SLC 007 Dave Lindemann

[Dave Lindemann]

Randy, I'm not sure. I can see where the struts would stabilize the clam when in the fully open position but my concern would still be when lifting the clam from one side. I would think the clam would still want to twist.

I'll be down at Carriage House later this month to add foam core to the front and rear deck lids on the Lotus. If it works as well as I hope on that then I'll do it to the SLC. I think Dave E. is coming back around the 21st - will you be around?

Dave L

 

[Bill Musarra]

Randy,
The struts will work great. I have them on mine. Trick is to get them in the right place so the rear clip doesn't go too far back, and when lowering, it doesn't get into a double motion in and out as it closes. Mine are 20" and 40#. One on each side. With that you can open the clip with one hand. There is very little flexing at all. Ebay is a good source. I have the Aero clips for securing the clip. No way it will be forgotten and act like a parachute. If you need pics I can send them. Sorry for the drift.

Bill

 

[Randy V]

Hi Dave,

Yes, I am picking him up at the airport and I think he will be staying at my house in Kenyon. I will be down at the shop a pretty fair amount as there is a GT40 that also needs to be finished!

I am done with the 2+ year total renovation of my almost 100 year old house and we are moving the final bits tonight and tomorrow to the new house. I am really hoping to have a life again!

Bill - thanks for the confirmation. I have spoken with others that say the same thing.

What do the other SL-C owners say?

 

[Dave Lindemann]

I ran out of time this weekend but was able to fabricate the rear window mold support structure and glass it into place. I still need to run some glass up the sides of the supports and down onto the mold to provide additional rigidity then it's time to pull the mold off......I hope it comes off.......

Dave L

 

[Dave Lindemann]

The mold is off. Unfortunately, I didn't vacuum bag it and I ended up with some air pockets in the resin so I'll have to do some repair work on the mold surface.

I must be getting old........or I don't know how to use the search function correctly....I could swear at some point in the not too distant past I asked about how much of a flange should be left for the windshield and Fran and others recommended 3/4"???? Now I can't find those posts anywhere??? I cut the opening only to find that the fiberglass A-pillar cover (part of the interior trim kit) extends beyond that 3/4" flange. I'll post a photo later to show what I'm talking about. Being that I believe RCR now cuts the windshield opening has anyone else with the interior trim package run into this problem?

Thanks,
Dave L

 

[Fran Hall RCR]

We do not cut the windshield opening unless its as part of the trimming package...and we trim it to 3/4-1 inch of an inch...The black frett line/dot matrix of the windshield glass does not allow the backside of the A pillar trim panel to be exposed...no need to frett...haha

 

[Dave Lindemann]

Fran - I'm not fretting, anything done in fiberglass is relatively easy to fix. As a good friend says "it's arts and crafts". By the way, I appreciate the way you designed the A-pillar cover to fit into the dash - very nice.

My point is that if I had known the A-pillar cover extended that far into the windshield opening I would have left a larger flange in that area - both to allow an attachment point for the A-pillar cover and to "hide" the flange behind the windshield. Obviously, this is only an issue for anyone wanting to trim out the interior of their SLC - it wouldn't matter at all for a track car. Shame on me for not fully checking the fitment and gaps prior to cutting the opening.

I've attached some pictures of what I'm talking about.......

Dave L

We do not cut the windshield opening unless its as part of the trimming package...and we trim it to 3/4-1 inch of an inch...The black frett line/dot matrix of the windshield glass does not allow the backside of the A pillar trim panel to be exposed...no need to frett...haha

 

[Fran Hall RCR]

Dave,
If the windscreen mounting flange is not trimmed to 3/4 -1 inch then the fit of the glass is compromised...the dot matrix will cover and disguise the inner panels once the glass is installed....the windscreen has a 2mm window of error , from the glass manufacturer , this is the same as any OEM tolerance, so the mounting flange has to be adjusted to make the glass fit as tight as possible..
The A pillar and interior components were overseen by a 30 year veteran of interior design and a senior member of the Chrysler design department and approved by me...so it was not an oversight, at least not on his or my part.

 

[Dave Lindemann]

Fran - I never meant to imply that it was an oversight, I'm just trying to understand how everything is supposed to fit together.

Regards,
Dave L

Dave,
<snip>
The A pillar and interior components were overseen by a 30 year veteran of interior design and a senior member of the Chrysler design department and approved by me...so it was not an oversight, at least not on his or my part.

 

[Fran Hall RCR]

Dve,
no offense taken..Once you have everything in place and you finish the backside of the A pillar panel with trim black or flat black it will be essentially invisible to anyone that does not know to actually look for it...

 

[Dave Lindemann]

As I've mentioned I'm considering vacuum bagging some foam core to the underside of the rear clip of the SLC to provide more rigidity. Carriage House Customs was kind enough to allow me to try the process on Lotus Europa project they are working on for me. They were very understanding given they had already primed the deck lids and I had to sand it all off! Here is my very amateur video of how it went:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mro_vgnFWLA]Foam Core Project - YouTube[/ame] .

Please forgive the lack of sound - I was going to use a soundtrack but YouTube doesn't allow it and I figured a voice-over would put people to sleep.

The results of adding the foam core are phenomenal! It added about 2-lbs to the front deck lid shown in the video and the difference in rigidity is nothing short of amazing. I see more foam core projects in my future........

I forgot to mention - you may see a familiar RCR GT40 in the background ....

Dave L

 

[Jack]

Nice Vid Dave! A little masking tape or even tacky tape on the bottom of the weights will keep them from sliding. Thanks for posting a good instructional video.

 

[Michel]

Hello to all
have been watching video and apologise if I may give some advises ?
( just some 30 years of building carbon fiber and composite stuff behind me)
I suppose you are using epoxy resin ? so what kind of matt have you used ???? there is no matt stuff able to be correctly melted by resin epoxy ( matt is to be used more with polyester and vynilester
In between peel ply an breather cloth you need to use a special very light film named breather film and manufactured to prevent the white " coton" breather to absorbe resin and to stick to peel play ( what a work to undo !!)
It is only the peel ply who works as a regulator
when pouring resin never pour all your entire cup as you did because that area will absorb all and even with your brusches you can not distribute correctly on the total surface ( normally with clothes like the first you used resin is applied more with plactic cards and not brushes)
Apologise for all these advises but as am doing composite school now being retired all these advises are the one i try to explain to all composite students
who wants to achieve racing or flying vacuum molded parts
If you feel these are not for a use feel free to tell and I will cancel my post
Hope this helps
Have a good day and keep on your nice and good work:thumbsup:

 

[Mesa]

Oh THANKS Dave (maximum sarcasm) now you show me how to do things that work way better than what I have been doing. Of course I only need two more people, a bunch more materials, a vacuum and some weights too pull it off.

No, but really thanks for the effort.....now trying to make two new friends (as Ive ''used up'' all the old ones) that don't mind the smell of resin..... :

 

[Randy V]

Nice Video Dave! Nice RCR workbench in the background too! :thumbsup:

Yes, the torsional rigidty of the panels was increase exponentially!

No sound - don't have to bleep out all the eff'n-heimers!

 

[Dave Lindemann]

Thanks for the feedback guys.

Michel - Thank you very much for your input - no need to apologize or cancel your post at all, I appreciate your experience and your feedback! I used vinylester resin so no worries with the mat. It's interesting you mentioned the breather film because the lady in the video mentioned something similar. She did advanced composites for Nothwest/Delta Airlines. My fiberglass supplier recommended the materials I used and they came off the lay-up fine but point well taken. Another good point on pouring the resin too. We didn't appear to have any pooling of resin but what you are saying makes perfect sense.

Rob - You buy me a ticket and I'll come out to CA and help with your fiberglass projects anytime! Lets see it's 15F here now.........;-)

Randy.....we were sure not to put the resin on your car.......;-) Actually, the process went very smoothly and I don't think there was a single F-bomb - especially with a lady in the room! Any more progress on your car? The panel fitment and body ducting you've done so far are amazing. With you and Dave working on it I have no doubt your GT40 will have the straightest body on the road.

Dave L

 

[Randy V]

LOL.. Actually, it (GT40) needs a bit more resin in the tail where we added the new wide hip quarter panels.. Dave has worked wonders with the spider and doors and rear clip over the last week. A lot of filler material went on and a bunch came back off as he reshaped the contours of the car to match those of 1075.. The ducts are my own anal obsession as I hate things that are fake on my cars.. So thank you! .

You really need to consider having moulds made of your Europa. It will be one of the finest around.

 

[Michel]

Hello Dave

Ok thanks !!
Yes now I understand more the fact you used Matt ...OK
You where very luky t do vacuum process using vynilester because normally with 5 per cent catalyser the work start to cure so using peel ply and vacuum process taking time it's very difficult to proceed enought quickly !!
In this case I take my hat twice on the work you did !! Bravo again !!!

I have been on the net and the real english name for that film is :
"Perforated release vacuum film"
And it's very very cheap to buy ( this prevent to stick the "coton white stuff" and save it so you can reuse it twice

 

[Dave Lindemann]

So my first attempt at making a mold for the rear window was a semi-success. The mold turned out OK but since it wasn't a vacuum bagged lay-up it ended up with air pockets in the surface. While I could theoretically repair the defects I bit the bullet and decided to make a new mold.

I'm using a race tail that doesn't have the rear window cut out and the stock plexiglass window. One of the challenges is how to ensure the plexiglass retains the correct shape of the body opening. It tends to spread or lift off the body at the outer edges. In my first mold attempt I tried using double sided tape to hold it down with reasonable success but I wanted to try something different because trying to remove the tape was a pain.

I drilled 1/4" holes around the perimeter of the race tail window opening about an inch or two inside the edge, set-up a vacuum bag on the underside of the clam, layed two layers breather fabric in the window opening then placed the plexiglass window on top of the breather. I then layed heavy duty bag film over the plexiglass and applied vacuum. It drew the plexiglass down hard onto the body - perfect!

I then did the lay-up starting with a light weight mat then 3 layers of heavy mat and vacuum bagged it and that's where I'm at right now. The next step is to lay on foam core then 3 more layers of heavy mat all under vacuum. This should result in a very stout, smooth mold.

Dave L

 

[Randy V]

Nice job as usual Dave! :thumbsup: Practicing to make Europa moulds?