mike343sharpstick's 69 Javelin project

[TheSilverBuick]

A lot more miles on the car is a good thing.

[mike343sharpstick]

It sure is, and the miles aren't from going to car shows either.
We only hit one show this year, and that was as part of our (now) yearly 325+ mile long-weekend road trip my wife and I have been doing each summer to the western part of the state.

The show is in Spring Green WI, interestingly the location of the Ring Brothers shop. It's also an area with fantastic curvy roads. We also hit some spots that the wife enjoys, like a great outdoor play, and some shopping. It's trully amazing how impracticle the average pony car is, LOL.

With the big motor build I need to be sure the usefullness of the car isn't compromised, that's a bit tricky, for me anyway

[mike343sharpstick]

Well, the car's put up for the winter
But on a positive note, I've also been doing some fabrication that is NOT metal

And no, this is not a sticker, or hand laid fiberglass with a carbon fabric top-coat. It’s the real deal

I used this simple part to test the tooling materials and production processes. The steel part weighs a touch over a pound, this carbon version weighs only 2.3 oz.! And that's with 3 layers of fabric.
BTW, this is just a shroud that closes the gap between the top of the radiator and core support.

[SuperBuickGuy]

that looks awesome... nice work

[Javelin]

Oh man, that CF piece is trick! Are you going to sell those?

[mike343sharpstick]

Thank you, and Yes.
I don't expect much however, the Rambler crowd is pretty cheap, LOL. Or should I say Frugal.

[milner351]

Nice work indeed - I've done lots with 'glass cloth epoxy and wood on boats - but nothing like that - did you make the pattern from metal or wood?

[Dignlif]

that piece looks great with all the curves and short lip around the border. Laying that out and showing process would make a great Tech thread...hint hint

[mike343sharpstick]

Hey thanks guys, really appreciate it.

On this part I just used the stock stamped steel part as the plug (original).
I built the tooling from that, with several layers of CSM fiberglass over a gell coat. An OEM would make tooling from steel or aluminum, but for short runs of parts fiberglass molds are more than adequate.

I used the resin infusion process to create the part. A recent HRM article went through the hand layup process. Resin infusion is a bit more involved than that with the resulting part being lighter and stronger, which is why you would use this material in the first place.

If needed you can post cure in an oven to make the part stronger.

Dignif, There are some great videos on the subject here, This is the exact process I used: http://www.easycomposites.co.uk/Learning.aspx

It gets more complex with 2 piece molds and High Pressure Bladder Molding, that's when things get interesting!
Shortly I’m going to go from 3D cad to part-in-hand

[Dignlif]

Excellent, thanks for the link.

[Bob Holmes]

Very nice.

My Christmas gift request was for a book on making carbon fiber composites. I need to find more lightness on the racecar.

[mike343sharpstick]

Just yesterday I got a couple of these Edelbrock bits brought to my door

[milner351]

nice!

[Bob Holmes]

By the way, great site for composites. Thanks.

[mike343sharpstick]

It's the best how-to I've found, they make it look so easy.
I have some other stuff in the works, the key is good tool creation, which is the result of perfect plug/master prep... Which takes a long time.
And, by the way, sometimes the paint from the plug reacts badly with the tooling gel coat, dam chemistry shenanigans. Learned that the hard way this week