Guys. I really appreciate all the positive feedback. It's great but expected. None of you have ever had negative comments on anything I posted.
All I get is motivation, inspiration, advice and help from everyone. This is a special community. The best move ever was to join the forum.
The pro mod is so light that when Willie delivered the body Kyle sent four guys out to unload the panels. Willie is a veteran amputee and he had the nose off his flat bed before they got there. Kyle was shocked. They weighed the entire body and it was around 100 Lbs without the Lexan. He's 200 Lbs under the class limit but is pleased he can put the ballast where needed. The other car built from the same molds (BMW M3) is 240 over the minimum weight. They used Polyester resin and chopped strand glass.
Our Mazda version is way stiffer too because we went with epoxy and Carbon/glass fabric and I used a lot of foam stringers in critical areas. A normal guy can stand on the roof without it sagging.
Epoxy is a win win situation in that you'll use a quarter weight wise compared to Polyester. Chopped strand is a "Resin Thief". It takes 2.2 Lbs per square yard per layer of 450gr chopped glass. Also you can take your time as far as pot life goes as Epoxy has slow, medium and fast hardeners. The Poly has one catalyst and you really need to know your stuff if you want to produce large panels because it will cure while you're laminating. I only use it for molds and put one layer down at a time. It shrinks between 2 and 5% when cured but by doing one layer at a time the exotherm is reduced and you have 24 hours to lay up the second layer to achieve a chemical bond. After 24 hours you'll need to sand the original layer to get a mechanical bond.
I get very little shrinkage using this method. You can tell if you've done it right because the part you built the mold for will fit back after the mold has cured. I have my own ideas on molds. I'll only demold after 5 days. It works.
Busy on getting my shop straightened out and putting parts in boxes. Also waiting for my Aluminum welding guy to get back from the Dakar Rally so he can weld the inlet manifold. Got a few parts in the machine shop I'm waiting on. Pics soon.👍👍👍