After a long wait we have fibnally made progress, composite floors fitted, very very strong and light but ring like a bell when you lamp them with a hammer!



And today made new diff fasteners, M12 was just to loose a fit so bought some 1/2" high tensile rod and threaded both ends diff doesnt move at all even before the nuts went on so am happier with the fit now.

The tank is a piece of art and looks lovely:





But we decided it wouldnt stay looking that nice for long and have also now tigged on a mounting plate on the back for the fuel components so have called on the services of my tame painter, 2 coats of epoxy etch followed by 2 coats of black epoxy topcoat and the addition today of a kings ransom in fuel componets and it now looks like this:





New it was all going too well and the car building gods had their pound of flesh, -6 fitting snapped off in the fuel pump and no end of buggering about would get the broken bit out so have just ordered a replacment with the fittings already fitted, bonus is that the next size up was only a couple of quid more and flows a goodly amount better so have gone for that one in preperation for the supercharger side project.

Hi there,

What's your method for attaching the composite floor panels? And what composite are they made from?

Very smart fuel tank btw!

Rob

Looking good Mac.

Dont forget my widetrack when you get a mo please.

Rob, the more we get done the closer to having time for wishbones!!

The composite floor is something we vacuum bagged ourselves, it a carbon/kevlar/foam/kevlar/carbon layup, finished thickness is approx 6mm but its strong enough to shrug off a blow from a claw hammer without a dent!

https://picasaweb.google.com/111529572187631903852/GTAPanelling#5711980740646437682

The panels are bonded and rivetted using an industrial strength pu adhesive and large rivets with a 5mm diam but with a 10mm head

[Edited on 15/7/12 by snakebelly]

Thanks for the info, i assume you single skinned at the edges so that the rivets didnt crush the foam?

Do you have any metal tubes running diagonally inside where the floor is? Do you plan to mount the seat directly to the floor panel?

I ask as i am planning on running two 50mm x 3mm steel flat bars across the width of the seat area to mount the seats. I too am going to use composite panels (hadnt thought sandwich at this stage) and wondered how strong from a rip out point of view the floor would be using rivets. I was going to lay up on a flat piece of glass, vacuum bag it, VE - glass/carbon then cut it to shape. As my car is Mid Engined, the floor will hopefully be one panel.

Yours looks canny, any more photos maybe showing the inside??

Rob

Should have read the link first!

https://picasaweb.google.com/111529572187631903852/GTAPanelling#5711980740646437682

/ / /

Cheers, Rob

Very neat, keep us updated.

The floor doesn't have any reinforcing as the Avon chassis. Has seat mounts built in, there will be Ali plates as load spreaders where the bolts for the seats go through both the mounts and the floor though. We haven't single skinned the edges as the deformation around the rivets was minimal on both the test piece and in real life but the foam at the edges was dremeled back a little so the edges could be sealed with resin to avoid moisture ingress.

Haven't got any pics of the cockpit side but will get some next week, we went for a peel ply finish on the interior of the floor with a dust of Matthew lacquer didn't see the point going for a gloss hi shine finish as it would look crack in minutes with it being scratched by your feet every time you climbed in, panels for the tunnel sides etc will be a gloss finish and will just be a 2 or 3 layer carbon twill layup so no foam.

Hi Snakebelly,

Like the peel ply finish my self, think it gives a neat finish personally, did it look ok laquered?

With the tunnel, how do you plan to lay up the carbon? I mean in terms of method to avoid the tiny pin hole effect which nearly always happens when i do it! Even with Vacuum bagging!

I had thought maybe infusing (RI) onto a sheet of glass would give the best 'naked' carbon look?

Rob

It was only a light coat of matt lacquer so looks the same, I too prefer the naked matt look. For bling panels we use infusion resin as its less viscous, paint a layer on the glass and use a heat gun to get the bubbles to pop, separately wet the first layer of carbon and be generous, again try and get the air bubbles to burst using heat, lay fist layer on the glass and then just lay and wet additional plies.
Get the best pump you can as the quicker you can pull vacuum and the lower you can get it the better. It's really just trial and error until you find what works for you, we use a chemical release agent as we find it more reliable and less work than wax, a good consolidation roller helps as well
Hth

I have a fairly decent pump, actually I need a regulator for it as my last test piece, part of my bucket seat I made (DARK Engineering post) I vac'ed it to much and made the laminate too dry! You are right though, lots of playing around involved. I'm intending a full carbon body on my car.

youre a brave man, had another member over a while ago discussing a full carbon body project are you looking to make youre own moulds and pull from them or skin over the top of an existing body?

I want my own body and make the moulds too.

Check out my seat thread, made that mould myself.

Rob