SEAT Ibiza - rwd turbo
Discussion
The usual Polyester Resin. First coats are in the soft high build primer / tooling stuff (grey) the last coats in the much harder high gloss finish stuff. Annoyingly, these end plates are just too small / too intricate to really let rip with mechanical sanding methods (DA sander etc), doing big body panels is actually easier as they have much bigger radii and have more middle and less fiddly edges etc!
This week i have mostly been:
Covered in fibreglass and resin!
Next step in the wing end plate saga is production of the moulds, taken off the finished and polished patterns / bucks:
Due to the complex shape, it needs a 3 part mould with careful consideration of the split lines:
Basic wooden jig to hold material to form nice big split lines:
Nice thick gel coat layer covered by fine fibreglass tissue to support it.
4 layers of chopped strand mat, and a finishing layer of tissue (to avoid too many spikey sticky out bits that take lots of finishing to remove and stab/cut you to pieces when using the moulds!)
Finished 3 parts and also one half of the steering wheel mould as bonus extra ;-)
Due to it's complexity and requirement for significant strength, the steering wheel will be woven carbon fibre vacuum infused with Epoxy resin, whereas i will probably just wet lay up basic fibreglass / polyester resin parts for the wing end plates, at least for the first run to see how they come out
Also, in other less smelly/sticky news, Speedy Cables have extended my handbrake cable, originally from a V8 Vantage (long story) and changed the end fitting so i can mate it too my Skoda octavia handbrake lever:
Lever is tucked down the left hand (sill) side of the drivers seat, so i now have a nice MOT legal handbrake system! There is a much-more-useful-for-turning-around hydraulic flyoff handbrake lever on the centre console, but that isn't road legal, and it's going to get replaced by a virtual "handbrake simulator" in the ABS system i'm developing for the car anyway ;-)
Covered in fibreglass and resin!
Next step in the wing end plate saga is production of the moulds, taken off the finished and polished patterns / bucks:
Due to the complex shape, it needs a 3 part mould with careful consideration of the split lines:
Basic wooden jig to hold material to form nice big split lines:
Nice thick gel coat layer covered by fine fibreglass tissue to support it.
4 layers of chopped strand mat, and a finishing layer of tissue (to avoid too many spikey sticky out bits that take lots of finishing to remove and stab/cut you to pieces when using the moulds!)
Finished 3 parts and also one half of the steering wheel mould as bonus extra ;-)
Due to it's complexity and requirement for significant strength, the steering wheel will be woven carbon fibre vacuum infused with Epoxy resin, whereas i will probably just wet lay up basic fibreglass / polyester resin parts for the wing end plates, at least for the first run to see how they come out
Also, in other less smelly/sticky news, Speedy Cables have extended my handbrake cable, originally from a V8 Vantage (long story) and changed the end fitting so i can mate it too my Skoda octavia handbrake lever:
Lever is tucked down the left hand (sill) side of the drivers seat, so i now have a nice MOT legal handbrake system! There is a much-more-useful-for-turning-around hydraulic flyoff handbrake lever on the centre console, but that isn't road legal, and it's going to get replaced by a virtual "handbrake simulator" in the ABS system i'm developing for the car anyway ;-)
young man? if only eh! ;-)
This composites business is a total time sink to do properly though, especially with small fiddly bits like this where you can really apply significant mechanical sanding / finishing etc. By comparison, the massive moulds i made for the wings, bonnet and roof were a doddle..........
This composites business is a total time sink to do properly though, especially with small fiddly bits like this where you can really apply significant mechanical sanding / finishing etc. By comparison, the massive moulds i made for the wings, bonnet and roof were a doddle..........
rhinochopig said:
MT is there any FEA or similar for the steering wheel? The only reason I ask is that I would worry about it failing catastrophically if I'd built such a thing myself.
No. FEA for composites is a total nightmare tbh! (as you don't really have a homogeneous material...I shall be doing the following:
1) putting in loads of carbon fibre (i don't really care if it's 0.5kg too heavy etc
2) Using an internal kevlar layer to resist crack propigation and sudden catastrophic failures
3) Making the first one, bolting it to a "fake" steering column, and carrying out some basic torque and load tests to see where it breaks!
In reality, the handwheel loads in a car with PAS are quite low, and with a full race seat and harness, it shouldn't need to cope with being used as a "driver steady/restraint" during vigorous cornering etc......
Max_Torque said:
Ok, some jobs, like the rear wing are difficult ones, then occasionally, just occasionally, a nice easy one comes along!
Who'd have thought that the mounting bolt spacing on a Skoda Octavia handbrake lever is the exact same spacing as the side mounts of some Sparco race seats?
So, fitting "MOT" handbrake level literally took 1 min ;-)
Wish more jobs were that easy
This is an incredible build.Who'd have thought that the mounting bolt spacing on a Skoda Octavia handbrake lever is the exact same spacing as the side mounts of some Sparco race seats?
So, fitting "MOT" handbrake level literally took 1 min ;-)
Wish more jobs were that easy
Unfortunately its going to take a bit more than a handbrake lever for this car to be road legal.
Since you've cut into the original monocoque, the car has now lost its ID and associated VRM under the DVLA 8-Point Radically Altered Vehicle rules.
It is no longer road-registered and will require a BIVA test, whereupon passing it will require a new ID along with a Q-prefix VRM.
Max_Torque said:
rhinochopig said:
MT is there any FEA or similar for the steering wheel? The only reason I ask is that I would worry about it failing catastrophically if I'd built such a thing myself.
No. FEA for composites is a total nightmare tbh! (as you don't really have a homogeneous material...I shall be doing the following:
1) putting in loads of carbon fibre (i don't really care if it's 0.5kg too heavy etc
2) Using an internal kevlar layer to resist crack propigation and sudden catastrophic failures
3) Making the first one, bolting it to a "fake" steering column, and carrying out some basic torque and load tests to see where it breaks!
In reality, the handwheel loads in a car with PAS are quite low, and with a full race seat and harness, it shouldn't need to cope with being used as a "driver steady/restraint" during vigorous cornering etc......
shakotan said:
This is an incredible build.
Unfortunately its going to take a bit more than a handbrake lever for this car to be road legal.
it will require a new ID along with a Q-prefix VRM.
I would imagine that is the least of his concerns,especially when hes driving the thing with a grin that is putting his arches to shame.Unfortunately its going to take a bit more than a handbrake lever for this car to be road legal.
it will require a new ID along with a Q-prefix VRM.
Max are your various electronic modules interconnected on some sort of can/van/lin system or apart from stuff like engine/TC/LC, are they all independent of each other?
On a side note,did this have a profound affect on you as a minor?;)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8qAkUA8ZF0
Of all the cars on here,apart from the Bloodhound this is the one I am most keen to see in action.
I imagine some sort of Scalextric/go-kart scenario with furious speed everywhere,slingshotting out of corners and bruising forces.
One nore question,why the choice of engine?
On a side note,did this have a profound affect on you as a minor?;)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8qAkUA8ZF0
Of all the cars on here,apart from the Bloodhound this is the one I am most keen to see in action.
I imagine some sort of Scalextric/go-kart scenario with furious speed everywhere,slingshotting out of corners and bruising forces.
One nore question,why the choice of engine?
shoehorn said:
Max are your various electronic modules interconnected on some sort of can/van/lin system or apart from stuff like engine/TC/LC, are they all independent of each other?
All modules are on a CAN bus, well actually two. There is the "body" bus, which has basic vehicle system duties, like switching on lights, wipers etc and the "powertrain" bus which has all the important things like EMS, Throttle, Transmission, ABS controllers etc on itshoehorn said:
One more question,why the choice of engine?
As AER says, it was kinda a left over from an earlier project ;-)
)
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