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Steve Broad
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+xDon't be offended by my percentage comparison. You achived more than 80 % of the people who tried making some cf parts. But your current idea leaves out a few steps in the difficulty ladder. You made some fine vacuum compressed parts, even better prepreg parts, but you might need some more experience to sucessfully build half a car in one shot, especially if you are planning to use a method you you have all most no experience with (infusion). I would consider myself fairly skilled in vacuum infusion, as I am working with this for about 10 years. And it took me quite that long to get to a point, where I am able to do a project like the one attached. I don't get offended :-) You have convinced me that my best shot will be with prepreg as I have NO infusion experience. Note to self, don't scrimp on the number of mould parts :-) Very nice work, by the way.
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Steve Broad
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Group: Forum Members
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+xLucky for you, the Westfield grp quality is way beyond what lotus did those days. So your weight saving will be greater than mine. I managed to get the body down to 20kg. Original is about 40-45kg. Bonnet alone was 14kg and is now 3,8kg (near the bottom, you have to keep higher thicknesses against road dirt, so the weight saving of the other parts are lower). I would have been able to get to 3kg, but not with 245g cloth skin, and not within the budged. You don't know 4-5 guys who would invest in a full elan cf conversion? This would be the project, I was dreaming of since I remember dreaming of anything. I would take one for myself. Yeah, the fibreglass is over 1/2" thick in places! Too many Elan owners are purists so the thought of doing what I am doing is almost a hanging offence to them. The only fibreglass left on the Elan once I change the front clam and inner wings will be the sills, front and rear scuttles and rear wings. Floors, dash, all interior panels, bulkheads, boot lid and floor, rear wheel tubs, rear light panel and roof are all carbon. Doors will be soon. Boot went from 6 to just over 1kg! A few years ago Nick from Carbon Weezle was going to make me a body and I bought the carbon for it. Unfortunately circumstances have now precluded this from happening so I am doing it piecemeal :-)
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Steve Broad
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Group: Forum Members
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+xThis is a project I realised for Westfield Deutschland. The bonnet is quite the same "project level" and type than the one you are planning. Half a car, cf sandwich, 4 piece mold, a few difficult areas in the front section, a great plane in the back. I reshaped an original bonnet for the pattern. And your project would contain to convert a car to a flip front, which was not ment to be a flip front. Holy cow, i can't count the problems that this might lead into. I used resin infusion, mainly because I know ri very well, and because this way I had the freedom of choice when it comes to the used cloth. But even with years of experience this was quite a project. I managed never to fail an attempt, but I learnt from every one. Your "20% skill level" is not a fixed number, and there are lots of ways to improve it. For example by discussing with people with more experience. But some practice can't be matched with theory. That's why I am talking to you! I don't recognise the word problem however, I call them challenges :-) If this stuff wasn't difficult and challenging, what would be the point in doing it? Practice and experimentation are very important. When I started to replace steel bolts with titanium I thought that they were still too heavy and could be lightened. I experimented with centre drilling non strength critical bolts (titanium bolts fit between 10.9 and 12.9 steel bolts in tensile strength) and at first got through one colbalt drill per bolt. I can now drill over 30 bolts with one 3mm drill bit.
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oekmont
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Titan is quite a nasty stuff. You need to drill with mid-low rpm, with coolant, low pressure and take back every few seconds. For bigger diameters drilling out with a carbide drill works best.
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oekmont
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And you should use uncoatet drills, as the usual coating contains titan, wich causes problems working with titan.
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Steve Broad
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Group: Forum Members
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+xAnd you should use uncoatet drills, as the usual coating contains titan, wich causes problems working with titan. For colbalt read carbide. Well, they start with the same letter :-)
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oekmont
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Group: Forum Members
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Where did you get small carbide drills? Those are quite expensive. Maybe try cobalt ones next time, they are not as brittle as carbide ones.
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Steve Broad
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Group: Forum Members
Posts: 408,
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+xWhere did you get small carbide drills? Those are quite expensive. Maybe try cobalt ones next time, they are not as brittle as carbide ones. I'm confused now as to what they are. I asked the guy I know in my local specialist tool shop for the best drills to cut titanium but it was a year or so ago. However, whatever they are they worked.
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oekmont
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Group: Forum Members
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Die you Pay like 10£ each? If so, they could be carbide.
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Steve Broad
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Group: Forum Members
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+xDie you Pay like 10£ each? If so, they could be carbide. Nah, £3-4 I think.
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