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SV Carbon Tank project for Zoran

stangmx13 said:
i dont completely understand how u reduced the width of the tank w/ the foam... u cut away some of the fiberglass to leave jus foam showing and then shaped that part??

Yes, that's what he did.
 
So if you were to make several of these tanks would you have to start the process all over each time?

Excuse me if you have already stated that as i havnt read through each page.
 
Moike said:
And if you'll recall all the threads I ran a bit back about all the
RGM fiberglass fabrication and bodywork I did... This is -exactly-
the part I hate.

Looking good so far.

Tyga, do you know about the dpcars site? He's building a four
wheel drive single seater street legal sports car powered by a
hayabusa engine that will be smaller than the original mini-cooper
when it's done. I've been following his work for the last three
years...

His work on his body plug was insane...

Toward the bottom - http://www.dpcars.net/dp1/df.htm

And - http://www.dpcars.net/dp1/dg.htm

And - http://www.dpcars.net/dp1/dh.htm

And so on... the process is amazing to watch... the carbon fiber
body he pulls off the plug weighs 41 pounds.

-Mike-

Wow thats awesome.
 
SWETNGBLTS said:
So if you were to make several of these tanks would you have to start the process all over each time?

Excuse me if you have already stated that as i havnt read through each page.

No need to do it all again. Once I have the production mold, I can just lay up the production parts to make tanks. Getting to the production mold is what I've been doing so far. Almost there...
 
Moike said:
Tyga, do you know about the dpcars site? He's building a four
wheel drive single seater street legal sports car powered by a
hayabusa engine that will be smaller than the original mini-cooper
when it's done. I've been following his work for the last three
years...-Mike-
I've been following it, too. Nice to be able to afford having your plug carved out by a CNC machine...DP's investing a bit more in his project than I am...pretty neat, though.
 
Sorry for the lack of progress - busy with other life stuff. Plus I've been working on my SV bodywork - but that's a whole other thread - and the SV motor in the RVF chassis.
Anyway, I needed more scratch-filling primer and the paint store (Hawley's in Santa Rosa) was out of grey so I ended up with this oxide red color. Same stuff, different color. And you know what? It shows up flaws better than the grey. I love these accidental learnings...
So, in preparation for making the production mold, I laid down a few coats of the primer, hit it with 1500 grit wet/dry (wet) and then hooked up a polishing pad to my air-powered grinder and went after it with a medium cut Meguire's polish. Once that was done, I went back and hand polished it with a Meguire's Mirror glaze.
So here we are, all ready to lay up the production underside mold. Purdy, ain't it?

2235593-p1150001.jpg
 
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tygaboy said:
Sorry for the lack of progress - busy with other life stuff.

Let's guess something straight here, tygaboy. This THREAD IS life stuff. For many of us, this thread is all we got. Got it, carbon fiber boy?

Okay then :x

Carry on, my friend!







:twofinger
 
lizard said:
Let's guess something straight here, tygaboy. This THREAD IS life stuff. For many of us, this thread is all we got. Got it, carbon fiber boy?

Okay then :x

Carry on, my friend!







:twofinger
:laughing
 
lizard said:
Let's guess something straight here, tygaboy. This THREAD IS life stuff. For many of us, this thread is all we got. Got it, carbon fiber boy?
Okay then :x
Carry on, my friend!
:twofinger

Tell me about it, I can't belive this thread went all the way to page 3, of moto Photos!
Hey Tygaboy, can't wait till this weekend. I gave my boss some bs about school stuf:shhh f so we are closing up shop for the day.:laughing That's how much I love Carbon fiber... I mean you!:teeth
 
Moike said:
If it's LCR stuff... lemme know, I may want to go half-zies with you
and possibly provide some additional stuff for molds. All the stuff
on the CSR is LCR bodywork as well.

:teeth

-Mike-

Hi Mike,
I think JG "CSR" started with LCR stuff and modified it quite a bit over the years.
I'm planning on pulling a mold off the bodywork I'm getting with Roger's bike as there aren't any molds here of genuine LCR bodywork. We're planning on just doing the main body and the chair. The middle section has those louvers which look a little tricky and we're going to be cutting it close on time I think.
I'm trying to get Dennis to let us use his shop in San Bruno for all the mold making and final painting.
Hopefully we can do a 1-piece mold off the main fairing which would save alot of work.
If you want to join in on the fun let me know and I'll keep you posted. :thumbup

Frank
 
Underside Production Mold

OK, after a brief delay (work, other projects, one Saturday 'seminar' and generally crappy weather for composite work), we're back to it.
It was a beautiful day today - the temperature got up there enough that I decided to take advantage of it and make the production mold for the underside.
The scratch-filling primer has been polished so it's time for a couple coats of release wax and some PVA.

Mmmmmm, so nice and shiny....

This is all goodness since we want the smoothest, shiniest finish we can get. Just that much less work to get the mold ready for the production parts. I wrap the other side in a garbage bag to keep stray epoxy from mucking up the other areas of the tank.

2249093-p1220002.jpg
 
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I'm after the nicest possible finish so I'm going to do the first two layers in a really light weight 'glass - for better drapability and ease of lay up - and then back that up with some much heaier weight 'glass to add the needed strength.
Here's a shot of the two weights I'm using. Pretty big difference.
Using the lighter weight 'glass right against the surface of the mold also reduces the likelihood of air bubbles in the surface of the part - look how much room there is for air in that (comparitivley) heavier weave...

2249099-p1220001.jpg
 
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Since the underside of my SV/MV tank is essentially the same shape as this one, I was able to use the patterns from my 'old' tank. Note the relief cuts needed to get the material to lay nicely into the mold without bunching and lifting.

2249105-p1220003.jpg
 
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As I mentioned earlier in this thread, as we move into building the production molds (and final parts!) 'Neatness Counts'.
Whereas with the splash molds and plug parts, we didn't really care too much how the parts turned out because we were going to cut and glue and foam and bondo them, now we REALLY care about our results - the finish we get on the mold will translate every flaw right onto the final production parts.
So, I cut out the entire schedule of materials and lay them out so everything is easy to get to, the different weight 'glass is in the correct order, the pieces are on the appropriate side and pointing the right direction, etc. Now I can move quickly through the lay up without having to mentally keep track of how many layers I've put where, etc.
Here we are, ready for the lay up to begin.

2249109-p1220004.jpg
 
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And here we are, one production mold lay up in cure state. It's kinda wild looking - like a big piece of meat or something that used to be alive...As I said, I've never used the red oxide primer and it looks creepy, don't you think? :wow

I used some of the scrap pieces of 'glass to reinforce the mold in a few places. No sense throwing it away when I can slap it on here and gain a bit more rigidity in the mold. May not be as pretty, but who cares? It's the underside of a mold!

So, now it's time to be patient - which is always hard for me... You know how much I love to pop parts off of molds but this is the important stuff. I'll let it sit and cure for probably two days. Maybe pop it out on Wednesday. As soon as I do, you'll know...

Total time invested to date: ~ 25 hours

2249121-p1220005.jpg
 
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What to do to move the cure cycle along?
Last time it was the fireplace, this time, a space heater set to medium/low. Don't want to light anything on fire...
Again, I'm always trying out different approaches to see what works best for me. It's also REALLY nice weather up here today so I may lay it outside in the sun. That's proven pretty effective in the past.

Do you think I'll be able to leave it alone for 2 whole days?:cry

I bet not...but seriously, I won't pull it when there is any serious risk of messing it up.

2250084-p1230001.jpg
 
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