Vintage race car parts

[Ken O.]

So I was put in contact with a local guy who has 4 vintage Brahbam BT-35 race cars. He wanted someone who could make replacement body pieces for him. They try to be careful but they still race hard and things get broken. So I borrowed a nose mold from him and made one part just to see how much it would take and figure out a price. He really liked the first part I made and already wants 5 more. So he will have a spare for each car. He has all the other molds for the body pieces so once I get the rest of these noses done we'll see what we can do about the rest of the car. Pretty fun. These were mostly fiberglass with 1 layer of carbon to add some stiffness.

[Rickysnickers]

Wow,nice!

[CG]

Nicely done. You should show the process of making these. I hear its a pretty messy job.

[Troy Sr]

Beautiful, you are an artist!!!

[Ken O.]

Originally Posted by CG

Nicely done. You should show the process of making these. I hear its a pretty messy job.

Thanks guys. I'll get some pictures once he gets the noses on the cars and painted. I actually do resin infusion which is all inside the
mold. It's very clean and very little odor. The only messy part was joining the top and bottom which was hand layed fiberglass. I'll do a video on the next one.

[jovibuilt]

Originally Posted by Ken O.

Thanks guys. I'll get some pictures once he gets the noses on the cars and painted. I actually do resin infusion which is all inside the
mold. It's very clean and very little odor. The only messy part was joining the top and bottom which was hand layed fiberglass. I'll do a video on the next one.

Please do. I bought out a company that made custom step side beds for mid sized trucks. I have all the molds and would like to make some when I retire in 4 years. So post a video of how you do it!!

[Ken O.]

Here is how I do my model boats. Same process but these are all carbon fiber. The pictures are layer by layer. First layer of 5.7 oz carbon, 2nd layer of carbon, 2mm Honeycomb core for stiffness. Then I added a little bit of ballistic Kevlar around the area where the removable cockpit will be. Then the 3rd layer of carbon. Then a white layer which is a nylon Peel ply. This is removed after the part is done and keeps the next layer and the bag from sticking to the part. Then the green flow mesh which helps the resin to flow across the part during the infusion process. ( The car parts are 5.7 oz fiberglass, 5.7 oz carbon, 2mm honeycomb, then 1 more layer of fiberglass) Then I put it in a vacuum bag. I do an envelope bag meaning that the mold and everything is inside the bag. A perimeter bag just goes around the outside edge of the mold. Then you turn on the vacuum pump and suck all the air out and look for any leaks. The pump should pull about 26-28 inches of vacuum if there are no leaks. Usually have to shift the bag around and get it down in all the corners so there is no bridging across gaps. Once that is all done then you mix up the resin and open the feed line. The resin is then sucked into the part and flows through the fabric. The nice thing about this system is that you get the optimal fabric/resin ratio. To some people it looks like it’s dry, like it didn’t get enough resin, but it’s ok. You don’t have a bunch of extra resin making your part heavy for no reason. Once the resin is cured the bag comes off, the green flow mesh and peel ply are removed and discarded. The peel ply leaves a nice textured finish that is easy to glue to later.

[Ken O.]

And more pictures with a video of the infusion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7_E7Lj0g9E