More front end progress. - Mx5 Update

Been a busy couple of weeks working on both the Stagea and the Mx5. No updates for the Stagea yet but I have made good progress on the light pods from my last post.

I got the mould finished up and sealed with polyurethane varnish and then coated in wax and PVA.

 
As I mentioned in the last post, I really took my time with the finishing on this mould because I wanted the part to be pretty much perfect straight out of the mould. The reason for that is because I decided to challenge myself and make this out of carbon fiber.

 

This was my first attempt at making carbon parts other than those flat turbofan disks. In hindsight, probably should have started with an easier shape because I struggled quite a lot getting the carbon into the tight corners of this mould.

Almost all the corners at the front of the light pods had spots where the carbon didn't quite press all the way in and I had pooling of resin and even some voids.

This wasn't really much of an issue for me because with this car I've been painting the edges of everything black, so I new that I'd be able to cover any ugly seams or voids like this.

So I just had to fill in the holes, sand it all flat and then give it a top coat of epoxy that would let me get the finish perfectly flat read for clear coat.

I took some flat black paint and did a few super light passes over all the edges, being sure to hide all the ugly areas before locking it all in place with a couple coats of matte clear.

I went for the matte finish as I felt it would work a bit better with everything else I'm doing on this car and the dystopian look. Glossy parts would just look out of place. And also it's a personal preference since I actually think carbon fiber is a bit tacky and having it matte just hides it a bit.

For this light pod I just reused the old LED lights from my previous lightbar. I always wanted yellow lenses but they clashed with the fluro yellow front bumper so now that it's gone and I'll likely be doing a different scheme I was finally able to put some yellow film on them.

To hold the lights into the light pod I 3D printed a set of faceplates from PETG that sandwich the carbon and hold everything in place.

The design requires a cutout in the bonnet which is perfect since I want to add more detail to this build and break up all the larger lines.

The carbon pattern was still quite visible up close but from a distance the whole thing just looks matte black. I was hoping it would be more noticeable but even so I think it's alright.

I kinda feel the need to prove myself and so even though I still don't really enjoy carbon I'll probably be making more projects like this down the line and hopefully not making so many mistakes.

For now though I'm pretty satisfied.

 
There is still so much that I have to add to this car, even just on the front end but I think I really need to address the balance of this car next and so I will probably be looking at sideskirts and the rear wing next.

But my primary focus for now is going to be back on the Stagea. I'm so close to done with it now and I just want to wrap this build up so I can move on to my next one. I'm still enjoying it but I'm just too excited to get started on my next one.