Hamish Posted May 13 Share Posted May 13 I often check out race cars for sale ( I know just torturing myself) but ever hopeful that someone doesn’t know what they are selling ( disgruntled ex-wife) and pick up a genuine cobra or gt40 for £20k !!! but I did think this spitfire was a nice one and made me think of this thread. Spare engine and everything. drivers seat is on the wrong side tho. https://www.carandclassic.com/car/C1189208 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeteStupps Posted May 13 Share Posted May 13 10 hours ago, Escadrille Ecosse said: So I dragged the old blue bonnet back in. 1, 2, 3 ... bonnet overload.. Having one off the car seems to take up most of the garage. Three must be loads of fun Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Jones Posted May 13 Share Posted May 13 2 hours ago, PeteStupps said: Having one off the car seems to take up most of the garage. Three must be loads of fun ^^ This! That German Spitfire does look nice. Seems like big bucks, but actually you probably couldn't build it for that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elephant 1 Posted May 22 Share Posted May 22 Serious skill and dedication !! very admirable !! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Escadrille Ecosse Posted May 23 Author Share Posted May 23 (edited) How plans evolve. Apparently I seemed to think that this next bit would be quite quick. Meh.. The vertical panels above the 'D' sections took quite a bit of fettling to get them both deep enough and level enough to take the transfer moulds off them. Even then I gave up with the curved section at the front to add on later. I did add a bit of correx to make the flange that exists on the metal panel though but didn't bother at this stage with the return on the bottom (top with the bonnet the right way up) that provides rigidity. Trying to hand layup glassfibre upside down is a non-starter. Lots of filler needed along with some primer to seal that. Made the transfer moulds which were trimmed and more correx added primarily to form the basic shape of the curved section at the front and the stiffening flange, plus an extension forward to mate up with the side of the grille surround. I was rather pleased with myself over how these turned out. Only thing I did forget to do was to form a large radius wax fillet for the return. So had to bodge it a bit by building this area up with enough gelcoat that I can then sand back down later when I made the patterns from these moulds. As I said about plans evolvng. I had intended fitting the two final pattern parts of each side together and then take a single mould off that for making the a one piece left and right part. The register being along the added flange. However once I thought about it some more I realised that it would actually be a lot easier to make and get everything to line up on the bonnet and inner arches if I kept them as four bits that get can glued in separately. Main impact there is that the 'D' panels need an extra flange along the curved edge to fix the the return on the bonnet itself. So after rubbing down the first one was stuck to a bit of glass (using Blutack) and a wax fillet added all round remembering to make it a nice big radius. And then the GRP layup to make the patterns off these. My head hurts thinking of which way round everything is, negative vs positive. Especially as the 'D' panels need a male mould whereas the vertical panels need a female mould. Only one bit of glass so the second 'D' panel still to be done. The reason for making the surround so wide should become apparent when I make come to make the moulds themselves off these. I hope. But you know about plans and all that. That will have to wait for a bit though as I am off to Mallorca for a week with my bike Edited May 23 by Escadrille Ecosse Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Jones Posted May 23 Share Posted May 23 54 minutes ago, Escadrille Ecosse said: That will have to wait for a bit though as I am off to Mallorca for a week with my bike What? What is this “wait”? I like Mallorca….. young sir very much likes it for cycling and has been several times. 999km in 8 days on last visit. Hopefully you are early enough in the year for it not to be ridiculously hot (though had been unseasonably warm in Spain recently). We went as a family in July and it was roasting…… even the locals were moaning about it. Have a good one Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Escadrille Ecosse Posted May 24 Author Share Posted May 24 12 hours ago, Nick Jones said: Have a good one Thanks Nick I will do my best Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeteStupps Posted May 24 Share Posted May 24 On 5/23/2022 at 9:45 PM, Escadrille Ecosse said: My head hurts thinking of which way round everything is, negative vs positive. Especially as the 'D' panels need a male mould whereas the vertical panels need a female mould. I don't understand much that is going on, but I understand your head hurting in the context of males and females, negatives and positives. Enjoy your holiday Colin! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Escadrille Ecosse Posted June 7 Author Share Posted June 7 (edited) Back from hols and some progress. Got the first D panel of the sheet of glass and then made the second one. Then got the parts separated and rough trimmed. Vertical panels. Still need finished before I can take the final mould off them. Then the two D panels. And because the patterns were flush with the mould I needed to glue on a bit of wood to each so I could get them separated. Meant to take a photo of the 'good' side of these but forgot. After a bit of thought I have decided that the easiest way to mould these is to do them as panel pairs rather than side to side pairs. So D panel sections (female) trimmed round the edges and mounted on a bit of sign board so I can add a single flange all round for when I come to form the final (male) vacuum infusion mould from this assembly. (My head is hurting as I think about what stage I'm at here). This is the gelcoat on. The tubs are just to weight everything down and keep it flat while it all gets laid up with more glassfibre. Edited June 7 by Escadrille Ecosse Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Jones Posted June 7 Share Posted June 7 46 minutes ago, Escadrille Ecosse said: My head is hurting as I think about what stage I'm at here My head hurts at the sheer number of stages....... This is probably why I mostly prefer to bother metal with a big hammer..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Escadrille Ecosse Posted June 7 Author Share Posted June 7 Yeah. While researching how to do the carbon fibre infusion I remember reading a comment by one guy along the lines of 'great for one-off or low volume parts, but the crap... oh the crap!' So yes. So much 'stuff' to get to the sharp end. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Escadrille Ecosse Posted June 12 Author Share Posted June 12 Well there's the good news and there's the bad news! Good news is the pattern for the D panels is made, rubbed down, polished and ready to make the mould from it And then I got down to smoothing down and polishing the other two panels to make the pattern for those. Started tmaking up the pattern and realised that I had forgotten a rather critical step. For a varety of reasons the panels on the old blue bonnet that I copied were a bit too long and the angle at the back where they joined the wings was also a bit 'odd' and missing the curve on the top of the panel. I had realised this and made a mental note that this needed sorted when making the patterns. And then completely forgot. Bollocks.... So some fairly substantial modification required However trimmed down and backing for the re-shaped flange added. Bit of added complication in that the new flange needed spacing off the existing grp to make sure there was plenty of gelcoat to rub down and then polish. And now I am in the process of gelcoat and glassfibre for that last bit. Humpf 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Jones Posted June 12 Share Posted June 12 Humpf* indeed. Still, forward progress continues (as far as I can tell anyway!) *iPhone really didn’t want to allow “humpf” Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Escadrille Ecosse Posted June 13 Author Share Posted June 13 On 6/12/2022 at 7:49 PM, Nick Jones said: *iPhone really didn’t want to allow “humpf” Ah, the net nanny Nip and tuck completed and all polished out again And got back to making up the pattern for the final mould Hopefully get it finished tomorrow and the gelcoat on 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hamish Posted June 14 Share Posted June 14 Always so impressed with the skills and attention to detail on this re manufacture of this project car. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Escadrille Ecosse Posted Thursday at 07:10 PM Author Share Posted Thursday at 07:10 PM As ever other stuff needs to happen but both moulds now finished. D panels.. And vertical strengthener panels Stick them out the way for now and next job is to make a grill panel for the red pattern bonnet. Will make a copy off the steel one. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Jones Posted Thursday at 07:44 PM Share Posted Thursday at 07:44 PM 31 minutes ago, Escadrille Ecosse said: Will make a copy off the steel one. So casual like….. That’s priceless skills you have there. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Escadrille Ecosse Posted Thursday at 08:01 PM Author Share Posted Thursday at 08:01 PM Said the man who just knocked up a complete injection manifold for the Vitesse 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Jones Posted Friday at 08:24 AM Share Posted Friday at 08:24 AM I guess we all have our specialisms and comfort zones….. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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