It's Got Wheels!

This week has seen the arrival of the wheels and brakes from Bike Chain, allowing the rear subsection to be aligned and assembled, just needs a bracket for the callipers and it is pretty much there.

 The last few days has also seen work on the bonnet section with the main assembly yesterday and release from the jig today. Now it's free a hole for the driver can be cut and the silk/bioresin composite process can get under way. Then we can start to think about the finish we will give the whole body, most likely a hot coat of resin to get a nice glassy sheen, another technique lifted from the surfboard builders in the workshop nextdoor!

 It's the second team Friday tomorrow, so all the lads will be wearing their team hoodies instead of their regular uniform. Hopefully we can get organised enough for some pictures this time!

Composite Process

The large bottom piece of silk was attached on Tuesday and the resin cured off. The bottom sheet overlaps the sides a bit and then when the sides go on they will overlap the bottom a bit, creating a double layer of silk over the joint in the woodwork, a technique stolen from the guys making surfboards in the workshop next door!  The bioresin is UV cure so it goes under the sun bed to cook. The great advantage of this is that it can be worked for as long as we need, it doesn't cure until it goes under the lamps.
At the same time, Mr Beech has been working with some of the boys on the steering hardware, to Mr Lloyd-King's designs.

It's Free!

The Chassis was removed from the jig today and the boys got to work on fettling the edges and cutting the curve at the rear. We can now start with the silk and bioresin composite process in the next week or two.

Tested to Destruction

We got to test the different backing materials today. We have been making test pieces for the last couple of weeks consisting of right angles of ply, laminated with bio-resin and different backing materials. What we learnt today was that cotton and muslin really sucked but the silk was very nearly a match for the glass fibre, in fact it was so good we are now defiantly going to use it on the car. The chassis of the car will now be fully biodegradable, we are definatly putting the green into Greenpower.

RLR 1 Design

Here is a nice CAD shot of the new car design, all the work of Mr Lloyd-King. Its a monocoque construction of birch ply and bioresin, probably with silk acting as the backing material for the resin.