LocostUSA.com

Nice build sir, you have got some talent for sure.

If you are interested, I have a fender mold made that is probably the right size for your application (I may be wrong). It would save you a ton of work (as we all know how much work fiberglassing is). They pop out of the mold with a high gloss finish that would take some light wheel buffing if you wanted a class A finish. I designed the mold so you can make a left and right fender out of the same part.

Here is the part with some dimensions:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Fiberglass-Fend ... RK:MESE:IT

Tip: if you use the pink insulation foam for making plugs, you are right, polyester resin will eat it and you can use the more expensive epoxy as an alternative. But since you want the plug to be as smooth as possible, I found that after rough shaping of the foam you can pick up sandable primer at your local home improvement store and put a nice thick layer of it over the insulation. Then you can sand the primer and use body filler to achieve a uniform surface finish and this layer of primer will allow you to use polyester resin without worrying about it eating the insulation.

Keep up the progress!

_________________
http://www.modernkitcar.com

eBook for building Ar-i-el At-om Replica: http://www.modernkitcar.com/products/ebook-kit-car-from-scratch

Nice work ! I like it.

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American 7 5.0 T5
Lotus 15 ish?
914/H6

Tell us more! What is the "sandable primer" of which you speak? What sorcery is this?

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Locost builder and adventurer, and founder (but no longer owner) of Kinetic Vehicles

No sorcery here

Dont mean hi jack the thread

Since you asked, here is how I used this "primer" in the pink-insulation foam plug construction.
Pink insulation is glued together, use Gorilla Glue. And then it is rough shaped with rasp, 50 grit sandpaper/ orbital to get the surfaces kind of on the same level, but still very rough.

Then you can see the primer can I used Zinsser Fast Prime 2, I just pick a random sandable primer, nothing in particular. I use the entire quart, layed it on think. This was so I had a good base layer that I could sand on and build on top of.

Then I sprayed a light coat of black spray paint on top so as I sanded the top layer (with long sanding block), the low spots would show black so I could easily find them and fill them with body filler. (I like using the Icing body filler because is sands much quicker than bondo) (this is the most time-consuming part)

Then once most of the low spots are filled and the surface is pretty even I then apply the expensive stuff, Duratec Grey Primer. Spray in on thick a few coats and if desired you can sand it down to get a more level surface. The last layer of Duratec I spray on a fine mist and dont let it wet out, that way it gives the textured plastic molded look.

At this point you can put on your mold release agent, gelcoat, fiberglass and polyester resin to make the mold.

Once the mold is done, make your part, pull it out, trim it and throw it on the car, easy peasy.

_________________
http://www.modernkitcar.com

eBook for building Ar-i-el At-om Replica: http://www.modernkitcar.com/products/ebook-kit-car-from-scratch

All the tabs for mounting the side skirts and nose pieces are in now. I just finished the fender mounts as well. It was a lot of work to make them while checking both street and race wheel clearances, and suspension movement/steering clearances, but they're done now and that hurdle is out of the way. I was aware it's a high failure item among these cars so I went pretty beefy with the materials. They're made from .75x.095 tube. I really liked the idea of the horizontals being removable with the fender so it's a quick 2 bolts per fender to remove them for an autox if I'm concerned about cone damage.

The rear fender attachment points are from one of the caliper bolts and the spindle to LCA bolt.




The front attachment points are from both of the caliper bolts. I'm using rubber well nuts to attach the fenders to the brackets for a bit of vibration dampening and a thin metal plate (not shown) to spread the load out on the fiberglass.

Time for an update. After finishing the fender mounts I went to on to bend up the center console out of some aluminum sheet. Mostly it was just a cover but I thought it would be nice to have a place to mount switches, additional gauges, and power supplies later on. Also, I thought I should probably make some kind of glove box for sunglasses ect. The shifter boot took a bit of experimenting with to get the shape right and make it look nice with double seams and such. I probably made 3 or 4 prototypes before this one.




After that the next step was to strip the car down and prep for paint. I used some rustmort and a scotchbrite pad to clean the frame up. That sure took a long time but did a nice job. Initially I was planning on painting the frame a machine grey but switched to satin black at the last minute. I used the VHT roll bar and chassis paint, and I have to say I'm not overly impressed with it. It was very picky about the can being held vertical and despite being an epoxy paint it doesn't seem to be as tough as the Tremclad I used on other parts. If I had to do it over I would just use the Tremclad everywhere.

The final assembly was fairly time consuming with bolting down all the lines and trying not to mess up the paint. I was sure glad when I had finished doing all of the work in the center tunnel. It gets pretty tight in there with my big hands.

Overall it went pretty smooth and was quite satasfiying but I did hit a few snags. I decided to change headlights as the ones that I got before weren't DOT approved. That meant a little bit of rewiring because these are a single duel filament bulb rather than two separate bulbs. I also discovered I was missing the alternator warning light that makes the charging circuit work, so I had to add one of those.

This weekend the vinyl wrap showed up for the body panels. I decided on the vinyl because I was tired of the smell and mess of paint and I thought I could get a better finish out of it. The application process was pretty simple and for the most part it went quite well. A little wrinkle here or there on my first couple of pieces. I was definitely getting better with each piece.

The fenders were by far the hardest pieces to cover. I did the front ones first and didn't use a heat gun so I ended up with quite a few wrinkles along the sides. I used a heat gun to help me do the rear fenders and it helped immensely. I still ended up with a wrinkle or two but they look much better than the fronts. I may re-do the fronts sometime but for now they're good enough. If you're planning on trying the vinyl wrap, an extra set of hands goes a long way. A helper would make it much easier to hold the vinyl, use the heat gun, and use the squeegee at the same time. I'd also recommend something to hold the parts securely so you can tug and stretch without having your fenders topple off of the upside down laundry hamper.









Now I just need to do the scary part, the inspection/registration process.

That is looking great! What state are you registering in?

I'm in BC

This weekend I picked up 8 bathroom scales in an effort to check the corner weights. Unfortunately the scales didn't have a high enough capacity to check the weight with a driver, so I have vehicle numbers only. The results are a little disappointing. The balance is as expected 35/65 front/rear, but the total weight is higher than I was hoping for. It tips the scales at 1575 lbs with ~10 gal of fuel.

I think with a few changes I can get it into the 1400's but that might not happen until next winter. For now, I've removed the sway bars (12 lbs) as I don't think they're necessary, and also the wings (26 lbs) for inspection purposes. This winter I'm planning to remove the balance shafts from the engine, change to an aluminum flywheel, and swap the Odyssey battery for a Shorai lithium one. That should cut another 30 lbs out of the rear.

Wow the car looks amazing!

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* vsusp
* 5.0 442E build

Great job. I like it!

that's a kewl looking ride. the "Martian Death Ray" Headlamps are pretty sweet, where'd you get those?

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The B-3 build log: http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=13941 unfortunately, all the pictures were lost in the massive server crash

The beginnings of the Jag Special,
https://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=19012
Again, all pictures were lost.

Thanks! The headlamps (Bikers Choice Sunray headlight) I ordered from CanadasMotorcycle. They're actually DOT approved with a proper beam pattern, and very nicely constructed.