The Mini-Raptor Build 2024

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June 26, 2024

The only thing I have to report is that I FOUND MY INJECTORS!!! (see entry of August 21, 2020). Turns out I'd laid the bag with them into the box with the LED strips I was using for the turn signals and such. I moved the box yesterday, took a quick look inside it to see just what was there and there they sat! WOO HOO!

Ulmer Racing (where I got the injectors) said if I ever found them that they'd take them back. I've got to make phone calls.

September 29, 2024

I've suffered from PBO (Project Burn Out) with the Mini-Raptor for a couple of years now.

I got it in running condition and was starting to work on getting things dialed in - Suspension and engine tuning. The engine tuning is out of my realm right now (need to learn how to use the Dyno-Jet tuner) so I'll be getting help from Don at Pease Custom Performance here in Phoenix. I've known Don since I first arrived in Phoenix. He runs a killer performance shop and is probably one of the best tuners I know. He's also an incredible fabricator. Once we get that working correctly I'll drag my good buddy Jay out into the desert and have him work his magic on getting the shocks dialed in.

Don and Jay were both employees of ATV Racing when I met them that first day here in Phoenix a quarter century ago. How can that be? Really? Twenty five years now? WOW.

My last outing in the MR had rear brake issues show up. Still not sure what exactly was/is the problem. For some reason both of the carriers that hold the calipers bent. Something's not aligning correctly. I'd thought that I'd had a leak, as the master cylinder was almost empty but there are absolutely no signs of leaking anywhere. One of those WTF issues. I ordered seals for the and then found out that they're not leaking. Hmmm...

I ordered another set of calipers off of eBay and they've been sitting in a box on the hood for a few weeks now.

I tend to have project ADHD. I'll get engulfed with a project until I get bored with it, stick it on the shelf and find another project to work on.

This summer it's been all about getting my HVAC system in the K-fab Facilities up and running reliably. I've had one mini-split that likes attention and requires recharging every year. The leak is so slow that nobody's been able to find it. With our record setting temps this year and my lack of enthusiasm to be in the shop, I kinda walked away from doing anything inside and focused on the chicken coop. The coop got me headed down the solar rabbit hole (thanks Jay!) and my focus turned to seeing what I could do to alleviate some of the running costs of the shop. Other than when I'm running a welder or one of my machines, the biggest draw, by far, is HVAC. So I've spent the last two months figuring out how to convert the HVAC over to solar power. It's pretty cool now that it works. No more using the grid to power it, just the sun. It's been online for about two weeks now and I'm pretty excited to see what the next APS bill is.

Yesterday, as I wandered around the nice cool K-fab facilities, I looked at the MR and the box on the hood and figured I'd change them out. May as well, as it's something that has to happen before I let it go and it's actually a fairly quick job to do.

The new rear calipers were installed and as I'm pushing the it around, back to it's sitting location the Mini-Raptor spoke: "Mess with me, damn you!"
"Huh? Did you just say something?"
"Yeah, DO SOMETHING WITH ME! There, up on the shelf is the air conditioner, why don't you see what's involved in putting that in me?"

Well, since I've been messing with shop HVAC, that kinda makes sense. Let's take the head unit that's been sitting there on the shelf, collecting dust and see where it might fit. I've messed with it a couple of times over the years, holding it where I thought it needed to go but I never really sat down and took the time to see what was going to be involved in installing it.

It's going to have to sit in the foot well of the passenger's side and I really wasn't sure that there was going to be room for it without some major modifications - or so it seemed.

I held it in "place" and then realized I needed to have the dash in place to see how much real estate that was going to take up. The dusty dash board was pulled off the shelf and put in place. Hmmm... More room under it than I thought. This looks promising.

I pulled the front blower nozzle section off of the AC body and gained about four inches of clearance. Now if I could just move it over a tad it might work. I placed it up against the center console and started drawing where I'd have to cut to fit the blower in place.

A bit of time with the saw and carefully checking as I progressed and what do ya know, it fits! And it fits quite well. I got the ac unit positioned and started making the mounts. (my TIG welding skills are really rusty. Don't look at the weld!)

Time to see how the dash is going to interface with the AC unit. Surprisingly well! And there's all sorts of room under the dash to run duct work. What a pleasant surprise.

Here's a couple of shots of the dash in place. That'll be one of the next things to tackle - lots of sanding and then I get to play with carbon fiber. Oh the joy.

I'll get the mounts finished up and see what's next.

I guess all the stars have aligned and I'm working on it again. I've also pulled the for sale ads. Time to keep it, at least for a while.

Later that afternoon...
I really wish I'd laid that ugly bead down the back side of that vertical piece instead of out where everyone can look at it, point and make fun of my (lack of) welding skills. When it gets powder coated it'll look better.

Passenger side air conditioner box mount completed and installed. I'll get the left side mount started here soon.

September 30, 2024

The air conditioner is installed. It's held on both ends and on the bottom. The bottom bracket turned out pretty nice.

The mount inside the center console. The plumbing and wire harness will also get stuffed in here, somewhere.

The lower mount turned out pretty good considering all the little bends I had to put into it to make it land on the lower mount correctly. It'll get cleaned up and powder coated too.

All three mounts.

I've ordered vents and tubing so now it's time to start working on the dash. Sanding... There's sanding in my future. Not looking forward to that.

October 2, 2024

One of the things that I was trying to figure out was how I was going to seal in the cab under the leading edge of the windshield. It sticks out about six inches or so from the firewall. I'd taken up the space with the dash but the bottom of the dash wasn't sealed at all and I wasn't really sure how I was going to do it. PBO had set in and I really didn't have any creativity left in me to apply to the MR.

Well, with my new found desire to work on it, things seem to be falling into place nicely. Once I got the AC mounted and dash laid in place, I could see where the vent hoses would be. It also showed me that a small enclosure below the dash to the fire wall would be perfect to plumb air in for defrosting. Time to seal it up!

I started in the middle, making a plate that goes from the windshield frame to the fire wall. Of course I had to pull out the bead roller and mess around a bit. I'm rusty... The corners are kinda crappy - but it's all good, as you'll have to search for the bit.

Installed

Working on the passenger side now.

Here's how the dash fits up against it.

More tomorrow, I hope.

October 8, 2024

Still working on the defrosting section and test fitting/laying out the AC system. I got vents and hose from RestoMod Air this week. I still need to order variable vent controller so I can turn on/adjust the defrosting air flow.

First sealing plate came out nicely. I'm pleased. Second one went in and came out and in and out and in and and and then went into the round file.

Part 2.5 is coming along quite well. Actually having to do it a second time has worked out. Had a pattern, a better idea how it should be assembled (opposite of what I tried the first time) and how to fit it in.

First part had a gap issue - didn't fit the pieces together tightly enough and trying to not blow thru .045 3003 is a challenge. I got some excellent setting advice from my buddy Josh, the Miller Welder Whisperer, made the mods and the second run at the welding went much better. I'm still not done with it, though. I got bunny trailed by a one foot long 3" piece of plastic that arrived yesterday and a lathe. I needed to make a hose bulkhead mount

I whipped out a bulkhead with a 1.8" through hole and a nut to hold it in place.

Quite pleased with the fit and how well the nut threads into place.

The AC hosen is nice and snug on the end of the adapter. Yay.

I'll be trimming the adapter a tad. There's no room to move it up or down.

Who let the octopus in?
From right to left - passenger door vent, driver door vent, the one with the Y adapter will go to the two center vents and the defroster line is hidden by the Y. You can see where it goes through the front firewall into the defroster cavern.

More room than I thought. Once I get the carbon dash made, there will be even more room. Hopefully I'll be able to put a glove box in above the air hosen.

RestoMod Air Diablo mini frame with cap screws and a Nix center in black

Test fitting time. These are going to look really good in the carbon dash.

That's it for today. I've ordered a few electrical connectors to clean up the firewall - tie all the individual lines into three "cables".

October 10, 2024

I should finish the passenger's side of the defrosting setup today. Then it's repeat on the driver's side. Headed down to work on it in a couple of hours. I'll post back more this evening, I hope.

One area I have to seal off is the body side to the chassis. There's a large gap that runs from the bottom of the chassis to the dash. Easy enough - fold a piece of aluminum and fit it to the body and the fire wall.

The defrosting vent tray is complete and sealed to the chassis. The little winglet looking piece will probably get replaced with a single piece that runs up to the edge of the windshield mounting flange. This is going to take a bit of bending and folding to make it work. I'm up for the challenge. I think I'll start using CAD (cardboard aided design) to get the shape figured out then transfer it to the .045" thick 3003 aluminum.

Here's where the piece will go:

Lots of CAD work fitting this into the nooks and crannies to seal the cabin as best as I can.

I rolled the edges of both pieces and was really pleased with the fit. Not sure how I managed to pull that one off. I tacked two spots, then flipped it over and welded the back side of the seam. A bit of sander and the blend is sweet. Pay no attention to the ugly ass weld below...

I still have to fill a couple of gaps on this but it came out really well and fits like a glove.

Blends to the dash like it's supposed to be there. Woo hoo!

October 13, 2024

bdkw1
Now make a triangle for the space above it to hold a tweeter........

Me
6x9 Jensen Three Ways!!!

I made this just to appease Brain.

Of course his smart ass comment ends up being a legit comment (as have so many of his smart assed comments) and I ended up implementing it into aluminum. Fits like a glove too.

One thing that I've been bothered by since I put it on is the hood's wire harness. The hood has a light bar, head lights, running lights and turn signals. I had one harness for the "street lighting" and one for the Rigid light bar in the grill. They're a pain in the butt to get to the connectors and they're just flopping around. Time to fix that. A bit of searching on Amazon (you can find anything there) and I have three (okay, only two now - waiting on one more) waterproof, screw on through bulkhead plugs. These will tidy up everything nicely.

On the hood plug I'm only using 13 of the 16 pins so I have room for expansion but I was able to find panel mount, water proof screw on plugs and put the two harnesses (at least coming out of the chassis, going to the hood) into one plug and make the plug a solid mount.

The five pin plug will run the three radiator fans and the 12 pin plug I'm waiting on will be for the winch controls, brake lights and power steering adjusting lines. I'll end up with three plugs in the firewall instead of seven different lines coming out of four spots on the firewall

I used the existing hole in the firewall for the mount and of course it's in the wrong place. As soon as I put the front of the defrosting box in place it was pretty obvious that it was going to interfere with the placement of the hood harness plug. As I was opening up the hole to accept the plug I thought I could get away with running the floor of the defroster box over the top of the plug. Nope. I'm going to have to move it down about three inches or so. No biggie, just another hole to patch and one to drill.

I also made a body seal between the firewall and the fender like I did on the passenger's side

Time to tackle the driver's side defrosting tray. I got the front of it roughly cut out, bent up and fitted into its home. Next I'll make the bottom of the tray, seal it all up and once that's finished the defrosting system should be race ready.

Not sure when I'll get a chance to get back into the shop and work on the MR. I've got some Nitrox classes I have to take so I can go scuba diving next month. I'd rather work in the shop instead of sitting on the computer but oh well, it is what it is.

Later that evening...

My friend Jay came over for a bit to discuss some mods he wants to make on his trailer's solar system. Jay's the one that's taken me down the solar rabbit hole... So after he left I took thirty minutes to relocate the plug. New hole about three inches down and all is good. I have plug clearance. I'll need to whip out a blocking plate for the hole above it.

October 14, 2024

This side fits together really nicely. Usually the way it works - second one is always better since ya know what you're doing.

I guess there was room for the top plug. This actually works out really well. I'll be moving the bottom plug back up and run the radiator fans and a power feed line thru the bottom one.

Looks like the fan lines will get a bit of modding. I think there's a connector that can get removed.

October 21, 2024

Back after a week of non-reporting. Better only a week than a few months, though, eh?

Being that I'm an ADHD Squirrel I tend to bounce from one thing to another. Felt like running the lathe one afternoon and it was time to knock out a couple of hose adapters for the A/C system. The vents that came with the unit fit snugly in the outlets and I'd pulled the balls out of them and stuck the hose in where the balls were but it wasn't a neat, nor sturdy connection. Fortunately the balls pop out without much complaining.

I thought I'd 3D print them until I drew one up and started the process. Four hours? Really? So while that was being made I knocked out the rest of them on the lathe in about thirty minutes.

Back to the defrosting tray. I had it cut and fit nicely and then I went and totally screwed it up trying to weld it. My settings weren't correct.

A quick call to my Miller Welder Guru Josh for some advise. We made a few tweaks on the welder and things got better. Instead of just trying to weld it up this time I actually got smart and did some test welding pieces. (hey, there's a concept)

Progress. Turned down the amperage, turned down the frequency. Meh...
More changes but I could see what the changes did.

More phone conversation with Josh and more tests. Lower amperage (58A) and a higher frequency (140hz) along with some tweaks in the way the AC works and I'm pretty happy with the results. I still suck at thin stuff, though.

Defrost tray #3. Argh. I've made at least two Mini-Raptors now even though there's only one sitting in my shop. This time the fitment was the best of the three (should be) and I was able to gain a little more clearance between the bottom of it and the plug coming through the fire wall. I tacked things in place and then started welding. I still suck at thin stuff but the overall result is acceptable. Especially since you can't see the welds once the dash is installed. I did have to deal with a gap that showed up when I started working on the little V flap but that can be trimmed to fit fairly easily.

Haven't seen one of these in the shop this summer. Earlier in the year I was working on the toy hauler and I turned on the propane. I stepped into the trailer to check that I had gas flow. Seems good. I step out and suddenly hear a leaking line (I had ear plugs in). I'm a tad freaked - last thing I want is poof-ka-boom. I turned off the propane bottles, went back into the kitchen area and start sniffing around. I don't smell anything and the hissing has stopped. Good. I stepped back out to start inspecting the line and the hissing starts up again. It sounds like it's coming from the other side of the trailer. I walk around to inspect and then realize that the hiss is a rattler behind a sheet of metal. I chased it out with a stick.

Yesterday I'm thinking about this happening (no clue why) and I guess I manifested having another shop serpent. As I walked past the garage door I see this little guy all coiled up next to a small opening where the door doesn't seal completely. It's little - could fit in the palm of my hand. I need to go see if it's still there. It's been cold the last few nights and I'm guessing it was warmer in the shop. It didn't move at all. I put my shop shoe (flip flop) down by it for a size comparison and got one little tongue flick but that was it.

I will have to keep an eye out for it. I don't want to accidentally discover it.

Oct 22 - the little rattler hung around for two nights. I decided it was best to do a little snake wrangling and send it back outside. Better for everyone.

Lead in to where I am right now: Have you ever checked out the SuperfastMatt Youtube channel? You need to. It makes me feel better about what I've been doing over the past few years. It seems that SuperfastMatt has already done much of what I'm doing and I've actually gotten some really good ideas from him. The side windows on the Mini-Raptor will be made following some of his ideas. He's already played with Lexan and has given me some things to ponder. He also posted a video on composites - actually quite a few on composites and while watching them I feel his pain and triumph when stuff works out. Seems to be a common thread among us fabricators - making things more than once.

Way back in 2006, when I first moved into the K-fab Facilities in Hell, er, Ohio and started working on my race cars and projects I had people constantly telling me that I needed to either live stream what I was doing or that I needed to video what I was up to and put it on YouTube. Nah, I really don't want to be watched. I wander around without a shirt, I don't wear OSHA approved shoes and I'm content sharing my work here on my web site - used to really enjoy sharing on the now defunct Minibuggy.net because my friends gave me a lot of grief, pointers, suggestions and there was grand banter among us. I'm still fast friends with many of them too. I miss that forum.

Anyhow, back to my building. Above shows where I left the first round of carbon work under vacuum. One piece worked out sort of (it's useable) the other four found the round bin but I know what I did wrong. Lessons... every step is a lesson. Actually two lessons in this case.

For starters when I got back to the shop yesterday morning the first one is don't use the table as a sealing side. Some of the excess epoxy gets sucked under the molds and they get glued to the table nice and tightly, even with peel ply release stuff. Nothing a scraper and a flap wheel can't clean up but what a pain in the arse. Getting the stuff off of the table was a bit of a bitch. Lots of prying at specific points and swearing. Fortunately it didn't damage the GPS bezel or the AC mounting ring mold.

The GPS mount actually turned out fairly well. There's some porosity on the edges where the fabric didn't get fully sucked against the mold but that's fixable. I'll be laying carbon over the lip of it when I stick it all together. I'll fill in the bad spots on the insert first so I know it doesn't have any air pockets or voids. Fortunately the GPS fits right in it well.

I had already made a mounting ring way back when I first started working on the dash. It gives mounting holes and is a template for where to remove the back of the mounting ring. I put it in place and checked fit and then drilled mounting holes into the carbon bezel. Nutserts will get installed in the carbon (maybe the aluminum piece too) and the GPS is mountable. The piece also fits right where it's supposed to in the dash plug.

The edges will get trimmed down to fit the dash. The flat section is only a couple of layers thick so it has a little give and flex. That'll let me form it into the dash more easily when it's time to cover everything.

The AC vent mounting rings didn't work out so well. I wondered if they were going to or not and it would appear to be the second one. The inserts floated a bit and didn't center nor leave enough of a lip to surround the vent bodies. The first one popped out fairly easily because of the porosity behind it. The other three fought to their death and headed off to the round file as they were removed. Lesson two - use mold release you Dumb Ass!

Round two on the AC vent mounts. I needed to make the molds deeper and not as complex. Square edges on the inside and a small radius on the lip were machined into my piece of plexiglass. I also cut four more pucks to make the pocket. Unfortunately they're just "that much" too small but oh well, they'll work.

As I was cutting the carbon for the mold all I could hear was SuperfastMatt talking about doing forged carbon fiber work. "Just fill it up" so I did. I tried to get as much overlap and infill as I could. Seems that it worked, seems that I didn't make the mold quite large enough in diameter, though.

Pucks in place and a shot of how thick these are.

Most importantly I covered the mold in release agent. I am trainable. The carbon got cut, the pucks placed and then everything was into the mold, wetted up and vacuum bagged. Everything fit nicely this time. Looked promising.

I headed on down to the shop this morning to see how things turned out and it would appear all is good.

I machined the center out and then cut the clearance for the AC vent to fit into the bezel. I'm pleased with the results - but they may get made one more time. I might have made them a tad too deep. There's a bit of porosity around the edges of a couple of them but like the dash, that's fixable and fillable when I mount them.

October 31, 2024

As I play with composites again, I'm always trying to figure out how to be more efficient and get a better finish way of doing stuff. As I've tried to make molds for the AC vents and the GPS bezel there's been issues with each step but they're not failures, they're teachers. Round three seems to be the answer to what I'm after too.

The skid plate of the MR is made out of .375" thick UHMW. UHMW (Ultra High Molecular Weight) plastic is a tough, slippy stuff. It takes hits without permanently deforming, it's easy to cut and work with (I can cut the .375" thick stuff with a sharp knife - actually works really well) and I've discovered that the epoxy I'm using in the composite work does not adhere to it at all, unlike the acrylic I tried. I don't even need mold release with UHMW. I also have a bunch of it left over from the skid plate as I only used about one third of a sheet for the tail section on the MR>

UHMW also machines like butter with new end mills/tooling. The sharper the better and it takes high speeds and feeds in stride. Just because watching a CNC machine work is fun, here's a video of my ProtoTrak making the final pass on one of the plugs

Being that I have quite a bit of the stuff to mess with I made my molding plate a bit larger than when I tried to use the acrylic. This gives me more room to make the overlapping areas and makes life a bit easier. I cut out a piece of UHMW and then machined two pockets into it. They're square edged on the bottom since the vents, which fit into the recess, are square profiled. I radiused the edge that comes out to where the dash will be. The plugs have the same profile in reverse since they fit into the mold holes. I left about .030" (<1.0mm)of difference between the two parts for the carbon to lay in. Four layers of carbon make the plug a press fit. Three layers make the plug fit perfectly so three layers it is.

Instead of being greedy and trying to make all four vents at one time I've decided to give just a pair a shot. Less work, less mess, less setup, just more time required. I have time so what the heck. Here's the mold, the two plugs, the sheets of carbon and all the other stuff required to run a set. The tan stuff around the mold is this sticky goo of a tape used for bagging. Stick it down, put the vacuum bagging over it, pull the cover off of the tape and you hopefully end up with an air tight seal. It works, it a tad tricky to deal with and is unfortunately a bit on the pricey side. Then again, pretty much anything to do with carbon layup is pricey to a point. Amazon definitely helps.

Carbon in place and wetted out, just needs to put the plugs in, seal it up and stick it under vacuum, which is what's happening in the right pic. Am I the only one that sees my old Moskito logo in 3D? Once again, all is set and under vacuum and I'll be back in the morning.

The next morning

OH HELL YES!!! These came out fantastic. First off, the vacuum bagging, batting and peel ply pulled off probably more easily than any other project I've done. Cut the bagging along the sealing tape and give the stuff a tug and it popped right off. I had to pry the plugs out, which means I got a really good, tight fit and when they were removed the finish left was, how would the French say? "Magnifique!" (making up spelling - I don't know French at all other than French Fries).

A comparison of the last set I made and the new set made in the UHMW mold. The fit and finish is far superior to the previous attempts.

The second set was made last night and this morning I came down to another pair of exactly what I want. YAY!

Left pic is what I saw when I pulled the peel ply and batting off. There's a bit of resin left attached to the plugs and mold but it scrapes off with ease.

The mold, the plugs and the finished vent mounts. I have four of them now. I still need to cut out the centers of the pair I made last night and then I'm going to start the GPS bezel redo.

November 2, 2024

With the success of my vent molds I decided to tackle the GPS bezel again. I'm not please with the first run even though it would work. It needs some TLC and has quite a bit of room for improvement. Time to get to work.

I screwed two plates of UHMW together and started cutting away. See the hole in the lower left? That's what programming a Z rapid to -3.000" instead of -0.300" does. Shit!
It slams the cutter into the bed. Shit!
Missed the decimal place. Shit!
That was the demise of a brand new .750" cutter. Shit!
Been a LONG time since I've pulled that one. Shit!
Video is before I plunged the cutter to its death in the table.

I'm pleased with the fit of the GPS unit into the mold. There's clearance for carbon in there.

Once I got the mold cut out it was time to make the plug. Once again two pieces of UHMW bolted together. I had a bit of issue getting a smooth surface and blending the edges but it fit into the mold so we'll run with it.

Got everything set up, the carbon wetted out, stuck the plug into place and put everything under vacuum. Time to head back to the house until the morning.

The next morning I had another part. You have to love UHMW for molds. The resin does not stick at all. It was a tight fitting piece and took a bit of prying to get things separated but once done I was pleased with the results, at least in the fact that the mold works. The part, well... I've done better work. The blend around the bezel on the plug was messy (due to the crashed end mill leaving a bad finish on the UHMW) and the lines in the carbon don't really line up straight but it's gonna be hidden so it's a non-issue. The one thing that is an issue is that I didn't cut the plug quite right. There's a point on all four corners that needs more clearance. The GPS unit fits but it's a force fit and not gonna work. I'll be making another plug. I also got the bolts that hold the plug layers together in the wrong place (not sure why my X0 is at X-.500. The one thing that did work in my favor, though is that when the plug was pulled apart I was able too see where the corners didn't fit and I'll be able to make corrections on the next one. As I keep saying "It's a learning experience".

Time to make another plug...

November 3, 2024

New plug made - it's definitely larger than the GPS's chassis this time. I also modded the corners a bit. I made some test profile pieces yesterday and once I got them to fit into the cover corners I made a profile and let the mill do it's thing.

Mold was modded too. Used the same profile as I did for the plug, moved the cutter over to the other side of the profile and then told the ProtoTrak that the endmill was .040" smaller. This gives me a copy of the profile and opens it up .040" larger than the plug.

I can slip three layers of carbon between the plug and mold fairly easily. Adding another layer makes it tough. I'm hoping when the carbon's wet it lets things slide together.

One layer for the back, just to hold stuff in place and then three layers on each edge. I cut the long ones so they'll fold into the mold and the short ones go over the tails the folds produce.

Just waiting on my epoxy (tomorrow) and I'm race ready.

November 6, 2024

Trying something new and am now using West Systems epoxy instead of FibreGlast. Had a couple of friends recommend their products so why not. It's clear and sets up more quickly. The epoxy showed up on Monday and I got down to the shop early Tuesday morning to see how the stuff works. I'm pleased. The measured pumps that come with the system make life really easy with mixing. No more eyeballing labels on cups with eyes that can't see worth a crap anymore. One pump from the resin and one pump from the hardener and the ratio is correct. Five pumps from each and I have just enough to wet out the already cut carbon pieces.

I put in one back sheet with the edges feathered (removed longitudinal fiber clusters) to make the tighter bends in the bottom edges of the mold and then four strips of 2" around each edge, overlapping the corners. Short edges, long edges, repeat.

As mentioned a bit earlier, when I did the dry test three layers was tight. Four wet layers ended up being a hair tighter and a plastic hammer helped get it all pressed together before putting it under vacuum. The West Systems epoxy dries a lot faster than the infusion resin from FibreGlast and I was able to pull the sealing layer and peel ply off and get the plug removed after about three hours of set up/curing time. It was really tight getting the plug out - needed wedges and a wide, flat prying tool to get it popped out.

When I checked the setup after lunch, the epoxy in the mixing cup was hard - usually a larger amount in a cup will kick and harden sooner than thinner laid epoxy. Something to do with the heat it produces when it sets - a larger mass will hold the heat and cause the curing to accelerate while a thinner will shed the heat so it doesn't set as quickly. The carbon in the mold was hard but still slightly plastic (flexible) so I put the plug back into the piece, put the whole thing in my press and put it under about 5 tons of pressure. I'll let it cure overnight and pull it out in the morning. The two nubs sticking up were still quite rubbery so I cut them off before putting the plug back in and then everything under pressure.

The edges under the lip of the mold are a tad rough so I'll sand the edges flat before pulling the piece out of the mold. I got some deflection of the UHMW from the cutter pulling up the stuff as it removed material. Should have removed the edges in three .200" deep cuts instead of one at .600". The radiused edges did work better this time than any other try. Four for the win!

The aluminum mounting frame that I cut out a couple of years ago is going to work really well. It's a perfect jig so I can drill the mounting holes in the correct places and then I'll put it on the back of the bezel, epoxy it in place and use it as a cut out template and also put the nutserts through both the carbon layers and the aluminum. The GPS head unit won't go anywhere. You can see where I've sanded the face flat in the left hand picture. Still needs a bit more to get it fully flattened but I'll do that after I cut the excess away. I only need about 3/8" (10mm) of lip.

Time to go make two more molds and plugs. I need to mount the intercom head unit and the two way radio in the dash. Now that I've figured out this method, I'll get them set up and ready to install along with the vents and GPS bezel.

PROGRESS!!!

December 14, 2024

Well, another year comes and goes and the Mini-Raptor's not finished. Hopefully 2025 will be the year of the end.

There was an off road expo happening last weekend not too far down the road from me. Jake, with his blue MR (there's actually a Gen 2 Mini-Raptor in my neighborhood - I've helped him do a small amount on it), said his was going on display and that there was room for some people to "drive in". That got me thinking...

Threw the hood on my MR and decided I'd go down to see what was happening. Seems like the appropriate ride to take to an off road event, don't ya think? Headed down the street and realized I have the tuning waaaaay off (part of the frustration that lead to me parking it for months). I made a lap around the block and put it back into the shop. Bummer! No worries from me, though as I've gotten past my project burn out.

I'll hook up the computer and put the last map back into and see if that's better. I already have plans to take it to a friend who's a wizard with Dyno-Jet tuning. He'll make it run.

I'll not have a chance to get back into the shop and work on the Mini-Raptor until early January so see ya next year!

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