Body panels for a kit car


Body panels for a kit car
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Slimy38
Slimy38
Slimy38
posted 13 Years Ago HOT
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OK, this is my second post (after an introduction!) so I thought I'd jump in with both feet!! I'm looking at building a kit car in the near future. The base will be a Lotus 7-esque design, but I want the bodywork to be all-encompassing rather than the exposed nature of a typical 7. Something along the lines of Tiger Racings GTA car is what I'm aiming for. 

But I have no bodywork skills whatsoever, and the only experience with fibreglass was a couple of repairs to a motorbike fairing. Admittedly the repairs were very effective, if not exactly pretty!

From what I've found so far, I'm considering the following process to build a panel;

1. The build of a 'buck' (if that's the right term?) made up of wooden formers with foam in between, and a light skim of filler for the surface. Oh, and an appropriate level of release agent!
2. A layer of GRP (300gsm chopped strand mat with bog-standard resin). 
3. While the resin is still tacky, add a layer of carbon fibre twill mat. This would probably be using something similar to carbonmods skinning kit.
4. Those two layers left to cure, then continuing with the skinning kit a few layers of clean resin with a view to polishing right at the end. 
5. The removal of the panel from the buck, and keying the smooth surface. (Yes, I am doing things 'upside down', and applying step 3 to what would be a rough surface!)
6. The application of some sort of reinforcement to the underneath of the panel. I was thinking of half inch square foam strips in a lattice pattern, with another layer of GRP over the top of that?

And that's it. The plan is to build a panel that is reasonably stiff, has the carbon fibre exterior, but is reasonably easy to lay up (IE no vacuum bagging!). So I'm interested in opinions on all steps, good or bad. Particularly what people think will happen at step 3, when I add carbon fibre to the 'rough' side of a GRP panel.
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Body panels for a kit car
Slimy38 - 13 Years Ago
     Hey Slimy, Thats a pretty ambitious project! Basically if your only looking to make a 1off and...
MAVERICK - 13 Years Ago
             Thanks for the reply. I don't know what I'm building yet, it'll be a Lotus Seven chassis but more of...
Slimy38 - 13 Years Ago
                 For a 1-off i think to locost guys are not completly right, you have to factor the finishing time on...
MAVERICK - 13 Years Ago
                     Nah, I don't want to buy a roadworthy car, part of the fun is building it up from scratch! This is...
Slimy38 - 13 Years Ago
     Hi, Slimy. That sounds like a real awesomely and ridiculousely fun stuff going on here !!...
Joe - 13 Years Ago

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