Oz Striker's Type S

[mountfranklin]

this was a very inspirational read, although it was sad when you had that accident but its inspiring to see you back up on feet again and more motivated then ever. looking forward to meeting you and ride one day in the future (2015 lmao) or sometime soon man.

Peace

Tookie

[plAythiNG]

Hey ryan.

Wow what an uodate. I thoughr you shared the crash awhile back on your thrwad but loooks like it wa only on fb.

All the best.man
I cant wait to see this guu get transformed from a clean street machine to track car and now to race car!

[Oz Striker]

This ^^^^
Love it man, love every bit! Keep up the good work man, ima comin'!

this was a very inspirational read, although it was sad when you had that accident but its inspiring to see you back up on feet again and more motivated then ever. looking forward to meeting you and ride one day in the future (2015 lmao) or sometime soon man.

Peace

Tookie

Hey ryan.

Wow what an uodate. I thoughr you shared the crash awhile back on your thrwad but loooks like it wa only on fb.

All the best.man
I cant wait to see this guu get transformed from a clean street machine to track car and now to race car!

Thanks for the kind words guys, much appreciated. Will be keeping this updated regularly now as the body progresses!

[felixR]

Wow that is impressive!

Looking forward to this.

[Stephen_AUS]

Good to see that the accident wasn't very major and you didn't get hurt!

I am surprised that your splitter mounts didn't rip right off the frame ... brackets must have been quite thick!

With you body kit you are intending to design, looks to see you got the same idea as these two cars:





Seems you are looking at the flat big mouth at the front and run a splitter easily right underneath it! I love the idea and looks, would look so boss on DC5! Well keen to see how you go with the process ...

[Oz Striker]

Wow that is impressive!

Looking forward to this.

Thanks Felix

Good to see that the accident wasn't very major and you didn't get hurt!

I am surprised that your splitter mounts didn't rip right off the frame ... brackets must have been quite thick!

With you body kit you are intending to design, looks to see you got the same idea as these two cars:





Seems you are looking at the flat big mouth at the front and run a splitter easily right underneath it! I love the idea and looks, would look so boss on DC5! Well keen to see how you go with the process ...

The brackets were made strong to transfer the pressure to the chassis the best, but they did also stand up well in the crash!

You are certainly correct Stephen, I'm a big fan of the M Speed R34 and the Sutton brothers S15, and also got a lot of inspiration from the Tilton Evo and Revolution Garage RX7. It should be easier to mould the bumper separate to the splitter, if they were one piece the curve in the splitter might make it a bit hard to remove the whole piece from the mould at once. Also it will create plenty of space for a large enough aluminium box with pipes hanging off the sides to fit in nicely

[sleepingperformance]

Sounds like a nice hair drier is maiking its way in.

Good to see you have used the accident as motivation and best of luck on the path to WTAC 2015

[Oz Striker]

Sounds like a nice hair drier is maiking its way in.

Good to see you have used the accident as motivation and best of luck on the path to WTAC 2015

Thanks Josh, hopefully all goes to plan and i can make it there as planned

haha there is a strong possibility regarding the hair dryer!

[eskimo_firefighter]

I like where this is going Ryan, all the best with your goals.

[Oz Striker]

I like where this is going Ryan, all the best with your goals.

Thanks! There's a lot of work to do but hopefully it all comes together!

[Oz Striker]

Ok apologies for yet another long awaited update, I've been a bit distracted over the last few months. Certain events recently led me to make the decision to leave my job after 4.5 years, mainly because it ended up being a huge source of frustration and negativity that I just couldn't put up with anymore, so I made the decision to leave and have only been better for it! Now I've decided to go to University and follow something I'm more passionate about, I'm not exactly sure what that will be yet but it's likely to be car related. Anyway, for the moment I'm taking some time off while I decide what to do, so I make the right decision. I'm hoping the plans to race at WTAC will still eventuate in the time frame I mentioned (2015), it will mainly depend on how quickly I get the body finished, but luckily right now I have a lot more time to work on the car which is nice!

So I've started to really crack on with the front bar and fenders, as mentioned in a previous post, I'll be focusing on one side of the car (passenger side) first and then will create templates to match up the other side so they are symmetrical. Here are a couple of photos of the foam trimmed to shape and then sanded back smooth:





At this point I was happy with the general shape of the piece, so it was then time to coat the foam and start sanding back to a more accurate and detailed shape. I needed a coating that wasn't going to melt the polystyrene away to nothing. I did a lot of research into fiberglass work and in hindsight it may have been better to use a different type of foam that was compatible with a "styrene" based resin (as polystyrene isn't). Using the polystyrene meant I had to use epoxy resin which is a bit more expensive than styrene based resin, but at least it's getting the desired result. You can't use the resin on it's own because it dries hard and can't be sanded, luckily when researching different materials used for fiberglass work, i came across a product called "Q Cells" which are microscopic glass bubbles, they are so fine that when you move them around in the container it looks like fluid! Luckily you can buy bulk quantities of this stuff so it works out to be a bit cheaper!



You mix the Q cells into the resin to create a paste, add a bit of pigment (I chose blue) and apply it to the desired area. The texture once it's cured depends on the ratio of resin to Q cells you use, if more resin is used than Q cells the mixture finishes very hard and takes longer to sand, whereas if you use more Q cells in the mix it tends to dry with more of a chalky texture which is better for sanding, this is what I've been doing recently so the shape can still be manipulated quite easily with the sander. Here's what it looks like up close after being sanded:



So here is what it's looking like after repeating the process of applying the Q Cell mixture and sanding back to shape, I've done this so many times now I've lost count!











I've added a curved step through the center of the bumper which was initially unplanned, but I felt like there was something missing from the first design. In the area below the step towards the wheel arch I've created a dish shape, curving the bumper in towards the body of the car and then back out again as it reaches the wheel arch. This will give the splitter more surface area, and will subtly direct air out and around the wheel arch away from the car. The step will also be a good fixing point for a large canard to be attached. As you can see it's still quite rough around the edges, but it's finally starting to look like it resembles something of a bumper/fender! Which is quite exciting!

Anyway, let me know what you guys think of it so far, and also if you have any suggestions regarding shaping etc I would like to hear your thoughts!

Cheers

Ryan

[Mothius]

Hey Ryan,
New to the whole scene, but, I'd just like to say I love your build thread. Truly amazing stuff going on here and keep it up dude.
Chris

[eskimo_firefighter]

Wow, amazing update. The kit is looking awesome! Can't wait to see some canards on it! Huge respect for you quitting your job and chasing for a career that you will be passionate about.

In regards to what course to study related to cars, maybe this will do?

http://www.rmit.edu.au/programs/bp067

[gunpoons]

Wow, your going balls deep into this time attack shit,
Maybe get in touch with Luke Ryall from 53thirty Motorsport, look him up on Facebook, he is a top bloke and I know him as he grew up around my way,
He designs and build all his own aero and maybe could help you out with some ideas,
Good luck mate

[Oz Striker]

Hey Ryan,
New to the whole scene, but, I'd just like to say I love your build thread. Truly amazing stuff going on here and keep it up dude.
Chris

Thanks Chris, glad you are enjoying it. I was always taught to aim high because even if you fail at least you had a crack, that's just how I like to do things that I'm passionate about.

Wow, amazing update. The kit is looking awesome! Can't wait to see some canards on it! Huge respect for you quitting your job and chasing for a career that you will be passionate about.

In regards to what course to study related to cars, maybe this will do?

http://www.rmit.edu.au/programs/bp067

Thanks man, it's good to get some positive feedback, I've been staring at the thing for so long now while working on it I'm still not sure whether I like the look of it or not lol but it should be efficient and that's what matters most! Quiting was hard decision but just had to be done. Yeah, that's the sort of thing that would suit I think, there is also a "Diploma of Motorsport" which caught my eye for obvious reasons lol

Wow, your going balls deep into this time attack shit,
Maybe get in touch with Luke Ryall from 53thirty Motorsport, look him up on Facebook, he is a top bloke and I know him as he grew up around my way,
He designs and build all his own aero and maybe could help you out with some ideas,
Good luck mate

Thanks dude, I'm giving it my best shot! Luke's Civic was actually one of the reasons i decided to have a go at this myself, after seeing photos of his custom body work it seemed all the more impressive that he designed and built it himself! I'll have to send him a message and get some pointers off him