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SnakeBite
USA
39 Posts |
 Posted - June 05 2007 : 09:09:35 AM
Hello guys,I’m a new guy to the fourms… This looks like a good place to get some help with my project. I am in the process of building my own custom kit car. I have designed the body and frame in 3DS Max and I’m looking for resources to building plugs. I have look over all over this site and followed the links to other sites that have projects going although most seem to have died out or progress is slow. I already have the Frame, Suspension, Steering, Seating and electrical built and ready to go. What I need to do is figure out how to make the 3d model into a mold. Also another thing that I am struggling with is finding sources for the headlights and taillights. I am looking for some type of single universal projection headlights that can be easily inserted into the front openings of the car. I see many cars with these but have no idea where they are getting them from. Any suggestions on this would be greatly appreciated. I have attached a few images of the design. Any thoughts appreciated.
Thanks.
- Neal
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JESS
USA
43 Posts |
Posted - June 10 2007 : 6:49:44 PM
There are two conventional ways to build a mold. The first method to build a male mold is plywood stations.
With chicken wire and plaster filling in the gaps and sanding to
the shape of the stations. This is very labor intensive. Once the
stations are made, fiberglass female molds are taken from the
stations. Keeping the plywood stations instead of plaster you can use urethane
such as you would buy from home depot in sheets, peeling off the
aluminum insulation.
Ther is also automotive clay that you can sculpture and take fiber
glass molds from that. Or you can build a wooden buck and with an
english wheel make the body in aluminum but you would have to be
very proficient in aluminum welding and of course, the english wheel.
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JESS
USA
43 Posts |
Posted - June 10 2007 : 7:20:29 PM
To conclude, these techniques are carried over from old boat
building. In formula 1 a big square block of proprietary material
similar to urethane foam is cut with a CNC machine. Then carbon
fiber molds are made.
I recommend you look at old issues of Kit car mags. There are
a lot of instructional aids available. Building a car body is
a lot of work, but the rewards are great and very satisfying.
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SnakeBite
USA
39 Posts |
Posted - June 12 2007 : 10:01:07 PM
Hi Jess,Thanks for the info… I have the car designed in 3ds to scale and have already started to build a plug out of plywood and polyurethane foam. Once I get the general shape down I will either coat the plywood form with plaster or Auto Clay. I have access to both but not sure which would be best. I looked at a few companies that used 5 Axis CNC machines to cut foam to the exact shape I need with small holes to hold clay for final finishing. However I was looking at 130K just to have them cut everything in Foam so I passed on that deal. So right now my biggest challenge is getting the plywood sections cut to the right size. I used a LCD projector to display the outline on the plywood but it turns out that Projectors are not really too scale no mater how I arrange it. I could get the width to the right size but the height would be way off. Oh well… Now I am looking for a water jet company that can cut the plywood sections out for me. Any ideas on how to transfer my design outline to the plywood? Thanks,
Neal
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JESS
USA
43 Posts |
Posted - June 13 2007 : 12:30:10 PM
First, I must say that is a nice looking car. Did you design that
yourself. It can be expensive to bring to a car from concept to reality. I feel that it can be done rather inexpensively,however,
it takes lots of labor. It will payoff in the end.
As I'm sure you know that the road to designing a car begins with the basics. Front engine or rear engine, type of suspension and cocpit layout. These factors will determine chassis design. The body
then encapsulates this further based on concepts of style, choice
and aerodynamics. What I have done in obtaining data points is this.
With the chassis sitting, and a freehand sketch of the body I
make free standing station points out of wood. These free standing
station points have a swivel probe that I make measurements that
I then transfer to a piece of paper. Now keep in mind that you are
at this point only making measurements on ONE-HALF of the car. The
more the plywood stations the more accurate the body and also more
measurements.
Now lets go to what you are doing. You have a projector which
only projects the car image in two-dimensions. That is say projected
onto a wall. From the side view you can approximate how many plywood
station points you want. The side view will also give you the Exact
height of each plywood station. The side view does only that, height
of each plywood station and location of each station as well as how
many plywood station you want to use. The more stations the more accurate the body will be from the side view. The less the stations
the more guess you will have to use in filling the gaps in plaster.
The front view, gives that third dimension as to the flowing
shape of each station from the centerline of the car to each side.
Keep in mind we are only concerned with one half of the car body
since once one side is done the paper station is placed on a piece of paper and a duplicate is made and then folded over to make a complete station. With limited front views you are limited to your imagination in completing the remaining flow of the station. You
essentially only need to be really concerned with the shape of the car from the rear of the doors back and from the front of the doors
forward. The general curve of each door can then be very closely
approximated by the final plywood stations closest to the front and rear door. The shape of this car looks easy to do if you have a good
front picture and a rear picture. From your 3ds MAX program are you
able to print a rear and front view onto your printer. With this
printed view this picture can be very much enlarged onto an appropriate size paper at say alphagraphics. Since you are having
problems in projecting everything to scale I have a real easy solution. I need to e-mail you a simple program fax you diagrams
on how to do this very accurately with just few good pics or outlines. Can you e-mail me and do you have access to a fax machine. Jess
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(27 views)
Help with bring concept to life.
