spyderdave

3. Finished the molds for the cockpit-area and the bonnet. Preparing the mold for the nose of the car for the laminate...again wax, polishing and PVA. Applying clear gelcoat as the first layer of the laminate to get a nice surface for the finished part without bubbles. Cutting the first layer of carbonfiber to the exact shape of the mold to achieve a nice look of the finished part and to avoid bubbles. The rest of the lay-up is done with simple stripes and bigger cut-to-fit patches of carbonfiber. There is a minimum of 3 layers of carbonfiber (180g/m2) all over the part. Some more stressed areas get 4 layers. The nose also gets a layer of carbon/kevlar mixed cloth. This stuff is amazing. You just can't cut it, believe me. I had to buy special scissors. It should give the finished part that extra bit of resistance...although the carbonfibre itself is extremely strong already.
The lay-up for the front bodypanel took some time...2 hours+...not including mixing the gelcoat, resin, wax and PVA. I tried to put the carbonfibre as exact and symmetrical into the mold as possible to avoid inner torsions while hardening because a deformation of the finished part would be the result.



@ AngryAsian: to achieve a symmetrical model i photoshopped some pics of the real Porsche RS Spyder to the size i needed. (top-view, front-view, side-views) Printed and glued to strong cardboard they were cut out along the most significant "lines" and attached to the block of foam to help and find the right dimensions. This made for an almost perfectly symmetrical model.