Engine Panels Painted

Posted on by Tim Neil

I was able to get more done today than I thought.. I actually had to re-build the one area near where the turbo is. The plastic used as a base had started to warp from the heat.

So I recreated it out of fiberglass so that it wouldn’t warp again. I managed to get everything smoothed out and shot with primer.

Then I thought of something that a couple people have said who have seen my car in person since I did the panels. Their comments were to paint the panels the same flat/textured color as my exterior. It would give even more of a “shaved” look and would also really set off the polished pieces in the engine bay against the flat backdrop.

Well, I did just that

It might be a bit hard to keep clean, but we’ll see how she holds up. I also painted my “info stand” for use at car shows. Now I just need to whip up a sign in Gimp 🙂

Closer to finishing Panels

Posted on by Tim Neil

I was able to sand down the panels today.. couldn’t spray them with primer because it was raining. Man I had to use a lot of “GooGone” to get all that adhesive off of the one that I tried to put the CF on

But I’ve got them 200 grit smooth with pin-holes.. So I’m going to hit it up with a primer guide coat and do a bit more sanding.. fill in the pin-holes with some putty and prime them up for good.

Hopefully I’ll have some pics tomorrow. I’m hoping to get them finished off tomorrow and ready for paint. That will be my birthday present to myself

Turning 35 tomorrow….

Change of Plans

Posted on by Tim Neil

I’ve discovered that this is too complex of a piece for me to do my first carbon fiber work on. I’m having a hard time figuring out how I’ll get everything to work on the complex shape. I’ve got a ton of hours in those two pieces and I don’t want to mess them up.

Instead I’ll be sanding them down smooth as ice and getting them color matched to my engine bay gloss metallic gray color.

I’m going to try out my Carbon Fiber work on some smaller pieces after I get these panels smoothed and painted.

Starting with Carbon Fiber

Posted on by Tim Neil

OK.. I was able to get started today.. I pulled the panels out of the car and made the templates out of fabric so that I had something to go by…

Since I am just covering the panels and not making molds, I will be gluing the CF twill onto the fiberglass. I’ll be airbrushing with a candy black where the seams of the fabric meet so that you won’t see the joints

Below you will see my template making. Then I cut out the CF based on the template, applied the glue to both the area to get the cloth as well as the back of the cloth and laid it on.

I quickly realized that I’m going to need a second set of hands to finish this off, so I just did the one piece today. One nice side effect is that when you let the glue sit on the cloth for about 30 seconds it makes it so that it will not unravel. It makes it much easier to handle.

After everything is glued, I’ll be applying a couple of coats of crystal clear epoxy resin on top.. Then sand it down smooth, polish and then airbrush and clear coat

This is similar to how the surf board guys do it too.