Attempting to build the world's quickest UK road legal Elan

[nalesutol]

Some tasks seem to take for ever. Removable section of rear panel needed to be extended so that it overlaps the fixed section. Mind you, this is the one time when fibreglass beats carbon. From cutting the corex support to peeling it off - less than one hour






Whilst waiting for FG to set I dry fitted other panels, coming along.

[nalesutol]

Three sections of the rear interior panel finally as good as they are going to get prior to fitting. Weight 1.4Kg



Used the new centre console as the former for the mould for the console extension that will be fitted to the removable part of the rear panel, if that makes any sense :-)

[nalesutol]

Finished, finally, preparing the final section of the rear panel. Treated it to 6 coats of release agent and then set about laying up two layers of carbon.





I then added the peel ply, perforated release film and breather fabric. Finally I tucked it all into the vacuum bag.





sealed the bag and turned on the vacuum pump.Once it started to suck the bag in I turned it off and adjusted the bag in order to make sure that there was enough slack for it to be pulled into the corners. Did this a few times until I was happy there was no bridging of the corners. Once I was happy I walked away for 4 hours. When I came back the resin was hard enough for the pump to be turned off. The bag had a good seal so it still held the vacuum, a first for me :-)







I will leave it to cure until the morning. If I took it of the mould now with the resin still pliable there is a good chance that it would warp as it cured fully.

[nalesutol]

4th - Removed bagging materials and released carbon fibre from mould. The finish is as I expected. It is not the glossy finish you expect to see when watching YouTube videos because to achieve the glossy finish straight out of the mould you need a glossy mould (which I haven't got) and a gel coat prior to laying up the carbon (which I don't do).

Even if you do all the proper preparation post cure fettling is often still required, be it repairing pin holes, flow coating a glossy layer on or polishing. As I am painting all my carbon matt black a glossy finish isn't required.
​
That's my excuse, anyway, and I am sticking to it :-)

Look closely as the last photo and you will see the yellow wax used to form the internal radii.  As it stands (with wax scraped off) it weighs in at 598gms. It still needs to be trimmed to size, sanded, filled and painted, but it should stay around that figure.

[nalesutol]

Not a lot happening at the moment, but the first volume of the history of the build arrived :-)

[flyingphil]

As ever - great work, and an author too....
So how do we, mere mortals, buy a copy???

[nalesutol]

Aug 15, 2016 17:48:27 GMT flyingphil said:

As ever - great work, and an author too....
So how do we, mere mortals, buy a copy???

Thanks, buy why on earth would you want a copy?

This was done by simply unearthing old photos, adding memories (hopefully reasonably accurate) and sending off to Vistaprint. 10 days later it arrives, the only copy :-)

[blackpopracing]

I quite enjoyed reading the page you put up

[fer4l]

Looks really great! I'd have a copy

Cheers

Matt

[Davenger]

Aug 15, 2016 18:04:40 GMT nalesutol said:

Aug 15, 2016 17:48:27 GMT flyingphil said:

As ever - great work, and an author too....
So how do we, mere mortals, buy a copy???

Thanks, buy why on earth would you want a copy?

This was done by simply unearthing old photos, adding memories (hopefully reasonably accurate) and sending off to Vistaprint. 10 days later it arrives, the only copy :-)

Because what you're doing is brilliant and fascinating.

[NotQuiteACooper]

This car is looking to become amazing. So much great engineering.
You seem to be a CF wizard, so what sort of figure would it cost me to make a carbon bonnet at home for an old mini, including consumables? Excluding costs of a vacuum pumpsince I've got that.
Best of luck
Leo

[Darkspeed]

I will have to have a closer look at the Vistaprint photo books - the medium size seems nice idea and pretty sure that an average sized restoration thread could be quite easily stretch to a 120 page book covering the restoration of a model with key information for a car club. £12!

I think my Stratos restoration looks like it would run to a series of volumes though May have to also come up with a Pen name though. Andrea Ferraio sounds a good version

Thanks for sharing that.

[nalesutol]

Aug 16, 2016 14:07:35 GMT Darkspeed said:

I will have to have a closer look at the Vistaprint photo books - the medium size seems nice idea and pretty sure that an average sized restoration thread could be quite easily stretch to a 120 page book covering the restoration of a model with key information for a car club. £12!

I think my Stratos restoration looks like it would run to a series of volumes though May have to also come up with a Pen name though. Andrea Ferraio sounds a good version

Thanks for sharing that.

No problem.

They do a fair number of book sizes from 130mm x 100mm to 390mm x 290mm. Min page number is 24 but not sure of max.

As this book covers the period up to breaking the car in 1985 I only had enough info to fill the minimum number of pages. The size I chose was 280mm x 210mm and cost £34, including front cover photo, glossy paper and shipping.

I had no problem with this volume, but the next one will be more difficult. As it will cover the build documented on here I will have too much info and too many images so a lot of culling will be required.

[nalesutol]

Aug 15, 2016 22:11:31 GMT Davenger said:

Aug 15, 2016 18:04:40 GMT nalesutol said:

Thanks, buy why on earth would you want a copy?

This was done by simply unearthing old photos, adding memories (hopefully reasonably accurate) and sending off to Vistaprint. 10 days later it arrives, the only copy :-)

Because what you're doing is brilliant and fascinating.

Gee, thanks.

I am gobsmacked the people are interested in this book as I only did it for fun and to bring all of the info and photos together.

The cost of the book is £34 (see posting above for breakdown) so not worth buying just to look at. If anyone is interested I can photograph the rest of the pages and post on here.

[flyingphil]

. If anyone is interested I can photograph the rest of the pages and post on here.[/quote]

That's a "Yes please" from me!

[nalesutol]

Aug 15, 2016 23:05:33 GMT NotQuiteACooper said:

This car is looking to become amazing. So much great engineering.
You seem to be a CF wizard, so what sort of figure would it cost me to make a carbon bonnet at home for an old mini, including consumables? Excluding costs of a vacuum pumpsince I've got that.
Best of luck
Leo

Right, where is my piece of string so I can measure its length? :-)

Assuming bonnet is 1 square metre.


Carbon fibre £30-35/m2. So four layers, giving a bonnet thickness of around 1mm = £120-140
Release film £16.50
Perforated film £4.80
Breather cloth £9.00
Vacuum bag £14.88
Vacuum bag sealing tape £5.99
Release agent £6.80
Resin £20.10. This assumes that you can get away with 1kg
Brushes £7.08
Vacuum pipe £7.14
Through bag connector £19.80
Vacuum valve £3.60
Barbed connector £1.80


£230-250. However, this is just for the finished bonnet. If you make a mould you will have to add fibreglass mat, resin and a lot of work.

If making more than one item, the cost comes down quite a lot as there will be some consumables left and the hardware is reusable.

[blackpopracing]

Aug 16, 2016 15:27:42 GMT flyingphil said:

. If anyone is interested I can photograph the rest of the pages and post on here.

That's a "Yes please" from me!
[/quote]
And me

[Darkspeed]

Everybody loves a back story -

[fer4l]

Aug 16, 2016 18:17:06 GMT blackpopracing said:

Aug 16, 2016 15:27:42 GMT flyingphil said:

. If anyone is interested I can photograph the rest of the pages and post on here.

That's a "Yes please" from me!

And me [/quote]

And me please

[ndg]

Aug 16, 2016 20:49:39 GMT fer4l said:

Aug 16, 2016 18:17:06 GMT blackpopracing said:

That's a "Yes please" from me!

And me

And me please
[/quote]

If you download the app 'Office Lens' to your phone it will flatten any photos out as far as possible