The V8 Owners Forum -

There are boats and boats, those made by cougar marine and the like are fascinating pieces of engineering with stupid power outputs, great to watch and hear. An elegent j class in pitch pine and teak are beautiful works of art, However those gin palaces that get reversed into things to me are about as stylish and desirable as an audi Q7 and say all that is needed about the owner . Howeve whoever if they keep reversing them into the dock and pay the repair bill on time who cares what they drive! At least they aren't bashing up somthing nice.
Best of luck with the rush job.
Best regards
Mike

Hi Mike
Could.nt agree more.
A traditional wooden schooner or tall ship is far nicer than the Tupperware pots that we work on but grp is what we do and that is what pays the bills.
A round of the powerboat F1 has been held down here for the past couple of years and we have been lucky enough to see them testing on occassion and they are just awesome bits of engineering.
150mph on the water is incredible to witness and that is just test speeds!
Would'nt like to take the physical pounding the helm and throttle men go through though.
Apparently they pass blood for days afterwards.
We are going to need all the luck we can get with this rush job as the boat is scheduled to be on its way to Thailand Monday week and once we have rebuilt then a ton of other work has to be done refitting evrything prior to re launch.
Guess there won't be much sleep coming our way for a while
Cheers
Paul

Hi
I used to sail dingys out the Hamble river on the solent, we sailed out past cougars every time, sometimes they would bring the boats out for testing, what a sound when they got going, 4 big blocks on full chat. they did not manover very well when off the plane, it was a funny site watching someone on the bow with a paddle trying to get the front end round to the jetty when they came in at low tide .
Good luck with the repair job, should be good for the overtime cheque.
Mike

Overtime?
That would be so good.
The only one getting one getting extra dosh will be my son who works for the business.
I'll just be on my normal 2 groats a week guvnor!
cheers
P

Hi All
Following the disasterous flood in my garage last weekend I now find myself back to square one.
There was so much water in there it flowed all around the splitter and over the filler before it started to float, it has completely blown the filler and destroyed the timber base board,it now looks like a huge messed up banana,bugger
Ah well stuff happens.
I will try to get this going again really soon and keep all of those interested updated.
cheers for now
Paul

What a bugger. At least you hadn't just finished it or spent too much money on it by that point..?!!!!! Looking foreward to mk2!

MrGellmonkey, Bad news about the flood, you have my sympathy,
Im sure you will be back to where you were in a very short time
Changing the subject a bit, Carbon Fibre, I have done some bits before, using Cold Epoxy, I have intentions of making some panel skins in Carbon or Kevlar, is there a Gel Coat that can be used for Epoxy, or am I better off laying it up using polyester,

Hi Ian
Thanks for your kind words and yes I will be back to the moulding stage soon.
Re your carbon question
I would advise that you use an epoxy stable varnish on your moulds first before you lay up,this will give you the clearest veiw of the laminate underneath and is very strong.
I can make enquiries for you regarding which varnish if you would like me too.
Regarding a polyester lay up it depends on what kind of finish you are after.You can get a very acceptable/glass finish with coloured gels as you will probably know.
If you are going to paint over the skins then cost wise I would say poly every time.
If you need strength and ligthness then you could use a diagonap laminate and a layer of CSM over the top all in polyester
Do you have the moulds already or do you have to make these first?
If I can be of any help then just ask and I will do my best for you.
Cheers
Paul

Hi Guys
Well Mk2 is at the stage for moulding now.
The temperatures are back up to a reasonable level and I can carry on with this project.
Everything has been done as per MK1 so I now find myself at the fun part.
The timber that was left from the sheet was kept and this has been used as a fence for the moulding stage.
As you can see the joints have been filled with plasticine and trimmed flat to the splitters leading edge.Plasticine is used as gel coat will not stick to it,will not shrink whilst the gel is curing and is very easy to shape.
I have coated the front face of the splitter with 7 coats of mould release wax so that when its time for the mould to be released it will come away easily without damage.
Because the front edge of the splitter has a tight 10mm radius I have chosen to make this a 3 part mould so that it will be simple to laminate and final finish.





I have used breeze blocks to hold everything flat whilst the mould is being made.

I have then gelcoated the entire front face a total of three times and allowed for curing and shrinkage between each coat (approx 12 hrs)






The next stage is to do the actual laminating and I will use chopped strand matting for this.
It is cheap,easy to use and absorbs the polyester resin well and is perfect for a mould of this type.
I have used a light grey gel for the mould as I will be using black gel for the final item and this will show a good deliniation line between the mould and the splitter itself.
If it was all the same colour it would be difficult to see the joint between the mould and the panel and there would be no clear place to start the separation process.
Fibreglassing photos and more of my drivel next then....
Cheers
Paul

Hi All
Laminating then.....

First off was to cut some strips of glass and then feather the edges at the short ends...





In doing this you get no overlap on the joints which will cause hot spots on the mould which will cause an uneven cure rate and probably shrinkage and twisting even though the 'moulding plug' is held down by the blocks.
You just butt the ends together very closely and when rollered you squish the sections into each other.



The corners take a little time to do nicely as you have to wet the glass out and dress it into the shape of the plug but it is quite easy to do.
The idea is not to panic when the top of the glass creases up,you just need to work it gently....



Once you have covered the whole thing lay on the next layer of glass and repeat the above until you end up with something looking like this....



You can see that there are areas of light and dark in the laminate at this stage

Then you start to roller out the glass without pressing too hard,this draws the resin through from the underlying laminates and gets rid of any air bubbles trapped in the resin and this makes it very strong.







Once you have rollered out the whole thing it ends up looking like this



The resin I have used is a marine grade, high strength polyester resin (because this is what we use for work)but ordinary poly resin works just fine too.



I will leave this to cure now for a couple of days and then trim it down on the top edge and then flip it over,take the fence off and then laminate the bottom section.
Do take notes as I will be asking quetions at the end of the lesson..
Cheers
Gelmonkey

Damn, if that was mine I'd be ecstatic and wouldn't bother using it as a mould- if would be on the car Nice work Mr

Cheers Tom
Thanks for that.
P

So err- think it would fit the mazda?? ?????

I might be talking to you about one for the maverick when I get going on it though, will want one like this http://www.musclecarsociety.com/files/f ... verick.jpg

Hi Tom
Just like that or slightly different?
Piece of wee either way though....can do for you ok.
What year is your MX and do you have any photos from the front and from wheel arch forwards please?
Cheers
P

It would be very similar, will have to find some more pics as the guy who owns that car is on the maverick forum I have just joined, doesn't look like a very good fit at the ends but thats minor.

With regards to the mx5 I wasn't really over fussed about one and they pop up on ebay now and again, its a funny little shaped one with vents.