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Project Mosquito: Episode 174: Cutting The Roof OffAdded:
Hey, I want this car to be able to sit next to some of the most beautiful cars ever made and outshine them.
One of one. This is Project Mosquito.
Hello. Hello.
>> And welcome to the workshop. So, in today's video, we are reinforcing the windscreen form we made last week.
>> Yep. And also, we're going to take this opportunity to put some cross pieces in between the roll cage to give us a base in which to work off to make the new roof profile because in this episode, this windscreen will hold its new angle.
And we will get rid of all of this sunroof delete, roof delete, because we are actually going to completely change the contour of the top of this car to reduce lift, to reduce drag, all of the good things.
>> We're going to rest it on the roll cage.
>> You are?
>> We're going to rest it on the roll cage.
>> Well, first thing that I want to do is just get these in and get this one. We can do we can work that out when this is drying and then that way when it goes in the car because obviously we're changing our apillar shape as well. The one of the biggest things I want to do with all of this is to reduce the frontal area of our car because your shape is multiplied by your frontal area. So reducing your frontal area is the same as making a slippier shaped car and it's a slippier shaped roof. So, we're doing both in one. And these A-pillars are wider than the back of the car here. In fact, in an early in an early design of the car, I put the engine intake on here until I realized that it actually doesn't get any air.
And you kind of, you know, in order to have an intake, you kind of need air there. And these are the big problem. So if we make it double thickness and then that way we can remove these and reshape them to match our new window shape.
>> If we take that as the edge.
>> Yeah.
>> We've got 35 mil.
>> Yeah.
>> At the bottom.
>> What's our thickness of our MDF?
It's >> 18 mil.
>> 18 mil. So yeah, if we if we double up.
>> Yeah, if we put two strips on >> Yeah.
>> we can screw them together. In fact, that's 40 at top. So if we make it parallel, it'll actually sit on the roll cage parallel, but drop it back.
>> Yeah. Automatically. Cuz if you watch last week's video, you'll have seen that the new windscreen frame is a bit lumpy on the outside. And that's absolutely fine. What we wanted was the contour to be correct. Uh because we're not using the inside of it that was touching the mold. We're using the outside of it that the layup was on. We're going to body work it all anyway.
>> Work it all anyway. So, that's no problem.
>> We weren't we we absolutely weren't fussed about it being a rough kind of lumpy thing because it will all be massively sanded back and sorted anyway.
It was just all about getting this compound curve in. Well, that compound curve actually cuz this one is wrong and this hole isn't even in the middle. Um, that's what we're fixing. Yeah, but we need to put BStons on. We have to cut all this away and it'll not have anywhere to sit.
>> Well, we know that we need to cut that out anyway cuz that's kind of in wrong place cuz we need to windscreen needs to come up. Yeah. So, it needs to come up this lip.
You know what I mean?
And so, yes, cuz none of it's in right place. We can't use any of any of this shape or trust.
>> Thin buttons then.
>> Yeah.
>> To go on there.
>> Definitely. We'll need like 10 mil 500 mil long. So, we need four at 500 mil.
And don't forget your mask cuz that's the one thing with this MDF stuff. It's uh it's very dusty. It's in fact it's carcinogenic in it.
>> Yeah. Well, all up buddy. All wood's caroggenic.
>> Yeah.
>> Uh but especially hardwoods like or mahogany and teik.
>> Yeah.
>> Roco super carcinogenic.
>> But it's like tobacco, isn't it? Yes, it like it feels it. If you ever been in a a wood shop where they cut up hardwood.
What up, my dude? What up, my dude?
So, you're going to stay out of Well, we work, are you?
What?
I'll cut these into little 50 mil pieces. Yeah. And then come through individually.
And of course, the reason why the windscreen, cuz the windscreen is in here, currently looks like a baked potato is because the resin for the fiberglass won't stick to the aluminium foil. So, we've So, we've wrapped it like a baked potato, put the windscreen frame on, clamped it down, and then we can reinforce it, and it should stay in the exact curve of the windscreen. cuz currently it's just got a little bit of spring to it.
So, dad's going to laminate the buttons together and I'm going to give this frame a sand because obviously as it is it's all set and stuff so resin won't stick to it. And once we fiberglass this all in, I think one of the things I'd like to do, Dad, is move the car to a better position. Yeah, in fact, it's a we've put it on jack stands and it made some higher jack stands, which were fantastic for doing the doors, but not so good for doing the roof cuz we want to be able to see the car's profile as it's sat on the floor. Yeah. As you're going to be looking at it, but also it's easier to reach cuz like I'm tall, but a little tiny camera lady's like on a tip toe trying to film.
I have to cut these as well.
>> Huh?
>> To cut these >> cut these where? intersections because the windscreen's curved. Yeah, >> it's not uh >> um Can we get a clamp over that?
>> Yeah. I'm just going to have a look now.
That's too much.
>> Yeah. Way too much. What about we hot glue these onto this frame?
>> Yeah. It still doesn't pull that in though, does it?
>> No. But then we can get a clamp in between each one and fiberglass it all in the correct contour.
>> Yeah. So, if we kind of do it like that.
>> Yeah.
Glue gun. There it is. That glue of um credit to uh Tofu Autoworks cuz he recently did it when he did his roof mold and I watched that video. Um there's a bunch of people who've told me to contact him in comments both here and on Reddit and uh you'll be glad to know that we're already friendly.
Thanks for the idea, Chris.
Yeah. Have you ever used a hot glue gun?
>> No.
>> For anything.
>> Don't go too near the outside edge.
>> No, I'm not.
When I was four, five, we were doing sewing at school and uh I made an owl puppet and a hot glue gun that together cuz bothered stitching a lot of it and me still has it. So that proves the efficacy of the hot glue gun for me.
So that's how long it's been since I used a glue gun. But it's working.
Done. Another one.
Go on. You light it up.
Thank you all for your amazing comments in last week's video. I made a note of all of them. Last week, a bunch of really experienced fiberglassing people sounded off in the comments and left us some amazing wisdom. And I've made like massive notes of all of them. a bunch of people said stuff in common, which is always really nice to hear cuz obviously if you're getting information from multiple sources, you know it's reliable. Um, as for this, this is the only fiberglass that we'll be doing on the car up until we come to do the mold.
And when we come to do the mold, we'll have to make sure that we are massively kitted up way ahead of time.
>> In fact, we won't even start it. So, we we've got more than enough equipment, tools, and everything.
>> Yeah. Um, obviously we are in the middle of a global prochemicals crisis. The price of fuel is an absolute fortune. We couldn't get we even struggled to get acetone, believe it or not. Um, obviously resin like there was nothing on the shelves. So, what we've ended up with is basically like canoe repair kit fiberglass. It's the waxed stuff, isn't it? And it's fine um for for this for plug making, but obviously it's not something that we'd use to make a final mold. But considering our constraints Whoops. considering our constraints.
Very well.
>> Yeah. Someone said like why you doing this before you like before you've got everything that you need with a global crisis. One of the issues is that well you don't know when you're going to be able to get what you need cuz you it's not up to you. So, we are not letting it get in our way because this channel is all about doing what you can and achieving rather impressive results, if I may say so myself, with relatively modest tools.
After all, is that not what we've done since day one?
>> It is.
Can you do one more yet?
While the glass goes off, we can move the car.
We don't have to sit here treddling our thumbs.
Where am I going to put this? I don't think I can put it back on the wall again cuz I don't think it's stiff enough to get it off.
It's floppy. Floppy.
There you go. Give me a new not just like say get it engine bay. Pick it up.
Marian pull things out and we'll put it on floor.
How mad? Come on.
Wow. We forget, don't you? How tiny it is.
>> It really is. Look. Look. Pretty tiny.
Yeah. It's belt buckle height.
I miss my little car looking little. And it's funny, right? A lot of people mentioned like, "Oh, why didn't you just make the car bigger D all the way through?" Right. thing is I can tell those people have never seen a GT40 in person cuz the one thing about a GT40 that you notice it's not much bigger than this.
>> It's flipping microscopic when you actually see one in person. They're teeny tiny. Obviously famously the roof height was 40 in. That's why it's a GT40.
>> But like they are just they are this big.
>> I mean they are teen and they've got a big V8 and a flipping transaxle and all sorts. Right.
So, yeah, the smaller you can make it, better the better your car is. Like, that's why we're trying to get rid of frontal area. That's the the whole thing about it. Even the radiator ducting, like sending air down the sides of the car rather than rather than round. It makes all the car smaller. We need to get the back end round this way, don't we?
>> Yeah.
You want to jump back in and uh >> Mhm.
and make series noises.
Bit more cuz then we can roll it forward, can't we? Yeah.
Okay. Yep.
Is the smaller stabia brush better?
>> It is.
>> Yay. Thank you. I can't remember that comment.
This YouTube channel is brought to you by our lovely supporters over on Patreon. And our qualifying slicks and slicks tier members get a shout out mid video. Qualifying slicks go first because they get their name on a plaque on the finished car. So let's say a huge thank you to Neil Fuller, Derek Green, Noah Matson, Mike Satki, and Steve Shria. And our slicks, Alex Botmler, David Farity, Old Go, Brian Marshall, Robert Milwood, Jessica, Justin Perkins, Logan Pillsbury, Rod Pod Moa, Liam Quinn, Daryl Ro, Rick, Tim Richie, Joe Ripley, and Andy Wood. If you would like an extra video from us in your week every single week, plus spoiler photos and much much more then as well as you know the warm color feeling that you're supporting us here over on Patreon and stopping us having to like do silly mobile game adverts and stuff like that.
Not that we're a big enough channel to you know do that kind of thing. Um then you can join us over on Patreon and help. A huge thank you to all of our Patreon supporters. Back to the video.
So, what we need to do is radius two ends.
>> Yeah.
>> Get that. Measure that distance between the the inner inner tubes of the cage.
>> Yeah.
>> Put that in. And then we can screw through here to support. Then we can cut the part of the roof off.
>> Yeah.
>> But keep the sides in place.
>> Yeah. Because this this radius is really important cuz this radius is loads less than this is, if you will, the the radius round.
>> It's much steeper here.
>> Yeah. And we want to get rid of all of that radius, but we want to keep this bit because that that B pillar is a big part of what makes it what it is.
There you go. It's tight, but it fits.
Yep.
Take all this tape off, don't we?
>> Yeah. Might just cutting this off.
>> What? So you can see >> So I can see what we're doing.
>> Okay. I just want to point out that if you look at the sunroof as well, the sunroof is not in the middle or straight.
>> No. So, not only is this wrong, this is also completely wrong.
>> No, that wonder if we made to to the same as the windscreen.
>> Yeah, probably measured. Yeah, that's true. Probably measured one to fit the other Hey. Hey. Hey.
Yeah.
It started raining. Um, so I didn't radius the back corners yet, but I think we should try them in the car anyway.
Color of this tea for my allergies. It's Look at it. You'd never drink that if >> No, >> if you didn't have to. Kind of looks like a bit you throw away.
>> Like how will you?
>> I think that's what we used to draw around when we did the thing. in the template.
It's not a lot, but it's necessary.
All right, you got it. There you go. Yeah.
So dad's just asked me where's mask on.
Um we make this correct and then make this to fit this. Right. Our new windscreen frame we know is correct.
These two apillars are slightly different either side. So when we put our new um frame in, we know our frame's correct and we can get rid of these. And then we know that's right. And then we make it all to fit the screen. Yeah. Cuz our screens the same on both sides.
Unlike unlike this and unlike this hole.
And of course our apillars are already cracked here and there. So we'll cut it to clean it up.
>> Yeah.
>> Yeah.
Yeah, I'll just drill these out first.
These rivets.
>> Yeah.
>> And we'll have to unbolt the Apillars, won't we? As well.
>> Yeah.
>> We can do that last if you want.
for context of what we're trying to get rid of here. I can fit my hand in between the cage and the roof and I can fit my hand between the cage and the roof. And so what we can do is we can get rid of this thickness because visibly the height of the roof is in this thickness. It's not in the skin.
It's in the forehead and it's in this side. So if we can contour the sides of the body more and bring it in tighter on the apillars on the forehead, then it brings the whole thing smaller and it makes the entire car look lower.
And of course we have to save that about this bit now because in a moment you won't it'll be gone forever.
Heat.
Look.
there. It was gone.
Well, that does look different.
Good morning.
>> Morning. So, we're dry. Yeah.
And we get to unwrap it.
This trick with the aluminium foil and the clamps work to treat.
Yeah, we've got no clamps glued to our frame, which uh >> which is always a bonus.
>> Is always a bonus. Yeah. Right.
And as you can see, it's now held reasonably nice and tight up to our windscreen, which is lovely.
Take off our bits of coil. So, we're now holding our contour correctly.
We bought an extra 10 clamps and we should have bought 20.
>> Yeah, you always need more clamps than you think. Always.
I don't think I've ever done a job and gone, "Oh, I've got too many clamps.
I've done a job where I thought I've got too many wrong sort of clumps.
>> Yeah.
>> Yeah. But I want to be gent uh gentle just in case. And it I'll tell you what I wish I had done is taken the bur off this piece of steel cuz this edge is sharp.
Remind me next time we got grind. Yeah.
Because all of us on massive anti means for his uh allergies. He's not allowed to use power tools.
>> No, I'm I'm doing all right though. I do believe we may have some trimming.
However, >> frame stiffer stiffer, >> much more rigid. Yeah, >> stiffer frame.
>> Yeah.
>> And the thing is it now has wood in it that we can bracket to It's always good when you don't glue your screen to your to your frame prematurely.
I'll take it. Yeah. It's still got a little bit of twist in it cuz obviously these blocks are separate. But we can actually bridge these blocks together now, can't we? Yeah.
>> And uh and make it all all booklike. One of the reasons that I wanted to use a book for our making our body plug is that of course a book is how bodies were made in the late 60s. And so I I'm a I'm a strong believer that the method that you use to make a thing ends up influencing that thing. Obviously if you make an oil painting rather than a watercolor, it's going to end up looking like an oil painting rather than a watercolor.
That's why you choose oil paints rather than watercolor. Um, I think if you make something in 3D modeling, it looks like it's been 3D modeled. That's not necessarily a bad thing. Um, I think it's a plus point. I think, you know, there's multiple ways of doing a thing, isn't there?
>> Yeah, of course there is.
>> And that's why I use the art um comparison. And if we make a thing from a book, we'll end up with a thing that looks like it was made from a book, which is exactly what we want. Right.
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Look at me cleaning up.
First time for everything.
Actually, this is doing an okay job.
Obviously, when the the all this is fastened in properly, we'll body work all this all this area all the way around. Get it super smooth and off of the windscreen back up and make sure we've got enough uh enough space around the glass to get a proper bond >> with the uh with the windscreen sealant.
We did actually measure uh cars with bonded windscreens just to make sure that we had enough thickness this way, but um yeah, we want to be able to obviously have a really nice aerodynamic flush um fitment and being that we're only making one car and not like, you know, a production series or anything like that, there's no tolerances really.
>> So, we can make it absolutely perfect.
going to find the middle and chop it. See? Oh, actually people who said we need to chop the body down the middle, you were right. This bit cuz it's we've got a spacer in each side. And we could just glass a spacer in.
>> Yeah.
>> But that's not how we do, is it?
>> No.
>> And so, yes, you were right. We do need to But we're not widening it. We're actually narrowing it.
>> You know what it is? What?
You've used the bottom edge as a straight edge and the bottom's not straight. Don't bother. No, I sort it.
There's still a little bit of distortion in of flex in the frame even though the contour is now correct. And that's really difficult because you put it on here and it wants to contour to this radius which is incorrect. And so what we need and then obviously once we fasten the frame into an incorrect radius it then twist the frame slightly.
You put the glass and it don't fit. So we're going to take inspiration from old racing cars. They used to use frame tabs. I'm sure you've seen it on like old Corvettes and stuff like that. Um we're going to use glass tabs. I'm going to make some little MDF pieces.
>> Yeah. And then that way it holds the windscreen frame and the windscreen together and doesn't allow it to twist.
And then we can get that contour correct and then it'll all sit correct.
I'll save the ones that I didn't drill straight for sides where it's less noticeable.
I have absolutely no qualms about building it up. Obviously, I want to go lower if we can, but I have absolutely no qualms about building this edge up if we have to.
I'm quamless.
>> Are you without quam, sir? and without harm.
I wish we could have took a before and after shot at windscreen. Rick, guess what? Got squillions of them.
We've gone from, you know, being able to fit my entire hand under the body to actually under the top of the tube now.
Right. Windows first or front end first?
Uh, front end. I don't know why I've got two clamps there that are doing nothing.
Flappy floppy.
Oh no. Got resonance going. Ah. Ah. It's going to snap. It's going to snap.
Should have waited for me.
>> I should have waited for you. But I thought because I got it up on me own, I could get it down on me own.
Don't bunk the windscreen.
Flat nose speedster.
A lot of people will be like, "Keep it like that. Keep it like that." I know you will cuz you're weirdos.
Unfortunately, that's all we've got time for. Yeah, massively over filmed on this one. We were like literally an extra day and a half, not more than what we usually do. And we've come a really, really long way. And we actually don't have time to do everything that we wanted to do in this episode. We have simply just run out of time. But my god, what a long way we've come. Yeah, it's uh the windscreen's inclined. It's going to be inclined even further cuz the gap >> inclined or reclined.
>> Reclined.
>> Uh because the the gap between the the ri cage and the >> and the windscreen surround, you know, then the body.
>> We still got about 10 mil there. So we can actually just ek it back that little bit more just to get that little bit less less frontal area and more aerodyamic on the windscreen.
>> That's it. It brings all of this down which reduces lift on this area. And this is this is the bit of the car where all the lift comes from. Like I say like a Mura or an Eype or um >> 911 >> 911 all have lift problems and all the lift comes from this area at the top of the screen. You get a low pressure um I'm sorry, you get a high pressure area here which pushes the car down actually generates down force but it also generates back pressure and you get a fast moving area here which generates lift. And the more we recline it, the less lift we get. So we're basically adding down force to the middle of the car and pushing the car down more.
>> Yeah. And it's it's cuz it's coming backwards, it's actually going more and more towards the center of the wheelbase. Yeah. Um, so and obviously we're also reducing the frontal area which the shape is multiplied by the frontal area and all that. So we are making better fuel economy. We're making it faster. We're making less wind noise.
Everything literally everything on the car is other than boot space is improved by doing what we're doing. It's it's drastic and I know it's drastic and it looks drastic and it feels drastic when you're doing it. Um, but it's also really exciting and I'm really really happy with it.
>> Yeah, it's amazing how you think, oh, we'll get this done and we'll get that done and get Well, to be honest, we spend quite a lot of time just standing back and looking.
>> I I Well, you need to. You can't see it when when you're up course and doing it.
You can't see it and you got to step back and it's really, really, really important. But I said to dad at the beginning of this, we'll be lucky if we've got time to put a spar in for the center of the roof and we just we just don't have time cuz that's a job that we really don't want to rush. That has to be right. Sorry, what were you going to say?
>> I forgot now.
>> So yeah, tell us down below. Do you like it? What do you think? I think it looks faster standing still.
>> Yeah.
>> Uh which is the entire point of all of this.
>> Yeah. And it's gone tiny again since we took it off the jack stands and put it back on the floor. It's amazing how when we first took it off, it just like shrunk. It went from being a like an SUV to being a sports car. Yeah. And it funny that you can essentially roof chop a 43 in uh roof car. But yeah, basically we we're taking a bunch of the radius out of here and leaning this back and it will make the roof look smaller because it it functionally is getting smaller, isn't it? Uh but visually it will look smaller as well because you don't have this big hard edge looking at you because you don't really see the top of roof skin. You just see the bit that faces you more than anything.
>> Yeah. So we can blend it that way.
>> And we have deleted of course the sunroof from the center of the roof.
>> Not at the minute we haven't.
>> Which uh but this I think the sunroof is like 4 and a half kilos or something like that. So that's huge. And also uh the new roof will be curved. So, it will be structurally, functionally stronger, and stiffer. It's actually a stiff shape rather than adding a bunch of reinforcement into it. Um, so at 160 mph, cuz of course a GTM coupe was never designed to do 160 mph, we won't get a flappy roof. Um, which is great news.
Yeah, cuz last thing you want to be worried about is a flappy roof at 160 mph. That's it. That's it. So, yeah, tell us what you think down below.
Massive thank you to everyone who's watched this video. And if you are interested in joining us further on this journey, then make sure that you are subscribed and don't forget to support what we do here because we aren't a very big channel. I know loads of people just assume that we are.
>> Um, but we're not a very big channel.
You know, we're out in the middle of nowhere, nowhere near anybody doing anything else like this. And so, we really appreciate your support. So, don't forget to click like and share the video and all the all of the things. And if you really want to show your support, then you can join us on Patreon and unlock extras because the Patreon crowd get to see all of this before you do.
So, thank you all for watching. Please be awesome to each other. We'll see you all in the next video. Bye-bye.
>> Bye-bye.
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