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Not yet but I've got a plan. Blue board cut and filed to shape. Painted smooth and then pull a mould off it. Then lay it up in anything you like, polyester and fibreglass, epoxy and fibreglass, Kevlar, or carbon.
It's pretty easy if you are patient.
You can use polystyrene but you must use epoxy on it. Polyester will dissolve polystyrene.
I like to make a mould because it faithfully reproduces the original.
If you are in Melbourne you can get all you need from Cray Valley. They are in Queensbury street in North Melbourne.
I've been playing with vacuum bagging and oven curing for a few years now. Just don't have time right now.
I only just realised you're in vic.
Apart of the PFA? should join if not..
IICE polyurethane foam is the one you use with fiberglass and resin.
I jjust want to make it once and be done with it. I also want to make a piece out of something to go under the rad and intercooler also.
I have made two of them for my Turbo. The first used foam with fiberglass and epoxy resin so as not to react with the foam as noted. I extended it down slightly to put it lower to the ground using a spacer made of foam and glassed like the rest of the splitter.
The second iteration used a piece of 1/4 inch plywood glassed over with polyester resin. This was a lot simpler to make and if damaged, much easier to replace. It did require a more robust tether system to keep it from flexing while at speed.
Both turned out well. I think the foam method would work better for a street car since it is a bit more finished and could be made to blend with the body lines better.
I've made a few in Solidworks based on the NA front end, but haven't had any made yet. I wanted to 3D print one (in small sections, and join them) but haven't had the time or the resources.
(so if anyone has access to a 3D printer and wants to make some money...)
This one was heavily influenced by the FOHA lip, I have a couple others that are slightly different.
I like your 3D model! Complex curves like that can be tricky to accomplish in 3D CAD software.
If you need something 3D printed I would contact Cy 3D printing.
I worked in 3D printing for a while and we worked closely with them because they had the same machine as us. The ProX500 that they have is currently the best printer on the market for production grade parts.
Just a heads up though, 3D printing anything no matter what printer you use is extremely expensive. A part the size of that splitter would cost upwards of $1800 on that machine and would still require that it be printed in pieces and assembled. MakerBot type machines can do it cheaper but the final part would require a lot of finish work to achieve the same smoothness as a better machine and there would be 5x as many parts to assemble.
If you are creating it to take a mold for production and turn a profit then that kind of money isn't bad as an initial investment. If it's just a one off thing for yourself though it may be cheaper finding someone with a large CNC router and have it cut from foam or clay for a mold to be made.
We allegedly have a few 3D printers at the university I attend, but it's pretty hard to get access to them. I had a plan where I would do it in 8 pieces and join them, sand, and plastidip... but I agree, I need to find a better way to do it.
11-18-2014, 07:53 AM
