Continuing the clay surfacing

Napoleon enjoys a well earned "fantasy" after completing the "packing" of the hot clay over the entire center body surface. Only the two front fenders remain for "packing". He used gloves because the clay is 160 degrees and can blister your hands if left there for more than a few seconds. After the clay cools, it will be very hard for final surfacing and eventual mold making.

Napoleon and Stas continue to surface the "model buck" (made from wood and foam and on casters). The first application of clay is called "packing" the clay. It is hard, physical work smashing the clay onto and into the foam so that it will be secure for final shaping.

Applying the Surfacing Clay

In this image, Jim is shaping the clay using a piece of spring steel that has small teeth cut into one edge. Previous to this, he roughed out the surface using a tool called a "rake" that looks a bit like a garden rake. It too is a piece of steel with teeth in it, but it is attached to a handle and is used for the initial quick cutting and shaping of the clay. It is easier to do the initial shaping of the clay while it is still a little warm. After the clay has cooled off completely, it becomes quite hard and is more difficult to shape.

In this photo, Matt is applying the hot clay to the surface of the foam "clay buck".

In this photo, Matt Briggs is putting billets of clay into the clay oven to heat it so that it will be soft enough to apply over the blue foam. The wood and foam structure upon which the clay is applied is called the "clay buck".

The Clay we are using was donated by Mitsubishi Motors thanks to arrangements made by Raymond Chan (a student at the Academy of Art University who interned at Mitsubishi last summer) and supported by the Academy based on the fact that several students will gain valuable experience helping to build the full size clay model.

This clay is the same clay used by the car companies for making body models. It is first heated in an oven to 160 degrees to make it soft for application to the foam. As it starts to cool, it will become more firm and hard and then can be formed using specialized clay modeling tools. When fully cooled, the clay surface becomes quite hard.

Eventually, we will be making fiberglass molds from the clay surfaces. Then we will be making fiberglass parts in these molds.

Priming the foam before applying the clay

We have painted the surface of the blue foam with a Shellac so that the clay will stick to the foam.

Preparing the foam for application of clay surface

Matt is poking the foam full of holes. The clay will be pushed into these holes so that the clay can grip the foam. There are a lot of forces involved in applying and shaping the clay.

Final blue foam shape, ready to poke full of holes to prepare it for primer and clay.

3/23/08 Concept Car Progress

Matt Briggs taking dimensions in preparation of mounting our new aluminum billet steering rack.

March 16

We were so happy when we finished mounting the shocks in horizontal position with bell cranks and push rods just like the formula one cars.

Progress in February

As you can see from these pictures, we have been busy working on the concept car. On the chassis, developments have been made on the front suspension geometry and we are currently awaiting a new steering rack that will fit where the lefthand drive component from the old MR2 did not.

On the body, the foam has been shaped and is almost ready for clay. Edges and certain details still need to be finished first.