The soft bodywork material

[Vicjoy]

I find that the bodywork of some team is soft
it can be shaped very easy
but i don't know what it is made from
http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif
thanks

[Vicjoy]

I find that the bodywork of some team is soft
it can be shaped very easy
but i don't know what it is made from
http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif
thanks

[benny41]

lead is soft. very light to!

[Shashi]

Team generally use carbon fibre or fibre re-inforced plastic. In our first year, we were nearly stripped of cash and had to resort to a sheet metal one.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content"> lead is soft. very light to! </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Something I do not understand. Why waste your time flaming someone!

[Vicjoy]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by benny41:
lead is soft. very light to! </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
you must be joking

[jd74914]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Shashi:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content"> lead is soft. very light to! </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Something I do not understand. Why waste your time flaming someone! </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Why waste everyone else's time instead of using the search button.

Also, I would not consider CF or fiberglass soft.

[Shashi]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content"> Also, I would not consider CF or fiberglass soft. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

They aren't. These are the materials teams usually use, as stated earlier. And I bet you've written the post faster than it would take you to hit backspace and ignore it. http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif

[Xeilos]

Ignoring the above flamewar...

You could try aircraft fabric. It is a heat shrinkable textile that you can epoxy/glue to your chassis tubes and then just spray paint it to the colour you like.

[The_Man]

Bodywork material has very little qualifications for selection specially if you are using a spaceframe. It should be solid, light, easy to shape, water-resistant and preferably not flammable. If you have sponsors to impress then looks might matter too.

You want your bodyworks to be soft and flexible because they have multiple mounting points, if the bodywork is not flexible then it is one hell of a task to align mounts holes on the bodywork and mounts on the chassis. This really bummed us in our first year. Teams use CF, Glass fibre, plastics and thin sheet metal mostly based on their resources. We used plastic that is used on advertising hoardings its light and looks fabulous as you can print whatever you want on it.http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

Carbon Fibre I do not think should be considered for spaceframe chassis as the strength is not really required.

[Dash]

The strength of carbon fiber may not be "required" for a spaceframe chassis, but it can be useful, and looks fantastic when done properly. One note on its strength that probably saved our asses at competition:
One of our team members was trying to exit the car quickly, got his foot stuck when stepping out, and landed with full bodyweight on the sidepod. It didn't even get a scratch on it. If it was anything else, I'm sure it would have been smashed to bits.

[J.R.]

Rip stop nylon attached with Velcro. Lighter than CF, shows off the chassis, and cheap as hell. Downside, "It doesn't look like a real racecar."

[poe21]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Dash:
The strength of carbon fiber may not be "required" for a spaceframe chassis, but it can be useful, and looks fantastic when done properly. One note on its strength that probably saved our asses at competition:
One of our team members was trying to exit the car quickly, got his foot stuck when stepping out, and landed with full bodyweight on the sidepod. It didn't even get a scratch on it. If it was anything else, I'm sure it would have been smashed to bits. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Oh how I wish I had video of that. Egress practice gone wrong is a funny sight. And I would agree that the CF held up well under the weight of a falling driver.

[Adambomb]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by The_Man:
Carbon Fibre I do not think should be considered for spaceframe chassis as the strength is not really required. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

As long as you don't hit a cone...

[Lorenzo Pessa]

about aircraft fabric.
that's a goob way to make a not structural bodywork but the fabric need to be in little tension to maintain the shape and to avoid it start to vibrate.

It would be a good idea to have a talk with an old-fashioned aircraft owner.

Lorenzo Pessa

[The_Man]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Adambomb:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by The_Man:
Carbon Fibre I do not think should be considered for spaceframe chassis as the strength is not really required. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

As long as you don't hit a cone... </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Don't need expensive carbon fibre to save you from cones. Thermoformed plastic should do that job quite well. Some of them are quite impact resistant.

[t21jj]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by The_Man:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Adambomb:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by The_Man:
Carbon Fibre I do not think should be considered for spaceframe chassis as the strength is not really required. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

As long as you don't hit a cone... </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Don't need expensive carbon fibre to save you from cones. Thermoformed plastic should do that job quite well. Some of them are quite impact resistant. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Who says it was expensive...plus they came in less than a pound each and survived competition. It was not until we started to autocross extensively that they failed after several major cone hits (50-60mph) and a stupid temper tantrum by a team leader.

That being said we ran out of the old free crappy carbon that we had been using. Now we're using some really nice fiberglass that's been really easy to work with and only a minor increase in weight.

[The_Man]

Well, it is expensive then in our neck of the woods. Plastic sheets cost a Rs50(1$) for a square meter while the CF we need to import so probably would cost 30-40 times more only in raw material.

[BarryD]

We have used 'cover right' on sevral of our older cars. Its the stuff they use to cover up boats when you put them away for the winter. It is about as light as it gets but it isnt very durable. We normaly just used it for the side close outs and still had a carbon nose and side pods.

[Adambomb]

Regarding cone impacts with bodies on spaceframe cars, there are 2 strategies: Make it strong enough to take the impact on its own, or make it compliant enough so that the frame takes the impact. Only thing to watch out for if you go for the "soft and squishy" route is that your paint (and everything between the paint and the body...assuming you run paint; fiberglass isn't very sexy in its natural state like carbon though) is also compliant enough.

I've seen both approaches with CF and fiberglass, often on different parts of the same car. I imagine some good thermoplastic would do the job well...that's actually what our baja team does, and we have used flat thermoplastic fill panels in the past. Once we got past the point of flat fill panels though, we just went straight to composites, since they were available. Never really played with forming plastic.

But like everything else, it's all a function of time, money, materials available, and tooling available (not to mention experience with said tooling). You know, the FSAE equivalent of METT-TC http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif (sorry, just got back from a 4-day national guard weekend...feel free to google METT-TC).

[t21jj]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by The_Man:
Well, it is expensive then in our neck of the woods. Plastic sheets cost a Rs50(1$) for a square meter while the CF we need to import so probably would cost 30-40 times more only in raw material. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I know that's why I pointed out that once we ran out of it we moved on to a much cheaper material http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif . The carbon we had was some really old pre preg that we got from our solar car team, it was not good for much more than non structural body panels. Nothing wrong with using plastic.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Adambomb:
Regarding cone impacts with bodies on spaceframe cars, there are 2 strategies: Make it strong enough to take the impact on its own, or make it compliant enough so that the frame takes the impact. Only thing to watch out for if you go for the "soft and squishy" route is that your paint (and everything between the paint and the body...assuming you run paint; fiberglass isn't very sexy in its natural state like carbon though) is also compliant enough.

I've seen both approaches with CF and fiberglass, often on different parts of the same car. I imagine some good thermoplastic would do the job well...that's actually what our baja team does, and we have used flat thermoplastic fill panels in the past. Once we got past the point of flat fill panels though, we just went straight to composites, since they were available. Never really played with forming plastic.

But like everything else, it's all a function of time, money, materials available, and tooling available (not to mention experience with said tooling). You know, the FSAE equivalent of METT-TC http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif (sorry, just got back from a 4-day national guard weekend...feel free to google METT-TC). </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
+1

Also our 08 car had a carbon fiber nose and fiberglass side pods. With paint on the car you could not tell that they were any different.

Ultimately what ever you have time, money, or access to can be made to work.

[Lorenzo Pessa]

about hitting.

In case of hitting composite of fiberglass and epoxy are flexible and easy to repair.

Make sure that you driver is aware that in case of crash he has to run quickly after getting off the car.

Lorenzo Pessa