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More composite work done. Filling pin holes, bonding and riveting intake in place.

Loving the new compressed air set up. Not blowing water/oil over composite parts while sanding/grinding is nice.

Ive been collecting yogurt containers and lids ad well as hotel key cards. The lids make nice trays for mixing small batches of epoxy fairing compound. I measure by weight with a small shipping scale.

A flashlight is used to locate blind holes. Step sanding off the first few plies. The rear section was made from leftover 7725, 7781, carbon and knitex. Kind of a mix mash of fiberglass.

Pics to follow.

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build log http://locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2142

Continued.

For mixing resins, I cut the end of a tongue depressor at an angle. It makes scrapping the resin of the mixing surface easier and complete.

Some hindsight on this part was using 7781 8 harness satin weave was a mistake. The amount of pin holes in this cloth is excessive. It is so tightly woven that wet layups are just about impossible to get the air bubbles out. I would say that unless its vaccum bagged, or a small part with little contour, stay away from 7781. Plain weave and 2x2 twill are way better in terms of wet out.

Knitex has its own challenges for wet out, but beacuse of its thickness, its easy to see beyond the longer wet out. My next large parts ore going to be one ply of 10oz plain weave and knitex.

Progress.

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Ok here's the latest from a few days "on call" with no call..


Spent the better part of the morning making a choke control. The 03 fz1 in the car is carbed so the choke system is retained via a bicycle brake cable and custom lever. Need to get ferrules to crimp on.


More sanding and pin hole filling. Did I mention this has been going on for quite some time. A polyester part with gel coat would eliminate this problem. 


Holes were cut out for the tailights. Originally I was going to use some 4 inch round led stop/turn/tail lights gifted from sevenesqueron, however the need for reverse requires reverse lights, and I didnt leave myself enough room for another set of 4inch rounds. Earlier this year I picked up some combination stop/turn/tail/reverse to fit the bill. Ron, would you like your lights back for your next locost build? Lemme know. 


The second day my little(st) girl was home sick from daycare so I couldnt make a stink with paint and noise from pneumatic tools. All she wants is "momma" when she's tired or sick, so momma worked from home while she rested and took care of her. I put my time to use finishing off the pneumatic system, which I admit is WAY overkill, but I wouldnt change a thing, im even thinking of a variable frequency drive for "soft starts". When Airframefixer does something, he always finds the most complex, expensive, and time consuming way to do it.. 

 

Made a stand for the air dryer and bolted it to the floor. Also made a switch panel for the auto drain. Wifey got instructions on how to turn everything off should I forget and leave town on a 3 day pairing, got label maker happy too for her sake. Most likely every dude that owns a compressor, has left it on and had it start in the middle of the night only to scare the crap outta your wife or girlfriend, maybe both.


Also added the point of use water separator. I was quoted one with one supplier, but they didnt stock them because no one buys them.. wierd, the parts guy said I didnt really need one. Funny how the sales guys and the parts guys opinions differ. If you have water issues in your compresses air, the most economical way would be an aftercooler, and one of these inertia separators, or ambient dryers.. SMC AMG350 is the model.


The other place stocks them, and was sold out and highly recommends them. They sell mainly to cabinet and paint shops where finish quality is paramount. Dv systems doesnt appear to sell one. Guess ill find out in the summer how much water gets removed from the air. The irony here is that Im spraying free paint through a harbour freight paint gun, which i was given. The paint is ppg aerospace desothane, I have a contact that intercepted this on the way to the "bin".

Pics on the way....

Andrew 

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build log http://locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2142

Pics

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build log http://locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2142

That's quite the air compressor for a home shop. If your looking at putting in a VFD as a softstart, I'd probably set it up to run off a pressure transmitter too. That way it's a lot quieter when you're not using a lot of air.
Kristian

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V6 in a book frame build. Now registered.
viewtopic.php?f=35&t=7587
viewtopic.php?f=33&t=18172

...

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build log http://locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2142

Ok.. heres the paint story.. I received a 2 gallon earlier this year from a client. One can indicated PPG hs8000d activator. So I assumed it was for HS8000 series in the un marked can of base component. HS8000 is a 2:1:1. I tried that mix in a few cups overnight and had problems.. further digging revealed HS8000D is for military HS8200 series with a 1:1 mix. Having the correct data on the paint would have saved some headaches, fortunately those stayed in a mixing cup..

Had an opportunity friday to lay topcoat on 3/6 body peices. The primer needs to induct for 1 hour, so did final scuff, acetone wipe, followed by isopropyl alcohol wipe and tack. Never sprayed hvlp before but managed it fine on the topcoat. Had a run or two in the primer which I rolled out before reapplying. Topcoat was applied two hours after primer. Did three medium coats. I wore my isocyanate suit and remote fresh air system. I wet the floor to keep the dust down. once the parts were tack free, i kicked them outside to bask in the sun... no stink in the house, no headaches or ill effect from this stuff.

I accepted the remaining pin holes and defects.. theyre there alright.. after all this is an airplane quality paint job, good from far, and far from good.. colour is even with no runs, has orange peel, but thats better than runs.. ill try more reducer next time.. this was only 20oz of paint, so enough to do the whole car about 6 times..

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build log http://locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2142

With the amount ive been running this thing, the noise is soo much less than the smaller unit, and its all intake noise, a remote intake will probably be the best noise reduction i can achieve. Ill go for that first.

Otherwise. Heres some pics, a insect wing imbeded in the paint.. a sag in the primer that wasnt rolled out, and a section i completely missed filling pin holes.. overall, i need to move on with bodywork. Its not perfect but what i need to move forward with registration. Anyone doing epoxy glass cloth layups... take note..

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build log http://locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2142

Long ago, in the early 1970s, Cycle Magazine did a road test of a Ducati 750. The importer prepped a bike and sent it to them. And, right there on top of the fiberglass gas tank, embedded in the gel coat, there's... a fly.

At the end of the article the editor commented, "Well, at least it was a real Italian fly..."

I feel your pain. My recipe for success was neat resin and microballons, primer, sand....repeat. For extremely stubborn pin holes after final primer sand I mixed and applied the primer with a spline. No spray, no roller, no brush, just splined over the pin holes and then sanded smooth.

I also had issues with cleaning with Acetone followed by IPA. I'm not sure if it was to harsh or didn't play nice with the materials I was filling the pin holes with. I switched to the specific cleaning solvent recommended by the paint supplier (Nason 441-05 naphtha based) and surface finish greatly improved. Apply with a spray bottle and wipe with clean cloth.

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My build http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=7370

Andrew, I wish that my good work matched your boo-boos. I have found (with wet, open-air layups of epoxy-glass or epoxy-carbon fibre) that pin-holes are minimized by use of peel-ply where there are no complex curves (OK, not so useful for most bodywork). Do the layup quite wet, apply the peel ply and then roll quite vigourously, or even add resin through the peel-ply if it won't fully wet out. Pinholes seem to be the result of slightly dry layup.

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Warren
Isuzu Pickup/SR20DE, +401 COLD frame
Build Log: viewtopic.php?f=35&t=11601

Andrew,how did you vent the radiator ? Inlet and outlet ?

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American 7 5.0 T5
Lotus 15 ish?
914/H6

Thanks for the comments gents.

Trx, maybe they farmed out the painting to guy like me who paints in his garage/driveway.

JAF, im gonna track down a spline, I use epoxy fairing compound and. It works well but sand times are long.. no issues with the acetone and iso, the guy who taught me to paint used to paint for western star in the kelowna plant, they used iso and water as a final wipe and anti static.. i hear some of the automotive paints are much more sensitive to pre cleaning.. orange peel, thats just waiting too long between coats. Definately learning on this one. Need more "gun time". This polyurethane is a military top coat. It goes on pretty thick. Maybe not the best for a car, but will take a beating from the elements.

Thanks Warren, I wish I didnt have as many goofs. Peel ply yep, ive used it before, good stuff, I feared I would pull the laminate off the mold when removeing it as It can be stubborn.. i think there is some sort of silicone release in there too. Id like to use more knitex, or biaxiall, and cut down the amount of plies, maybe a wet 1st ply of 6oz, and let it tack before reinforcement with knitex.

B85.. cool air enters the side and exits the rear.. ill give this a try to see if cooling capacity matches demand.

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.... and here's some progress..

The push rod bellcranks were rubbing at the front, so a blister was needed. A simple mold from 2.25 exhaust tubing was used. A 2.25 hole saw wrapped in 80grit sanding disc was spun in a drill to cut the radius to match fiberglass blisters. They were tacked in with jb weld and glassed over the nack side. Two other holes, from windshiled 1.0 were filled and glassed over. The mirror stands were bonded in as well.

Hoping to get paint on the front section in the next few weeks.

Winter projects after that are the reverse gear, seat, bumpers and windshield wiper system.

B85... here is the rad in/out..

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build log http://locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2142

Thanks for the photo ! Looks great.

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American 7 5.0 T5
Lotus 15 ish?
914/H6