So good!

Just past 1000 subscribers! For those interested - in the last 12 months people have spent just over 4500 hours watching my channel. The CF videos have been very popular (for me) and I'll be doing a few more. YouTube is all about having a few videos that get consistent views so that my regular episodes (which don't get much attention) can be carried along by that wave of views.

If you have ideas - let me know.

Things that are in the works:
Short instructional videos on carbon fibre infusion stuff.
Welding sheet metal (MIG, TIG, Gas)

Finished the details on the fenders. Added the rear closing panels, the front nose section bracket, and headlight rings.

TADA.



They actually fit!

The details.



Fit is good...considering I haven't fit them yet.





All in weight. 2.75 kg!

Amazing! It's one thing to pull a part in CF, it's another to pull three parts that glue together properly, and yet another to do all of that and have them fit the car so well. What a relief!

What Matt said, just wow.

Lighter than expected as well. Same weight when untrimmed. I think in the video the scale was at 2.8 kg (checks footage...yup) so more like 2.755 or so. The headlight area did need some sanding to get the fit right, but when done, there is something like 8 layers of CF, so it's fine. The entire fender is so amazingly stiff it sort of defies description. It has a resonance that you don't get from fibreglass. It's also stiffer than steel. A ton of work, but worth it.

Next.

NEXT

I decided to do the trunk next. The trunk that I have, which I thought was good...but was really just bondo, had to go. I made the mold in a previous episode last summer. I need to get going (not that I'm not working) the weather is closing in on us and it's starting to be a pain to work in the garage. There is no point in taking things like the oven apart and putting it away for the winter to return when the weather is better. I'm going to keep pushing on until the panels are built. Then all this space-devouring stuff (molds/oven/tables/filth/dust etc) can return to the shed and I can get moving on the other needed pieces.

I spent about 2 hours getting the old trunk lid to just fit the hole. It NEVER fit and I HATE panels that don't fit. This one had been sat on or walked on or something and was too flat. So I propped it up on a few tires and bent it back into shape. It actually worked.





That's better. Top line fits nice, sides fit nicely and the bottom edge...well it almost fits.

So I primed the mold and got ready for the material layup.



Six layers of carbon fiber this time. 4 of the 370 gsm harness weave and 2 of the 150 gsm biaxial. There is also a core to make the centre of the panel as stiff as possible.



All in this part weighs around 3.75 kg (original steel skin was 6.75 kg - but one is like foil and the other I could walk on.

Get the sucker all bagged up and ready to infuse.



Composite Envisions were nice enough to send me a little care package after my first couple of videos! So new clams, a sign and a few other things. These guys are fantastic.



A day or so later.



My first problem with a part! I wasn't patient enough with the release agent application and...well watch the video when it comes out. This was epic.



It's also proof of a couple of things. The parts are amazingly strong (this is pre-cure - they get better with heat) and priming saved the mold. I would have destroyed the mold without the primer.

I'll sand it off and shoot the primer again - no big deal.



Fits the opening pretty well.



Ya, that'll do.



Next up is making a frame mold. I was going to use the steel part...but it's a little rusty and thin and really, I was just being lazy. The only problem, something isn't right.



7 mm gap.



I checked everything and decided to carefully fit the frame to the opening. Three hours later it's done. The metal flange is pretty shot. I had to shrink some areas to get it to pull into the body. The way the panel worked in steel was fine. You could work these areas with the skin on and move them to be in an acceptable state (as seen at the top of the post) but in carbon fiber, that is not possible. You can't bend it to fit. It has to fit out of the mold. I worked out that the skin was slightly the wrong shape right out of the mold. It will also flex enough to meet the frame. So now I have to make a super strong frame mold and build a super strong frame. Then the skin has to bend to the frame - not the other way around. So that'll take another couple of weeks to sort out.

Updates will follow.

More awesomeness!! I need to go watch this video, the fender one was great.

Good on you for keeping this PG rated!

Following with continued interest!

Moving on to the hood.

It's been too long. I'm out in the garage every day...every damn day. Producing all these parts in carbon fiber has been a massive undertaking. It's all turning out very well, but the work is harder than I thought and while it's light (and these parts are way over-built - probably twice what they could be) and worth it I really can't wait to finish it up and get on with some of the larger mechanical pieces that need to be completed.

So to join the fenders and trunk, is a hood.





The skin needs a frame.



Starting to look like a car again...now you can see why I'm not selling fenders to the folks asking.



Needs to drop a bit. I've seen it done twice...other times I've seen it done it's been wrong. This, to my eye, is right.

First, let's get the sheet metal to fit. So nice to work in steel.



Sectioned, dropped and filled.



A little filler and we're ready to get these molds made and have this last panel done. Should be done this stuff in February sometime.