BiTurbo228 Posted August 12 Posted August 12 On 8/6/2024 at 7:28 PM, PeteStupps said: Brilliant stuff. I look forward to these updates like I used to look forward to Project Binky videos! Couldn't agree more!
Escadrille Ecosse Posted September 20 Author Posted September 20 (edited) A little more to report, altough not as much as I would have liked owing to a rather tiresome chest infection, which also kept me off my bike for almost three weeks. Fixed the captive bolts under bits of ply, glassed everything in then glued on the battens Then got the thing turned over so I could make the mould for the returns. I think I mentioned this before but with the pattern and the mould combined it is now bloody heavy. The return section of the mould is in three parts to make handling a little easier. Centre piece with the grille panel and two sides. Centre section laid up first with a joining flange then the sides. Up untin now I have been using a folding panel stand to hold eveything at a suitable height for working but as the weight has gon up it ha become ever harder to drag the thing around. Also a bit high for getting into the centre as I will need to do when the time comes to lay up the carbon fibre. So I made up a frame and a trip to B&Q provided some cheap castors. Now at a better height and sooo much easier to move around. Today I drilled the flanges and fitted bolts to hold all the parts together once the mould has been separated Supposed to be dry here over the weekend so cycling on Sunday and tomorrow the plan is to roll this lot out of the garage and trim the mould to size. And maybe try and start releasing it from the pattern. Oh, and I need to order up the materials for the bonnet. Quite a lot of carbon and epoxy required. Edited September 20 by Escadrille Ecosse 4 1
JohnD Posted September 21 Posted September 21 Wow! Even a custom-built dolly! This is a tour-de-force!
thebrookster Posted September 21 Posted September 21 That dolly took me by surprise when you simply rolled the bonnet away from the bench the other night! I was just about to leap in and give a hand, and away she rolled. 1
BiTurbo228 Posted September 21 Posted September 21 22 hours ago, Nick Jones said: Impressive in every respect! Wot ee sed!
PeteStupps Posted September 23 Posted September 23 On 9/20/2024 at 9:58 PM, Escadrille Ecosse said: Quite a lot of carbon and epoxy required just a bit!
Escadrille Ecosse Posted October 9 Author Posted October 9 (edited) Got some time to trim the raw edges on the mould before I headed off to Mallorca. And today I spent some time separating the all the bits from the pattern. Suspended the pattern from the hoist and then the pushing, pulling and inserting wedges began. Always rather hard work and accompanied by alarming cracks and bangs as things start to release. Worked on it on and off for a couple of hours. The three return sections came off pretty easily but the main section was hard work as expected. So little here, a little there until finally the whole lot came free in a rush. The mould is bloody enormous Very pleased with it though. Came out very cleanly with only a couple of small areas where the primer has stuck to the mould. Needs cleaning of release agent and polishing now. Edited October 9 by Escadrille Ecosse 2
Escadrille Ecosse Posted November 7 Author Posted November 7 Bloody hell. A month has gone by. Progress seems to have been rather slow. I have managed to tidy up and polish the removable bits of the bonnet mould. Including fixing a couple of minor gelcoat defects. One of which proved to be a right b#####r simply due its location. But rubbing down and polishing gets remarkably boring. So as we seem to be getting the warm settled weather absent over the 'summer' I decided to take advantage and get some practice spraying gelcoat for making up the inner panels. A pair of inner wheelarches, and two pairs of reinforcement panels. Six coats of chemical release and another six of wax applied and ready for the gel. One minor upset when one of the wheelarch moulds slid off the table which resulted in a couple of surface scratches that needed rubbed out, re-polished and then more release and wax applied. Lucky that was all really. This is the gelcoat gun. Very basic but the disposable paper cups make cleaning a much simpler job. Nozzle is 3mm in diameter! Almost impossible to stop the occasional drip as the nozzle is basically a hole straight into the cup. Not a major issue as the bumps can be rubbed out after curing and before laying in the carbon. Made the compressor work hard too. Goes on easily with excellent coverage. Far better than with the brush which tends to leave pinholes as the mould is so slippery. Special epoxy compatible polyester gelcoat of course. Cures hard without any surface tack that you get with normal polyester gel. This also means that you cannot over-coat to address the pin-holing you get with the brush. Nice finish too. Bit like underbody finish from a shutz gun. Let the carbon fibre begin... 3
Escadrille Ecosse Posted November 11 Author Posted November 11 Progress. 'D' panels. Bagging tape round the edge then carbon reinforcement over the gelcoat. 1 layer of 200g/m2 and 1 layer 600g/m2. Peel ply over the carbon to separate the carbon part from the rest of the infusion materials. Infusion mesh for resin flow then resin inlet attachment and flow tupe at bottom with vacuum attachment at top. Bag with plenty of 'extra' material stuck down to the bagging tape. Resin feed and vacuum hoses attached and sealed with bagging tape. Pulling vacuum to get everything tight and esure there are no leaks. Ready for resin. Resin infusion complete. Leave for 24 hours to cure. 1
Escadrille Ecosse Posted November 11 Author Posted November 11 Also made the pair of panels that go between the inner arches, D panels and front quarter. Got a short video clip of the two infusions. Bit big sorry. resin infusion of bonnet reinforcement panels.mp4 1
BiTurbo228 Posted November 11 Posted November 11 Having watched the trials and tribulations of Superfast Matt making his fibreglass-bodied landspeed car with vacuum resin infusion has really put into perspective how nicely you've got yours working! Looking really good!
egret Posted November 11 Posted November 11 This could be a clip from one of the easy composites how to guides! It's very exciting to see the resin infusion.
Escadrille Ecosse Posted November 11 Author Posted November 11 (edited) 8 hours ago, BiTurbo228 said: Having watched the trials and tribulations of Superfast Matt making his fibreglass-bodied landspeed car with vacuum resin infusion has really put into perspective how nicely you've got yours working! Looking really good! A bit like baking, not just what you do but the way you do it affects the outcome significantly. And you only find that out by doing. There is a very steep learning curve. And no-one ever shows the job of getting everything pulled down tightly into all the corners under the bag. That bit of the process can go on somewhat 7 hours ago, egret said: It's very exciting to see the resin infusion. Resin infusion is sort of magical. Edited November 11 by Escadrille Ecosse 1
Escadrille Ecosse Posted November 11 Author Posted November 11 And moved on to the inner arches today while yesterday's infusions are curing. First layer of 200g Then a layer of kevlar for a bit of toughness. Only over the centre section where it's likely to receive stone impacts and cut just short of the edges as kevlar is a bit of a bugger to cut. I have a pair of very expensive scissors for the raw cloth but once cured it is hard work to trim. Hence the attempt to avoid doing that. Then a final layer of 650g cloth goes on top of that lot. 3
Escadrille Ecosse Posted November 17 Author Posted November 17 (edited) Cut out the four panels I made last week and the bagged and vacuum pulled the wheelarch ready for resin. Getting the bag sealed proved to be a bit of a trial. First attempt there was a tiny but persistent leak. After ages hunting I decided I must have damaged the bag so pulled it and the sealing tape off and started again. And again a tiny but persistent leak. After going over it all many times I finally worked out what the issue was. This arch must have been the one that fell on the floor and there was a tiny crack in the gel along the seam where I had joinned the two halves of the mould together. I tried sealing with more bagging tape which did reduce the leak but not eliminate. I cleaned up the back of the mould where the fibreglass was damaged and put is some more resin and glass. Even wet this was doing the trick. And then I lost the vacuum as I actually managed to damage the bag this time around. Aaargh Went back to it all again today. Pulled off the bag and tape AGAIN. And reapplied it all AGAIN. And this time pulled down and sealed pretty much first time to the full vac of the pump which is about 95% vacuum. Yay!! So resin in... Done and about to get covered with the heated mat and blankets to cure. On the plus side doing a 'positive' bag over such a big profile is a bit different from doing the usual 'negative' one so I got plenty of experience! Moving on the the other arch tomorrow, but having used up all my bagging film and most of the tape I need to order more. Edited November 17 by Escadrille Ecosse 5
Escadrille Ecosse Posted November 21 Author Posted November 21 (edited) After a couple of days under the heated blanket resin fully cured and I had a go at removing the infusion mesh and peel ply. Unfortunately I wasn't planning on doing anything serious and just go carried away so hadn't put the thick gloves on first. The epoxy is very hard and under vacuum there are some very thin films of the stuff. Which are like razorblades. And because of the fabric pattern in the resin it takes a lot of physical effort to separate the peel ply from the CF part. Those red spots are my blood Plasters and gloves on before finishing the job. It is bloody knackering. And then separating from the mould was straightforward That part weight 810g. So probably around 750g once trimmed to size. The passenger side will be slightly heavier. I added a little more reinforcement to stiffen up the area round the bonnet stay and the whole arch is a little wider than the driver's side. It's 'factory' width but I made the driver's side 1/2" narrower to give a touch more clearance for the carb air box. Still working on the driver's side. Busy tomorrow but hopefully get the infusion done at the weekend. Edited November 21 by Escadrille Ecosse 2 1
Nick Jones Posted November 21 Posted November 21 Success then. Blood sacrifice seems to be required by the gods of creation….. The trick is to keep the sacrifices to a minimum.
Escadrille Ecosse Posted November 21 Author Posted November 21 1 hour ago, Nick Jones said: Blood sacrifice seems to be required by the gods of creation….. The trick is to keep the sacrifices to a minimum. Seems so. And hopefully yes....
BiTurbo228 Posted November 22 Posted November 22 Nice work! I must say, nothing you're doing here is particularly encouraging me to take up composites work in the future Though 750g is very encouraging. My GT6 fibreglass bonnet (probably a Honeybourne jobby) was 12kg overall, which I was rather pleased with but will probably be looking critically at in the not too distant future...
Escadrille Ecosse Posted November 22 Author Posted November 22 38 minutes ago, BiTurbo228 said: Nice work! I must say, nothing you're doing here is particularly encouraging me to take up composites work in the future Thank you. Yeah. Appreciate that. However seeing the magic that is the resin infusion and then picking up the cured part helps 1
PeteStupps Posted November 22 Posted November 22 Love reading these updates. It's all witchcraft to me so I presume the blood spots are required to pacify the devil and ensure a good vacuum... 1
Nick Jones Posted November 23 Posted November 23 10 hours ago, PeteStupps said: I presume the blood spots are required to pacify the devil and ensure a good vacuum... Yes…. This….. or the “small gods” of the garage. I know mine are pretty blood-thirsty. 18 hours ago, BiTurbo228 said: I must say, nothing you're doing here is particularly encouraging me to take up composites work in the future Harsh….. but I have to agree that while the results at each stage are mightily impressive, the effort involved does mean I’m not planning to follow suit! 18 hours ago, BiTurbo228 said: My GT6 fibreglass bonnet (probably a Honeybourne jobby) was 12kg overall Honeybourne…… 12kg….… Not their usual road going effort surely? They weigh nearly as much as the steel version. 1
BiTurbo228 Posted November 23 Posted November 23 4 hours ago, Nick Jones said: Harsh….. but I have to agree that while the results at each stage are mightily impressive, the effort involved does mean I’m not planning to follow suit! Perhaps! Maybe I should soften it to something like 'if/when I start looking at composite work, I won't jump in at the deep end with complex curve multiple panel efforts like a Spitfire bonnet' probably sensible! I am close enough to 50/50 projected distribution on my car that some carbon fibre may well tip it over the edge. 4 hours ago, Nick Jones said: Honeybourne…… 12kg….… Not their usual road going effort surely? They weigh nearly as much as the steel version. May well not be Honeybourne. I was mainly going by the fit at the corners
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