Wow, time has flown. Well... funny you should ask. The bonnets are ready to go!! The final specs have been decided and we're in the middle of making one. I'm a bit pre-occupied with pipework at the moment but the good thing about dealing with chemicals in this case, is that it gives you long periods to get stuff done whilst things are curing. As you can see we've added another feature. Yes it's obvious, we've added black pigment to the resin. Any chips will be less notice-able, unless you paint it white, of course. This is a pre-production bonnet so it doesn't have the latest spec front section and the "art work".. let's just say that it won't be like that. [/IMG] Because we'll be using some kind of weave on the back it will look similar to carbon. (the one above has normal chopped strand) I've modified the ends of the front panel because I wasn't happy with the corners at speed. If catches were fitted, it wouldn't be a problem but a lot of people don't want catches. The drilled alloy hinge points are looking very motorsporty as well. Overall I'm really happy with the fit of the bonnets coming from this mold. The weights are still varying but I would really like these to be less than 6kg before they leave here.
I was just thinking the same! lol Top work lads. Let us know when they're ready to go! Cheers, Bruce.
Thanks gents It's been a while since we've had a development update, so here goes.. As the weight of the bonnet came down, a couple of areas showed the need to be a bit stiffer. This was mainly the front corners when the wind got under. V1 wasn't bad. V2 was better.. But V3 has it nailed! It's incredibly stiff for the weight. We've only got the alloy hinge fixing points to finalise now
I was going to have a go at making a Fibreglass bonnet, after the mould making of the wings, I realised it would take a lot of work and getting the finish good enough would be a challenge. There are few panels that show up blemishes worse than a bonnet. I then saw had discussions with Trackslag (Matthew), who was making some Fibreglass bonnets Along the design / test phase, they experienced some issues that meant delivery to customers was delayed until they were resolved. The final `hinge mount` is a piece of Aluminium `T` section bonded to the skin. An inner skin has been secured to the front of the bonnet, allowing use of the original centre retaining pin. My bonnet arrived last week and was fitted to test at Anglesey. I am very impressed with the finish of the bonnet. The vents in particular must have taken ages to get right ! When mounting I found the bonnet needs support on the underside, next to the wings, otherwise it `sags`. More reinforcement could be added, but all this means more weight, something Matthew is keen to keep an eye on. There are a couple of small imperfections I need to fill, normally these would have been sorted before they are sent to customers, but Matthew wanted to get it to me in time for Anglesey, but a machine polish would yield a finish which would be absolutely fine for most trackcars. It isn`t a bonnet designed for the `show and shine` boys, but a lightweight replacement for the standard item. Above 90mph, the front corners started to lift slightly, as you can see on this pic. At road legal speeds, it doesn`t seem to be an issue, but above that, they start to lift. I`ve ordered some aerocatches, it`s something I should have done years ago anyway... The weights of the bonnets vary, I`m reluctant to say you`ll save `xxx kgs` as they are still evolving and you might not see the same weight saving. Mine is around half the weight of a standard steel item. Would I recommend these bonnets to owners of trackday MK2 Golfs looking to save some weight ? Absolutely.
Thanks for the update Nige. Anglesey looks fantastic, I watch the Moto GP and it reminds me of Phillip Island (it's about as close to it ,as I'll get to drive anyway) It looks good on the car, especially with the new wings I really wanted these to be a bolt on item for the normal dude with a 10mm spanner, but the legal side of it was a mine field. I changed our website products page a few weeks ago, but the gist of it is that they're now only recommended for track use..etc. The plus side to this is that we can make them a bit lighter ( the one that Nige got weighed about 6.1kg (from memory)They'll be built to order using customer spec, but it's likely that there'll be a weight that works for all. It would be nice to make a few of these for stock, but due to the size of them, they get damaged.
I weighed it at 6.2kg, so near enough I fitted the bonnet pins yesterday, just haven`t uploaded the photos yet. I`ll get that done today if possible.
Whilst I realise a stock bonnet has no need for pins, removing bracing to reduce weight or switching to a composite bonnet will most likely require the addition of bonnet pins. Aerocatches, whilst a bit more than a simple pin look much better IMO, so I bought a set, UK seller on ebay was the cheapest. Start off by protecting the bonnet with some masking tape. To find the centre I measured and marked 90mm in from the bonnet edge in 3 places and also 85mm in from the edge of the ridge down the bonnet. Join the marks and you`ll have 2 sets of lines. Draw a line from where they join to a midpoint between to 2, this will give a line averaging between the 2 references. Measure from the leading edge of the bonnet, too far forwards and the Aerocatch wont sit flush as if tries to follow the curved leading edge. I chose 85mm. Then tape the supplied template to the bonnet, using the lines added earlier as a reference. Double check everything. Drill through the centre of the `pin`, if you are lucky, this will hit something underneath and makes life much easier. This is why you sometimes see people fitting them `upside down`, ideally, the tapered edge faces forward, but that moves the pins location too far back, so mounting them with the bulbous end forwards makes installing the pin easier. Using an angle grinder and cutting disk, cut 2 slits down the straight parts of the template. An air die grinder and suitable grinding tool makes cutting out the material accurate and easy, a dremel or even chain drilling can also be used. Check the catch fits. lightly drill the 6 holes, I marked each hole, removed the catch then drilled through. The bonnet bracing slightly fouls the underside of the catch. Cut some excess material off (I know there is no guard in this photo....) Clean up the edges after grinding. Add some resin to the freshly cut hole to stop moisture ingress. By covering the hole with masking tape, you ensure no resin runs down the top of the bonnet. Secure Catch in place using the supplied screws, nuts and backplate (or washers) If you are unlucky and the bonnet pin doesn`t line up with the slam panel, you`ll need to make a bracket. You may be fortunate and just need to drill the scuttle and secure the pin with the supplied 10mm nuts. I wasn`t so lucky. Grind the edges off a 10mm nut so it will slide inside the box section. Slide the nut in the box Cut a slot into the scuttle and remove paint from edges. The pin needs a mount making. I decided to use some thin wall box section. Drill an 11mm hole. Position the pin accurately, so the bonnet closes without catching the pin. A couple of spot welds are useful to hold it in position to fine tune and can be ground off if wrong. Weld the box into the panel. Take a photo using flash that makes the welding look crap...lol Paint black. The nut inside the box and one screwed on the pin adjust the height then lock the pin in place. Repeat for other side, adjust height of pins to hold the bonnet at the correct height, using the rubber supplied to stop the bonnet sitting too low.
Nice one Nige You make it look easy. I'll send you the mold and you can crack on! lol I really like the look of aerocatches on a mk2 bonnet, I'm too tight to shell out though. One question, when do you sleep?
I'm clearing the decks to make way for new projects and I've still got a decent development bonnet taking up space, but the longer it stays here, the more likely it is, that it will get damaged. It's not perfect but it is a pure bargain at 150 plus postage. I really want 165 (the price of the next Knockhill track day) but I'll take the 150 lol Contributors to the thread have first refusal on this but it's open to others after that. It's the one on the right and the other side has the, tasteful artwork, on the other side (shown at the top of the page) We aimed for the stars with this and landed on the moon. We were pushing the limits at every stage. It was taking about 4 or 5 days to get one made and even then you didn't know if everything had worked until you had removed it from the mold! I really wanted this to be as close to a direct replacement as possible but it kept throwing something new at us every time, not to mention the legal minefield of selling something like this for use on public roads! Having spent an obscene amount of time and money on this, we've decided that a clip on style skin using what we've learned but reeling it back in a bit, will be more than enough for any track car. If you look at a normal GRP bonnet skin, it needs three people to lift. One at each side and one in the middle to stop it folding, lol. It will still have provision for fastening it to the hinge fixing points, probably a much thinner core and the inner bracing along the front edge to stop it lifting at high speed between the catches. I still think that it would be pointless selling a skin without any built in support, as you would find yourself adding weight trying to get it to behave and let's face it we know these bonnets inside out now. To sum it up, I think we've made one of the best looking track bonnets on the market whilst still retaining a lot more strength/rigidity than the norm.
All of the development bonnets have been sold and they'll now be built to order. They just get damaged if we try to stock them. Are you after one mate?
It would be 350 delivered and turnaround would be about 3 weeks. As they're now a track/race focused bonnet they will be a touch thinner and lighter than the bonnet that Nige has and we would recommend pins/catches just to be safe.
