Homemade CFRP mid engine sports car

Feb update, been working on the some of the rear chassis parts. Three out of the four rear wishbones are done - more on those later, and finished the rear cross-members that the rear dampers mount to. These are wet layup cfrp with a high temperature resistant resin, again I used a 3d printed core to hold the metal insert tubes around the bolts in the right place, I find using 3d printed cores works really well. The layup is mostly UD, with some 45deg layers in there too. I'm aiming to get the rear wishbones done and on next month, then dig the door moulds out of the shed and move onto door making

gap between rear bodywork and springs and rear structure is SLIM .. might need some adjustment later



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Hi Paul
As usual very neat work !!!
Some question regarding this part ; did you thought that dampers will introduce loads not only at the angle they will have when fit to the wishbone but there will be also a residual load ( and apreciable in term of amount!!) pushing down the middle part of this crossmember .... Do you intend in the future to add some vertical braces to take account of this load ????
Hope in my "poor english terms" I have explain clearly my idea about this .....:rolleyes:
 
Hi Michel, the dampers are very close to horizontal, there is some downward load but calcs show the crossmembers should be fine for bending

I've been working on the rear wishbones as they are small enough to bag up and take indoors to cure in this cold weather, finished them all now. Thankfully they all fitted to the tub OK, making parts by hand always makes me worry about tolerances.

In other work i've been busy designing the details of the door frame for hinge and gas strut attachments (doors are next). Unfortunately i've discovered there's a been a design error with the tub, not enough clearance for the rear springs, so going to need to fix that so will set me back a few weeks

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