LocostBuilders - powered by XMB

Recommend me some materials for panelling

Jesus-Ninja - 28/10/08 at 02:03 PM

Right, I got my animal on the scales last night, and it looks like this:

code:
 

FL = 114   FR = 94 

RL = 168   RR = 203 

 

       Front = 208 

Left = 282   Right = 297 

       Rear = 371 

 

Total = 579 

 

Weight dist 

Front/Rear = 36/64 

Left/Right = 49/51

SO a bit lardier than I had hoped for, and that's minus: drive shafts, passenger seat, fuel tank, sump (), loom, plumping, rad, oil cooler, intercooler, body shell, exhaust, floor, gear shift / linkage, battery, lights, interior trim (cos yeah, there's gonna be loads of that ), fluids, handbrake, alternator, ARBs, and probably a couple of other things.

Given that it's my first build, and my own design to boot, I always knew it would be over engineered, and it's got an iron block too, so I'm not overly upset, but now that the structure of the chassis is complete, I want to be minimal on weight used elsewhere.

I've cut out 100mm x 100mm squares of different gauges of ally, steel and even ply, which I've then weighed for comparison. They are big enough too to get a feel for how stiff they are.

What other materials might I consider? GRP comes to mind - can this be bought in prefabbed sheets? I suppose I might want to make up some of my own, as that will give a truer figure for weight and feel for stiffness in respect of anything I might make myself from glass and resin.

What is the name of that honeycomb / ally sandwich stuff? Where can I get it from?

What other materials might I consider? CF?

Sorry for all the questions, and thanks in advance for all the answers and suggestions!

[Edited on 28/10/08 by Jesus-Ninja]

tegwin - 28/10/08 at 02:47 PM

If you can afford it...deffinately CF...or Kevlar...or mix of both..

The cheapest and easiest way of getting the pannels that you want is to get a large sheet of glass...Polish it up...add a release agent, and then lay your CF/Kevlar on that with resin...once its cured you have a slightly flexible sheet to cut out and bond in place

nick205 - 28/10/08 at 04:40 PM

How much panelling are you doing, any curved areas and what sort of budget are you on?

Also are you looking for and fire protection?

0.7mm ally sheet would seem a good balance of cost, weight, availability and ease of use.

Alternatively you could use ABS plastic sheet. Not sure on thicknesses available, but that's what MK use for their standard interior panel set.

Kriss - 28/10/08 at 04:46 PM

I cant help, but my gosh that sounds like a fatboy already, without half the gear in!

Good luck witht he rest of the build

John Bonnett - 29/10/08 at 09:09 AM

Don't worry old lad, this is your first car and it is a tremedous achievement to build a car from scratch. Every single bracket and fitting has to be thought about and made.

Reading your post relating to over-engineering reminds me of our Special. This was a car my son made as an A Level Design Technology major project.

There are three main types of chassis; spaceframe, ladder and backbone. The Special had all three and it took four men to lift the chassis. It was stiff!! We had the roll bar manufactured and welded in by Safety Devices and their structural engineer estimated that half the tubes could be removed from the frame without any loss of stiffness.

The whole car weighed in at a whopping 725kg but do not be dismayed. I managed a second in class in the large engined kit car class in the Curborough championship so you can still have some fun even though the car will not be as nimble as some of the lighter ones.

If you want to end up with a light car, every single component has to be light and selcted with this in mind. Once you've gone for a cast iron block the cause is lost. My Phoenix with the Cosworth YB weighs 650kg compared with less than 500 for a BEC. On the other hand, the Trials Car that I am building should be light because that was my aim from the outset. I can easily lift the chassis so I'm ahead of the game against the Special already. Time (and the scales) will tell.

As far as panelling is concerned, I really don't think whatever you choose is going to make that much difference to the overall weight so I think I'd go for whatever you are comfortable working with.

In you other post about the legality of bulkhead materials I believe within reason you can use whatever you want. Even in racing, the only thing the Scrutineer was interested in was to check that the grommets were sealed and that there were no gaps.

Best of luck with your project. It is tremendously satisfying to produce your very own car knowing that there is none other like it.

Well done mate

atb

John