GTO - The Editorial Fairing Project

GTO - The Editorial Fairing Project

"Designer's" Note: The GTO is primarily intended for commuting / touring use, so should you harbour doubts about the distinctly non-optimum shape:

I never intended to build the ultimate low-drag vehicle, merely something which would keep the rain off, be able to carry Things as well as me, and not be so complicated a shape that there's no chance of getting it finished in time for Denmark.
I'm a non-optimum shape too - at least 6" too long and about the same amount too wide about the shoulders.

Build Process - Part 2

Last issue, we had got to the stage of marking out the vast sheets of insulating foam, which took about six times longer than originally anticipated due to:

Mystery Viruses
The Newsletter
The mixture of rain, sleet, snow, hail and high winds which has passed for Spring this year
The kitchen floor
A couple of races
Procrastination

However, the weather improved, and so did the Editor's Attitude, and thus it came to pass that the marking-out process was finally completed, and the Editor has acquired a fair-to-middling sun-tan into the bargain. Next, the cutting-out stage.

The first thing you will need to do is to get your matching sections for the left and rights sides of the plug and stick them together. Double-sided carpet tape, as recommended previously, is not actually as wonderful as I thought, at least with the foam I'm using, as the surface is a bit rough for it to stick reliably. Dire warnings about glue dissolving polystyrene foam abound, but I've discovered a water-based PVA adhesive will do the trick. The stuff I'm using came from Ikea, where it is sold for the purpose of gluing tongue-and-groove floorboards together, and costs about three or four quid for a half-litre bottle. It looks remarkably similar to Copydex, so I suspect the latter would be just as effective. The d/s tape, though, is quite useful for locating the sections until the glue has set. Ensure that when sticking the sections together, you:

Do not use vast quantities of glue
Do not apply glue to the centre of the sections
Do not apply d/s tape in such a way that it crosses the line along which you are intending to cut

Once the sections are positioned together satisfactorily, place them on a flat surface and put Heavy Things on top of them. We have a whole bunch of sturdy wooden bookcase shelves which are ideal for the purpose. Overnight seems to be a more than adequate period.

Next, you will need to cut the sections out precisely. For this there are a number of items which are indispensable, and a few which are very useful.

Indispensable Items

Black and Decker Workmate. The jaws open wide enough to hold the four-inch thick slab of foam steady while you attack it with all the means at your disposal.
A couple of long thin wooden boards. Having just laid a new kitchen floor, we had a few floorboards left over - 1200 x 200 mm and about 7mm thick. These are used to steady the sections in the Workmate, and for smaller pieces make a handy straight edge for accurate cutting.

Look! The SUN was shining!

Editing a small section with a hot wire

Hot-wire cutting tool. You could do it with a saw, or a knife, or a cheese-cutter, but the hot-wire is a lot easier.
Stanley Surform.

Editing a large section with a surform

A large roll of bin bags. To collect the offcuts. (N.B. Before even reaching this stage in the proceedings, I had generated enough scrap foam to completely fill the boot of ye Olde Faithful CX Safari with the rear seats down.).
Sandpaper, and plenty of it.
A wooden block, to wrap your sandpaper around.

Very Useful Items

A couple of thin metal straight edges. Slim 1m steel rulers would be ideal for this, though I made my own out of a long piece of right-angle section aluminium which I found in the shed.
Water butt. I know, I know, this sounds a bit odd, but our water butt is the same height as the Workmate, and thus can be used to support one end of the larger sheets while the Workmate holds the other.
A skateboard (see below).
Garage. Sadly, I haven't got one of these.

Support the foam firmly with the Workmate and water butt, or anything else which can be used to hold the wretched stuff steady. Then just cut along the dotted line! Unless you have very steady hands (i.e. nothing like your Editor, especially on a Sunday morning), you will need some assistance cutting the straight bits. To this end, apply d/s tape to one side of your metal straight edges and stick to the foam along the line you wish to cut. Hey presto! Instant straight cut! That is, unless they fall off in mid-slice. Replace the tape regularly, as it will lose its stickiness, especially when coated with foam dust. If you're tempted to use something other than metal, make sure it's impervious to attack from your hot wire. Curves are a bit more tricky, and should be approached very carefully by hand, unless you can think of a better way.

Once you have got the section more or less the way you want it, use the Surform and sandpaper to smooth off the edges until the whole shebang is the nice regular shape you last glimpsed on a drawing several months ago. If you have a garage, this is far and away the best place to carry out this operation, as the quantity of dust generated is not small. If you are obliged to do it in the garden, try to pick a day when the wind will not blow the stuff all over your neighbours' washing. Fortunately, we had easterlies for the past few weeks.

Repeat from above, with variations, until you have each member of a pair of sections the same size and shape. Separate the two (this is why you need to be sparing with the glue) with something thin - I used a metal fish slice(!) - and put aside somewhere where they won't be assaulted by cats, bicycles or the ironing board. When all the parts are complete...

...stick the whole lot together. This is just the same as before, except that you can be a lot more liberal with the glue this time. At this stage, you will need some Very Heavy Things to compress everything while the glue dries. Try bookshelves and large cartons of washing powder. If all else fails, Editors can be bribed with beer and a good book to come and sit on it for a few hours.

You now have a single large lump of foam, consisting of several discrete layers, which you will only now find cannot be fitted into your conservatory. Your mission is to turn this into a smooth Blob. To do this, it would appear that there is no substitute for elbow grease - I tried using Tina's power sander, but it's too slow to remove large quantities of material. To remove fairly large quantities without vast expenditure of effort, the Surform is just the ticket. And the quantity of dust generated at this stage is rivalled only by that found blowing into the streets of Cairo during the Scirocco. Anything above Force 2 and your garden will resemble the set of "Scott Of The Antarctic". If it's sunny, be sure to wear shades, in order to prevent snow blindness. However, I digress. Scrape, scrape and scrape again, until you have a fairing-shaped Thing. Hopefully this will be symmetrical, and reasonable smooth. Popular myth suggests that this will take as long as the Second Coming (the Stone Roses LP, that is). Actually it doesn't seem to be too bad - a Saturday afternoon for one side of the nose, which is probably the trickiest part (Saturday morning having been spent, in part, taking another Moby-load of scrap foam to the tip). And it's rather a nice feeling as something resembling a rather dull layer cake gradually starts to look like the shape you dreamed up in the bath so long ago.

The partially-Edited plug

Anyway, that's where I am at the moment. Next issue, you will hopefully be able to read about the remainder of the project - the glass-fibre work, fitting your bike inside and so forth. Alternatively, you may read about taking an axe to the whole thing. Oh yes, that skateboard. Well, after some serious junk relocation, I cleared enough space in my shed to fit the plug inside. But in order to get it all the way in without scraping across the door sill, I needed some handy wheels to support the back end. We just happened to have Tina's skateboard to hand.

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