Started in on sanding the hood and let me tell you this, tooling gel gets hard AF! I started off with my 400grit sanding block and quickly went down to 60. You are looking at 3.5hrs of sanding. There's a LOT more sanding to go as well. I'm going to try doing some surgical hits with the death wheel tonight to reduce arm fatigue. I will also need to do a skim coat in almost all the areas and do another knockdown with fine grit. Eventually I will make it up to 1500 wet sanding. Last step is polishing, distant horizon at this rate. Like I said, this mould is workable and will take a lot of work.
If anyone is curious about the weight of the mould, the weight is around 75 -100lbs. lol
This Saturday I'm going to start in on making the cowl. I'll need to come up with a bone structure made out of wood. It will look similar to the cardboard structure I made previously but have widths as well as height. The wooden structure will give me stop points for my tungsten carbide sanding block.
Cardboard will sit around the wood structure and on top while it is sitting on the hood. This will allow the foam to take the shape of the hood, encapsulate the wood structure and then rise up to the top of the cardboard. Relief holes will be cut into the top of the cardboard so that the expanding foam doesn't bust through like the Kool-aid man.
The cowl needs to come in close to perfection. I'm glad I started with my hood and have worked through all the repairs. I've seen with my own eyes and connected the dots why certain aspects went well and other items turned out like garbage.
Most important of all, I've always wanted to make a meaningful composite part stretching myself into new areas. Honestly, I can't suggest starting on a hood. Personally, I go head first into projects so it is what it is; however, I think that's been well f*cking established how far I'll go off the beaten path.
Good thing I have the hood because I am currently waiting on my order of wastegates, blow off valves, couplers and v-bands. The wastegates, BOV and couplers are all VSRacing. VSRacing recently had a design change and look REALLY nice. The shop bought a few for a twin turbo sandrail and was able to inspect them before I ordered. Vband clamps... That has got to be one of the biggest kicks to the balls. Ordering a handful of clamps was a rude awakening.
Guess my post is a little bit wordy today yet needed. Hopefully you can see the same path forward as I'm seeing.
