Build - Bonnet

At the end of the first day of building
I had the initial structure of the left part
of the bonnet all pinned in place.

Day 1 -
I printed out some of the parts I would require this morning then forgot about the project for most of the day. After a trip all over Sydney I finally found one lone piece of 6.5mm balsa wood in bunnings, it had been trod on and was a little scrappy but it would do as with the small selection I had I could begin the project. I came home and began to cut out some pieces. After a shopping trip for dinner I purchased 2 pieces of 5x100x915mm balsa for $8 each from a craft store, it was very expensive but it would allow me to continue as I had almost run out already. 

Day 2 -

 Bottom of the L-Bonnet after taping.

I began the day by finishing off the balsa structure of the left half of the bonnet. I initially just pinned it together before looking for more balsa wood in bunnings. They still hadn't got stock in so I just purchased some masking tape and sand paper. I also searched for some tubing to join the 2 sections together. There   was only 50mm PVC pipe so I decided that I don't have any tools to melt and bend it so I needed some flexible tube. They only had 40mm diameter clear vinyl tubing so this would have to suffice, it was a bit expensive at $16 for a 900mm piece.

Top of the L-Bonnet after taping.

When I got home I decided to super glue the skeleton together before taping up the top in preparation of spraying foam. I had a 340ml can of foam but didn't see the fine print saying that the 3x expansion occurs over time. So I sprayed it all in to a few of the compartments before running out. I then decided to make a quick trip to buy another 340ml can for $8 and whilst there noticed the expansion over time clearly printed on the larger cans. After racing home to salvage it I scooped as much as I could into the other compartments and topped off the remainder with the new can before setting it to dry.
I hoped to begin shaping the foam this evening but after cutting into the foam the centre is still gooey so it will have to wait until the morning.

  

<  After first can of foam.




 After foam expanding and drying. >

< After removing the masking tape.












Using masking tape to cover the top worked extremely well, as you can see from the 3rd picture above the foam comes out pretty close to the final product.




As always, tips and tricks for the blog or project are always welcome. 

Cheers