Painting
This past week I have been prepping and painting parts for Section 1 and 2 – basically the monocoque (RE3), the fuel cell and some body fittings. RE3 has been prepped … it doesn’t look much different from last week, but all the holes for attaching parts have been drilled – even those for LED lighting. All the small parts are being painted. The fuel filler necks have been partically assembled – I filed off the molded hose clamps, to be replaced later with photo-etched parts, and added some photo-etched weld beads.
RE3 ready for primer (lots of holes) Small parts prepped for paint Fuel filler necks (upside down) – note absence of hose clamps, addition of weld beads A bunch of small parts, painted and put aside
Machine Cutting CF Decals
The monocoque and some of the smaller parts will be finished in carbon fibre decals. I bought a Cricut cutting machine especially for this purpose and it has come through with flying colours! I draw patterns for the decals in Visio (see the Documentation page), import them into the Cricut software and the machine cuts them. The process is very accurate and highly repeatable, so I can cut paper patterns and test fit before cutting the (valuable) decal paper.
Cabron fiber decal patterns drawn n MS Visio Resin parts RE12 and RE14 and the machine-cut carbon decals for each.
The two rings are for the fuel filler necks (not shown)
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