CAR N66 April Report
After we riveted the aluminum flashing onto the body of the car, we cut plexi-glass for the windshield and for the rear body of the car. We placed the plexi-glass onto the rear of the car with self-tapping screws right to the body. Then we covered our motor and spray painted the plexi-glass and aluminum flashing blue. Then we drilled holes into the 1” rigid conduit to rivet buttons to the frame to hold our windshield in place. We did this down both sides of the car. We also placed Velcrow down both sides to add extra support to hold the windshield in place.
We then made our nose cone out of cast material that we wrapped around a balloon that was blown up to 16” in diameter. Then we let the cast harden overnight and removed the balloon in the morning. Then we used Jig-Saw to cut the cast in half to properly fit the front end of our car. Then we cut 7 4” aluminum pieces to secure the nose cone onto the car. We used self-tapping screws to drill the aluminum pieces to the frame. Then we covered the nose cone with Bondo to make its appearance smoothand sanded it smooth. Then we painted it blue to match the rest of the car. Then we made a stencil of a skull with tomahawks and feathers. We put the stencil on with masking tape and spray painted the skull onto the car with white spray paint.
Since are last race in Columbus we have made a few modification to the car. During the race at Columbus, our car experienced some minor malfunctions. First we forgot to tie the straps from the 5-point safety harness, so we got black flagged. Then the weld on our sprocket on the rear wheel broke so we had to steal the sprocket off of S44. Then to compound the problem we had electrical issues with our fuse box.
Since the race we fixed our front nose cone by spreading Bondo over its surface to smooth and fill in the cracks. Then we painted the nose blue again, but this time without the skull on the front end. We put two warrior skulls on the rear end in white paint. We fixed the sprocket by grinding and welding it and we fixed our electrical issues with a new fuse box.
Car N44 April Report
The race went well in Columbus, we made it the full hour without anything breaking! We still need to make a few adjustments on the car because the car only made it half the race full speed. We also had the body done for Columbus but it didn’t look the best so we worked on it the rest of April. For are front end we used layers of Styrofoam and sanded it done to size. We used bondo to smooth and help hold the front end together. To hold the front end to the car we glued bolts in the Styrofoam.
For the side of our car we used metal flashing for the body. To hold it on the car we used rivets. We drilled two holes on the very back of the car to put the brake light wires through, then we self tapped the brake light on. Cutting the holes for the radius rods were kind of difficult because we didn’t know exactly where to cut them or how big. Once that was done we began working on the windshield and back end.
First we used sixteenth inch lexan but that was to stiff to bend over the car and velcrow to the car so we had to used a thirty second inch thick. We riveted a Velcro strip to the windshield and the car to hold the windshield done. We also used this lexan to cover the back half of our car, but instead of velcrowing it we self tapped it to the frame so we could take it off if we need to. Also, for the bottom of the car we used the thicker lexan to keep the air out and less draft.
Finally we painted the car, we used yellow spray paint. We painted the inside of the plastic to give it a nice glossy look for the back half of the car. We also painted a black strip over the drivers head to keep the sun out of our eyes. We then gave the whole car a second coat to make it look good. After all that we cut out or number in a piece of paper to use as a stencil. We painted the number with blue paint of both side of the car.
For the last couple of weeks we have been testing the cars making different adjustment to make if last longer. We are trying to make the final adjustment for state to give us the best chance of winning.
Car N44 February Report
This month flew by, since most of
our wiring and frame was already complete we focused on our body and all of the
small details. These details are tedious and hard to stay focused on.
Checking
our welds was one of the first steps we took to ensure that are car was safe.
We also wrapped our car in sheet metal to make some of our body. The rest of
the body will be made with plastic and foam. Everything is in a standstill;
there are so many people on the team that we all seem to get in each others
way, making the car is tough, but staying on good terms with our team mates
seems to be the real challenge. With all of these tedious tasks our nerves are
already short and getting in each others way makes everyone just plain grumpy.
Luckily our class is composed of upper classmen who are mature and can handle
there nerves in an adult manner.
The last
two weeks of February have consisted of testing our cars to find mistakes, than
making the appropriate adjustments. Wednesday the twenty-third we actually got
to test drive our cars on the track. We all showed up before school started,
made a few quick adjustments and took them to the track. Car S44 did okay, we
made it for fifteen minutes going approximately twenty-nine miles per hour. Our
batteries on both cars died after fifteen minutes of racing. That is something
we are going to have to improve, whether it was because of the temperature
outside, the state our batteries are in, or the way they are hooked up, there
is plenty of room for improvement.
The body of
S44 is making slow progress, our front “bumper” is in place but small
adjustments are still being made. We decided not to use plexi-glass for our
upper body, mainly because it was too messy and time consuming, but also
because it is not as durable as 1/16 inch lexan. We are also putting our rear
view mirrors on this week.
All in all
it has been a busy month. We have made a steady amount of progress on our car
and are just perfecting the small details now.
Car N66 February Report
S66 has got a lot done since last
month we have got the brakes pedals made and ran the brake cables to both tires
and we also had to do some adjusting so the brakes would work like they should.
We have gone back and welded up all the supports and made sure that everything
was welded up and strong. S66 has gone threw and wired up the car completely
and is running. We have test drove the car and made sure everything works the
way it should. The car handles very well we have little things we still have to
do to finish the car and meet all the regulations. We are putting on the brake
light making little adjustments here and there to make sure everything is
working the way it should. We had to add bigger bolts to our steering so the steering was stronger and now it steers a lot smoother. The steering works very well for the first time using the bobcat steering.
S66 has went and tested our batteries to see
how long our batteries will last. We are going to put a box in our cars to be
able to see how fast we can go for an hour to be able to use the power of car
most affectively. We will be test driving our car a few more times so we can adjust the way we drive so we can can drive as fast as we can for as long as we can so we can get the most laps we can in an hour.
The body we are going to use Lexan so farm the full circle of our car. We are also going to paint the Lexan so when we drive the sun wont be in our eyes and we will be able to see. We are going to rivet on side of the Lexan so it wont move and use Velcro to be able to open it up and be able to get in and out of the car. To finish the floor we are going to use plastic so our car will stay as light as possible.
Car N44
From the beginning of the year until now we have completed many steps in order to obtain the electric car we pictured. At the beginning of the year our team drew blueprints of our car. After making our blueprints we went to work on making mini models. We sculpted the to scale models out of welding rod. That was a chore in itself. By doing this we learned what dimensions are realistic and what dimensions wouldn’t work so well on real life scales. Drawing them up on CAD was the next step. After our CAD sketches were complete we started measuring and cutting pieces for the frame of our vehicles. We then started welding the frame together. We ended up having to add a few extra pieces to meet the no larger than six inch gap rule. After completing the body, the steering was next.
Steering is not an easy task. It took us many attempts to get our steering right. In the beginning our alignment was off and our turning ratios didn’t match. It took a lot of patience and attempts to get our steering to finally work. After the steering was completed the next step was brakes. The brakes went on smoothly, only a little adjustment was needed. As a team we decided that since our steering and brakes were complete we could take it out on a man powered test drive. Everyone on the S44 team got to drive the car, it was nice to finally feel a little bit of accomplishment. After taking the car for the man powered test drive we preceded to do the wiring. In order to do the wiring we had to mount our batteries and motor. After we mounted them we ran string from part to part to take our measurements for all of the wiring. We matched our strings to the lengths of wire and from there we wired our car. When we wired our brake light we weren’t sure how to run it without interfering with our feet and the brake pedal. We ended up welding a metal box to protect the brake light from our feet.
Grinding and welding seems to take up most of our days. Since we are using conduit we have to grind everywhere we want to weld in order to avoid getting poisoned. This makes the welding process twice as long, but it also helps our car stay light weight, increasing our agility and speed.
In the last days of January we are going to start the body for car S44.For the body we are planning on using fiber glass. It is a lot like paper mache, only a lot more difficult. For the last couple of days every time I am in the shop there is a lot of discussion and little work actually being done. Our team has been deciding how exactly to go about making and doing the fiber glass. Before we start we want to know that we are guaranteed the best option for our body is fiber glass. We have talked with the North Platte team about the fiber glass since they attempted to make their body out of fiber glass two years ago. They told us that they soon gave up because it was not worth the trouble. Our team is back at the drawing boards now.
January was a successful month for our team, we accomplished many tasks and are on track for a great race season. Our body and a few other small details is the last step before we are ready to hit the track.
January, 2011
N66
When S66 started out we decided we wanted a rounded body for a frame. So we took welding rods and made a mini model of our car so we knew what it would like look and we could see the problems if there were any. Then we took one inch square tubing and made the base of our frame. We made two 8ft pieces and then welded them together. Next we made a jig so we could bend our big (back) circle out of conduit.
We used the torch to heat up the conduit and bend it so it made almost a complete circle. While some of our members welded the back circle to the frame the rest used the conduit bender to bend the small (front) circle. After we got the front circle bent we welded it to the front of the frame for the front end of our car. Next we made the body by notching out, and cutting pieces of conduit to fit between the two circles to form the circular part of our car. Then we welded supports in the body for protection, and to meet the six inch rule.
S66 has had some problems with there front end and steering since S66 is using a bobcat steering instead of a steering wheel. Wahoo has never used this kind of steering so it has been a little challenging figuring out everything to make the steering work smoothly. We finally figured out our steering and made it work smoothly, we even made the whole steering system from scratch.
S66 has put in the engine and now we are putting our brakes on and running our brake cables. We had to cut the cables to make them just long enough so they would work and then we ran the cables through the hoses so the cables wouldn’t catch on anything. We ran the brake cables under our feet so they're not in the way. We have also put in the two keys and the batteries.
S66 has been working on the throttle we have located the throttle box next to our knees by the right tire on the inside of the body and now we are running throttle cable from the throttle box to the gas peddle.
January, 2011