MLM

Completed both halves today. Really pleased with the results. Slightly different resin and process has worked very well. The carbon is under 1mm thick with multiple layers and very stiff. Fantastic stuff. The two halves ready to be joined Halves offered up as they will be when joined I have not done any finishing on these parts unlike my last attempt where I sanded an clearcoated them to get a finish half as good as these ones. As you see them I have only peeled off the release layer no polishing sanding or clear coats. The parts themselfs are void free and have consistant weave layout

Cheers Glen Matt

The more I learn about the fluid flow analisis the more realise how much is still best guess not absolute accuracy. Still, i believe that you can use intellegence and a bit of intuition to get better results. The discussions you mention would be good to be part of. Inlet length impacts torque, trumpets change effective length, taper angles are critical etc . Bit of a mine field really. I chose stagered trumpets in terms of location not length so the trumpet behind the leading trumpet is not drawing turbulent air created by that leading trumpet. In its shadow if you like. Analisis an logic says it should work..

Done. Im reasonably happy with my first carbon part. Issues are the resin has cured with a slight cloudy white colour which is inconsistant. You can sort of see it in the picture. There are ways around this which i may try. For an underbonnet component though it hardly matters as it only really shows when light hits it the right way. Still noticable however which bugs the perfectionist in me.

Ok, so today is carbon day. Over the week I made a mold, which didn't end up costing anything as I had enough materials. The mold turned out to be quite testing of my patience but the end result was ok. From there I have now just completed the first (and my first) carbon layer. Damn this stuff is tricky to work with. No only is it harder to form into shape due to its greater stiffness but also if using it for cosmetic reasons like i am you need the weave to sit well. Not an easy thing. so my first attempt is good but not perfect. Im still happy though. Work area with second mold hooked up to fridge compressor vacuum pump Carbon in place. looks a bit ratty but will trim up ok Not perfect but pretty good weave layout. From here I will let it cure before adding more layers (1 carbon 1-2 glass). Then fingers crossed I will have a blingy carbon part which looks and functions well.

Happy Birthday dude!

Cheers Heath, Seeing as the inside came out with such a good finish im considering making a tool from the abs mold. More work and a bit more expence (maybe $100) but then i would have parts with the perfect finish on the outside where you want it. A shiny inside is a but arse about face. Plus the extra work would probably be saved in trying to make the outside perfect. Be a shame to go to all this effort and the have a part which looks average on the outside cos i couldnt be bothered.

Results: That worked out mint! The part pulled into all the nooks and crannies, cured and released perfectly from the mold. The inside finish is mirror like thanks to the ABS and the exterior is fairly smooth from the glad wrap. Nothing 10 minutes with sand paper wouldnt sort out. The excess around the edge will be cut away once fully hardened to reveal the final part. I may even use this one as a base for the carbon fibre.

12:57pm Carbon fibre arrived this morning after 5 weeks from the US. At the time it was cheaper but since then its been popping up on trademe for the same price! At least it has now arrived. Also will be trying a different technique to mold the parts using cling film and a fridge compressor. More on that later if it works... Carbon spec 2x2 3k Twill. ADDED @ 8 PM Ok so couldnt wait till the weekend so i have decided to have a practice run. Here is a pic of the setup. Its a complete guess/seat of the pants experiment. Fridge compressor is providing vacuum to the bag to press the fiberglass together. A technique called vacuum consolidation so my second attempt at fiberglassing just went high tech, sort of.. Looks ok so far. Will have a final result in an hour..

Saw on another forum theorys about seats breaking etc Im not one to study those horrible pictures but it struck me that they do show an Georg (though blurred) in a odd possition relative to other parts ie seat of the car. Huge loss to the hillclimb community. I hope that somthing in terms of saftey standard or car design can be learnt from this to prevent future incidents.

Not quite new but still cool. We use them all the time here at work (they run almost 24/7). We also have a mini desktop version which is readily available for ~$1500-2000 us. Just right for small business or keen home designers Saw a doco a while back where they can print body parts, ie a new kidney, using cells originaly harvested from the patient and grown in a lab. Still early phases but imagine those posibilities.

Gutted. Used to follow Plasa and his cars with great intrest. Inspirational cars and driving at a level most only dream of.

Where did you get it? Im waiting for mine to arrive from the us. What method do you use? wet layup or vac baging?

Second half of the mold completed today, had a few hicups on this one where the cnc decided to eat the part but came out in the end ok. As before i have skinned it in ABS as a mold sealant and release surface. As i was at it i pulled a couple of extra skins off and assembled them to establish part lines and create a prototype for mock-up. All in all quite chuffed with the result so far. Mdf molds back to back. The section in the middle between the lines and abs skin is part of the mold only and wont be present in the part. Completed prototype Entry downward facing Engine side. Most of this face will be replaced with a aluminium backing plate which will have the trumpets passing through it. The whole lot will be sealed and clipped together with overcenter style clips fitted into the 4 recesses.

Hi Guys, Not a personal question but one asked by a collegue. Hoping someone would have a feel for this. Q: I have a E46 325 4 dr Motorsport and intend to use it for towing a trailer with most likley a race car on it.(formula ford) I have heard there are issues with this series of car where the auto box fails when towing. Is there any truth to this or should a properly maitained and driven trans survive just fine? Its the difference between fitting a tow bar or buying a new car. If you guys can help that would be great.

Looks like batmans version of an Aston Martin/Nissan GTR love child..

Will do, may depend on the option you would want ie just the box or with backing plate f-glass or carbon etc Will be able to be more specific once ive made this one Cheers Heath, want one for the puggy?..

After a bit of experimentation vacforming a skin of ABS seems to be an excellent way of sealing the mdf mold. It in effect gives me both male or a female mold depending which side of the ABS i use. Also trying the first wet layup to see how it will work out. So far so good for a fiberglassing noob Hopefully the second half will get machined up soon.

Cool, will have to put up some pics when your done. If you rock back to post 40 you willl see how i would like to build the plenum. Basically the dark grey is the moulded part the rest is aluminium. I still want to do the curved runners but cost and complication may force a straight runner set up. Curved runners welded to velocity stacks angled through a backplate is a big ask.

Purely cost. I happened across the MDF for free. Im sure propper casting clay or cibatool would be way beter particularly for autoclacing carbon as it will withstand the heat better without off gassing.

Yep i will need to seal it some how either with a varnish or resin then put a release agent on else the resin from glass/carbon would stick it all together. I am going to try vac forming some abs over it as well as this will give an instant smooth replacable finish which could be peeled out of a cured part. Its not foam its MDF laminated up. Fridge foam would be hard to seal as all the cut cells would need filling. That and its quite soft and suceptable to damage.

Small progress but significant step toward the final product. This weekend i managed to get one half of the plenum mold machined up. Its incredibly smooth and requires no additionl finishing work. From here it needs sealing in preparation for pulling parts off it. I should be able to get multiple parts from the one mold for a few spares or to sell. The next half should not be too far away maybe in the next few weeks fingers crossed. Finishing cuts over the initial roughing. You can see the shapes emerging.

As an aside. I was having a talk with a collegue who runs race car. He mentioned that he saw sub zero inlet temperatures just after the throttle plate due to the pressure drop across the plate. For long periods of wide open throttle ice would build. Hardly an issue here but an interesting occurance id thought i would share..

LC1 specifies no closer than 300mm from a turbo IIRC. Nothing for NA cars. Innovate sell a tailtipe clamp also so they can run at the end of the exhaust. If to cold the electrical heater is suposed to keep up... I just read in the manual that the error i am seeing can be caused by sudden rich conditions outside operating parameters. This could also be the problem as i may not have had overrun fuel cut turned on triggering the error 8 timing issue?

Yep Im blaming my tune at the moment (easier to swallow than wasted money on a product). Its on my 318is ITB project. The sensor has an temperature operating range to read AFR sucessfully. However if the sensor is to hot from excessivly retarded ignition building heat in the exhaust or poor placement or to cold because of placement then it drops out with the error 8. Lots of talk on the innovate forum about this error with some believing its a indicator of combustion quality (flame path not completeness). I have experienced the problem twice at light throttle motor way cruiseing. Its wired to my link ecu (a feature that influenced the purchace decision). My tune is just guesses at the moment as this is the first time i have done this sort of thing and its only to make the car mobile and isnt driven daily. A few mods are still waiting untill the final dyno tune. Edit: No you cant monitor sensor temp. Somthing i would really like to do given the error faults