It's been a while since the last update. Lots of work on: work, daily drivers, bicycles, and for the Stalker: terrible, terrible, slow composite bodywork.
OK, I HATE composite work. Turns out I am, apparently, OK at it but, good lord, it sucks. Lots of pictures here because I feel like I deserve it after this mess!
Most Stalkers with LS or V6 engines don't have body panels below the hood since they fill that area with a pair of headers. I have no left side headers on the straight six so I needed a nice panel to finish it off. I also wanted to do a vent that wasn't really a vent but allowed a wider footbox in a good looking way. Here's the vent shape I'm talking about. It's the part right under the hood that flares out before the pass compartment. I've seen people use the 'vent' area as just a way to buy a little width at your feet. If used in that way the vent becomes "fake" but lets your feet have a little more space.
I also decided to just integrate the sides of the pass compartment so the part ended up 80 something inches long.
So, should have just made the damn thing out of aluminum and been done in a day but it seemed like an easy shape and I've wanted to try some carbon fiber work since we last did some in college. I should NOT have tried it on a part this size. The amount of work to make and prep the mold, cut the damn layups (that took an entire day), vacuum bag the thing with no leaks (another whole day), and infuse it is insane. Further, there is no redeeming quality to the work, it just sucks. It's like drywall. Easily 40 hrs to the finished part that isn't even trimmed yet.
It did turn out absolutely perfect, literally flawless, so I'm happy in the end.
Here's the mold, wet sanded and sprayed with PVA. Carbon rolled up behind it, still seemed a little fun at this moment:
Here's the first half of the layup, 2 layers plus 2mm core mat. VERY not fun at this point. My back was already super sore from reaching over the 60" carbon roll to cut patterns, hours behind where I thought I'd be. A couple details I had to guess on were making me very nervous and I wouldn't know the result until the very end.
Vacuum bag finally ready to go. This sucked even more than cutting patterns.
Here's why I should have started smaller. Even pumping out the damn epoxy was tiring and boring. 4.5kg, I needed about 3.5. I was mixing as it infused so poured back 2 of these before they got hardener. I still threw away about 1kg, chalk it up to being a newbie. Again, this whole time since it was my first part I thought there was a 50% chance of failure, not motivating!
Infusion happening. Aside from worry, this was actually cool:
Finished infusion, still at 50% confidence here:
Ta da! A perfect finish, popped out of the mold with no issue, I even remembered gloves so I don't have any splinters. The part is F'ing sweet, not sure it was worth the work but it was satisfying for sure.
Even the backside looks great:
That's about it for Stalker progress, radiator mounts are done but that was just a couple hour's work. I'm going to duplicate this panel for the right side too and just see how much needs to get cut up for the header exit. So, next up is one more of these parts out of the mold (with some friends helping this time), cooling plumbing, hood hinge mounting, etc.
As for the distractions if you're interested: Bought a Jeep Wrangler for my wife, what a terrible but fun car! By
far the worst highway car I've ever driven but so much joy! No idea why, maybe it's just the idea that every landscape or roadside you look at you think "I could drive over there." She said she didn't want a 'stupid mom SUV' but we needed a winter car and we'd both always wanted a Jeep. Got a great deal on a lifted Rubicon but it included a drive back from Dallas and a throwout bearing that just barely made the trip. Pulling a trans without even touching a jack or jack stands is pretty handy! All good now.
Volvo burned a piston. Pretty done working on this car, going up for sale when it's back on the road. Ping me if interested. Choice of turbos right now, I'll decide myself in a week or two.
Working on my first triathlon so needed a road bike. Went used old school and cool for the tri bike rather than a new carbon job but it's taken some garage time to tune back up. The titanium frame rides super smooth as everyone says.
Alex