Springfield Flyer.

[tauruck]

I'll mail you tonight with news on your project.

I'm being tested.

[Tman]

Ha! I am being quoted now!

[pro1racing311]

So Mike.
I hear your radio career is taking of Saturday with a live interview.
SAFM on 105.1 fm in South Africa Your a a legend.

[Geo]

Wow, Mikey a radio star.  I would love to go Offside with Sheena Deepnarain, but if I must listen to you, when will you be on? We might be able to catch you on the web station broadcast.

[pro1racing311]

The interview will go out live between 4pm and 5pm Saturday afternoon SA time (GMT+2). That should be around 10amto 12am New York time. Not sure wher you are but you can work from there.
Station is SA FM 104-107 (www.sabc.co.za/safm). Hope this helps.

[racefanwfo]

4pm south africa time=7am pst 8am mst 9am cst 10am est.

[Rasmussen]

Hey Mike, just heard you on the radio 
Good stuff, but could have been a little longer. Seems soccer and cricket are the favourite sports in SA

[tauruck]

Thanks Rasmussen, yes the soccer is important. 50 million love it but I don't watch it. Dumb game IMO.

Yes it was short due to the overtime on the game.

They want me back it seems but I learned something.
Ask what you're getting and how long.

I started on doing some composite work seeing as I ran out of Argon.

I'm trying not to make molds for the car and what I'm doing is relatively new to me, I THINK.

I have sheets of 10mm Polystyrene and its not to bad on the bending process provided you don't try too tight a radius.

What I did was curve a piece over the roll cage and secure it with  some square  tubing and c clamps.

It followed the contour perfectly and its longer fore and aft for trimming later.



I then wet the piece with Epoxy resin and applied a layer of peel ply.
Peel ply is used to give the inside of the part being made a good surface when cured for later bonding.
If peel ply is used sanding is not required before laminating.

After that I laid up two layers of Carbon and glass fabric.


Once I'm ready to work the part for final laminating I'll pull the Polystyrene and peel ply out and then vacuum the piece with the honeycomb core and further Carbon and glass.
The shell acts as its own mold.
You could just lay the glass straight on to the Polystyrene and remove it after cure using Acetone to dissolve it but its messy and requires sanding.
The Peel ply is the cheapest fabric in composites but also one of the best.

Some pics of how it came out.

[tauruck]

Some other angles.

You can see the snug fit on the inside shot.

[tauruck]

The part is cured but I left it in place in order to start stage two.

There is no fancy drawing program or CFD on this project.

I'm relying on good old instinct and the "artistic" eye.

This stage involves the canopy.

I eyeballed the shape I want and used some 12mm round bar curved gently in the fork of my favourite "Tree Bender.

Spot on, it comes to a point exactly where I want the hinges to fit.
I marked the Polly with a felt tip pen and cut the profile with a box cutter.

I put a piece down on the chassis, marked the centre line and bonded the profile to that using Epoxy filled with cotton flocks to thicken it.
I held it all in place with pins liberated from a sewing box here in the house. 

It set up overnight and is about as sturdy as Polystyrene will get.

[tauruck]

More pics.

[tauruck]

Two more.

[Rex Schimmer]

Mike,
Knowing your skill with composites and knowing that you have a good plan in mind this is going to be a real education for the most of us that avoid this type of work. Keep the pics coming! Looking forward to seeing how this all turns out.

Rex

[Tman]

Looking good!

[tauruck]

Hey Rex, me too.

I'm really relaxed doing this. I'm going to buy some Polystyrene adhesive tomorrow.
Using the good epoxy leftovers is OK but the cure time is really long.

Working blind in a way but solving the problems as you go.

I know what the end result will be but I need to bridge the gap.

I removed the piece and placed it on the table to add the ribs.
I weighted it down with lead ballast and bonded all the ribs in place.

Two Stringers??, not sure of the terminology are in place.
I figure that if they taper to the front the fit and finish should be better.

Guys do the same sort of rib/pattern using wood when metal forming so it should work.


The funny thing is that here in SA they can cut 10mm and 15mm Polystyrene but the can't cut 5mm.

I had a huge argument over the phone with the saleslady over the issue and she cut me off.
All I said was that you cut a 15mm section and then move the cutter's setting up 5mm as if you're going to cut a 10!!!!!