 20mm with spacer blocks behind the wishbone mounts and using the adjustable top wishbones to set the camber. Probably about 1/2" or so at the top of the centre of the arch. Run it like that since building it, no-one has complained yet so my intention is to keep it like that and not modify the arches. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BiTurbo228 Posted July 17, 2023 Share Posted July 17, 2023 Fits better than the full-production fibreglass bonnet I have already! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Escadrille Ecosse Posted July 19, 2023 Author Share Posted July 19, 2023 Lots of other things getting in the way but progress is being made Started sorting the back edge where it meets the scuttle. Got the gap even but next up is the profile which has had a bit of a hard life. Drivers side this just had a bit of a dip that was difficult to see on the steel bonnet. Passenger side however had needed some new metal letting in so a bit more distortion which extended into the main panel. So some more extensive filling required here. And then on the driver side I found a long depression by the crease line. Annoying and awkward to take out. Pity I didn't notice it on the steel bonnet as it would have been relatively easy to push out then. The two centre dents are next to where the tube brace sits unter the steel bonnet. Getting those lare flattish areas level is tricky with a normal size sanding block so I splashed out on a flexible longboard block. Hook and loop fastening for the dry mesh sanding sheets means I can connect it up to the vacuum system and keep the dust down a bit. Also got some of the Upol 'fantastic' filler now I've done the worst of the deep stuff with the 'Easy 1'. Very nice to use. Slowly moving forward. The whole bonnet needs rubbed down to find the high and low spots. A few high spots at the front where I have gone through the gelcoat. But the longboard makes this a lot easier. Headlight mounts done too. Last pic for now. Apologies if this is a little dull. Beats doing it I'll need to make up a little sanding tool to restore the panel join lines at the quarter panels. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John I Posted July 20, 2023 Share Posted July 20, 2023 That’s beyond dedication Colin but looking oh so good. A piece of art Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Escadrille Ecosse Posted August 2, 2023 Author Share Posted August 2, 2023 Bbeen slow going. Lots of work required around the quarters and the frenching for the sidelights and indicators. However they are now good enough for filler primer I think and back onto the main panel which is probably ready to start using guide coat for remaining flatting off. Still have to deal with the wing sections up to the 'seam'. I've also been working on the grille panel which is generally good and just needed the profiles sharpening a bit. I am beginning to see the glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel with this. I think. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Jones Posted August 2, 2023 Share Posted August 2, 2023 1 hour ago, Escadrille Ecosse said: I am beginning to see the glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel with this. I think Good to hear. Hard won I’d say, but the end result will be worth it I reckon. Might have to make road trip to inspect it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Escadrille Ecosse Posted August 2, 2023 Author Share Posted August 2, 2023 35 minutes ago, Nick Jones said: Might have to make road trip to inspect it It's a way to come but most welcome Nick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BiTurbo228 Posted August 7, 2023 Share Posted August 7, 2023 Looking good! Sanding filler is never a quick job. Sanding filler in summer doubly so, I found. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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