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

[Tango Charlie]

E-glass is your more common, everyday fiberglass cloth. It's formulation was originally developed as an electical wiring insulation. The 'E' stands for electrical.

The composition of the glass fibers in S-glass were developed specifically as a structural material. It is 30% stronger and 15% stiffer than E-glass, according to Aircraft Spruce and Specialty.

The homebuilt aircraft community would be a good source of information for the use of fiberglass/foam composites in structural applications. I haven't got a hold of a copy yet, but I hear Burt Rutan's manual; "Moldless Composite Sandwich Aircraft Construction", is the accepted bible of the technique.

Nice progress so far!

[NeilBlanchard]

Thanks -- I'll probably buy a copy of Mr. Rutan's bible -- he is the guru of composites.

Some better pictures of the front 18" of CarBEN EV5:



Edit:I ordered the Rutan book and it should arrive soon.

[divedaddy03]

Neil, It's lookin' good man!
Keep up the good work.

Wayne
SC

[solarguy]

You realize, you can never wreck this thing...

I can't imagine investing that many hours and then having somebody back into it in a parking lot or something equally stupid.


Very exciting.

Indeed.

troy

[NeilBlanchard]

I've started to do the rough shaping of the right side of the nose. The section is now 20" deep:



I have all four variants of the Stanley SurForm tools and they all are useful. The long ones are helpful on the large convex surfaces, and the palm size one is for more "precision" and the smallest convex one helps a lot when the car surface is concave.

Monday I borrow my brother's Tacoma and buy another 24 sheets of foam!

[CigaR007]

Your local hardware store must really like you !

Looking good !

[divedaddy03]

Originally Posted by NeilBlanchard

I've started to do the rough shaping of the right side of the nose.

I have all four variants of the Stanley SurForm tools and they all are useful. The long ones are helpful on the large convex surfaces, and the palm size one is for more "precision" and the smallest convex one helps a lot when the car surface is concave.

Monday I borrow my brother's Tacoma and buy another 24 sheets of foam!

Neil,

Very, very cool!
I'm so glad to see you're making progress, it's looking NICE.

Wayne
SC

[NeilBlanchard]

I bought 24 more sheets of 1" x 2' x 8' T&G Dow XPS today, and my copy of Burt Rutan's "Moldless Composite Sandwich Aircraft Construction" 4th Edition October 2005 came today. It is quite different than I thought -- it is a 11x17 portrait format GBC bound (the spine is at the top of the page) that is largely typewritten with hand sketches. A fair bit of it are about hotwire cutting of wings, and measuring and testing epoxy, etc. But some of the techniques will be very useful.

I'm going to have to work on a peel ply method that works with the waterproof wood glue I am using. If anybody has experience with this, please post some pointers!

I'm going to cut two copies each of 5 sheets that are "forward in the sequence" so I can get the missing pieces I need to continue building on the nose of the car.

[NeilBlanchard]

I cut the 10 sheets today that contain the pieces I need to continue gluing -- that will resume tomorrow afternoon. I've got a little paying work in the morning...

I cut some of the sheets from the back of the car -- seeing the pieces actual size for the first time is great. The back of CarBEN EV is quite a bit smaller than most cars.

Oh, I cleared out enough stuff from the garage to make room to keep assembling larger sections. I will need to try and shape the *inside* before putting together the sections, since those inside surfaces will never be more accessible.

Years ago, I dug a trench from the house to the garage, and buried two conduits for power, but have not pulled any wires through yet. For now, an extension cord will have to suffice...

[NeilBlanchard]

I'm continuing to glue up the foam core of my CarBEN EV5 (open source 5 seat electric car). This first photo shows a mistake -- can you spot the omission?


Here's the hand-cut fix on the left side:


The thin struts are there temporarily to hold the beginning of the firewall in position:


The first 2 feet of the front:


With the hood in place:


I also had not exported the latest version of the F19 sheet, so I was missing a piece (outlined in red marker) that I was able to trace from the mirror piece and cut by hand:


I've continued on the shaping progress (SurForms are the best tools for rough shaping) and I'm starting the lapped hood opening edge:


This is now too big to fit into my car... I need to put a work table in my garage!