This is an awesome project and fantastic fabrication / moulding work going on. Very unique. keep up the good work
This is an awesome project and fantastic fabrication / moulding work going on. Very unique. keep up the good work
Mr Murphy finally spanked me hard again. I tried to do RH outer skin yesterday. There was something wrong with the epoxy which left really small air bubbles trapped to the resin.
I decided to cut my losses and retry once the epoxy is cured and can be removed. This trial now "only" cost around 40€ if the mould stays intact.I could have done part which could be painted but that's not fitting to the other parts I've made. However once epoxy is on the mould I needed to put something on top of that to be able to release it from the mould easily and try again. I have this spare glass fiber which was originally made to one Finnish hockey-stick firm. It actually looks kind of nice. The black stripes are not carbon fiber, but polyester fibers.
In the end I noticed that heating epoxy enough makes it clear again, I tried that yesterday but just wasn't patient enough.
In the end everything went quite well taking into account that resin didn't work properly. I managed to get the resin out from the mould without any damage with the hockeystick-glass fiber i used. The pattern on part looks sort of cool. Also the resin seller promised to send me a new patch for postage cost price since it was not supposed to be expired yet. I already prepped the mould again and will try do part as soon as I have time.
This look great! I seriously wonder what the finished weight of the car will be
Today I started second try with fresh resin, at least beginning went as it should. Getting these doors done should help me reaching my under 700kg weight goal. Im thinking of borrowing wheel scales from work and doing self motivational car scaling soon.Originally Posted by Harri
Mr Murphy finally spanked me hard again. I tried to do RH outer skin yesterday. There was something wrong with the epoxy which left really small air bubbles trapped to the resin.
Deffinetly.... would be very interesting to see how much weight has been lost. In the event of the loss not being as expected i wouldnt be disheartened it looks absolutely fantastic
I've scaled every carbon part I've made, check page1. Weight loss is something between 50-70% from the original.
RH Door outer skin infused. Just need to keep fingers crossed for the next 2 days before I can see the result. Tailgate inner skin probably next since it's easiest out of three moulds I have ready.
Door outer carbon fiber skin was quite succesful. I've been using a new trick on both of the door skins to get rid of those small pinholes I used to have even on the best parts. It has been working really well as can be seen on the pictures. 1700g without trimming so I guess it will loose roughly 5% when cutting extra off. There are few minor air bubbles as always which I need to fix unfortunately. It's not big job, just some resin, sanding and repolish before clear coating.
In the end I decided to fill the holes on the tailgate inner skin. It now has most of the release coatings so if Im lucky this will be done next weekend.
Breathtakingly good work Harri. We all wish you lived in England.
How about an RTOC trip to Finland?
Yes, you're welcome to come. Maybe you can take some carbon parts with you as hand luggage
Im actually quite close in getting all the remaining parts done. then i can actually focus on fitting them. roof mould making can be done in spring earliest since i dont have space to do that during winter.
this is getting more awesome every day!
why is finland so far from here!?
A guy from Sweden with Clio Williams carbon body panels:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...8786933&type=1
Is it windy in Finland Harri? You don't want to come out one morning and find the GTT has been blown into the Baltic or the Barents!
wow, it seems that im not the only one upnorth who wants to get rid of all that extra rust Renault put in there in the early 90s.
actually it's quite windy now, so I might have to tie my R5 to ground somehowIs it windy in Finland Harri? You don't want to come out one morning and find the GTT has been blown into the Baltic or the Barents!
tailgate inner skin done, it's still under vacuum. Didn't go without problems, I had to do emergency suction to get resin everywhere and bag also leaked from underside.
It has 3 layers of carbon fibers, so this time I didn't use any glass fibers between carbon. Hinge and lock areas have bit more. If it goes well it should be really light. It needs to be since original Reichhard MS tailgate weights something like 3,5kg and this should be lighter.
LH door inner skin next on pipeline if everything goes well.
Tailgate inner panel done. Surface isn't perfect though, which was expected since I had so many leaks and other problems while infusing it. Those dry spots on pic3 can be filled and polished as before, especially since this part is not really visible. Good thing about this is the weight which is 934g. I can take some weight off when trimming it so should get it way under 900g. Outer panel weight will be appromaxily same since the area is the same and I'm planning on using same amount of carbon fibers in it. I remember scaling the original tailgate and it weights something like 7,8kgs+spoiler (which was surprisingly heavy too) where Reichhard MS weights 3,5kg. This one will be under 2kg. I'll bet Reichhard MS guys didn't see this coming when they sold the tailgate to me few years ago.
Thursday is national holiday here so maybe I have time to make next part then.
Looking very good Harri, 2kg for a boot is impressive.
I wonder if in years to come people will be using 3D printers to make light weight body panels, or the moulds to make carbon parts... would make it very quick to make them.
Yes, it came even a bit lighter than I expected.
No 3d printing for proper panels (yet), I've used and rented couple printers several times but rapid printing is anything but fast. Of course it beats machining and making mould in time but not in quality. I've printed some smaller moulds, applied release coats and then just used them as moulds even without painting if surface quality isn't an issue. By applying filler and paint to printed mould you could get mirror polished surface but then it already involves more labour.
Its a newish technology still thats only just starting to progress... give it a few more years and I am sure it will become more pratical.
Yes I completely agree.
just got this pervert idea. I know that there have been several rear engine conversions made, but has anyone done 4x4 conversion to R5? I have this one hill after S-corner next to my home which is impossible to drive with FWD at least one day per year during wintertime (when i don't drive my R5).
So 4x4 would be useful in R5. Im thinking of something small which can be turbocharged and has all nice forged parts available to get serious boost. Maybe VW country 1.8 powertrain? Im not sure about parts but at least FWD mark2 golfs have loas of tuning parts still available.
Road legal, propably not. Fun, definetly.
There was a Cossie 5
nice. I would love to see pics, especially how much was cut to allow room for shaft and what type of rear suspension was done.
I did quick googling and only found rear enginer RS2000 R5 and twin engine R5 which is basically 4wd
Subaru Justy 1.2l would be light choice.
I found one for 300€. I know people like to turbocharge them with gtt carbs but Im not sure how much boost they can take and what kind of power can be had. I guess there isn't too much aftermarket engine tuning parts available though.
hmm, it seems that justy transmission can barely hold 150bhp on daily driver which wouldnt be enough.
national holiday well used with tailgate outer panel. This time everything went way better. Only question is, did I manage to push the vacuum bag all the way to bottom of the spoiler since it's really tight place. Saturday I'll find out just how well it went. This is again full carbon fiber to make maximize weigth gain from glass fiber tailgate.
LH inner panel done. Let's see, there might be some air trapped between fibers and mould since the forms where quite difficult. It has 2 carbon fiber layers and 2 glass fiber. It was the last mould I have so I need to start fitting some parts soon. Only one part missing from my original list which is RH inner panel. It's already under prepping.
You best get some really good photos of it all together
Yes, I think I can get the car to studio for photoshoot once it's done.
In the meanwhile here are pictures from tailgate outer panel. It's definetly one of the best parts I've made. Weight-wise, my guess that it's close to inner panel was quite correct, it weights 940g and again trimming edges should get me under 900g.
Tailgate looks great! Maybe if you'd sell the early parts you could make yourself new ones...
yes, Im actually thinking about that.
i would be happy to take the old arches etc !!
Coming along nicely fella, job well done so far, dread to think of the cost thobut I hope it works out for u
Let's just put it like this; it would have been a lot cheaper to increase power/weight ratio by increasing just power.
Loving this i want carbon bits!
I just made an offer to RTOC member regarding front wings, side skirts and rear arch extensions. I can always make more if there's demandand willingness to pay premium for premium materials i need to use.
First post!
that's carbon bolt right? I know bikers use them when trying to minimize weight.
New poster! (less than 10 posts)
Yes, weight 3, 2g and steal bolt weight 26g. One guy here is testing those.
nice, where did you get them from?
Yes, I think I can get the car to studio for photoshoot once it's done.
In the meanwhile here are pictures from tailgate outer panel. It's definetly one of the best parts I've made. Weight-wise, my guess that it's close to inner panel was quite correct, it weights 940g and again trimming edges should get me under 900g.
tailgate looks awsum
Harri this project is awesome and love your work, have sent you a pm with regards to a custom part I am after you might be able to help
LH door inner panel done! it came out really well. As always, few imperfections remain. I got so excited that I started fitting the door already. Hinges went well, so did the mirror. Next I need to trim the outer edges of both skins to fit them perfectly to each other. After that just drilling and fitting of the components. For the windows I need to make additional U-profile inside the door, let's see how it goes.
sidenote: i need to do something with the mirror, like redo it.
damn! those carbon doors absolutely look the nuts!
i can't say how much credits go to you for doing all this!
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