383

I made a wing!!
This one is 78" but I can make up to 84" 😂

Mcrider

Is this for your car, race, street, both?

383

Well, its becoming more of a race car every year

KnightDriveTV

What method did you use. Did you make a buck and seam the mold in two halfs or what? Just curious. What weight do you have there, do you know? Internal full width spar or? Do show, do show!

383

I had a foam plug made to my specs then epoxy and primered it, polished it nice. Then 2 halves for skin molds .Then I made the skins and formed my inner spars and perpendicular supports .I call them fish lol . Once all the parts are made and cut I bonded everything together .
I'm actually going to modify the inner parts a bit for ease of manufacture but pretty much done.
I've been working on this since about Nov .
The skins are 4layers 5.7 1 layer 20oz uni directional and the spars are 45°x45° biaxial 12oz
the fish are multi layers of 5.7 and biaxial .
I haven't stood on it yet but I'd bet I could park a truck on it .

KnightDriveTV

Wow...quite a process. You have an msrp target when the time comes?

383

yes and that # just keeps climbing. The hardware to mount my uprights alone was $40!!
without actually adding everything right yet I'm guessing just a wing with endplates will be around 2k .Hopefully my Local waterjet guy doesn't charge too much to cut the uprights .

KnightDriveTV

Yeah, figured as much. Tough to make something legit much more affordable than that, especially in low production. I have found a pretty cheap 72" fiberglass piece that some people I know have run with great results. It's no mega quality piece, but for a budget track beast, it does work....550.00.

It's not a product I'd lead off with personally. You make other carbon parts?

383

I make a few things, splitter, splitter tunnels, hood vent and now this big boy wing .

KnightDriveTV

Nice...I've done a lot of composite stuff over the past 15 or so years. I want to create some new products and do vacuum infusion/low production. I never got big into mold making though...did a lot of overlays, flat panels, and very crude molds. I want to step my game up though in the short future and offer some things I have in mind.

Just was curious what you're up to...lol. 2k is a pretty good price overall though, looks like the quality will be there.

383

Thanks man .The wing has been a mile stone sorta thing for me .Feels like I'm going from street tires to Hoosiers ya know lol
taking your time with the mold is the tough part. The infusion is the easy part

KnightDriveTV

Yeah, I've attempted a few molds in the past, but I've had too much movement and I need something low production worthy. Can you give some advice on what is best for the mold? I have tried (and failed) with quite a bit...lol. I'm thinking polyester resin and 1 1/2oz chopped strand mat, but how many layers to be good?

383

I gave up on poly it stinks and it sucks to work with and you have to be so precise with the hardener or it will kick on you too soon. I switched over to a epoxy surface coat and epoxy molds. You can use a hardener that gives you 15 minutes or one that gives you 60 minutes depending on the part you're making then once it tacks lay epoxy and fiberglass I usually do two or three layers of 6 oz to prevent print through and then four or five layers of 10 ounce at least that gives a pretty stout mold depending on the shape and size obviously
premium resin tech has great stuff and he stands behind his product . I made a mistake on one of my molds and asked him about it he asked for a sample and I sent him a sample of the mold off of a corner and in the meantime he sent me over $500 of materials just to remake the mold before he even figured out what was wrong.
He's out of Michigan too so no overseas crap .

KnightDriveTV

Oh wow...that's pretty solid. I've been using west system stuff for epoxy. I just go too thin on the molds. I'm always sweatin that resin use...lol. Making a solid mold is pricey as f***

383

West system is your 1st problem. That stuff is an old formula of epoxy and very expensive. Look at US Composites for more affordable epoxies I think a gallon goes for around 75 bucks I won't typically pay more than $120 for a gallon it's about the same for surface codes too .
I use soller composites for my Fabrics. Pretty reasonable .I love their 820 infusion epoxy too .Thin, flows well, long pot life and "UV stable" whatever that actually means .

KnightDriveTV

Man, thanks for the tips. I'm hoping to jump in on a few project ideas this summer and really am going to make a more concerted and serious go at it. It's hard to find experienced advise I've found, and the internet is littered with trash info mixed in with the good.

I clearly need to re-assess.

Racer86

What Naca profile did you use?

383

a slight variation of the MSHD not sure if it's a NACA but FSAE teams used it and it has quite a bit of cfd already done on it it has a trailing edge stall so it doesn't fall off a cliff so to speak.
I'm also going to make a 12" chord with much less camber and test back to back to see some real world differences.

KnightDriveTV

Sweet....document that testing process and make a video...would love to see some good fun.

'12GS

What chord length does that wing have? Looks pretty big. 14"? A 14"x84" wing would make some insane downforce I am sure.