CarBEN EV5 Full Sized Prototype Construction - 5 Seat Electric Car From Scratch

[aerohead]

Originally Posted by NeilBlanchard

Question for those folks with experience shaping foam -- what works for smoothing small-ish concave surfaces?

Neil,I'm late to the party and you may already have good responses.
I will scrounge convex structures to use as a backing for tailored and glued sanding 'blocks' for concave surfaces and visa versa.
Also,thin masonite or aluminum sheet can be flexed around and attached to a 'shaped' handle,and then 3M self-stick sandpaper attached to the face of the masonite or alum..

[3-Wheeler]

Originally Posted by aerohead

Neil,I'm late to the party and you may already have good responses.
I will scrounge convex structures to use as a backing for tailored and glued sanding 'blocks' for concave surfaces and visa versa.
Also,thin masonite or aluminum sheet can be flexed around and attached to a 'shaped' handle,and then 3M self-stick sandpaper attached to the face of the masonite or alum..

Neil,

I've made foam shapes with the same convex shape, and glued sand paper to maintain that shape.

If you want to flatten the convex shape, then glue sandpaper to a flat board and use that.

Jim.

[NeilBlanchard]

Thanks -- if I get the large-scale shaping done (assuming that I can finish up the gluing on the warm days), I'll decide if I'll add the more detailed chines on the front fenders with a concave sanding block.

A real bummer at the end of the day today -- I was cutting the 5th from the last sheet of foam (which is good!) -- and the last remaining working USB port on our ~8 year old laptop died. :-(

The computer still runs (several replacement hard drives, and a new power supply) but now I'll have to lug my iMac down and set it up to cut the ~5 remaining sheets. Oh well.

[Flakbadger]

Gah, so close!
I cannot freaking wait to see this thing. I'll help you sand it, and all you have to do is move yourself and your car to Oregon...
:P

[Weather Spotter]

I'll suggest we have a modding party at Neil's place to help him sand and shape the car.

if not this fall we might be able to do something next spring...

[NeilBlanchard]

Two foam sheets left to cut...

And I've sent both the SU and 3DS models of CarBEN EV5 and Dave Cloud's Dolphin to Cd for him to run in Falcon CFD program. We'll see how they work!

[Cd]

Neil, the model opens fine in the CFD program. I need to get to bed, but ran a quick sloppy test. Here is a short low-res video that is sped up. Will do more testing later.

test2 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

[NeilBlanchard]

Thank you Cd for the quick CFD test (computational fluid dynamics) on CarBEN EV5 last night in a program called Falcon. Even just this brief glimpse is really cool! More to come, I know...

test2 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!



It uses a 3DS file which I was able to export directly from SketchUp. As I read it, the general lack of blue on the back of the model is a good thing?

[kach22i]

Keep up the good work Neil, we are all cheering and rooting for you.

[NeilBlanchard]

I built my temporary shelter today!



The long scaffolding braces in the foreground are only there to make sure the scaffolding stays up. The ridge and the A-frame legs are H sections made from 16' strapping screwed together, and the eaves are T sections. They are light and relatively strong. The whole shelter was under $100. I need to get stakes to hold the legs of the A-frame down in a wind.



Welcome to my blue world! My 20'x30' tarp is only just big enough...



It would have been a perfect day for gluing today -- it was up in the low 70's, but it was threatening to spit much of the day, so I put up the shelter so I can glue anytime it is above freezing long enough for the glue to dry.