7 July 2007
Session 183 - Plenum chamber mould
Been a while since I last did some work on the car. Today I undertook to remove the mould from the pattern. This took at least 1 hour as it was stuck quite badly despite my waxing and PVA efforts. Very strange. After I removed I could see that the paint had reacted with the gel coat. This would leave some ripples in the gel coat. I am pleased that I had done a couple of coats to ensure it was thick enough to allow correction with wet and dry paper. The mould also cracked in a couple of areas around the throttle intake area, this is the tightest area to remove and I intentionally did not make to thick knowing I would need some flexibility in order to release it. But I can repair it.
Spent another 1 hour removing paint from the gel coat, sanding down flash lines, still some more work to do but here is a photo of the mould halves.
I am not completely happy with them but I think I can bring up to scratch so will persevere a little while longer before writing them off. I am also going to build up some more reinforcing layers on the outside of the mould now that it is released from the pattern and no longer needs the flexibility otherwise the mould would only be useful for one time use and I may end making a number of plenum chambers for some other people that have expressed an interest in purchasing my plenum chamber.
Go to August 2007