Lotus Exige 240 Sport track car parts

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Lotus Exige 240 Sport track car parts

Lotus Exige 240 Sport track car parts

Author	Message
TomDesign	TomDesign posted 11 Years Ago HOT Post Details
Group: Forum Members Posts: 454, Visits: 2.5K	can i be your student please
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wildcard	wildcard posted 11 Years Ago HOT Post Details
Group: Forum Members Posts: 40, Visits: 406	Awesome work!
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Hanaldo	Hanaldo posted 11 Years Ago HOT Post Details
Group: Forum Members Posts: 2.5K, Visits: 28K	Haha thanks mate! All about practice and creativity Lotus front splitter with a subtle little v-weave down the middle. Virtually straight out of the mould, no coatings. Just washed off the dust from drilling the mounting holes: Edited 11 Years Ago by Hanaldo
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TomDesign	TomDesign posted 11 Years Ago HOT Post Details
Group: Forum Members Posts: 454, Visits: 2.5K	That is really amazing can you be my teacher for real? )
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Hanaldo	Hanaldo posted 11 Years Ago HOT Post Details
Group: Forum Members Posts: 2.5K, Visits: 28K	Custom switch panel: Straight out of the mould, both parts bonded together: And finished with a matte clear to prevent glare: Final weight is 80 grams. Original part without the switch panel section was 350 grams.
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Hanaldo	Hanaldo posted 11 Years Ago HOT Post Details
Group: Forum Members Posts: 2.5K, Visits: 28K	The little split section on the top skin was very simple, same as the last idea you posted in my other thread: https://fbcdn-photos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpf1/v/t1.0-0/10616138_10152203618432541_7446677187153445506_n.jpg"> This section was bolted back on before laying up, and due to the shape of the undercut and to avoid any issues with bridging or pulling the weave, I laid up the small section before bolting it back on. Did this by applying strips of Airtech Airhold to the carbon fibre so I could cut it to shape without fraying. Once it was laid down, I noted with a marker which direction the weaves were going. Then when I laid the first layer for the rest of the top skin, I simply matched the weave direction and then I could snip it to allow me to push it into that undercut without pulling the weaves, whilst hiding the cut edges behind the split section. This all worked quite well, the fabric itself is seamless at the split, you can't tell that it isn't one piece. Unfortunately there wasn't enough resin in the piece to allow me to polish out the visible bump at the joins without rubbing through to the carbon fibre, so that is still visible. If the roof were being clear coated, those split lines could be polished out and one would never know.
	Reply Like 2
brainfart	brainfart posted 11 Years Ago HOT Post Details
Group: Forum Members Posts: 198, Visits: 1.4K	Nice. I'd love to see how the molds and the parts come together, and how you did the third little mold in the front.
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TomDesign	TomDesign posted 11 Years Ago HOT Post Details
Group: Forum Members Posts: 454, Visits: 2.5K	that is one very great amount of job and skills involved.
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Hanaldo	Hanaldo posted 11 Years Ago HOT Post Details
Group: Forum Members Posts: 2.5K, Visits: 28K	Fresh out of the mould, no cleaning up yet: I then machined up some fittings for the mounting points and bonded these in: Before trimming and bonding the two skins together: Final trim and it's done! This is all still uncleaned, no polish, no coatings of any sort. And finally polished up and fitted to the car: Note the seal sitting over the lip on the front edge: Final weight is 5.6kg including the fittings, so saved around 11kg on the original. It is now a one person job to mount and unmount it, which was impossible with the original. Still heavier than it could have been, I could probably get it down to under 2kg if I did it again, but this one is super solid. Could lift the car by the roof now whereas the original had enough play to slide out of it's mounting points.
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Hanaldo	Hanaldo posted 11 Years Ago HOT Post Details
Group: Forum Members Posts: 2.5K, Visits: 28K	Layup was quite enjoyable compared to some of the smaller parts I've done. My schedule was 2 layers 200g carbon fibre, 3mm Soric XF, 1 layer 200g carbon/kevlar hybrid. In hindsight this was a lot of overkill and perhaps made the final product heavier then it could have been, but I used 2 layers of carbon because I didn't want the Soric to show through, and unfortunately 3mm is the thinnest core I can get locally. If I were to do it again (which I may do, because the owner treats these things like hats), I would probably even skip the core and just do 1 layer of 660g carbon and 1 layer of carbon/kevlar. Fully laid up. You can see the split section for the undercut at the front here: For the inner skin, I did 1 layer of 200g carbon and 1 layer of 660g carbon, with an extra layer of 660g carbon in each of the mounting point locations. Again in hindsight this was heavier than it needed to be, and in future I would just do 1 layer of 200g carbon with some pieces of 660g in the mounting locations. Both skins fully laid up and bagged. I double bagged both pieces to ensure my vacuum integrity: And infusing:
	Reply Like 3