Making progress on my build...

[beeman]

The beauty of 3D printing? Symmetry! I'm pretty happy with my analog hood fabrication, it wasn't very far off from symmetry to the driver side, as the printed fascia makes evident. Just a little trim will make it perfect!

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[beeman]

Started making a cubby for phone, Etc



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[beeman]

Tweaked the air inlet, 30mm bigger, which matches the hood line better and will allow more direct air to the radiator.

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[VRaptor SpeedWorks, LLC]

Very cool progress! Those door latches look like they should work great!

[beeman]

Cubby with cupholder (designed specifically for a 16.9oz plastic water bottle only) and Magsafe phone charger mount. Ditching the tablet, navigation and entertainment will be phone-based.

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[beeman]

Let me know if anyone wants my scans of the passenger and driver side intakes (STL files). Gen-1, but probably same as Gen-2? Threw this together this afternoon, it's on the printer now.

[beeman]

Not bad for a prototype. Thoughts?

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[doug_porsche]

Curious. Are you going to be scanning the rear quarter windows. Not the door glass but the window (potential engine vent) just behind the doors?

[beeman]

Curious. Are you going to be scanning the rear quarter windows. Not the door glass but the window (potential engine vent) just behind the doors?

This?

https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/show...l=1#post574366

[crash]

The side vents look great. Definitely an area that makes the car look unfinished or like a kit car if done wrong.

[Ajzride]

Not bad for a prototype. Thoughts?

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I do like these. Very similar to my plans.

[VRaptor SpeedWorks, LLC]

Yes.....Gen I and Gen II side scoop areas are the same.....or at least enough the same that I can't tell the difference when installing my louvers there.

[beeman]

GTM has side intake similar to McLaren, may throw together a scoop type intake an see how it looks...

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[crash]

Actually the GTM is almost identical to a Porsche GT side intake...DSC_3854-64503-scaled-1.jpg

I saw one in person and it struck me how identical the GT is to the GTM. I guess if it's good enough for a $2M Porsche it should be good enough for the GTM.

I do like your louvers though.

[beeman]

[VRaptor SpeedWorks, LLC]

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I designed and made the mould.....shipped the mould out to the place who was making all of my CF parts.....and the business switched owners, went bankrupt and the moulds are gone.....

[beeman]

Shane I forgot you had those, they look perfect for a scoop style. Are you still seeing a market for selling GTM body parts? Not sure how many GTMs are still being built.

[VRaptor SpeedWorks, LLC]

I still sell some GTM parts every once in a while.....but no where near like 10 years ago.....of course.

[beeman]

Relatively shallow frunk makes it difficult to find a pair of hood struts that are long enough to give plenty of hood lift for frunk access, yet collapses enough to fit under the closed hood. Then you have to figure out the lift pressure needed (20N to 200+N...my hood is light but it's hard to find tall gas springs that aren't high N). Then the packaging issues through the range of motion of the gas spring,especially with targa roof storage in the frunk.
So I designed a twin strut around 8mm carbon fiber tubes. Fairly straightforward CAD design of pivoting mounts on the 1.5" chassis round tube, T's to connect the parallel tubes, and "sockets" that capture the rods on the under surface of the hood. The entire unit is weighed in grams, I'd wager this system weighs less than 1/10 what a pair of gas springs with associated hardware would weigh.



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[beeman]

One benefit of 3D modeling is that Fusion can give you a cross section of any part of your model. Will be making a 3-part mould of the bumper, simple to print the parting flanges, which fit the bumper perfectly.

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Front wheel well liners made from 050 aluminum, minimum 1/2" clearance at full lock.

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Of course, the never ending side projects...or is the GTM the side project

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[VRaptor SpeedWorks, LLC]

Cool Stuff!

[Shoeless]

Some cool progress!!!

[beeman]

Threw together a glove box to replace the hole where the passenger side airbag was removed from the donor dashboard.

[beeman]

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[Ajzride]

comning along nicely. I'm jealous of your 3D scanner.

[Shoeless]

I am totally digging that front end look!!! This is really coming together nicely!!!

[beeman]

Radiator ducting on the printer now, it is simply a sacrificial buck (205g of PLA filament, maybe $2 worth) that the fiberglass will be laid over, then peeled off the inside leaving the fiberglass duct.



Going to make a mould of the front fascia, which required laying up a thin layer of fiberglass over the print, will sand/fill/spray epoxy the pull a mould.

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[beeman]

Finished the other side of the rear trunk. Between 2 rear trunks and a frunk, way too much baggage area in this particular GTM...

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The C5 trunk latch mechanism was too nice to throw in the junk pile. Power release, built-in "unlatched" indicator light circuit for dash warning LED, and cable backup if solenoid fails. Glassed in the precut areas of the rear hatch for trunk coverage, open central area to allow heat off the exhaust. I'm going to draw up louvers over the exhaust for Shane @vraptor to custom plasma cut for me. Getting spoiler positioned for bonding to rear hatch.

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[beeman]

Divided rear hatch into 2 parts previously. With re-routing the exhaust for central exit, no good place for a latch on the larger engine hatch. Glassed a flange that sits under the trunk hatch, trunk hatch now holds the engine hatch closed so no 2nd latch needed. Worked out well.

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[crash]

Just to maybe give a recommendation for a couple of things on the moulds...

If you are planning on vacuum bagging it is quite helpful to extend a lip all the way around the outside of the part so the mould has a place for the vacuum bag to fasten to. Also, if it were me, I would build up the mould quite a bit with layers of FG and maybe even some ribbing to make sure the shape stays correct when making parts from the moulds.

Did you use gel coat before laying down the FG or just straight FG onto the plug?

Great to see your progress. Thanks for sharing.

[beeman]

Just to maybe give a recommendation for a couple of things on the moulds...

If you are planning on vacuum bagging it is quite helpful to extend a lip all the way around the outside of the part so the mould has a place for the vacuum bag to fasten to. Also, if it were me, I would build up the mould quite a bit with layers of FG and maybe even some ribbing to make sure the shape stays correct when making parts from the moulds.

Did you use gel coat before laying down the FG or just straight FG onto the plug?

Great to see your progress. Thanks for sharing.

I'm on the same page with your recommendations. Up to this point, wanted to give a better preparation surface to the 3D printed fascia, basically reinforcing the 3D printed plastic fascia with a little bit of fiberglass to give it more strength and a better surface to prepare for pulling a mould, then pull a mould off of this using traditional techniques. Not sure if I will vacuum bag, I've never done that before.

[VRaptor SpeedWorks, LLC]

Nice progress!!

[beeman]

It is pretty cool that you can three-dimensionally design this on a computer based on a 3D scan, print it, and it fits like you were right there designing it on the vehicle. But you can't really design a duct like this on the car, because you need to know where the duct meets both the radiator and the duct opening in the fascia. With the CAD software, you can show and hide both the radiator and the fascia, working with both of these in their anatomic positions in the car.

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[beeman]

The further down the rabbit hole you go, the tighter things get! Installing the Aerocatch hood locks. Not much space between the stored targa roof, hood prop base, radiator, and headlight but it's barely going to work!

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Finalizing fitment of the front fascia with the radiator ducting.

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[crash]

I got a set of those and looked into using them on the FFR PDG GTM race car, but they just didn't work out for a number of reasons. The front pins we leave long so we can remove the splitter and then prop the hood up on the long pins to get ground clearance when loading the car into the trailer, and on the rear deck the pins don't interface the deck perpendicular. Then there is the space issue you mentioned. I think the Aerocatch latches are cleaner once installed, but they are not an easy retrofit to a GTM...or at least our race GTM as it sits.

[beeman]

I got a set of those and looked into using them on the FFR PDG GTM race car, but they just didn't work out for a number of reasons. The front pins we leave long so we can remove the splitter and then prop the hood up on the long pins to get ground clearance when loading the car into the trailer, and on the rear deck the pins don't interface the deck perpendicular. Then there is the space issue you mentioned. I think the Aerocatch latches are cleaner once installed, but they are not an easy retrofit to a GTM...or at least our race GTM as it sits.

Makes sense. You probably did not have the hood hinged on the race car? I went with Aerocatch for a couple of reasons. I wanted more fixation of the front of this hood (at speed) than a single latch in the middle. Secondly, I did not have a good way of initially lifting the hood /getting my fingers under the edge of the hood to start lifting it, the pair of Aerocatch's lets me use the latches to lift to start opening the hood.

What's the latest with the PDG GTM? I miss the race updates.

[VRaptor SpeedWorks, LLC]

I've had the same issues as Crash on those latches. I'd say they are meant to be used on something where there's no hinge and the hood can be lifted straight up off the vehicle. Once you try to use them with anything hinged....where the latched area doesn't move straight/vertical away from the latch, they're a real PITA.

Another issue I've had with almost all of them is that they work on a cam-action that pushes that pin thru the hole in the "striker".....and the way they're designed, they get jammed up to where that sliding cam action won't work.....and you have to reach down in there with some needle-nose pliers or some thing in order to get the pin to begin to move before you can get the latch handle to finish the job.

[crash]

What's the latest with the PDG GTM? I miss the race updates.

We had an incident a year or so ago where a driver that had rented the car found a tire wall. I then had a couple of family issues to deal with and the car has not been out of the trailer since that incident.

Good news is that Dave Smith and crew at FFR are helping with some of the body work/graphix/etc. and I am building a new engine/gearbox/brake package with ABS to run a 12 hour race this year in September. Lots of work going on, and we are going to derate the horsepower a bit and try some new stuff in the transaxle. I wanted to get a Gleason into the transaxle, but doesn't look like that will happen, but we are looking at alternatives.

I have been upgrading the trailer and communications for the race team so all the crew can have radios and know what is going on.

It really doesn't seem like the crash damage was that bad as the car drove into the trailer under it's own power and did not have any fluid leaks. Will have to measure everything though to make sure.

I'll get a thread going here soon about the rebuild project.

[beeman]

I've had the same issues as Crash on those latches. I'd say they are meant to be used on something where there's no hinge and the hood can be lifted straight up off the vehicle. Once you try to use them with anything hinged....where the latched area doesn't move straight/vertical away from the latch, they're a real PITA.

Another issue I've had with almost all of them is that they work on a cam-action that pushes that pin thru the hole in the "striker".....and the way they're designed, they get jammed up to where that sliding cam action won't work.....and you have to reach down in there with some needle-nose pliers or some thing in order to get the pin to begin to move before you can get the latch handle to finish the job.

I've only drilled a guide hole so far... is there a better option? I like that this captures/sandwiches the hood fiberglass within the devise, seems stouter than bonding a catch to the underside of the fiberglass that could delaminate at speed

[beeman]

I'll get a thread going here soon about the rebuild project.

Looking forward this! Sorry about the mishap...