Sept 25, 2016 - Polycarbonate Windshield Forming
This is U of T's method for forming a polycarbonate canopy without heat:
Prototyping labs with vacuum forming technology will also be able to help you. However, if you don't have either of these types of companies nearby, but have access to a negative canopy mold, carbon fibre/epoxy, and 1/8" polycarbonate, I can tell you a method that Blue Sky used on the past 4 vehicles that works very well and easy to do.
EDIT: Non-thermoforming method (no heat)
- Plan out where your windshield will be in CAD (you need 1 -1.5 inch of extra bonding surface all along the edge of windshield.
- Cut 2 copies of polycarbonate windshield screen (including the bonding surface)
- Hot glue one copy of the polycarbonate windshield screen to the surface of the mold (You're going to throw this one out) and put mold release over the polycarbonate in the mold.
- Layup over the polycarbonate onto the mold. (Creating a lip that the real good windshield will sit on.)
- Pop it and cut out the holes for the windshield screen (I suggest you make sure you leave some material that connects the bottom half of the carbon to the top half of carbon to ensure shape doesn't deform)
- Put the good polycarbonate windshield into the mold and put even layer of epoxy onto the bonding area to fix it (you can put vacuum on it while it's curing, but make sure you put flashbreaker tape along the edges of the bonding surface so you don't get epoxy all over your canopy)
Sept 4, 2016 - Minghao's visit
...