Springfield Flyer.

[Peter Jack]

Nice looking pieces Mike. Keep up the good work. We all find that inspiration ebbs and flows a little.

Pete

[tauruck]

Thanks Pete. God Bless you for the kind words.

[WOODY@DDLLC]

Mike, you better stay busy cause Freud is still watching ya! 
The rest of us, too! 

[tauruck]

Woody that's the truth. 🙏🙏🙏🙏✝✝✝✝✝
God Bless him.

[tauruck]

A while back I posted some pics of a Mazda 6 Pro Mod Body I made and modified from some really junk BMW M3 molds some backyard know nothings had tooled. Some pics of the project to inspire me on the long car..

[tauruck]

This is how it turned out.

[tauruck]

2 more.

[Peter Jack]

Mike, looking at the way the light falls on the body it looks like the body you produced was really straight and smoooooth. Nice work!!! 

Pete

[tauruck]

Thanks Peter. The guy that's the guru on turbos and the Fueltech agent was here today and he brought the photos.
Apparently the guys in the UK where the car is now are going nuts.

He visits the US for all the NHRA Nationals as a Fueltech expert and said I should stop whining about tires for the liner
and build it to where all it needs are the tires and local sponsors will be coming out of the woodwork. He's fully invested
and his visit was a HUGE wake up call. Divine intervention I swear. I felt the load just lift. Guess where I'll be on Monday morning??

[Stainless1]

wow... just fricking WOW... nice looking body Mike...
I agree with the guy... build it, with a LSR tire size in mind... have it on any similar size tire and spread the word that you are looking for tires... someone will show up based on your past experience. 
Build it and they will come...   

[manta22]

Beautiful work, Mike. It almost looks too perfect to race. 

[wobblywalrus]

That body must be hundreds of pounds lighter than the original one.  Good job!

[tauruck]

Guys. I really appreciate all the positive feedback. It's great but expected. None of you have ever had negative comments on anything I posted.
All I get is motivation, inspiration, advice and help from everyone. This is a special community. The best move ever was to join the forum.

The pro mod is so light that when Willie delivered the body Kyle sent four guys out to unload the panels. Willie is a veteran amputee and he had the nose off his flat bed before they got there. Kyle was shocked. They weighed the entire body and it was around 100 Lbs without the Lexan. He's 200 Lbs under the class limit but is pleased he can put the ballast where needed. The other car built from the same molds (BMW M3) is 240 over the minimum weight. They used Polyester resin and chopped strand glass.
Our Mazda version is way stiffer too because we went with epoxy and Carbon/glass fabric and I used a lot of foam stringers in critical areas. A normal guy can stand on the roof without it sagging.
Epoxy is a win win situation in that you'll use a quarter weight wise compared to Polyester. Chopped strand is a "Resin Thief". It takes 2.2 Lbs per square yard per layer of 450gr chopped glass. Also you can take your time as far as pot life goes as Epoxy has slow, medium and fast hardeners. The Poly has one catalyst and you really need to know your stuff if you want to produce large panels because it will cure while you're laminating. I only use it for molds and put one layer down at a time. It shrinks between 2 and 5% when cured but by doing one layer at a time the exotherm is reduced and you have 24 hours to lay up the second layer to achieve a chemical bond. After 24 hours you'll need to sand the original layer to get a mechanical bond.
I get very little shrinkage using this method. You can tell if you've done it right because the part you built the mold for will fit back after the mold has cured. I have my own ideas on molds. I'll only demold after 5 days. It works.

Busy on getting my shop straightened out and putting parts in boxes. Also waiting for my Aluminum welding guy to get back from the Dakar Rally so he can weld the inlet manifold. Got a few parts in the machine shop I'm waiting on. Pics soon.👍👍👍

[manta22]

That is useful information, Mike. I've never worked with carbon fiber before.

[ggl205]

That?s a big he** yes on epoxy resin use. Much lighter, more time to fix mistakes and extremely flexible. A bit more expensive but worth the price.

BTW, Mike, that was an extraordinary job you did on that Mazda body. Can hardly wait to see the final iteration for your long car.

John