ok so i was thinking about saving weight and also being lazy at the same time. What about instead of using aluminum riveted for the side panels (external panels only since this wouldnt be too safe for the driver area) to use monokote, which is the heat activated adhesive covering used for radio control plane skins. Its thin, light and pretty sturdy and the cool thing is that if your chassis welding job doesnt look ugly u can use transparent colored skinning which could be pretty cool. Whats do you guys think? even if you say that it will rip so easy u can just repar it quickly and its easy to use.

I can't see that as a problem but you would have to have the exhaust come over the side rail to keep it away from the film or the film would shrink ant split. Not sure if the front edges could take the buffeting either.

well the film can handle the air flow no matter what. since normally its put on planes that fly much faster than a car drives and its attached to spars that are much smaller in surface area. lasting against the air is not an issue. Heat is not an issue so much. It wont continually shrink from heat, the shrinking is only enuff to keep it taught around what it is attached to. Direct contact with the headers might be the only problem, that can be fixed by using exhaust wrap. the film can handle pretty high heat before it fails. I am mostly worried about safety issues to the driver. so protection of the legs and sides of the driver is needed i think. Unless that doesnt matter too much in the way its ok for a go-kart driver to have the whole body exposed.

I'm just thinking of the film that will be between the top and bottom rail just behind the wishbones. It will be verticle and it would flap about in the wind and probably rip itself off in time unless you glue / iron it onto a verticle peice of ally or something which would be ok.

I have built more R/C planes than i have had hot dinners so i do know a bit about them. It would work but i don't think it would last very long. It would be good for a racer as the weight saving would give the car the edge over the others.

The nylon fabric textured material is much harder wearing than the smooth plastic material.

hmm yes, the part around the wishbones. I think i might make that area from aluminum and then attach the monokote to that.

You also have to remember that the distances between the supporting ribs/spars on a model aircraft is a lot less than than spacing on a car...
I think you may have problems...

maybe i can add some smaller supporting bars. thin ones, probably wont add to the rigitity of the chassis too much though. also unlike on an rc plane wing this will be on flat areas so they arent weighed down like against ribs on a plane wing. i dunno i really want this to work out. it seems to me to be the most cost effective solution to saving tons of weight. and since this is going to be a track only car i wouldnt encounter too much of a problem with road crap.

In that case why not try with no sides at all, like the ariel atom.

http://www.arielmotor.co.uk/04/profile.htm

I think you are underestimating the strength that the ally skin gives to the chassis. I know someone will quote me the aerial atom but that was designed without a skin and the tubing is massive.
Even the Locust with its plywood skin gives a lot of rigidity to the structure.
Covering the chassis in a high tech 'cling film' would certainly test your welding!

- Alan

quote:

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Originally posted by Alan_Thomas
I think you are underestimating the strength that the ally skin gives to the chassis. I know someone will quote me the aerial atom but that was designed without a skin and the tubing is massive.
Even the Locust with its plywood skin gives a lot of rigidity to the structure.
Covering the chassis in a high tech 'cling film' would certainly test your welding!

- Alan

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IMO, The locost chassis relies on the fact that it is panelled to get a lot of its stiffness. Especially along areas such as the trans' tunnel where there is normally very little triangulation. If the panels are bonded and rivetted properly then it should give a substantial amount of stiffness. To get the proper advantage of the panels they should all really be rivetted/bonded on the same face. I.e. all on the outside face for the side panels to load. Again this is only my opinion and i'd rather not spark another one of the repeated 'heated discussions'!

Andy

[Edited on 17/7/06 by andylancaster3000]

Have a look at the FSAE guys. They often use aircraft fabric for body work. Very light and very easy to do.
As others have mentioned, you would need to have things properly triangulated as fabric isnt a good shear panel