Thought you guys might enjoy some pics from the work on the Fiat. Cut in doors and made a removable hood. Also laminated a body mount, a horseshoe flange, typical funny car mount style. This thing should be pretty cool when it's done. Just a cruiser, likely won't ever see a track. Made a seat also.
Made a make-shift mold out of sign-makers plastic and then laminated a seat. Interior guy will take it from here. This is just after laminating, still wet.
This is the horse-shoe body mount/flange and the seat.
The seat and the doors. I added an interior layer of glass, spaced out from the door with some 1/4" foam. Those circles are some "trusses" between the two layers for added stiffness. Just cut holes in the foam and packed in some fiberglass putty made from 1/32" fibers and resin. That stuff is killer strong....more on that later.
My part is done. The guys at the shop will take it from here and make hinges for the doors (suicide) and for the hood. I made a recessed flange for the hood to rest on, just can't see it here.
This is putting the two halves of the lower splitter together. Some would use 3M panel bond and it would work but I wanted to used that fiberglass putty for a couple reasons; first: it bonds like crazy and it beyond strong and second it is so dense that it can be tapped and holds threads very well. I needed a way to mount the aluminum so this was my solution.
I used some foam to make some barriers to contain the putty, just a few dabs of hot glue to hold them in place. I could've just made the front completely solid instead of doing all of those jogs but I was trying to manage weight. The ends are also made solid as there will be bolts through these areas to the aluminum plate that I encased in the carbon section of the spoiler. I also made a sections in the center solid for the bolts to steel mounts and ran a section between the two for stiffness. Both sides of the spoiler are 2 layers of 1-1/2oz fiberglass mat and 1 layer of Kevlar cloth. It's pretty thin, again weight, but should be more than strong enough.
Here is the putty, still wet ready for the bottom section to be put on and bolted down. Time isn't your friend here so I enlisted the guys at the shop to help put down the putty while I was mixing it. Went to the mixing bench and came back to a few additional signatures and some hidden time capsules. Good stuff. Having the time of my life working around these guys.
Here is the part taken out of the mold a few days later.
I didn't get any pictures of putting the rear end piece but basically used the same process as putting the upper and lower halves together. You can see the squeeze out of the putty. Only ended up with a couple small air pockets, other than that...it's very stout. I'm guessing it's about 12 lbs.
Just set the two parts together before some initial test fits.
Test fit
Next step is to reconfigure that center piece. Just test fit in here.
Brian Hobaugh SCCA National Tour June 2014
First Hemi 'Cuda Convertible Ever Built
Short clips: Goodguys Pleasanton autocross and pit videos
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