The brief for this one so far, is to produce a bonnet which is durable enough for someone to use on their daily, can be fitted using only the OE catch/latch and hinges (but still have provision for a pair of front aero catches or pins) and yet be light enough for some motorsport. I'm hoping that it will be the kind of thing someone gets for their daily driver when they get an interest in track days, then progress to entry level motorsport but not need to upgrade unless they start chasing tenths of seconds. Full race skins will be built to order at the customers specification. The plan is to lose some weight from the skin, keep the front part of the inner frame for the latch/catch and to give extra rigidity along the front edge. Remove most of the remaining framework and reinforce the skin appropriately. I wanted to use titanium angle for the hinge fixing points but I'm struggling to find any in this country? We could also use a process called resin infusion. This process reduces the amount of resin used by pulling it through the mold under vacuum. We could look at materials such as carbon? The further we go with materials and fancy processes the more it will cost, so we need to find a common ground. Please share your thoughts
This sounds good, exactly the sort of thing I'd be after and believe a lot of others would also be interested. My car will be used both on the road and on the track, so as you say it needs to be rugged enough for daily-ish use but would be nice to shed a good amount of weight and not break the bank. I'm no engineer so can't offer anything much on that front I'm afraid, but just a couple of thoughts. It might be good to keep any reinforcement in the corners of the bonnet fairly flat/low profile for those wanting to use aerocatches and the like. Materials like carbon are nice but as you say things like this will bump up the cost dramatically and for me cost is a big factor (as it is with most I would imagine?) so in my opinion it may be better to keep with cheaper materials for the sake of few grams? Really impressed with how much effort you guys are putting into the development of these products. It's good to have a company that's genuinely interested in what it's potential customers want. Keep up the good work!
Yay! Is resin infusion the same as vac-bagging? Do you already have the equipment for that? If not would it be cheaper to use pre-preg carbon? What material are you currently looking at? Titanium sounds expensive, would re-using the stainless items from the standard replacement model save enough to offset the higher cost of (pre-preg) carbon while keeping weight down? Just spitballin' here. Keep it up guys
Thanks BruceT. You're right about the aerocatches. Smudge kindly posted pictures of his aerocatches in the first bonnet thread. Would you put yours in the same place? There's not much choice really but I'm just checking lol Thanks for your views on material choice. Like you say, cost will be a big factor.. Resin infusion is similar to vac bagging. It involves a dry lay up whereas vac bagging is usually wet lay up. We already have this equipment. Nearly all pre-preg needs an oven and this we don't have. Use of titanium could be seen as a excessive on normal glass bonnet, but if the bonnet were pure carbon, etc... I'm thinking about using 6082 T6 aluminium alloy as an alternative. Keep it coming
Good work guys, it's nice to see the development thread up and running for the track/race bonnet. I'm sure you'll get plenty of takers, as it's a good place to shed a few further kilos if the car is already stripped out. I think you'll get the best success with the lighter fibreglass variant and perhaps stainless for the hinge fixing points, whilst offering customers the option of including bonnet catches if they so wish. This sounds like it could be the lower of two price points, with the other being a more specialist carbon variant with titanium hinge fixing points etc. I'm certainly intereted (as you know), so keep us posted Fancy doing some fibreglass front wings and a tailgate too?! Oh, and any thoughts or suggestions for painting these up once received - DIY with rattle cans or get it done professionally?
Hi Pete, we're moving along nicely thanks We want reduce the amount of framework, so we're going to add a layer of honeycomb type stuff to the skin to see if we can stiffen it up. Failing that we're going to grind some blue pills up and throw them in the mix... We will be doing other panels in the future I'm going to do a DIY for the people wanting have a go at painting at home but the best finish will always be achieved by a pro. The bonnets will come to you needing a minimum of prep so whoever does paint it will have a much easier job.
Good news! The honeycomb core material seems to have done the trick. If the bonnet were to have a lot more shape or a massive power bulge it would be stiffer, but as it's large flat plane, it's a difficult shape to deal with when using GRP. We'll now be able to reduce the amount of other materials in the bonnet which will make it lighter More updates coming this week...
Great news! Nout worse than a flappy bonnet when you're trying to concentrate! Looking forward to more updates. Also good news about cutting out the aerocatches. I'm not sure I'd be able to bring myself to cut into a nice new bonnet, best left to the professional I think!
Totally, It would be down to finding the best place for them on the front panel also. We could drill holes easy enough for the bars but the catch part is the worse.
Agreed. There are a couple of holes in the slam panel that I've been eyeing up for the pins to mount, but it's just getting everything lined up. If we did go down the route of having a specific point on the bonnet for mounting these catches, can get them mounted long ways if that makes sense? I have a massive issue with seeing them mounted left to right...makes me feel slightly ill lol
I have looked at using the holes but either they are too far down the bonnet to be flush, Or right on the edge of the raised middle section. I would much prefer the front to back mounting and not side to side!
I'm glad someone else feels the same about the side to side mounting Matt! lol I did wonder whether they would be to close the the front of the bonnet when I looked at it, never actually got any further with it though. I think there are a few people who have managed to mount them like that (possibly Smudge, as mentioned earlier?). Maybe someone who's done it will be able to give us a bit of info on it?
I know what you mean Bruce, a flappy bonnet is very distracting. You're always wondering if it's next move will be its last!! I'm going to be looking at the catch area design tomorrow. Smudge seems to have it about right on his http://www.clubgti.com/showthread.php?250810-MK2-Golf-lightweight-replacement-bonnet Thanks again for the pics Smudge Don't worry Mat, it seems that the opinion would be to mount the catches longitudinally lol I'll try to line things up so as to make use of existing holes, but failing that we'll keep out of the way of anything awkward/fiddly
I mounted mine using existing holes in the slam panel. I made sure that the catches were also in an aesthetically pleasing location, looking back now a couple of years down the line I am still very happy with their position and would not change.
That's what I'm talking about! lol Tom, which holes did you uses? The biggish hole near the oe rubber bonnet stops?
That looks mint! I like it and I'm pretty sure that most people fitting such catches would be happy with them there?
Another option is right out on the edge: Obviously change the orientation. THese were fitted before I got the car. NOt the best picture, but I don't have them fitted at the moment to take better pictures. These also use standard holes. One of the ones where the slam panel bolts on to the front wing.
It's a good option for people considering pins, but it looks like there isn't enough room for catches.
