Tuned

[Guest surferphil]

Watch the stone chips don't crack the shell, make sure your painter puts a really good protective coating on for the speed you will be doing.

[ronin]

I'll be shaping a ABS plastic liner or a brush on ruberized truck bed liner to take care of the stones on the underside.

[Guest surferphil]

Sounds good! I need to do something similar to mine. I put Aluminium mesh in the front wheel vents too.

[ronin]

I'll be putting a nice mesh in front of the lower coolers and behind and mesh behind the front wheels to keep the larger stones from spraying up the side pannels.

It's all in the details...I know I'll be forgeting something.

[ronin]

DRLs flush mounted..

[TBD]

Something is askew in that photo.

[ronin]

Front clam is just placed on lightly for photo...so picky

 

Matching seam gaps today.... it's all in the details. 

[ronin]

All the old wiring has been removed and a nice switch pannel is going in to rid the cluter of the stock harness..

 

[ronin]

Dude you have no idea how many times I wanted to shoot myself for not just totaling out the car and selling the bits. I should walk away from the whole deal and ride off into the sunset in my new R8 but my evil side keeps me pissed and I never quit..

 

Now to cut out the headlight buckets and redo the headlights because the holes were not right.... I hate bodywork more than I can say..

[Guest surferphil]

Body work is my thing   not so keen when it goes badly wrong though.

I hate nuts and bolts. 

 

I like what you are doing with the switches and relays, I should do the same. 

[ronin]

I didn't cut the original holes, turns out they were off... I had one of the guys glass in the original buckets and we never checked to see if the fit was perfect since we had so much other work to do on the rear, I figured we would just do all the finish work at the same time big mistake....

 

So after cutting out the bad buckets we started out again, this time in carbon fiber..

 

 

[Guest surferphil]

If you use thin sheet polythene over the top of the laid up carbon it can hold out the air from creeping in and blowing out the top layer on the edges, also gives a good finish by keeping the carbon cloth flat. I tape down the  polythene edges and corners with gaffer/duck tape it saves me a lot of work finishing. 

[ronin]

Thanks for the tips ...where the hell were ya in the beginning ? 

 

We've got it done now without too much work but it is one of those things that puts a damper on the enthusiasm of seeing the finish line move further down the road....Now to relight the candles and make a wish for the car I see in my minds eye..

[Guest surferphil]

It's always a steep learning curve when you have to invent techniques, most CF shops here use vacuum bagging and industrial tooling to manufacture with and the 'pot and brush' boat yards seem terrified of epoxy and carbon as their polyester/glass layup techniques don't work with CF/Epoxy.

 

Hand fabricating in Carbon is a pretty unusual thing and you seemed to be doing a great job using and shaping foam just like I did (surf board style). Then pulling the foam out. I did the same only skimming the foam with body filler then waxing the surface before applying the resin, made it easy to remove the foam after and achieving a clean shell inside and out.

 

Its probably easier for you as Cali is warmer than England, I have to pre heat the resin so it runs and keep the job warm at at least 25' c or I'll get air in everything and it just sits in the resin forever. Towards the end I was getting almost flawless finishes in the smaller jobs (in summer) without using vacuum bags, which is like black magic to people who know CF, but when I started everything went wrong and most of the early jobs were crap.

 

Keep the dream alive, it will be better than any of those contrived production cars, no one is going to pull up next to you in the same car or keep up with you for that matter. 

[ronin]

Thanks for the words of encouragement Phil, it's not as bad as I thought and it turned out pretty cool with the two layer setup...

Now lighter and a better fit along with more cleareance on the underside...

 

 

 

[Guest surferphil]

You live in the land where dreams come true, I'm getting up at 6 to do an engine swap in the snow. 

[ronin]

[ronin]

So it's startin to look like a car.. 

Edited December 1, 2012 by ronin

[ronin]

I made up a gurney for the front radiator exit today to help exit hot airflow...

 

[ronin]

[ronin]

Chargecooler is moved down and forward of the rear axel for better CG and repositioning of the throttle body and turbo BOV..

[Bee]

Been following this adventure with keen interest, Frank ... really looks like it's all starting to come together. I'm very much looking forwards to hearing about the first few drives!

[TBD]

Will it ever see the road, Frank? I'd be itching to get first impressions every day, and hour, minute.

[ronin]

Thanks guys, I'm still itching from the bodywork...

It's coming along since the painter is trying to make the very thin body panels flat and keeping things lightweight..

I hate fiberglass and carbon fiber with a passion now.

 

It's nice to finially get to the mechanical bits that need a bit of attention...

[Guest surferphil]

Bodyfiller is your friend and foe. Microbaloons are lighter.

#Hang on in there frank!