Blowtorch

I had a buddy in high school who had an early 70's vintage Vette ( which routinely kicked my 1969 Mach 1's ***!) and he always wore a T shirt that had that slogan on it. He also had one that said " I'd rather be blown then injected" but that's another story!

I was wondering. What exactly are these C5's and C6's made of? Is it still glass or some sort of plastic/glass blend?

Obviously, I'm bored at the office today!

Vetteman Jack

I think it is now called SMC (sheet molded compound, or something like that). Not sure if it is technically fiberglass, but it does seem to avoid a lot of the stress cracks that were inherent in fiberglass.

madeouttaglass

Yes! Or else I have to change my screenname.

blacksedan87

JD is right - it Sheet Molded Composite. My understanding is that it is very much like Tupperware. Seems to me that Patches once had a diagram showing all of the different body panels and what they were made out of. I don't think there were any pieces still made out of fiberglass - but to the whole world the Vette was, is and always be a fiberglass car!

Maybe Patches will chime in with that diagram again....

t56gen3

SMC = Sheet Molded Composite. What I don't know is if that is just the body structure as a whole or if it includes the outer panels (fenders, hood, doors, etc.)

leaftye

It's still technically fiberglass, but made with more sophisticated processing techniques. SMC starts off like regular fiberglass, but instead of being blown onto a mold, it's blown/sucked onto a screen and rolled up for use later. Later it's pulled off the roll, cut to shape, stuck between matching male & female steel molds, and baked at least until curing starts, but can be left in till fully cured. It's removed, final trimming is done, and it's put on the rack to cool....or fully cure if it wasn't completely done in the molds.

Simply put, e-glass is fiberglass, and SMC uses e-glass so it's still fiberglass.

screw991le

This one?

T's

Who new, my Targa Top is polycarbonate

t56gen3

Nice diag!

93aqua

Sounds like something you take for gas.

The Kid

You can still call it "The Plastic Fantastic" if you want.

jrose7004

Wrap your *** in composite?

jcharity

Wrap your *** in composite!

leaftye

That's correct as well. A thermoset plastic (resin) holds the fiber matrix together, and serves to distribute loads to surrounding fibers, and adds strength against flexing and shear.

leaftye

That's correct too, but a composite is really just a mixture, usually something that has fibers, and the resin can be plastic, ceramic, metal and even concrete. The fibers we're most familiar with is fiberglass (e-glass) and carbon fiber. There's also s-glass, spectra, dyneema, kevlar and many MANY others.

screw991le

FiberglassFan

Its STILL just fiberglass but they try to hide the fact by calling it by the more technically correct name that implies the process of fabrication . Lotus did a lot of work in the late 70s on advanced methods of mass producing higher quality auto body panels. Later on, as aerospace /aircraft techniques of pre-impregnated composite sheets and pressure autoclaves trickeled down to the masses, we began to see presure forming and high heat autoclave curing in more and more low tech applications...like mass produced cars. The bottom line is that with pressure molding of pre-preg, the ratio of fiber to matrix can be better optimised than in chop spray [ the worst] or hand fabric/matt layup with resin roll-out [better than chop spray ] .

Most of our C5 is still just e-type glass fiber and some type of polyester resin, same materails as the old days. The flexible fascias are a urethane family, and the clear top is, as mentioned above, just a generic 'Lexan' polycarbonate. Nothing too exotic in the Vette, but appropriatly durable and cost effective materials have been chosen to keep the cost down and performance up.

MyBlueC5

It may still have the same materials but you sure don't repair it the same.... (Thank God)

Mark

screw991le

leaftye

Check out the link I added at the end of the sticky....link is in my sig.