This Past Week

This past week, both Tyson and Gabe C went to the shop on Wednesday and I went on Saturday.  The Wednesday crew installed the aluminum top cover for the right door, thus completing the final door and insuring its structural integrity.  With the help of Mr. Carvalho, they also began shaping the front bumper and fenders by sanding the crudely fiberglassed areas.  When I came to the shop of Saturday, Mr. Garcia and I continued right where they left off.  Mr. Carvalho's sanding had exposed some areas where the fiberglass was insufficient and weak.  When we were originally applying the fiberglass, we mainly did so to the outside of the fender.  And so, when it came time to shape the bumper and fender, most of the fiberglass was removed.  Having learned from our mistake, this time we applied fiberglass reinforcement to the inside.  However, before doing so, we fabricated two aluminum brackets, one for each fender, in order to more securely fasten the fender to the nose.  Here are some pictures of the bumper and fenders:

Before
     

Progress


After
     

Tuesday, May 23

Once again, this past Tuesday I went to work on the car.  For the longest time, the front bumper has been attached to the nose and fenders by two large zipties and four random screws.  However, this crude mockup has been replaced by a more enduring solution.  The nose now has an aluminum mount with riveted threads in order to easily attach and detach the bumper (and every subsequent bumper in the event of accidents).  Six more riveted threads were added to the fenders, three on each side, which adds up to a total of 15 matching aluminum screws used to secure the bumper.

                   

                                    

It's amazing what just a couple screws can do for the structural integrity of a vehicle.  That bumper is solid!

Pictures

Here are some of the pictures from our meeting with Mr. Barrington which I spoke of in a previous post:

Factory Five GTM Supercar


The man who introduced Irving to aviation


Mr. Irving with his team's latest aircraft build
     

Group picture with Mr. Irving


The airship which took Mr. Irving around the world



Once again, please check out Mr. Irving's non-profit Experience Aviation at http://www.experienceaviation.org.  We look forward to learning from him and his team.  We'll keep you posted on what we learn as we learn it.

In the meantime, Gabe will be posting an update tomorrow about what we accomplished today.

Since summer has begun, we all have a bit more time on our hands to put towards the RX-7.  Our summer plan is to have one person at a time working at the shop with Mr. Garcia during the work week, then, on Saturday, we all will work together like usual.  This will allow us to get the car in working racing order well before the date of the $2017 Challenge (October 20-21).

So, with that said, this past Tuesday I went to work on the Mazda with Mr. Garcia.  For awhile now, the front bumper and front quarter panels have been mocked up on the vehicle.  The bumper was cut short and didn't make it to the wheel well, and the quarter panels lacked a curvature in the front.  However, on Tuesday this situation was changed.  We began by cutting a piece of plastic to elongate the bumper and properly form the wheel well (This piece of plastic came from the bumper which was originally too long.).  These plastic pieces were then riveted to the bumper and the seam was covered and smoothed out by fiberglass paste.  We then moved onto the quarter panels.  Mr. Garcia had previously made a fiberglass piece which fit into the missing crevice.  After grinding and roughening the area on the metal panel where the fiberglass will attach, we aligned the pre-made piece and connected it to the panel with fiberglass paste.  Here are a couple images of what we did:

                       

                           

It's kind of hard to see the final product in the last picture, but in person, the car is finally starting to look like an actual race car.  I'll post a better picture the next time I get the chance.

I would just like to say thank you to all who read this blog and support our efforts.  Also, we still are trying to raise money for this project.  So, if you are able and would like to financially support our endeavors we have a GoFundMe page set up for just that: https://www.gofundme.com/teenmade-2017-racecar.  We would also appreciate it of you would share our blog and what we are doing with your friends.  Again, thank you for your support!  See you in the next post!

Alignment/Door Day

Yesterday was a major alignment day.  We began by putting the vehicle on the lift and removing the rear dampeners.  With the rear-end vertically disengaged we were able to remove the springs and install the spring height adjuster.  After completing the rear adjustment we moved to the front.  We started by setting the camber as positive as possible in order to properly set the toe.  Then, under the guidance of Mr. Garcia, Tyson and I began meticulously adjusting the toe, one turn at a time.  While we were aligning the toe, Gabe cut out of aluminum the right interior door panel and riveted it to the door frame.  In the subsequent weeks we will continue adjusting the caster and camber, as well as, designing and fabricating the left door panel.

                                            

Though this Saturday's task list was short, these were two very time consuming and meticulously precise exercises.  That's all for now; with school over we'll have more time to work on the car and keep you all posted.

Hey, my name is Tyson. I haven't had much time to blog because I've been working while the other team members have been blogging. Here are the things we got done over the past 2 week. First, we start the day off by my making a list of what we need to accomplish.

We found a bumper from the junk yard that we can fit to our car. Also there is a piece of aluminum in the picture below that we cut out for a trunk cover.

In this next picture we started out by making a cardboard template for our door lining. Then we used that template to make a piece of aluminum to fit our door. We are not completely done with the door lining so we still have to use rivets to attach the aluminum to the door.

We got a lot done and we are one step closer to our goal of  getting this car ready to race!!!