Post by Vindi (Russell) on Mar 1, 2016 13:47:04 GMT
Thought I ought to introduce myself and Project M, and let you know what I do ... might even add some sneak preview pics of some new designs I'm working on.
My name as you might have guessed is Russell, the Vindi bit was my old forum name because I've built and owned a series of Vindicator kit cars. I got my first MX5 back in 2008, following a motorbike crash that left me with a broken hand and no transport. It took all of a week for me to start modifying it, and having changed the wheels and adding a front lip and a Roll Bar, I started looking for a spoiler. All the spoilers I could find were a bit clunky, they were nicely made but didn't flow with the lines of the car like I wanted.
At this point I was not familiar with design, fibreglass or making things ... so my first design was made from cardboard and gaffa tape! It wasn't perfect, but the shape showed promise so I drove my car (slowly!) to a friend to get some advice. He confirmed my thoughts, and offered to make a mould for me so I added some filler to fill out the shape and after a couple of weeks we had our first shape.
I'd mentioned what I was doing on 'another forum' and there seemed to be interest, so once I'd made one for myself I offered them for sale.
Things developed gradually, I bought a Mk2 some time in 2010 so I could offer the same shape spoiler for the Mk2 and Mk2.5 and started selling them as well.
My original plan had been for a fully smooth spoiler, so I decided the only way to achieve that was to make a complete bootlid with the spoiler integrated. This took almost a year to get right, but I eventually got a shape that matched the original bootlid perfectly. It used the standard hinges and lock, but only weighed 4.5kg, so offered a nice weight saving over the standard boot.
I also made a few bootlid skins, these are the top layer of the bootlid only. To fit them needs some bonnet pins or aero catches, but they only weigh 1.4kg. The other weight saving you get is from removing the boot lock and cable, the latch and the hinges and mounts from the car.
The next fibreglass item I made was for gauge pods, I liked the KG works gauge pods that fitted into the crash pad on the Mk1, but they were difficult to find and hard to attach. I tested the theory by making a couple of pods from yogurt pots, and once I was happy with the shape I grafted them into a crash pad and took a mould off that. The results look great, and it was my first time using a silicon mould.
I'll add some pics in a bit ... next part will cover Roll Bars
Russell
My name as you might have guessed is Russell, the Vindi bit was my old forum name because I've built and owned a series of Vindicator kit cars. I got my first MX5 back in 2008, following a motorbike crash that left me with a broken hand and no transport. It took all of a week for me to start modifying it, and having changed the wheels and adding a front lip and a Roll Bar, I started looking for a spoiler. All the spoilers I could find were a bit clunky, they were nicely made but didn't flow with the lines of the car like I wanted.
At this point I was not familiar with design, fibreglass or making things ... so my first design was made from cardboard and gaffa tape! It wasn't perfect, but the shape showed promise so I drove my car (slowly!) to a friend to get some advice. He confirmed my thoughts, and offered to make a mould for me so I added some filler to fill out the shape and after a couple of weeks we had our first shape.
I'd mentioned what I was doing on 'another forum' and there seemed to be interest, so once I'd made one for myself I offered them for sale.
Things developed gradually, I bought a Mk2 some time in 2010 so I could offer the same shape spoiler for the Mk2 and Mk2.5 and started selling them as well.
My original plan had been for a fully smooth spoiler, so I decided the only way to achieve that was to make a complete bootlid with the spoiler integrated. This took almost a year to get right, but I eventually got a shape that matched the original bootlid perfectly. It used the standard hinges and lock, but only weighed 4.5kg, so offered a nice weight saving over the standard boot.
I also made a few bootlid skins, these are the top layer of the bootlid only. To fit them needs some bonnet pins or aero catches, but they only weigh 1.4kg. The other weight saving you get is from removing the boot lock and cable, the latch and the hinges and mounts from the car.
The next fibreglass item I made was for gauge pods, I liked the KG works gauge pods that fitted into the crash pad on the Mk1, but they were difficult to find and hard to attach. I tested the theory by making a couple of pods from yogurt pots, and once I was happy with the shape I grafted them into a crash pad and took a mould off that. The results look great, and it was my first time using a silicon mould.
I'll add some pics in a bit ... next part will cover Roll Bars
Russell