Paint

[Jon Burford]

Thanks for the link mech5496

sadly we don't have a CF tub, we use ally honeycomb.

We do spray most metal black, but we use some crap stuff normaly. We may give that a go!

[Dunk Mckay]

The paint on our honecomb front monocoq, sidepods and nosecone weighed in at around 4kg last year. We were a little surprised it was that much, but the finish was amazing. A lot of filler-primer had obviously gone into it, you could see areas where carbon strips covered open sections of the 'comb edges with a small (0.5-1mm) that were now flush!

[Francis Gagné]

We have use vinyl wrap on the 2010 and 2011, if the surface is smooth beneath and you get qualified people to apply it it looks great and it's lightweight.

It can scratch if your not careful with screwdrivers but it did resisted going over a small tree!

You can get some pics on our website

[Bemo]

It's one of the compromises in life. I used less than 1kg paint for the bodywork of our 08 car and I didn't use any filler. Didn't look that nice if you saw it from nearby, it was much better to watch it from distance

After that season we started to use vinyl. As others already mentioned that's very lightweight and if done properly the results are great, but you really have to take care.

We never used any transparent coating to save the weight. We thought it's stupid to use carbon for weight reduction and then put 2kg coating on it to make it more shiny.

[Ben K]

Moral of the story -- Want a paint job? Gonna add weight. We painted our frame after comp a nice flat black and it added a few lbs. We joked that we could make our drivers not eat before getting in the car :-D

Ben

[Jon Burford]

moral of the story,
Identify weight and reduce it as much as possible. any additional component will add weight, it's our job to justify it or minimise it.

we have decided to go with the paint we wanted originally with a reduced number of coats, I will let you all know how it goes.

[mech5496]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Jon Burford:
moral of the story,
Identify weight and reduce it as much as possible. any additional component will add weight, it's our job to justify it or minimise it.
</div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Jon I would call that "moral of FSAE story" :P

As Bemo said, no need to clear coat carbon fiber (plus I don't like it shiny). A vinyl wrap, if designed and done properly, can incorporate all sponsor logos and thus saving some extra effort (it took me about 8 hours to place all the sponsor decals last year), gives a smoother look and saves some extra weight from the decals themselves...

[Lorenzo Pessa]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by mech5496:
Jon I would call that "moral of FSAE story" :P

As Bemo said, no need to clear coat carbon fiber (plus I don't like it shiny). A vinyl wrap, if designed and done properly, can incorporate all sponsor logos and thus saving some extra effort (it took me about 8 hours to place all the sponsor decals last year), gives a smoother look and saves some extra weight from the decals themselves... </div></BLOCKQUOTE>


In addition to engineering scopes, bodywork can have another, important, scope: marketing.
If you need to acquire sponsorships, 2 kg more can save your year.

[mech5496]

Thats for sure Lorenzo, that's why I said "incorporated decals" instead of "no decals". Personally I am a weight weenie, but a quality looking car might help impressing the judges on the competition, and I can tell first hand. Last year we spent a couple of weeks polishing and repainting parts before competition and IMHO it totally worth it. First impression is not everything, but it matters, even in motorsport!

[Lorenzo Pessa]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by mech5496:
Personally I am a weight weenie, but a quality looking car might help impressing the judges on the competition, and I can tell first hand. Last year we spent a couple of weeks polishing and repainting parts before competition and IMHO it totally worth it. First impression is not everything, but it matters, even in motorsport! </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I can add that last year my team was quite sure to lose some points because of not well finished surfaces (there was some delay in bodywork manufacture).
FSAE is not "exactly" motorsport. It's also a prototype for "a 1000 units per year" production.