Drax240z Posted April 21, 2000 Share Posted April 21, 2000 Hey, I was wondering a few things about the aluminum honeycomb setupt you were talking about using on your floors. If you've had it made for you, what was your approximate cost? And the big thing I have been wondering about is how do you plan on attaching it to the rest of your chassis? Rivets? From what I've seen the honeycomb is mostly used in monocoque chassis, where everything is riveted together. I can't really think of any other way to reliably and rigidly bond aluminum to mild steel for your case! Also, I've been thinking about making up some carbon fibre panals for my Z, have you found a place to get the materials? (just remembering you talking about the carbon fibre dash) Drax240z Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted April 22, 2000 Share Posted April 22, 2000 Drax, The honeycomb is harder to get hold of than I thought. I have been in touch with a few outfits across the country and they only sell in bulk of thousands of square feet. Hopefully I'll figure something out before I need it! I was going to fasten the honeycomb to ledges welded to my spaceframe. I was going to bond in the floors with a product made by 3M called 5200. It is mainly used for boatbuilding (my other hobby) but sticks to ANYTHING and when cured must be removed with a torch and a putty knife. This obviously wouldn't work with a typical monocoque chassis because the floors hold more than just the downward force of feet. In my install the floors will have no effect on the integrity of the chassis so bonding them in will both seal them watertight and hold them very firmly in place. Carbon fiber is easily found if you are looking in the right place. You would never find it in automotive circles and most marine suppliers don't carry it as well (they carry mostly graphite and kevlar cloth). I found CF fabric in varying weights from a experimental aircraft supply house called Aircraft Spruce Inc. It is VERY expensive stuff...but I feel better about the price when I see the price for ceramic laminating cloth (~$275.00/yd^2). I think the CF cloth comes in at about $50.00/yd^2. SpencZ MonsterZ Cont. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drax240z Posted April 23, 2000 Author Share Posted April 23, 2000 $50 a sq yard... ouch! Well I should probably take the plunge, might not be as soon as I planned though. I was thinking about redoing ALL the origional interior panals in CF... I suppose if I make the mold for that I'd better be selling some too, to be able to afford it. As for the honeycomb... why not make your own? You can buy the epoxy necessary to bond aluminum to aluminum. You can buy sheet aluminum for top and bottom... and as for the center: As far as I know if you take sheet aluminum to the proper shop, you can get them to roll, press or bend the whole sheet into offset, 3 sided, half-hexagons. Then get them to cut the whole sheet into strips, with the strip width your desired thickness. Bond them yourself! To be honest I never even thought about buying it premade when I was thinking about using it... I wonder if it can be made as easily as I think? Drax240z Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.