The Front Wings, Rear Inner Wings, Aluminium Wing Caps and some filler has been completed. During the first week in Feb we managed to get the dashboard fitted and the first coat of undercoat on. We have also managed to complete some of the following with thanks to the following students and a great deal of help from Mr Barker, Mr Ogden and Mr Buckley.
- Bonnet is now fit to the support and almost ready to be sanded and filled - M.Z.
- The Starter plate is fit to the front bumper and has been primed - U.R.
- The Front Grille needed to be remade due to a few mistakes and poor quality materials - A. I.
- Most of the Batten material drilled and cut to size - M.K.
- The Capping is nearly complete and only needs drilling - R.W.
During February we will need to get the the rest of the metal work completed and painted before fitting to the body work. Complete the front Grille, Inner rear wing tops and fit these, we will also need to underseal the Tub with at least 2 coats of thick paint. We also need to complete the Windscreen, Bonnet and any bodywork filling before the next layer of undercoat.
Tub side trims fitted while other students sand down the bodywork in preparation for filling before the paint.
My only concern at this stage is the lack of useful comments the Blog is getting from students who are using this as evidence for their Project Unit, although during late January some students are finally using it to get feedback from myself and other students.
**Come on, put your ideas forward, ask for help and get your project on track**.
As you can see in the picture above, the bulkhead is attached to the body of the Toylander. We have just recently attached the steering mechanism to the Toylander, but there was a slight problem. We had attached the dashboard first and it prevented us from properly attaching our steering mechanism.
ReplyDeleteThis has given me further insight on possible problems that may need to be overcome with my project on using different materials for the bulkhead. Whatever I decide to do, I will also need to take into consideration the proper placement of the steering mechanism.
Umar is also considering using alternate materials, but for different parts of the Toylander. This means that for any problems we find we can discuss them, and we can discuss possible solutions to those problems.
We are close to attaching the windscreen on top of the bulkhead, which will give me even further real life insight into the positions of parts relative to the bulkhead and possible ways of attaching the parts together.
I have chosen three alternative material choices for the construction of the bulkhead;
These materials are carbon fibre, plywood and aluminium.
Attachment methods;
For plywood the attachment method involves creating screw holes + counter-sink in wooden batons and then attaching the surrounding body to the bulkhead via the wooden batons by screwing both parts to the batons.
For aluminium the attachment method involves originally creating the bulkhead with slightly different dimensions than the original design, it will have the same dimensions except for the lips which will be included on the outer edges of the bulkhead. These lips will then be bent to a 90 degree angle to provide the same function as the wooden batons did in the previous method. These lips will have to have had holes drilled and counter-sinked prior to the bending of the lips. Special considerations need to be made for galling damage and galvanic corrosions between the screws and the aluminium if this material is used. A few methods to help prevent these effects are fasteners plated in materials, anodizing the screws andcoating the screws with alternate materials such as Teflon etc. Since the galling effect is caused by friction, applying lubricant can help prevent this effect. Since galvanic corrosion is accelerated highly by contact with water, we should employ methods to prevent the presence of water. Sealants and primers can assist us with this goal, but if it is not practical to eliminate water from the process then the sacrifice of using aluminium screws may be necessary. I will go into further detail about these effects and solutions in a later post.
For the carbon fibre attachment method I will need to make extra considerations for the brittleness of carbon fibre. This will mean that during the process of creating the composite, screw holes and counter-sinks will need to be created at the same time. These holes can be directly a part of the material or created with the use of BigHeads. The carbon fibre bulkhead will need to have lips created at a 90 degree angle to the original profile of the bulkhead during the process of its creation. Special considerations need to be made for the direction of the screws. If BigHeads are used, the screw heads will be on the outside of the Toylander body, and will need to be smoothed over by filler.
I have made a basic and preliminary analysis of attachment methods and disadvantages of attachment methods for my three alternate materials. In a later post I will go into further detail about other ideas, benefits and disadvantages of using each material as the material of the bulkhead.
Any input from other students on my ideas presented, or any thoughts on other factors of using different materials for the bulkhead will be greatly appreciated.
Very well commented Courtney, however you don't need to put all of your project on here, just ask for help or comments which other students could then comment on. I like your comments on the Galvanic corrosion and this is one of the problems the real size early land rovers had, one altenative to this maybe to cusion the meeting of different materials or alloys with a seal. Your comments on the composite material are also accurate and one thing to think about is securing your composite material to an existing wooden base or frame. The choice of bigheads is a fair comment, however there are also other methods os securing composite materials including adhesives.
DeletePlease copy your comments from the blog and use them within your project summary or debate for benefits and limitations following more research.
Well Done so far, Steve