Building the Front Wing & Mounts

Posted by jjludemann on March 24, 2016

Finished front wing on the car (endplates to be added after setting ride height)

: Airfoil profile laser printed on sticker paper, stuck to aluminum sheet

: Airfoil profiles cut from aluminum sheet

: Homemade hot-wire foam cutter cutting airfoil section from styrofoam block

: Laminating outer skin of epoxy resin and fiberglass

: Cutting aluminum jacking points to be laminated into the wing

: Bending wing mounting brackets to be bolted to the nose

: Test fitting brackets on nose

: Test fitting, bottom view

: Trimming front wing airfoil on the bandsaw

: Gluing 3 sections of front wing to brackets

: Reinforcing fiberglass skin across joints

: Laminating end plates with honeycomb core

: End plates cure under vacuum

: Sanding with pneumatic double-action sander

: Laying up endplate mounting points

: Epoxy & microballoon filler to smooth out the spar

: Top coat of 2-part epoxy paint

: Car lifted by front wing

Fabricating a Formula 1000 Race Car Diffuser

Posted by jjludemann on March 6, 2016

Finished diffuser mounted on car

I try to post updates only for completed projects, and since I’ve had several projects in progress it’s been a while since I’ve blogged. The diffuser is finally finished, so here are some pix and a video that explains it all:

: Cutting the side & central formers for the buck

: Buck ribs in place

: Buck top panel of 1/8″ plywood with melamine face

: Basic shell just removed from mold

: Test fitting to drill mounting holes

: Vacuum bagging strake sandwiches

: Fiberglass honeycomb sandwich strakes ready to be cut apart

: Gluing the strakes inside the diffuser

: Progress so far: curing in the sun

: Rear wing endplate mount of aluminum angle

: Rear wing endplate mounts formed of epoxy putty

: Ready for primer

: Primed with 2-part automotive spray filler

: After a coat of epoxy paint.

Part Eleventy-seven, In Which We Finally Lay Up a Body

Posted by jjludemann on January 10, 2014

Another view of finished main body.

Time to lay up the first set of body panels. In some photos you can see the joggles laid into the molds with duct tape so the panels will overlap smoothly. Nine coats of mold release wax and there were no problems releasing parts from the molds, although at times I did have to work a bit. Each mold required about a day of finishing work to remove ripples due to waviness in the body buck. As I’ve said before, don’t build a body buck the way I did it. Instead, immediately after completing the X-Y grid of cross sections, lay about 3mm of fiberglass on top to give a good solid surface, then use body putty on top of that. You’ll be finished in half the time it took me. The only place you should use foam is where actual carving is required due to the complexity of the shape, like the sidepod air inlets. Yes, I know the main roll hoop forward braces are still not there. Patience…

One problem I found out the hard way is that a chemical in some brands of duct tape inhibits gelcoat curing. In the end, gelcoat that had been in contact with some kinds of duct tape never fully cured and had to be cleaned out with acetone. Also, the joggles formed with duct tape were too sharp for the fiberglass mat to conform to, resulting in bubbles under the gelcoat that have to be scraped out and reworked. Gelcoat is probably more trouble than it’s worth given its weight, so next time I’ll just prime and paint the body panels to finish them. The sharp joggle corners need to be filled in with fiberglass roving before laying mat on top.

: Leg cover mold ready for layup

: Fiberglass mat for leg cover.

: Finished leg cover, fresh from the mold. No polishing or anything.

: Leg cover test fit onto frame. It fits.

: Engine cover gelcoated

: Engine cover fiberglassed.

: Engine cover test fit on frame.

: Trimming the engine cover.

: Nose and tail molds gelcoated

: Nose & tail fiberglass mat test fitting.

: Nose & tail second layup coremat and fiberglass mat.

: Finished tail fresh from the mold.

: Nose & tail trimmed. Needed some gelcoat repair.

: Tail test fitted onto engine cover.

: Cockpit gelcoated

: Cockpit ridges reinforced with resin and chopped fiberglass mat.

: Fiberglass mat and coremat prepared for second cockpit layup

: Cockpit underside after second layup with coremat clearly visible

: Cockpit removed from mold. A little difficult as it could only be pulled straight off.

: Cockpit so light it’s held up by a pinky finger.

: Test fitting the parts so far onto the frame

: Sidepod mold with gelcoat applied

: Sidepod after second layup, showing coremat.

: Sidepod just released from the mold.

: Sidepod test fitting before trimming.

: Keel mold ready for layup. Note duct-tape joggles for panel overlap.

: Keel mold with gelcoat applied.

: Keel after second layup showing coremat.

: Main body parts all finished and fitted.

: Another view of finished main body.

: Joint between engine cover and cockpit.

: Four body panels meet here. Joggles required some thinking.

: Body from inside the cockpit.

Fiberglass Mold Layup, Parts 4, 5, 6…

Posted by jjludemann on December 11, 2013

Probably the main thing to explain here is how I create the overlaps in the molds. The edge of a mold is marked on the body buck with duct tape, which will leave an impression in the mold for later trimming of the finished part. Then after removing the mold from the buck, I lay in a strip of 1″ duct tape touching the existing tape, then another strip touching that one. I then remove the first two strips of tape, leaving the edge for the next mold with a 1″ overlap.