Estevan taping off where he wants the stripes
The fairing with the tape marks for the side windows
David chattin on the phone while looking at the side view windows
The fairing after being painted and sprayed with clear coat by Estevan.
All we need now is some polish and wax!
The back of the firewall after it being bonded to the roll bar
The front of the firewall. OOOO, shiny!
Estevan & David bonding the front lips
Our stearing geometry
Estevan & Jason drilling the holes and making sure the bolts fit through holes.
Josh & Estevan mixing the potting compound
The finished inserts for the front wheels
Roll Bar Vacuum bagged
Pulling the roll bar and test pieces from the oven
David trying to pull the roll bar from the mold
Test fitting the roll bar in the car
Making the top portion of the mold
Making the bottom portion of the mold
Test fitting the two
Bondoing and RTVing the two halves together
Ordinary piece of aluminum sheetmetal
Central Coast Creative Cutting letting us cut our sprocket on their water jet cutter
The machine cutting our sprocket and spacers
The finished product
Weighing the parts
Finished parts.
The Carbon Fiber
Top w/ sacrificial windshield
The foam pieces are glued together, screwd to MDF, and bondoed until there are no more visible holes and cracks.
The bottom part is being sprayed with duratec (a sandable primer) to give it a hard, smooth surface.
The top half (plug/tool) being sprayed with duratec by Estevan.
After the duratec dries, the plug is then sanded to shape. The process of bondoing, spraying duratec, and sanding is repeated about 8 times per plug, until all holes, gaps, dips, and valleys are removed.
The final result of the top plug.
The final result of the bottom plug. The plug is waxed and sprayed with a chemical release which allows the fiberglass female mold to be easily parted from the plug.
The start of wet layups. Fiberglass is used to make a female mold of the car. The process is called "wet layups" because we have to mix resin, hardner and cloth together to get the final "hard" result. And yes, that is Cindy in the background.
The start of laying down "mat" fiberglass.
The final result of the bottom fiberglass mold (part).
After drying for 48 hours, the female mold is pulled of the plug. The surface coat gives the mold a nice smooth finish
The two molds are then taken down to C & D Aerospace in Santa Maria where the final layups will take place. The carbon fiber used is what's called pre preg (preinpregnated resin). It's suppose to be much lighter than wet layups because of the exactness of resin to cloth ratio, 40%.
David starting on the laying of the first layer of carbon in the bottom mold.
