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SV Carbon Tank project for Zoran

Zierra said:
It's very good to see that you're back on the project.
We're a couple of SVRiders here in Denmark who've been following this thread for some time now, and we're very eager to see the completion of the carbon fuel tank.

Keep up the good work. :)
Click to expand...


Gold.
 
Zierra said:
It's very good to see that you're back on the project.
We're a couple of SVRiders here in Denmark who've been following this thread for some time now, and we're very eager to see the completion of the carbon fuel tank.

Keep up the good work.
Click to expand...
I'm one of them :)

So far I have just made a couple of the smaller parts such as heel plates and the tail light cover.
Somtime this fall I hope to be skilled enough to give the fuel tank a go.
 
Where is everyone getting the CF?
I asked Tap if they could get me some and they said they had no idea when they would get any more in.
 
I <3 Twins said:
Where is everyone getting the CF?
I asked Tap if they could get me some and they said they had no idea when they would get any more in.
Click to expand...

Depending on what you're building, some options exist. Try:
http://www.fibreglast.com/
They have 'uncertified' carbon fiber. For the non structural stuff most of us are doing, this would be fine.
The other thing I'm going to try is 'black' fiberglass. (Why the quotes, I wonder? What's special about black fiberglass...?)
Anyway, it's the look of carbon at half the price - and it's available.

Something to think about. I will confess that I got lucky and picked up a bunch of certified carbon fiber a number of months ago so Zoran will benefit from receiving nothing but the best.

The plug is almost ready so we can start on the top mold this week. Pics soon...!
 
Back to it!

Ok, so where was I? Oh, yeah - making a tank...
So, here we go. When we last worked on the project, we were about to make the production top mold. FINALLY got back to this in anger today. I finished the minor clean up on the plug so it's time for a splitter plate and some lay up.
But I decided to try a couple different things this time around. As before, a couple coats of wax, a coat of PVA and were ready to start.
First, I taped off an offset midline (?) to protect the plug. Remember, I want the splitter to run right down the middle of the tank and since the splitter plate will have width, I have to offset to one side.

2669647-p8260001.jpg
 
A little help from Mr. Jigsaw and we have a splitter plate. Here, I'm still rough fitting it - I'll trim it to a more manageble shape in just a second.

2669666-p8260005.jpg
 
Instead of the bondo trick I used last time, I decided to try a new/different approach. I hot glued the splitter plate to the taped area (in a few spots only) and I'll use modeling clay to fill the gaps. I think it'll be less messy and should yield a better result in that I can work it until it's where I want it. With the bondo, you kind of only get one shot. Here's the splitter glued on.
You'll notice I wrapped the splitter around to allow for the lip that we need to have so we'll have something to which we can bond the bottom section of the tank. It'll be more obvious what I'm talking about once I make the production part and start fitting the bottom to the top.
2669674-p8260007.jpg
 
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I suppose I should explain the piece of wood that's attached to the tank.
I want to hold the plug more securely when making production molds so I attached a 2x4 to the underside with a few wood screws. It lets me position the tank most any way I want - I just use some C-clamps or a vise and I can get to whatever I need to without the plug moving around, etc. Here it is kinda just jammed into my work cart...

2669683-p8260006.jpg
 
...and here it is showing the full splitter plate and how it wraps around to help support the needed top-to-bottom pieces bonding flange.

2669686-p8260007.jpg
 
Here's a shot that attempts to show the result of using the modeling clay to fill the splitter plate gaps. I got the clay at a local art supply store and just crammed it into the gaps then used one of the popsicle/mixing sticks to trim it even with the wall of the splitter. It was faster and easier than the bondo approach. We'll have to see how well it works! It looks pretty good to me so I'm confident it'll be fine.
Once I clayed up the gaps, I waxed and PVA'd the splitter, clay and rest of the tank.

2669692-p8260008.jpg
 
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One plug with clayed splitter gap all waxed, PVA'd and ready to go.
See how that 2x4 lets me clamp the whole assembly to the cart and hold it in a nice level position for mold layup?
Pretty good idea, if you ask me. I can access everything with ease.

2669700-p8260009.jpg
 
About 45 minutes later, here's the first half of our production top mold in cure state.
Notice how the underside edge of the tank is also part of the top mold. Now you can see why I needed to wrap the splitter around and underneath at the front and back.
And see how easy it is to get at everything? Much easier than trying to do this work with the plug balanced and proped with stuff. Plus I don't have to worry about the other side of the plug being damaged from sitting on anything.

2669705-p8260011.jpg
 
And here's the top side.
I rolled the whole cart into the drive way to give it a bit of the ol' 'Solar Cure'.
(Hey, that'd be a good name for a rock band...)
Late tomorrow, I should be able to knock the splitter off and lay up the other half of the top mod.

Next, the real fun begins - layup of the production carbon top of the tank. And all sorts of exciting stuff awaits after that: adding the vent system and mounts for the petcock, cutting the hole for the gas cap and bonding that in...
Then bonding top to bottom and making the mounting system. That stuff actually goes pretty fast so Zoran just may ride with a carbon tank before this season ends!

2669715-p8260010.jpg
 
The solar cure did it's thing so I was able to get an earlier start that I'd expected. Or maybe the passing of another year has done nothing for my patience... :p
No worries, the part was nice and set up.

And let me say I'm sorry for the repetition of some of these steps - I'll be skipping some of the details so if you want the whole story on the mold making steps, take a look back in this thread at how we made the splash mold. It's all the same steps. I did use a couple different techniques (clay instead of bondo to seal the splitter) but the overall process is samey-same.
So anyway, I carefully removed the splitter plate, doing all I could to retain the seal between the mold and the plug. The results are quite nice. I think I'll defaut to the clay approach going forward. But the bondo method is a tool we have in the box for those cases when it's the best way to go.

So, here it is with the splitter removed. And as soon as I removed the splitter, I made those black dots on the mold flange. What's that about, you ask? :confused
Prior to laying up the other half of the mold, they remind me to drill the mold locking points that we need to align the mold halves (see earlier posts for more details). It would suck big time if I forgot to drill these countersinks as we'd likely end up with a 1/2 side offset carbon tank!
On the other hand, that really would be one-of-a-kind...

2670375-p8270002.jpg
 
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With the locking points drilled, everything waxed and PVA'd and about an hour of layup later, (hey, I started this at about 7:00 this morning and was still on my first cup...) here's the whole production top mold in cure state. Gotta love that 2x4 fixture stand!

It's still foggy up here in Petaluma so no solar help until later today.

2670385-p8270003.jpg
 
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