New Body for the Formula Vee

Laying on foam and spray foam to get the new outline close to where I want it.

Using the sureform file to shape the foam.

The first of five gallons of bondo goes on the foam.

Lots of sanding and shaping

More bondo and sanding

More bondo and sanding

Even more bondo and sanding

Need more bondo and sanding now

Sanding with the longboard to get the coke bottle shape that I want

Checking the symmetry

Masking the Dzus fasteners for primer

Ready for urethane primer

Primed

Sanding the primer smooth

More primer

Clear coat over the primer

I must make the male plug perfectly smooth to allow the female mold to release properly

Polished

Wax with Meguiar&#039;s Mold Release Wax

Mold release is brushed on to the male buck

6 layers of fiberglass mat in polyester resin to make the female mold

Lots of resin and glass

I mean -  a lot of glass!

Cutting the nose away with the Fein tool

You can see how much the nose is raised from the old body

The female mold released from the old body/male buck

The nose mold with foan, etc. still inside

Nose mold with buck pieces removed

I cut the nose mold in half and lay up flanges. This will make releasing the new mold easier

Aligning, trimming and filling the new mold

I spray the new mold with mold release

The nose mold with flanges

Nose mold

I made patterns of the body mold and laid them on the 8 yards of carbon fiber for cutting

This is the mold for the lower part of the nose

Fitting the CF into the nose mold

Many yards of fiberglass, kevlar and carbon fiber cut in preparation for layup

5 oz. kevlar, first layer going on

First layer of CF over the kevlar/fiberglass layers

Nose mold with mold release wax laid in

The nose bottom laid up

I remove the nose cone from the mold

Nose cone ready for trimming, fitting and assembly to the lower part

The lower part of the nose cone

Trimming the sides before I remove the body from the mold

Using the Fein tool to trim the upper rear flashing

Removing the body from the mold

Fresh out of the mold with mold release film flaking off

Another nice February day in Seattle, probably 60 degrees outside

Still have to trim all of the edges and openings

Using an angle to trim the sides perfectly straight

Fitting the body to the car

The body weighs 7 lbs. about 20 lbs. lighter than the old body that I made last year

Trimming and fitting the engine cowl to the new body

Fitting the nose cone

Trimming the nose cone around the beam. The beam is now one inch farther forward than before

More trimming

Fitting the bottom of the nose to the upper part

Gluing the bottom of the nose to the top part with eposy thickened with filleting silica

I lay another coat of resin on the new body so I can sand it smooth

Fitted to the FV

Looks better than it used to

Sister katwoman specified Sherwin Williams Candy Apple Laser Red

First urethane primer and fill all the pinholes

The the special silver basecoat Kathy specified to really make the cany aple red pop in the sun

First coats of red midcoat looks pink

I had to get another quart of laser red to get the color fully developed

Then a full quart (four coats) of clear over the red midcoat

Looks good, can&#039;t wait to get it in the sun!