Bodywork Part 4: Completion
Вставка
- Опубліковано 28 січ 2025
- In this video we finally get the bodywork for the car done. This would have been the hardest part to complete, simply due to the huge amount of work required to get a decent finish quality.
How to Build a Racing Car follows the design and construction of the FVT05, a car built for the Australian Formula Vee racing series. The introduction can be found at • Introduction and Bodyw... .
Support this project on Patreon:
/ thomsenmotorsport
Partners:
Intercad (intercad.com.au/) who provided Solidworks for this project.
JKF Aero (jkfaero.com/) who assisted on the design of the bodywork and undertray.
Also follow the project at:
/ thomsenmotorsport
/ thomsenracecar
Music:
Licenced from Epidemic Sound (www.epidemicsou...)
Your dedication towards completing the project is really commendable. :)
Thanks, appreciated.
We know the effort that goes into this, so just wanted to congratulate you on your perseverance. And also praise you for your honesty throughout these videos. it would have been easy to hide the issues and edit your commentary to make it sound like a straightforward project.
Well done to you, your family, and your friends. We know how important these people can be in helping you achieve your goals. We look forward to the next one... ;)
Thanks. I took the view when I made these that I would take an honest and objective look at what I've done, the good and the bad. If I ignored the bad and only focused on the good then neither I nor the audience watching these videos would be able to learn from it. You've touched on an important point though, without everyone who helped on this project it wouldn't be what it is today. Anyway, good to hear you've enjoyed it.
Simply amazing, other than the wealth of fiberglass body panels you made in your cool design this really reminds me a lot of Formula Ford cars.
Damn, you have the patience of a saint ! I've got a car on the drawing board and have been pondering body work construction methods ? You just talked me out of fibreglass.
A recommendation: Use MDF or steel to reinforce your molds so they don't move around as you make parts. Also, make them thicker, as you'll be using them more than you think.
Your Solidworks skills are impressive for someone that just picked it up. Congrats on the build. Fantastic series to watch.
I have utterly enjoyed watching this build, your attention to detail and dedications shown throughout the series is inspiring.
I stumbled across this channel last night and I've watched the entire build process today, you did an amazing job! I've been in the motorsports industry for just under eight years and it's always so cool to see someone show up at the track with a car they've built from scratch. Keep up the great work, and best of luck to you on track!!
Glad to see it all worked out! Good luck in the upcoming racing season! Can't wait to see it on the track!
Your patience is inspiring.
You have a lot of good feedback in the comments of your vids. The one thing I can tell you if you ever do this again is to finish your molds and plug glass smooth, it will make all the difference when you want them to release. All in all excellent work for anyone, but especially for a younger guy. Keep it up, cant wait to see what comes next!
Thanks for the shoutout man, great to see she's ready for the track. Good luck for the season ahead!
+deeryme no worries, thanks. Perhaps down the track I'll be able to get that design on the car.
Hey Thomsen! I'm an electrical engineering student who has an absolute obsession with mechanical engineering, and your videos have been awe inspiring to watch! Would you ever be willing to do a video on some of maths you used in the design process of the vehicle? You've done an amazing job showing the how to of building this amazing machine, but I'd love to learn about the why in many of choices you made design-wise.
Keep going man! You rock!!
Hi Marshall, thanks for the feedback. I'm always glad to hear when someone has enjoyed them. At the moment I'm not planning to do any more on this project, I've moved to Europe for work and have had very little time to think about this car. I'll think about it though.
Thomsen,
That's absolutely fair! Thanks for even considering it. You've done some amazing work as it is, and like I said, seeing this build was inspiring. If you can't that's alright, any textbooks you'd recommend on the maths? If you don't know any good ones off the top of your head that fine :P thanks again for posting such awesome content
Thanks. Race Car Vehicle Dynamics is a good one that covers a lot of the theory, Tire and Vehicle Dynamics is also interesting but I didn't have the data to make the most use of it. I found a book on FEA codes in Matlab, I can't recall what it was called but it taught me what I needed to look at the chassis, even if I did implement it in Excel. For everything else I used UA-cam videos or blogs. There's a great blog ludemannengineering.com/ which covers similar ground to what I ended up doing and was a good reference for me. In university I took part in Formula SAE, your university may have a similar program that you can join.
Well done my friend, was great to watch your incredible work, I will try to build one too one day 😊
Great job. First time with anything is always hard and has flaws. Learn from mistakes and you will master it. Keep it up. And really like the honesty
Can't learn anything if you're not honest about your mistakes. It was important for me to share them, moreso I think than the successes.
Incredible, I'm now in the process of designing/manufacturing bodywork for an FSAE team and this is so informative in what's involved. Seems pretty daunting
Daunting yes, it's a big job. There are ways to make it easier than it was for me, check the other comments, there have been a lot of great suggestions.
Wow, that was hard to watch. You can call someone a hard worker, but man, you're seriously a dedicated headstrong brute of a worker. It's inspiring, but i bet its so incredibly tough.
Yes this was tough. The approach I used wasn't the best either, many commenters have pointed out things I could have done to make the work easier and the result better. But I got there in the end.
These videos are full of great info and tips, super valuable, thanks for going to all the trouble uploading them.
love watching your videos and seeing the car progress over time. good luck racing
This gives me a bit of a Bisforbuild vibe but you make EVERYTHING from scratch you're an amazingly skilled person
+Gismo Grey thanks. It could have been better but I'm pretty happy with it considering it's a first attempt.
ThomsenMotorsport Will you ever make another shell/frame in the future or maybe a whole other type of car?
Generally speaking, resin (gel coat) is sprayed into the mold first. And any glass added is rolled in with a roller. And if you really want, use a vacuum bag system.
This could have done alot better. BUT it shows that in the real world for us as DIY'rs where there is now product engineering and mechanical engineering departments that with time and patience the skill and quality will prevail.Your videos is really good, interesting and not dragged out but thorough and informative. I really hope you get more views and support
Great honest video. Cant wait to see how you go this season.
Ray the real mvp
I hope you have a successful season. Stay safe.
spectacular!!! great job!!!! regards from Mexico.
Fantastic job!!!
Well done mate. Good luck!
Great stuff man! Keep them coming
very inspirational mate! I'm currently in the process of cad designing a Bentley speed 8 le mans replica using a Bentley speed gt 6.0 W12 twin turbo mounted mid. Your insight is great
Thanks, glad to hear. Sounds like a big project, hopefully you can apply some stuff from my project towards it.
i really love your series
but for the fibreglas you should have built stiffer moulds and considered vacuum-infusion. dunno if you baked the pieces but epoxy only achieves max properties after curing under heat
furthermore, working clean is crucial when working with frp since impurities and airbubbles lower the mechanical properties
I know it's a bit late, but for future reference, you could look at gelcoat as the first layer in the mold, and also include the stiffening structure, including balsa battens which absorb the resi as stringers between the foam, when you do the lay-up of the epoxy, not afterwards. You can get all the expertise and possibly get some of the harder jobs done cheap by the boatyard boys. I know an absolute genius with GRP in a boatyard in Essex who charges peanuts if he likes you.
+Golly Po yeah this area was a bit of a failure on my part, not enough research done beforehand. I was so short on time (though it took way longer than planned in the end) and I've been doing things as cheaply as possible, it also had a large effect on the end result here. I'll keep your advice in mind if there's a next time, thanks.
It's a brilliant looking car, and you could always replace a couple of the panels later on. There is an online retailer/wholesaler of all things composite (easy-composites.co.uk) that do a fantastic slow cure infusion resin, that they use for laying up carbon fibre in vacuum bags, but it's excellent stuff used with woven matt too, and the prices are wholesale prices at retail quantities, and they do off-cuts and roll-ends of carbon fibre matt at easily affordable prices too. Well worth a look. I think you can be justifiably proud of what you've designed and built. Not many proper manufacturers have such a successful prototype car, especially for a first car! Inspirational stuff.
+Golly Po thanks, great to hear. We'll see how successful it is this weekend at the first race!
How was it fixed in the estructure? Congrantulations for project! Wanted to know what are you up to now
I used DZUS fasteners to attach it. I had no problems with this - I just made sure the parts were layered such that the air couldn't get under any bodywork bits and tear them off.
I'm working in France now so have left my car behind, couldn't bring it with me here.
a couple of hints first you can paint on the mould a gelcoat to avoid pin holes we use at my work in aviation a product called duratec 707-061 which is a easy sand gelcoat catalyzed with mekp at 2% once out of the mould just sand and paint you can spray this on top of your pva release or you can brush it on, spraying is a lot better this stuff is common in the fiberglass industry so is easy to get in nz a 4 litre tin is around 2 hundred dollars but it goes a long way and saves tonnes of work once the tin is opened you have to use it in about 6 months second hint we always reinforce our moulds before removing from plug we commonly use large carboard rolls split in halve and a couple of layers of 300grm cloth . epoxy is quiet slow curing it really needs baking, once release put it back in mould for a few days to stiffen up. in aviation we use polyester 9885 which is fire retardant no epoxy is fire retardant one draw back of polyester is that it can shrink back during curing so your foam doublers might show through on the outside . apart from that it would be a fun project to do I would of thought fire retardant would be a must in your sport good job so far keep it up one last thing before I go if you use foam for plug coat with a layer of 200 grm cloth for strength and fairing compound
Always good to see tips like this posted - I hope others wanting to do something similar read through the comments.
are you eventually going to those carbon fiber diffuser and side panels? they look awesome, also amazing work .
I intend to, it'll take a while though. I'm pretty busy at the moment improving the car mechanically, getting it through the teething issues that competition is throwing up. Nothing major, but I'm prioritizing that over getting the large aero pieces done.
how are the fibre glass moulds attached to the steel chassis
Quality vid and car!
u are my inspiration 👌👍👍
Congratulations on the project! I think it's incredible that you've documented it so throughly, it has been really useful and entertaining to watch your videos
If you don't mind me asking: How much effort do you put into your rendering for these videos? looks like hours of work. Do you do all of it directly from solidworks?
Thanks. Rendering was a huge effort, I did most of it over a couple of months where I set up a render in the evening and left it to run overnight and while I was at work. I think it was worth it though, it wouldn't be what it is without the rendered media.
And yes it was all done from within Solidworks.
Did the body work scare you away from the diffuser design or is that just waiting for a later date to do (guessing it would have to be after the season is over)? I totally understand the pain for composites. It's a pain, but the results came out quite well!
+James Wright for now yes, the bodywork really burnt me out. I had so much trouble getting a decent finish on the body and the diffuser would require a huge step up in quality to be both useful and safe. I'm not ready yet to take it on.
Oh yeah, totally understand. Something I would recommend for the diffuser especially is using sheet metal and waterjet/cnc wood ribs is a simple/easy way to do body work. Surface finish is basically taken care of and the actual making of the mold making process is much easier. It limits the shapes you can make and is obviously something you couldn't really do with bodywork, but it might be something you could adjust in the diffuser design to take into account.
Wow! Amazing work and dedication. You have a lot of skill as well! I have always wanted to do the same thing, but I am wondering how much did it cost for materials? You're videos are incredibly helpful and inspirational
Thanks. The fibreglass and epoxy were roughly 800 bucks together from memory. The whole car would have been around $30k AUD.
When putting vinyl graphics on, wet the surface first with a drop of disk soap in water, then work from the edge out.
but not before using some painter tape to mark your finishing points,
tape the start edge like a hinge so you can line up your vinyl.
then spray the mix on the body and the vinyl in a thin coat.
squeegee the air out, this will let you move the graphic until you like the position. and with aid it wrapping. then us a blow dryer to set in it final place.
youtube it mate, wet method vinyl
Yeah Ray mentioned that was another way of doing it but he went for doing it dry. What's the benefit to doing it wet?
ThomsenMotorsport you can realign the graphic when it's wet. I lets you slide it on the body to certain level. more forgiving really. super work on the car dude. I'm very inspired to get a car and maybe work on one that needs repair. haven't used solidworks since high school
Aah right, there certainly was a bit of mucking around trying to position them so I can see how that would help. Thanks for the feedback and best of luck with your own project.
hey thomsen why happened to that carbon fiber areo you had in the cad model
+RANDOM PERSON DONT REMBER ME it's planned but I'm not ready to show anything yet, not sure if I'll be able to make it work - it's an even bigger fibreglassing job than the body and that gave me plenty of trouble.
that sucks i would love to see that beautiful aero done on that car, i hope you can make it work
How did you attach the individual glass fibre body parts without nut and screws?
+Jayant B I used DZUS fasteners into tabs on the chassis.
I really enjoyed watching your build come together. Hugely inspiring.
How much faster do you reckon the car will be with the now lacking aero elements, and have you planned on coming up with some temporary, less intricate solution to add more downforce?
Hi Erik, thanks for the feedback. The estimate I got from JKF Aero was nearly 2 seconds around Wakefield from the diffuser - I wouldn't know until it's tested but that would be a huge improvement. I'd actually be worried about how much extra stress the parts would be under if it were cornering that much harder, a lot of the spec Formula Vee stuff is already near its limit. Anyway, at the moment I'm not going to do anything temporary as aero, hopefully the CofG and suspension optimization will be enough.
good luck
Would you happen to have a rough estimate of cost for making the body plug, mold, and parts? I'm looking to do similar in a US racing class.
The body plug was relatively reasonable, maybe a couple grand AUD. The mold I spent about 1k AUD for the fibreglass, but didn't like it (vinylester) as it was quite hazardous. I moved to a local epoxy which was much safer to work with - I think I spent about 1k AUD again on that fibrelass (lower quantity / higher cost = roughly similar total).
how did you considered the tolerances while designing the mould??
Not really. There was a bit of correction required on the final pieces to get a half decent fit.
are the aero side pods not legal or was it just a lack of time that led to them not being finished?
+Tom Higgins lack of time, the bodywork just ground everything else to a halt.
ThomsenMotorsport maybe next year :P best of luck in the season!
what kind of impact protection foam did you use? whered you get it and how does it work?
For the sides of the headrest it was a CAMS mandated impact foam which they require you place around chassis members near the head. I didn't buy it myself (it came from the donor wreck) but you should find it at any motorsports stores.
Oh man that glass layup was hard to watch. I sure you know now but wet the mold, lay the glass, then wet wet wet.... Finally and most importantly use a ribbed roller to roll everything down. Done right you can get a surprisingly good finish.
Amazing and beautiful work btw!
If you found this hard to watch better not watch the new undertray video then... I'm going to stay away from fibreglass from now on!
ThomsenMotorsport I already saw it:). Nah. You made good solid pieces just gave yourself a little more sanding practice than you bargained for!
Fiberglass work is almost its own artform and you do have one sexy racecar!
Is it at all possible to do most of these body parts with vac forming sorry I’m kind of new to the sport
Yeah I suppose so, I went with what worked for me but there's more than one way to get it done.
amazing video(s)
Sooo cool mate! How did you finance your project?
Out of my own pocket. By building my car myself I was able to get a brand new car at a second hand car price. Still expensive though, I think it cost around $25k AUD. Spread out over two years it was manageable.
are they mosltly 2 layers of csm? what weight please?
The fibreglass for the body was 185 gsm twill weave. I used initially only two layers but as I worked on the bodywork I ended up adding more and more layers, most of the bodywork ended up with about 4 layers of fibreglass minimum.
Can you do a thing about the carbon fiber
+Shari Wood are you referring to the diffuser? I've not built that yet, it'll be a while away yet but I'd make a video on it for sure.
How do you CGI all the pieces
I was able to render the media for this and all of the other videos directly from within Solidworks, directly from the design I used to build it.
Good luck.
But how did you mount the body on the car?
DZUS fasteners into mounts on the chassis.
It is possible that you provide me some dwg file of chasis?
you should have made new molds once the parts were perfected and painted.
How did you make the molds?
+Ceazar Carr have a look at parts 1 through 3 of the bodywork build, the molds are in part 3 but the others show how the plug was done.
Can I get your email with some additional guide on my build?
I have to commend you on your project build, it is a beautiful work.
Thanks. Feel free to shoot an email to thomsenmotorracing@gmail.com.
Australian?
Yep
I want this car :(
should have gone to a bodywork night class lmfao
You deserve an "A" for effort, but, maybe you should have bought a couple books or videos on how to do Auto body and Paint.. It ain't that hard, if ya learn it first.. It should of been a weeks work at the worst..
Probably yes. Lots of areas it could have been done better.
Hahaha every day a video of a part «built your race car» he is obsesse with this XD
Good work for the welding of the frame, but your fiberglass work makes me cringe!
Invest in some vacuum bags