AB Performance Sabre Racer - Complete Bodywork in Carbon

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Ragged99	Ragged99 posted 11 Years Ago HOT Topic Details
Group: Forum Members Posts: 7, Visits: 106	Hi Guys, I thought I'd pop up and show you what my mate Tim and I are doing with the Easy Composites systems in our garages. We're what Enzo Ferrari called "Garagistas" in that we both own AB Performance Sabre race cars, and we build, modify, and prepare them to run in a race series called RGB with the 750 motor Club. In short we're clubman racers and we like building stuff. Our cars are powered by bike engines, and we aren't allowed wings. so we need to generate aero efficiency from the main body of the car. Tim is in mid build of his new Sabre and wanted non standard bodywork to try and improve the aero efficiency, and I wanted different bodywork on my year old Sabre as the car is currently too big to fit in my garage without partially disassembling it, which is a right pain when you arrive home at midnight after a weekends racing. Also I'm a big lad and ultra lightweight carbon bodywork will help me get down to the minimum weight limit for the car and driver. So we basically decided to build our own bodywork from scratch. I'd done some small scale fibreglass, buck and mould building in the past on a former car, and we were pretty impressed with the resin infusion process so decided to give the Easy Composites system a try. We even ran a test infusion process on my glass coffee table top ;-) to make some flat carbon panels. Although we've never tackled anything of this size, we're doing the full spectrum of build a buck, surface it, then make a mould, them carbon resin infused parts. So for the last couple of months we've been building a buck around Tim's partially complete chassis. Well in fact Tim has 90% of the work and I'm chipping in at weekends. The buck has been built from timber, 3mm mdf board which is nicely flexible for simple curves, filler and foam. and we're now at the pattern coat primer stage. We've learned a lot along the way, but basically we've followed the video tutorials and have just scaled up the processes. Full details are on Tim's website at www.hoverd.org Details of my racing are at www.rgbracer.com.. and the main AB performance website is www.abperformance.co.uk. But to whet your appetite here's a picture of the buck in pattern coat. Cost to date in materials for the buck, pattern coat, foam etc is about 500 quid, although I've just spent about 600-800 on Unimould materials + CSM for the mould making stage. Cheers Adrian Moore Edited 11 Years Ago by Ragged99
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Ragged99	Ragged99 posted 11 Years Ago HOT Post Details
Group: Forum Members Posts: 7, Visits: 106	Well here's yet another update. With the moulds complete, and centre sections previously moulded with locating lugs. Tim and I set about them on Sunday afternoon with a vast quantity of polyester resin and CSM to make the first pull bodywork from the moulds. This is in hand laid up polyester (Gel plus 2 x 350GSM), mainly because Tim needs some bodywork to get out racing quickly ( he spent last weekend chewing his spanners while I went racing) and this was a quick, risk free way of doing it and seasoning the moulds, plus we're not yet ready to do a CF infusion and risk £150 quids worth of carbon+epoxy. The plan is to use these polyester sections as mould protectors once we get the CF parts made. The main question now is how much Carbon? We have a supply of 350GSM biax carbon, so one or two layers of this + Carbon Kevlar reinforcement along edges and other high load areas such as catch mount points. Plus perhaps reinforcement strips along each main "edge" in the moulding. Any suggestions on the layup or use of Soric for reinforcement and where.? Anyway what you want is pictures right? There are three flashlines on this part one up the centre and 1 about an inch in from each edge. Incidentally the "indent" areas on the centre line of both parts are to be cut out leaving a small flange to allow additional covers to be fitted. And here's the back end .... strategic placed in Tim's hallway..
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AB Performance Sabre Racer - Complete Bodywork in Carbon

Ragged99 - 11 Years Ago

Oh I'm excited about this project. I will definitely be checking on the progress.

wildcard - 11 Years Ago

Looks like a fun project! One thing i will say is plan your mould flanges and mould split lines...

Warren (Staff) - 11 Years Ago

Hi Adrian, It's great to see another ambitious project that looks like it might be well documented...

Matt (Staff) - 11 Years Ago

[quote][b]Matt (Staff) (03/01/2014)[/b][hr] Pattern is looking good at this stage; Pattern-Coat...

Teem - 11 Years Ago

[quote][b]Warren (Staff) (03/01/2014)[/b][hr] One thing i will say is plan your mould flanges and...

Teem - 11 Years Ago

OUTSTANDING! I'll look forward to seeing this one take shape.

FLD - 11 Years Ago

I'll be watching with interest - I really like the Sabre and one day might have the time, money and...

Munkee - 11 Years Ago

Hi Tim, To solve your flange issue, in an ideal world I'd say lift the plug off the body (if...

Warren (Staff) - 11 Years Ago

Warren, Thanks. However, the plug relies rather completely on the chassis for support and, as...

Teem - 11 Years Ago

I thought you might like to see the moulds that resulted from all this: and the whole lot:...

Teem - 11 Years Ago

This is looking great, can't wait to see it progress. I'd like to give you a little input as I've...

andygtt - 11 Years Ago

Thanks for the advice all. We're pretty nervous about the whole fence location business so input is...

Ragged99 - 11 Years Ago

great looking project, watching with interest :cool:

Toffee - 11 Years Ago

Hi All, I thought I'd give you an update on our progress, we've had a few problems along the way but...

Ragged99 - 11 Years Ago

Very nice work :cool:

Toffee - 11 Years Ago

Tim's put up a new blog post with a little more detail Http://www.Hoverd.org/Tim/

Ragged99 - 11 Years Ago

Looks great! Can't wait to see the finished car!

wildcard - 11 Years Ago

Well here's yet another update. With the moulds complete, and centre sections previously moulded...

Ragged99 - 11 Years Ago

Very nice. I think working with that much csm and polyester would give me a breakdown, hate it with...

Hanaldo - 11 Years Ago

Looks great.

wildcard - 11 Years Ago

Nice work, is it going on a G1 or a G2 ? Warren

wozza - 11 Years Ago

[quote][b]wozza (08/04/2014)[/b][hr]Nice work, is it going on a G1 or a G2 ? Warren[/quote] Both....

Teem - 11 Years Ago

[quote][b]Teem (09/04/2014)[/b][hr][quote][b]wozza (08/04/2014)[/b][hr]Nice work, is it going on a...

wozza - 11 Years Ago

Tim Has a G2 car and mine is a G1. No we're not linked to AB, except Andy Bates is a mate, and...

Ragged99 - 11 Years Ago

I should say the complete set of moulds is now complete for the bodywork created so far, including...

Ragged99 - 11 Years Ago

this is loosely how i do the return edges on my parts... if the areas are hard to get to when the...

andygtt - 11 Years Ago

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