Nissan Skyline GTR front section with included splitter takes some skills to make.
This one had a Rocket Bunny body kit seamless fastened.
Step one was to wax it and cover all holes in it and there were allot.
I added some aluminium in the gap between the original front and the added splitter.
Some of the lines were deeper than I felt was necessary,
so I made them a little less deep with some modeling clay.
It would increase my chances of a good looking part in the end.
All bigger holes were covered with aluminium plates from the inside.
That helps de moulding as I can remove the plates without damaging the original part.
After some serious taping business, it was time to cover it all in gelcoat.
Normally I would have rotated the part so I could do all of the job from top,
but the part was so heavy and still unstable so I didnt dare.
The fibre glass and polyester didnt really want to stick to the surfaces upside down,
but it turned out I won that match being very stubborn.
The flange towards the wheel and under the hood was made as separate parts.
When the main mold was hardened the hole part was steady enough to turn upside down
to cast the underside of the splitter and most importantly the stock flanges in the rear.
It was a mix of tape and modeling clay to make sure the shape would work out.
There were not much shape on the underside so I lay ed some strings of spray foam and baked it in.
The mold were pretty well attached to the original part even though I did absolutely not cheat
on waxing it or painting it with release agent. There were simply so many different angles and shapes on it.
The splitter were removable so with that part gone, lots of water, dazzling and twisting it finally popped.
The molds demanded quite some grinding and filling. Especially the covered gap between the bumper and the splitter.
After grinding and filling, I sprayed them in hole with topcoat and then polished to top finnish.
The underside of the splitter didnt get that last polishing round but that didnt matter.
I started casting the underside. I got seriously warned from several persons that a splitter only made
out of carbon fibre most likely will blast into thousand small parts by the first snudge,
so I casted in the plywood disc. It got heavy but very stable. But mostly heavy...
Casting the upper/main part of the front was quite a complicated story.
The issue was that I wanted the pattern to at least look fairly okay.
I put the first layer of carbon in and cut holes in it letting the holes go through.
Maby injecting this part would have ben better but I didnt have resin for that so I had to do my best.
In the end I think I did pretty well.
One corner got a bit weak and one or two air bubbles were found.
Mating the lower and upper part.
All epoxy glue I have hardens too fast for a controlled mating,
so I put a large sheet of carbon fibre and soaked it with epoxy on the lower part
and then put the upper part on it. Pressed the parts together with various parts as batteries and so on.
Then I laminated the parts together on the inside. There were some slight gap in the front when I grind ed it clean.
That gap was filled with my fast hardening epoxy glue.
Happy with the result I grind ed clean around all holes.
Ready?
Maby, but I was not happy at all over the weight with the plywood disc in there.
The upper part weight only 5kg, but the lower part with the disc was over 15kg.
I cut it down by at least 5kg.
Then I put the hole part in the lower mold and laminated together all again.
That ended up with a part that weight 12kg in total.
I was still not really happy, but then I got some VW Golf STCC body parts in for renovation.
Their fronts plus splitters weighted 13kg so I guess I will have to give up there.
Any how, it got lighter than original, and allot better looking.
Also now there are molds for it so if something happens on the tracks I can make more.
