Quote:
Originally Posted by MST0118
I just read this thread for second time and learned a lot. Can’t wait to see how things on the car develop. Great workmanship!! Would be cool to see some of the old classic race cars in carbon like RSRs and 935.
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There's been a modern 935 done in bare carbon, but I'd like to see a carbon 904/6! Or even better, an S1 Lotus Elite, which is one of the few composite unibody classic cars that I know of. I can't even imagine how light one of those could be.
Thanks for the compliment on the progress so far! Things are, indeed, developing... I've been able to reinvest proceeds from the parts made so far, to continue to development (like the roof!).
Not very photogenic (yet!), but one development lately is the application of a clear "in mold" gelcoat to the outer sunroof shell. The overwhelming majority of people who want a sunroof seem to want a visible carbon part, and I'm OK with that, but it has its challenges. I don't really want to deal with spraying clearcoat on finished parts, mostly due to overspray, cleanup, sanding, polishing etc. So an in-mold coating (which can be sprayed with much less atomization and overspray) is a great solution. It also has benefits when it comes to the construction of the part, and will have an even better surface finish than the plain carbon part, and of course miles ahead of sprayed clearcoat unless it's sanded and polished.
I had a bias against gelcoat, I guess from what I know of typical fiberglass parts and some of the more "blingy" carbon bits out there that look like cloth under 1/4" of plastic. I did have the impression that it's overly heavy but the one I'm planning to use will add less than 100g to the sunroof so it's a winner.
I have a piece of tempered glass for making test samples of layups, and I started by spraying samples of gelcoat to ensure I've got the thickness to specification:
This test infusion is curing in the oven as we speak. It's not only a test of the gelcoat, but I'm also trying to reduce "ghosting" of the honeycomb core through to the surface of the part by using a slightly different layup.
Even though I did plenty of testing of cured samples in the oven, since summer is here (nicest day of the year up here!) I've been torture testing the prototype on the Rot Rod. In the sun, this gets hot enough that you can't hold your hand on it! To no ill effect, I'll add. Keep in mind this sunroof is a test prototype - I'll have pics of a vastly improved one next week!
