At Last!. I have started on my car ;-) PART 2

Feb 6 - Day 8. Another morning delivering parcels and out this evening for a meal with friends. No weight reduction today but planned how to do CF floors. To that end I need some CF angle. VERY expensive to buy so I make my own.




Julia if off to Bath tomorrow for week's vegeratian cookery course, So I have Monday to Thursday all to myself :) (apart from the dog and three cats). Hopefully I can get a lot done, although I have to replace the kitchen laminate due to mice eating through the dishwasher exhaust pipe! :-(

Come to think of it, I also want to line the conservatory walls with moulded MDF, but I will do that in the evenings. Lots of brownie points to be won there :)
 
Sounds like a very busy time for you Steve even though young Julia is away. Remember that if you get to a head scratching point where nothing is going right, red wine helps to fortify the brain cells, allegedly ;)
 
Feb 7 - CF angle still curing. Did a dry fit of fuel system to make sure everything will still fit after tub widening. The nitrous system isn't being installed initially but provision has been made to do so if we run out of puff at the top end. The fuel line is big enough to cope so I only have to install a nitrous line. If I do fit nitrous the small tank will probably be used in order to save weight :)

 
:)

Feb 7 part 2 - Removed angle from mould. Didn't turn out too bad and it will do as it won't be seen (but don't tell T9 :) )

I used 30mm angle so I can trim to 20mm.


PS. No weight reducion today as I took Julia to Paddington Station. Geez, what a mission. Roads were solid, even on a Sunday afternoon and there are no signs directing you to the station, it's as if they don't want you to find it! Left Essex at 1pm for a 5 past 3 train and we didn't make it! Julia had to buy another ticket and I got home at 5:20.
 
:) Wouldn't have got her bags in.

If T9 is correct about red wine fortifying the brain cells, I should have enhanced my IQ up to over 90 last night :)
 
Feb 8 - Day 9 No reduction this day as making second CF angle and started to remove passenger floor. Couldn't finish the floor as I managed to kill another cheap 4" angle grinder. I will buy a better one on Wednesday.

What I have removed so far weighs 4kg with another around 250gms to go. I calculate that the new CF floor will weigh around 1.8kg, so a saving of approx 5kg over the two floors which equates to around 6bhp/tonne :)

These two photos show how well the vacuum pulls the excess resin out of the composite. First one was taken a few minutes after vacuum was turned on and the second 30 minutes later. Vacuum will be on until the resin has cured, which could be 24 hours or so depending on air temperature.




This photo shows the first stage of removing the floor. I need to cut under the roll cage and remove the front section as well as trim the steel plate which forms part of the exhaust support.

 
Feb 9 - day 11 of challenge. Again, no weight removal as fixing dishwasher leak and putting up MDF panelling in conservatory. However, I did manage to unwrap the second cured CF angle so I kept up my NYR, just :)

Off to B&Q tomorrow to get a decent angle grinder so I can complete the removal of the floor. Closed cell foam arrived today so I can also get on with making the replacement floor panel.
 
Feb 10 - day 11 of challenge. Again, no weight reduction, although I do have an excuse. I am delaing with a flooded kitchen flood caused by mice eating lots of holes in the dishwasher exhaust pipe! Fixed the pipe so that is good, bit the floor is a different matter. The damage to the floor is more thsn the spares I have (the floorboards in the photo are also damaged and more out of shot) and I doubt that it is still available, being over 10 years old. The flooring extends into the hall and dining room so I am waiting until Julia comes back from Bath so we can discuss options.




Anyway, back to more interseting stuff. Bought a new angle grinder. Stuck with a cheap one as an expensive one will be just as vunerable to carbon dust as a cheap one. However, I will blow out the dust after use and see if this helps.

I haven't got a glass panel big enough to lay the floor onto, but I found a straight desktop which will do nicely. marked out the floor, positioned the double sided tape for the vacuum sheet and spread releasing agent. This won't be dry until tomorrow so that's it for today.



 
Feb 11 - Day 12 of challenge. Still no lightening work :-(

Foam cut for floor. Holes haven't been drilled/punched for lightness, they are there to allow resin to flow from underneath the foam when vacuumed. However, this will actually reduce the overall weight of the panel so I guess they are for lightness, in a way :)



The peel ply didn't arrive today so I couldn't start laying up the carbon, although it is cut and ready.
 
Feb 12 - Day 14 of challenge. Failed as I haven't been able towork on areas where there is potential for reduction.

However, the peel ply arrived today so I was able to lay up the passenger floor.

Prior to turning on vacuum:


30 minutes later:
 
Feb 13 - Resin finally hard enough to remove vacuuming material but it is still too soft to prise it from the mould so that will have to wait until tomorrow.

I weighed the vacuuming material before and after and it removed 847gms of resin, so 1.7kg saved over both floors.



 
Some tines I get the feeling you're having way too much fun making the CF bits that you won't know what to do with all the spare time you will have when the Elan is finished ;) :lol:
 
A means to an end, honest :)

Spare time? I had to look up the meaning of the phrase!

Elan will never be finished, like any race car :)
 
Feb 14 - Sometimes, things don't always work out as you expected.

It was a struggle to prise the floor from the release agent and in the process the top layer of CF separated from the foam....pause for a few expletives.

This was unexpected and I will be discussing this with EasyComposites tomorrow to try to work out what I did wrong. In the meantime I have stuck it back together with resin and re-vacuumed it.

If it still fails at least I have a couple of sheets of 2-ply CF to use elsewhere :)

 
Feb 15 - My birthday present was to work on the car all day with no interuptions :)

Repaired passenger CF floor and cut out driver's floor. Found out what I did wrong with the CF floor. The foam soaks up resin causing a dry join so I need to spread a layer of resin on to the foam first and then wet lay the next layer of CF. Learning curve :)

Old passenger floor 4.37kg
New floor 2.06kg
Reduction 2.2kg

I also removed 700gms of mild steel so nearly 3kg removed in one operation.



 
What we call in the UK a persuader, or an Irish screwdriver :) I couldn't get the angle grinder into the far right corner so the persuader was required to finish the removal process.

If you can't fix it with this you just need a bigger one.
 
Feb 16 - Mini panic as I couldn't get a vacuum with my pump (no tittering in the back row!). It said full vacuum when I attached a gauge to the pipe but it wouldn't pull the vacuum bag down. Cleaned everything up and fixed a couple of very small leaks on the pump and it seems to be working again. Phew, £210 saved. Ordered some 3mm mild steel with which to make a couple of strengthening flanges for the roll cage.
 
Feb 17 - Ordered some more 5mm dense foam for the driver's floor so I can't start laying that up until tomorrow. However, this allowed me time to make the plug required to form the drop in the fllor that will give me a little more headroom.



I will have to make this floor upside down so a little more work is required on the mould otherwise the CF lip around the edge will be flush with the wrong surface (it needs to be flush with the bottom of the floor). Bought some 25mm x 4mm timber strip which should do the job.
 
Feb 18 - Built mould for driver's floor and will cut material after dinner ready for laying up tomorrow. I have bought an extra vacuum connector so I can attach a gauge to see what vacuum I am getting.

 
Feb 19 - Well I can write this day off. After spending around 3 hours preparing to lay up driver's floor, cutting carbon and all the vacuum bag layers, mixing almost a kg of resin and laying it all up I discover that the vacuum pump doesn't want to do what is says on the box ie, create a f£(*(&*%%(ing vacuum! 3m2 of carbon and around £30 of consumables down the pan :-(

Oh, well, deep breaths and on to the EasyComposites' site to order a new pump and more consumables and try again next week.
 
What a shame :( I would have thought a smart chap like you Steve could have improvised and done something with the vacuum cleaner.
 
My workshop vacuum cleaner has packed up. Julia offered me the house one but I am not sure it would like to be run for 10-15 hours non-stop. Also, domestic vacuums don't actually pull a decent vacuum so it would be a compromise and I don't like those :)

New pump ordered and it should be here Monday or Tuesday.
 
Feb 20 - Finished crying now. Unwrapped floor and it looks like what I would have produced pre vacuum bagging. Usable but not tight or light. I will measure the weight and compare with a vacuumed one.
 
Feb 21 - Removed unvacuumed floor from mould. If I had made this before I got into vacuuming I would have spent more time compressing the carbon into the corners and it would have been acceptable once cleaned up. However, it does weigh 1kg more than the passenger floor so I will make another one. At least I have been able to confirm that the seat fits into the recess :)







 
Feb 22 - Pump arrival confirmed for tomorrow so I cut up the carbon and other consumables ready for the second attempt at making the driver's floor:

 
24 Feb - First day this year that I failed to do any work on the car :-(

25 Feb - Second attempt at making driver floor.

2 layers of carbon plus an extra piece in the pedal box area, 5mm dense foam then a mirror image of carbon. Peel ply, perforated release film, breather cloth then vacuum bag and hooray! I have vacuum :) The vacuum will stay on until the morning at least.



 
Feb 27 - Pulled driver's floor from mould and is isn't brilliant (needed more resin on the mould prior to laying carbon) but, with a little work it will be acceptable. A little more work and a couple more coats of matte black paint and the weave should be hidden.





Been thinking about rear wing design for a while now. Hopefully, I won't need it but I want to be ready if I do. This has intrigued me. As I already have a pneumatic actuator for the parachute it wouldn't be too difficult to power the wing the same way :)

 
Further thoughts on the wing have lead me to look into it doing two jobs, the other being braking. To achieve that it has to be able to adjust on demand. My thoughts are to use the existing pneumatic system rather than electric actuators.

Pneumatic actuators are quicker reacting and a pair would be powerful enough (I estimate that at 150mph a 0.3m2 wing at 45 degrees will generate 106Kg of braking force/drag) but have yet to work out the best way of doing it.

At the moment my idea is to have the actuators controlled by a pressure sensor switch in the rear brake line (maybe utilise the existing brake light switch) with an on/off switch on the dash or steering wheel. The wing will then only operate when switched on and braking, returning to its starting position when the brakes are released.

Something like this:

Or this:

But not like this :)

Thoughts anyone?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Similar threads
Thread starter Title Forum Replies Date
TCJBOLDIE My last track day for 2022 General car Chat 0
TCJBOLDIE TCJB's last track day for 2020 General car Chat 2
TCJBOLDIE When was your last wheel alignment done ? General car Chat 5
TCJBOLDIE TCJB's last track day for 2019 General car Chat 1
TCJBOLDIE TCJB's last mod General car Chat 3
obi_waynne Do they make cars that only last 10 years General car Chat 2

Similar threads


Please watch this on my YouTube channel & Subscribe.


Back
Top