Lotus Exige 240 Sport track car parts


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Hanaldo
Hanaldo
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Hey all,

Having recently started my own composites business, I found myself doing a large amount of work for a local workshop/race support team here that deal with all-out track cars (and people with entirely too much money). The workshop have got so much work for me to do that I don't really have time to do anything else at the moment, but over the last month or so my main project has been the Lotus Exige that they have.

Long term, the customer wants to build the entire thing barring the chassis from carbon fibre. Fortunately my job is made easier given the car is basically a block of aluminium for a chassis and the rest is fibreglass bolted on, so everything is designed to work with composites. The first part I made for them was a simple dash mount for the Motec C185 digital dash, which I had to design and build from scratch:

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xaf1/t1.0-9/q81/s600x600/10530663_510053649126056_8426371776505895906_n.jpg






https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xfp1/v/t1.0-9/10501647_510053835792704_7622404527679314892_n.jpg?oh=553736836e41d1908ebdd5d8a1d42f44&oe=546F796A&__gda__=1416473315_1547edb86220300980b1b7784427fb46


https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xap1/t1.0-9/10526027_515264805271607_6578906006876668366_n.jpg


https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpf1/v/t1.0-9/10489950_518527658278655_1061944899208211983_n.jpg?oh=bf2054192343c07a72d5fcb24bc46a38&oe=547D66A9&__gda__=1415533507_0062c379bbb7ff981791526101dc2353




https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xaf1/v/t1.0-9/10563046_529450900519664_7497071240877275634_n.jpg?oh=5129971c6ced82ee8930a20219abf94a&oe=54704536&__gda__=1417229447_d2639e96bed4146789531ffa7c87a8ef


https://scontent-a-hkg.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpa1/v/t1.0-9/10501663_529450930519661_4755183550705723864_n.jpg?oh=2e48617630f1c0564dbece870d35be22&oe=5479723B
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Hanaldo
Hanaldo
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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. 
GO

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Hanaldo - 11 Years Ago
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     Awesome work!
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