Page 2 of 7 FirstFirst 1234567 LastLast
Results 26 to 50 of 152

Thread: E30 Street/TimeAttack

  1. #26
    Join Date
    Oct 2014
    Location
    Finland
    Posts
    126
    My Cars
    E30 & E36
    Dashboard project continues:

    Finished mold:
    http://s187.photobucket.com/user/mic...lt5k7.jpg.html

    Thick layer of gelcoat into the mold:
    http://s187.photobucket.com/user/mic...eh14a.jpg.html

    One layer of chopped type fiberglass and one layer of braid type as reinforcement:
    http://s187.photobucket.com/user/mic...kub6j.jpg.html

    Aaand the product right from the mold. Gelcoat had melted the paint which made the surface look strange But the result otherwise is decent, little bit of sanding and grinding.. Weight was 3kg.

  2. #27
    Join Date
    Feb 2013
    Location
    MD, USA
    Posts
    570
    My Cars
    2005 M3 Coupe
    Nice looking dash.

    If you find it not stiff enough you could skip the chopped fiber and used 3 or 4 plies of woven fabric. If you go that route you'd want to use a 45 degree ply (i.e. take a ply and lay it across the mold on a 45 degree angle) followed by a ply on the 0 degree or 90 degree (straight up or straight across) followed by a 45 degree ply again. That will give you more stiffness than what you currently laid up. But be sure to be balanced in your layup otherwise your part could warp.

  3. #28
    Join Date
    Oct 2014
    Location
    Finland
    Posts
    126
    My Cars
    E30 & E36
    Thanks for the tips! I might find use for that when making the outer panels, I also thought I could add foam strips between the fiber layers when extra stiffness is needed, it wouldn't add as much weight as multiple fiber layers.
    Anyhow next pieces should turn out better than the first one

  4. #29
    Join Date
    May 2014
    Location
    Noblesville, IN
    Posts
    1,760
    My Cars
    98 328i, 79 911SC
    subscribed for updates and awesome work.

  5. #30
    Join Date
    Feb 2013
    Location
    MD, USA
    Posts
    570
    My Cars
    2005 M3 Coupe
    Quote Originally Posted by Miuge View Post
    Thanks for the tips! I might find use for that when making the outer panels, I also thought I could add foam strips between the fiber layers when extra stiffness is needed, it wouldn't add as much weight as multiple fiber layers.
    Anyhow next pieces should turn out better than the first one
    Happy to help...before I moved into management I was an aerospace engineer and I work at a company that mostly does carbon fiber aircraft structures.

    Yes, foam is far superior to using a lot of plies especially from a weight standpoint, and also cost depending on your core material of choice. There are a lot of options for core materials...you can use home insulation foam (the heavy closed cell blue stuff), you can also use balsa wood (end grain works best), or buy honeycomb core (pricey). The downside of foam is you can't put fasteners thru it without crushing the foam, same with honeycomb core. The alternative if you want to use foam is put pucks of balsa in areas where you plan to put fasteners. That's essentially what we do in aviation but we use either SEG (solid epoxy graphite) or potting called epicast into the core cells to prevent crushing. But that's overkill for this I think.

    The important things really are:
    Using 45 degree plies - that gives the stiffness. And if your part is too wide you can splice them by overlapping them when laying up.
    Always keep your layup balanced about the theoretical mid-plane. Typical aircraft structures are what we call 3-core-3 meaning 3 plies, core, 3 plies. And a typical balanced layup would be 45/0/45-core-45/0/45. So the core is the mid plane and the plies are symmetric. 45 degree plies also tend to lay down better over complex geometry so it's usually the ideal first ply down on your tool.

    Not sure what you have for suppliers over in Finland, but FiberGlast is a great place here stateside and maybe they ship internationally...not sure.

    Sorry, that was a bit of a brain dump and maybe more than you wanted to know.

  6. #31
    Join Date
    Oct 2014
    Location
    Finland
    Posts
    126
    My Cars
    E30 & E36
    Okay, sounds interesting!
    I bought a couple of sheets socalled finnfoam for the mold reinforcements, but found out polyester resin will melt it. I read epoxy would work though.. Probably I'll be using some kind of foam (or different resin) as it is very easy to cut in shape, cheap and available nearby.
    My fiberglass panels are more like visual, they don't carry such big loads.. 3 plies would be very thick with the braid type I have, I got the fiberglass supplies very cheap via my friend and that's only sort they got...
    Never too much knowledge!

    Took a picture of current progress, almost every part in this picture is already fitted but all the other tasks take a lot of time...

  7. #32
    Join Date
    Sep 2011
    Location
    New York
    Posts
    169
    My Cars
    95 m3 coupe
    This is an impressive build. Nicely done.

  8. #33
    Join Date
    May 2014
    Location
    Noblesville, IN
    Posts
    1,760
    My Cars
    98 328i, 79 911SC
    holy shit ton of brakes

  9. #34
    Join Date
    Oct 2014
    Location
    Finland
    Posts
    126
    My Cars
    E30 & E36
    Thanks!

    Horizontal tube for the seatbelts:



    IC radiator air duct, didn't have patience to make a mold so I stacked the fiberglass over the foam model:

  10. #35
    Join Date
    Feb 2013
    Location
    MD, USA
    Posts
    570
    My Cars
    2005 M3 Coupe
    Cool inlet ducts.

    If you go the route of laying up fiberglass over foam rather than make a mold, and you didn't use release film, I will say the gasoline eats that foam away pretty easily. Just be careful with the jellied foam/gas mix you have...it's just a tad flammable.

  11. #36
    Join Date
    Oct 2014
    Location
    Finland
    Posts
    126
    My Cars
    E30 & E36
    I've used aluminium tape + wax as a release film, works pretty good But that's a good tip, again, for the future! There might be parts where the foam is closed into the shape, so melting it would be the way to go..

    Test fitting, should breath good enough:

  12. #37
    Join Date
    Aug 2004
    Location
    Thousand Oaks, CA
    Posts
    1,786
    My Cars
    540i6 / M20 / Burb 2500
    Damn, dude, you've got some talent. This looks great!
    2001 540i 6-Speed / 1989 325i M20 / 1994 Suburban 2500

    "You gotta fix the nut behind the wheel before you fix the bolts on the car"
    LoveClub Member #23

  13. #38
    Join Date
    Apr 2010
    Location
    West Chester, PA
    Posts
    5,744
    My Cars
    98 M3
    I love everything about this!


  14. #39
    Join Date
    Oct 2014
    Location
    Finland
    Posts
    126
    My Cars
    E30 & E36
    Thank you so much!


    Let's continue after a little break.

    Made an inner fender for 650mm tire but it also allows me to use even bigger and wider tire if necessary:


    Side panel's wheel gap also found it's shape. This 615mm diameter wheel looks a bit tiny with stretched tyre...


    I had to photoshop a picture which demonstrates upcoming wheel setup

  15. #40
    Join Date
    Oct 2014
    Location
    Finland
    Posts
    126
    My Cars
    E30 & E36
    Sidepanels still need some finishing with filler before taking a mold:



    Trunk picture, IC water tank on the left, battery on the right side:



    Intercooler water tank and fuel surge tank pretty much completely welded:



    Radiator air outlet location:



    Spent few moments measuring M30 head:



    Good fit, afterwards I decreased the port size a little bit. I think it's ready for cutting:

  16. #41
    GGray's Avatar
    GGray is offline Did someone say racetrack BMW CCA Member
    Join Date
    Aug 2003
    Location
    Christiansburg,Va.
    Posts
    6,854
    My Cars
    A few BMW's...
    Wow looking good! Interesting set up.
    Gary Gray



    If you can take it apart you can make it faster!

  17. #42
    Join Date
    Oct 2014
    Location
    Finland
    Posts
    126
    My Cars
    E30 & E36
    Thank you


    Last week I visited at a local paint store and bought 3liters of primer, days are getting warm enough that I can paint the car outdoors.



    Today I tested some kind of special grinding wheel which seemed to remove paint nicely



    Aaand then I also made an intake flange model, I'll order both IN and EX flanges at the same time:

  18. #43
    Join Date
    Oct 2014
    Location
    Finland
    Posts
    126
    My Cars
    E30 & E36
    Hmm, it seems that the chassis is getting ready for the primer! Last weekend we cleaned the rest of the chassis (excl. doorposts and the roof). Found just a couple of small rusty spots which I already fixed.
    I'll post pictures by the end of the week

  19. #44
    Join Date
    Oct 2014
    Location
    Finland
    Posts
    126
    My Cars
    E30 & E36
    The pics I promised, it was a great weather to paint outdoors, sunny, warm and no wind:










  20. #45
    Join Date
    Nov 2013
    Location
    Stone Ridge, VA
    Posts
    1,064
    My Cars
    1995 BMW M3 Coupe
    So awesome

  21. #46
    Join Date
    Aug 2012
    Location
    Central, MD
    Posts
    3,844
    My Cars
    1995 M3
    WOW! And I consider it a huge success if I fab up a battery box. Great work, and fun to watch!

  22. #47
    Join Date
    Oct 2014
    Location
    Finland
    Posts
    126
    My Cars
    E30 & E36
    Thanks!

    Just a temporary solution to get the wheel in right place:



    Then I was able to start work the front fenders:


    Front fender has a couple of functions; hot air comes out of the engine bay and wheel well from the back, also air from the front splitter/diffusor will be vented on top of the fender:

  23. #48
    Join Date
    Oct 2014
    Location
    Finland
    Posts
    126
    My Cars
    E30 & E36
    No new updates lately, been working with the front fenders just a little bit and designed functional/imo good looking side skirts.. I'll try to get some plywood for the mockup this week.
    Custom front control arms have been on pause, prototypes are pretty much ready and I have material and accessories for a couple of sets


    I spent few moments with the sketch, this is how things should come out during winter:

  24. #49
    Join Date
    Feb 2013
    Location
    MD, USA
    Posts
    570
    My Cars
    2005 M3 Coupe
    Glad that control arm setup is temporary. You'll be lucky if it doesn't crack when you've got weight-on-wheels.

  25. #50
    Join Date
    Oct 2014
    Location
    Finland
    Posts
    126
    My Cars
    E30 & E36
    Haha, it's a little rude even for a temporary solution

    But maybe this will do better:
    Got the first fully adjustable CrMo control arm prototype "assembled", missing a couple of bushing and a spacer. Complete kit weighs less than half of the orginal setup, but has the same rigidity.

    There will be an upcoming contest at our facebook page where you might win one set for free, so make sure to like the page so you won't miss it
    Control arm pricing will be published by the end of November.


Page 2 of 7 FirstFirst 1234567 LastLast

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •