This past week, we've come a lot closer to having a completed car. The completed body was finally sent out to CarStar in Boonville to be painted on Monday. We worked pretty much nonstop this past weekend laying up the door and cutting out the windshield, rear window and two side windows-- an exciting improvement over the SunTigers. After cutting everything out, we had to sand both the top and bottom of the body with power sanders.
Also, we got our DC/DC board back and is in the process of being rewired. We had sent it out the first week of June so it would start at a lower level of power. Since it was starting at such a high power, it just wouldn't turn on. Now it'll (hopefully) start and put us one step closer to having a drivable frame. Other than that, most of the recent electrical work was to finish the car's circuit boards, and soon we'll have them mounted to the frame.
Much of today was dedicated to work on the steering and the braking systems. Pieces that will eventually become part of the braking system were machined today and will soon be welded onto the frame.
The steering, however, was a bit trickier. Much to our disappointment, we realized today that the steering designs we had were designed backwards and the geometry had to be redone. But that obstacle has been overcome, and we'll be machining those pieces in the next couple days.
The outlook is good so far. We hope to have a drivable frame by the middle of next week, and there will definitely be some video from that posted on here. This weekend, though, the team members going on the race will be out practicing driving with the truck and trailer and driving in a caravan set-up (that just means three cars will be driving together. On the race it'll be the "lead" van, then Tigergen I, then the "chase" van).
Hopefully the next update will be sooner than another week!
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