917 Scratch Build

[Chris Huck]

Chris,

I have a pattern for the sides of the 917 seats and can mail it to you if you like. It was derived from Porsche blueprints and could save you some time. Fabrication pics for the seats are in this flickr set: 917 Porsche - Body Fabrication - a set on Flickr

Dan C

Hi Dan,
Very kind of you to offer but I intend to make my own mould as the seat/seats will be slightly different to the original. Looks a fun project you have on the go with a keen eye for detail, is it going to be mobile/drivable? Won`t weigh a lot and looks lovely, I wish you luck.
regards Chris

 

Come On Chris give us an update, hows it progressing ?

 

[Chris Huck]

Hi Keith, slowly at the moment, am still busy with farm work due to the weather being so dire! However, we have got all the suspension geo sorted, just tweaking the CAD chassis and jig and about to get some uprights machined up, so work will comence with a vengance shortly!
regards Chris

 

[Michel]

Hello Chris
Concerning Infusion ; you need to evaluate well when deciding which lay you have
to use ; such as strand matt or roving or sometime biaxial clothes because doing infusion you reach a very tigth amount of resin and the result is ( beside the fact it's light) a composite much more fragile to solicitations and loads than one done by wet process
So you need absolutly to choice perfectly various clothes and use some unidirectional stripes laminated in some directions to help part to support loads or torsion depending what use they are
Yes there are some brand of vynilester resin specialy made for infusion ; these are much more" liquid" say less viscosity ratio so they run quickly into tubes and lamination stuff , they have too on the catayser one specific "promotorised" conpound that prevent any pic of harden or "exotermic accident" when done in summer !!
I will be very happy to help you more in giving you more composite tricks !! you have done an amazing project with a hight level of quality !!!
For you to know this is one of my last fabrication some 3 years ago working for a le mans car team !!

 

[Chris Huck]

Thanks Mic, I will have a bit more of a "dabble" with infusion on the next project and will make the moulds with a view to this, ie big flanges as the moulds for the 917, the flanges are marginal (made for wet layup).
Although I will be doing the seat mold for the 917 soon so I will make it suitable for resin infusion and have a go.
Regarding the 917, it`s coming along, we are just going through the stages of "productionising" it as I never originally intended to make more than a couple, this is taking some time!
The first "works" chassis has been laser cut and is currently being welded up, uprights all done, susp mounts/geo all done, Marcel is just doing all the various brackets/fixtures and fittings in CAD in order to have them laser cut. 2nd chassis will be cut very shortly (which will be mine) doing another chassis for myself will mean any moulded panels (ie interior paneling, rear arch liners etc etc) that I make will fit exactly all other chassis, hence the delay on any updates here!!!
But there will be plenty of updates shortly!!!

 

[Michel]

Hello Chris
Thanks for update ! Seems you are avery busy "Farmer Composite man " LOL

be carefull when doing your seat mold to do quite thick gelcoat and heavily impregnated with resin in order to be sure that doing vacuum process using flanges and not a whole bag you will not suffer leakage thru all the mold surface this giving you a poor level of vacuum ratio and a too slow resin suction.
from what I understand you are doing a lot of progress in doing all necessary improvments with Marcel on your "Kit project " and wish you many good success in this .
Have you yet did some test in building some poly carbonate parts for headlights or side windows ?
Have a good day

 

[Chris Huck]

Hi Mic, no not done any yet although have all the female and male shapes ready, got my heating elements sorted, just need to make a vacuum box to form them, will have a play when my workload eases.
P.S I like the LMP car, very nice!!!!!!

 

[briant70]

Hi mic, what type of car was that in carbon fiber? It looks great. thanks brian

 

[Michel]

This was a Spanich project for Le mans 2008 and we had to built 2 cars in Prepeg carbon fiber .

 

[Jan K]

This was a Spanich project for Le mans 2008 and we had to built 2 cars in Prepeg carbon fiber .

I know the Epsilon Euskadi project and that was big money and just the best of racing engineering.
https://www.google.es/search?q=epsilon+euskadi&hl=es&safe=off&tbo=u&tbm=isch&source=univ&sa=X&ei=eQcYUYOZG4-N0wWsz4GwBw&ved=0CEoQsAQ&biw=1024&bih=653#hl=es&safe=off&tbo=d&tbm=isch&q=epsilon+euskadi+instalaciones&revid=364427962&sa=X&ei=gwcYUe7PBs3J0AXx_oH4Bg&ved=0CGgQgxY&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.r_qf.&bvm=bv.42080656,d.d2k&fp=a0f8453a6b396bf1&biw=1024&bih=653

 

[46porsche]

Hello Chris, I am working on a similar project but much simpler and for a very different car, a 550 Porsche style roadster. You can see it here:

El Roadster de Fabricante

Although my car will be aluminum, I would like to have a full model rather than a buck, just to see better how the shapes work.

Could you please tell me what material did you use to fill your buck in the initial stages of your build? It looks like some sort of clay. Thank you!

 

[Chris Huck]

PM sent

 

[46porsche]

Thanks for the quick reply Chris! but Im sorry the message didn't seem to get trough, could you please send it again?

Congratulations about your project, it is just amazing.

 

[STEVEN]

Evening all, just thought I`d post some picies of my project. Am scratch building a 917, not a perfect replica but as close as I can get to it with the limited info/drawings available, I have also stretched the cockpit section 6 inches with the hope of moving the pedals back to the front wheel centre line and also to hopefully enable me to fit in the thing, I am 6ft 4 so thought it a good idea! Plan is to use Boxter S engine/box and running gear with spaceframe tube chassis and hope (if I can get E mark sorted on the windscreen) to get it road legal.

There are some other photos on flickr
917 Buck progress so far - a set on Flickr

PRICE FOR BODY AND A SET OF TUBES CUT AND NOTCHED FOR CHASSIS , MY OWN WELDER ETC. REAL DOLLARS REAL DEAL [ ENGINE PLANNED A HOME BREWED 4 ROTOR TO A 968 6SP ] :laugh:

 

[Chris Huck]

Hi Steven,
I personally am not dealing with pricing sales etc, I just do the creative work side of things but if you contact Marcel from Faroux Sportscars he will sort you out. His contact details can be found here
http://www.farouxsportscars.com/
regards Chris

 

[STEVEN]

Any chance of selling a body and tube set cut and notched not weled phaucility at gmail dot com steven great looking pull your assoc. Tube chassis looks great also

 

[Chris Huck]

Any chance of selling a body and tube set cut and notched not weled phaucility at gmail dot com steven great looking pull your assoc. Tube chassis looks great also

As I said previously, you need to speak to Marcel, I don`t handle sales I`m afraid. As an aside, how are you expecting to get the chassis straight and true and also the suspension mountings in the right place without a jig???? Curious!
The jig we use is CAD designed/laser cut to fit with all our tubes, it features all major locating points, susp mounts, roll hoop, door hinge mounts, steering rack mount location etc etc. Not every tube is notched and I can tell you there are 168 separate tubes for the chassis alone and that they weigh 76kg (depending on spec of steel used) excluding wishbones, so quite a complex set up.

 

[Chris Huck]

Well at long last I have some progress to report!!
Yesterday, Marcel arrived with a car full of laser cut CDS tubes and a jig on a trailer, so we got to work. I must say that amazed is an understatement on the way the tubes fitted together, I reckon a skilled tig welder could weld the tubes together without using filler rod!
Anyway some pics for you
Tubes, lots of tubes and more tubes!!

All tubes were numbered at the ends so we then knew which way round they would go (it was like a giant jigsaw puzzle!)

The picture below is of how we were this morning, the whole assembly process took a day and a half between the 2 of us. Here you can see the jig used, again laser cut and CAD designed, it is so accurate I am amazed to be honest.

A picture showing how good a fit we can get, I tig`d up the area below where the next tube would lie, so every joint will be welded.

And a picture of the frame as it is now, a few small tubes to go in on the inner sills and about 2 weeks of tig welding to do!

Overall I was and still am amazed how it went together, Marcel, you have done a fantastic job, many thanks. Am now looking forward to getting stuck into it again.
regards C

 

[Michel]

Hello Chris
yes indeed the work Marcel did on this chassis is absolutly on the same level you did the master and molds for bodywork !!!
Both of you are building up a nice new" kit" !!! I really hope to finish the 908 I promise to built with grandsons to start one of your 917 LOL
Yes you are right it's about 2 weeks and more to have all tig weldings done ( it takes me more than 100 hours and laser tube cut where done well as yours !!)

But this is only the starting because suspension and accessories brackets takes alot of time too ( it takes forme to draw in cad about 150 hours !!)

One more thing if this can help ; I did a steering rack in collaboration with Titan Uk and may be this one will suit correctly to your chassis ( this is acad view ) If needed I can send to you and Marcel a spec with dimensions for you to check if it matches to your need

 

[Chris Huck]

One more thing if this can help ; I did a steering rack in collaboration with Titan Uk and may be this one will suit correctly to your chassis ( this is acad view ) If needed I can send to you and Marcel a spec with dimensions for you to check if it matches to your need

Hi Mic, many thanks for the offer, Marcel has all the measurements we need for our suspension/rack set up, we were like you going to get in contact with Titan for a bespoke item to suit, chances are that ours will be different than yours??
regards Chris