Progress on the next Milan

 

 

The first seat and carbon wheel well.

 

 I finally finished off the seat mould and made one.  This one will go into the first Milan GT and I will take the seat from it and put it in the carbon/Kevlar one I have started building for myself.  This seat is a bit on the heavy side as I made it out of glass with one layer of basalt/carbon on the front side and in the ribs down the back.  Can drop at least 200g off the weight just by using less layers and it will still be strong enough. 

The carbon wheel well came out quite well.  There is a reasonable weight saving from the glass/Kevlar version.  This part takes me a long time do as all the material needs to be glued in place before I put the bag on.  Being a fairly complex shape the carbon is in relatively small pieces which each need to be handled separtely.   The bag ends up with lots of wrinlkes in it which makes finding and fixing a leak a real challenge.  This of all the parts for the Milan is the one we will have the highest failure rate with.  I would much rather make a top or side of the shell as they seem to go quicker.  The shell parts do actually take quite a bit longer and I like to have two people when we wet out the part.  Much more satisfying when you demould a large part.

I am making up all the small parts for the next Milan so I can assemble the next one without being held up waiting for these parts.   This is also a good way to check that all the moulds are ready to use.  I anticipate that the first Milan GT for sale will be built in January.