Now that understand what it’s actually like to lay down fiberglass… I think I am going to knock all the high spots down, do another layer or 2 and then sand it again and do a top coat of resin.
I really want this to not look like shit and I think that means that I will have to do a crap ton of “body work” on it before I paint it. So yay!
PS. I wore a respirator and those fumes are gnarly!!!
Which epoxy have you used?
Bondo brand Fiberglass resin
Yup. That was a fight!
It’s gonna need some rework in a spot or 2 but I am super happy with how strong it seems to be. I am going to fiberglass cloth all the edges and mat all flat surfaces one more time before I do a hot coat of resin and start to “body work” it with a shit of of flavors of sand paper and then a skim of bondo, primer, paint and clear.
Did a little fiberglass repair from the original lay up and then started to add some bondo and sanding to get it closer to paint.
I don’t want it perfect, I just want the majority of it to look good. Slightly lumpy is ok. I am shooting for a solid 10 footer hahaha. Semi gloss instead of high gloss paint should help as well.
Progress has been slow because it is 98* F and the garage is hot as hell. Really have to mentally prepare (and hydrate) before I go out and work on it.
Tomorrow I should have it in a spot where I am cutting out the holes for the throttle indicators and the Davega OS and be prepping for paint… how knows, maybe I’ll have a great day and get it painted too! Ha!
Got a late start today.
Couple more spots to sand out and then a few more coats of primer and possibly sand some of those down too before I switch to the black and semi matte clear.
After a few rounds of sanding, bondo-ing, sanding, priming, wet sanding, bondo on some newly found spots… etc. the first coat of black paint is on.
Going to let it dry over night. Wet sand with 600 grit and spray it with black again before I switch to matte clear coat. The bottom 2” aren’t going to look good and I’m ok with that. Just want a decent finish on the top 95% and make it present well from 10 feet.
Good from far, far from good.
Adding a layer of foam to the bottom lip of the enclosure and finalizing the packing of all the electronics… maybe I’ll film the feature video and drive the final version tomorrow!? Who knows
Editing photos and videos meow.
The color is more vivid on the files on my computer… I think it has something to do with the compression.
Very nice video, nice edit !
We want the driving now !
Assuming you’re running MIG, switching to a 98/2 argon/oxygen shield gas will give you hotter (and deeper) welds. Just bump voltage to max and current as high as you can stand for your material. It’s no replacement for a properly-sized welder for the job, but if you’re within 5-10% it could put you over the top. If your welder can do 24+V then it’ll also help run in spray-transfer rather than short-circuit-transfer, which yields far nicer welds IMHO. …Just never try doing overhead with spray.
I want this deck.
I came in here to add tags and ended up reading the whole thing. I want one of these now! I’ve thought a lot about making a Mario cart with pneumatics but this seems like more fun to ride.
Right?! While he still has the board forming jig, he should make more.
My wonder is if it makes sense to keep any of the esk8 style lean to steer rear wheels in addition to a steering wheel/ackerman up front.
If anyone wants to talk a lot on this jump to this thread making it the DIY esk8 go kart wombo combo.
in my head I had originally thought that putting a seat and bars on the right deck with really wide trucks would be the way to do it. that would still be fun but seeing this done makes me want to look at actual karts.
but what you’re talking about makes me think of linkage going from steering to the seat which can allow you to lean-steer while holding onto something fixed.
using purely modded esk8 parts getting a steering wheel would involve like a chain and sprocket or steel cable attached to the hanger then some linkage.
If you wanted to be even lighter on the mods to esk8 parts needed, you could add an additional two wheels that attach to the steering wheel. All one unit you strap onto an existing board. When you turn the steering wheel the additional wheels force the board into a turn.
Was thinking of simply adding some pedals to a long front hanger.
