The last section is finally complete, well, laid up at least! It feels good to be done with the lay-up chapter and move to the next phase – smoothing the surfaces for paint. I may switch to Bondo for that, for cost reasons, a faster cure, and not having to worry about glass micro balloons floating around the garage. As the last picture shows, when working with composite, scissors become consumables, unless they sit in a jar of acetone.
In other news, a Locost builder who had spent many years constructing his chassis only now discovered that his chosen seats wouldn’t fit and that his offset differential requires the center tunnel to be widened. I felt sorry for him but at the same time wanted to reach through the Interweb and dope-slap him. It amazes me that any builder would assume a chassis will blindly fit any seats and any drivetrain. No, all non-negotiable parts (engine, tranny, rear axle, seats, pedals, etc) need to be on the build table first and the chassis built up around them. Being three-dimensional objects it’s very difficult to accurately measure them beforehand and having the parts in position absolutely guarantees this sort of thing can’t happen.