Shady Goings On

I’m in the process of planning a new roof for the Libra, that’s not as drastic as it might sound, the roof has a removable section and this is what I plan to replace. From memory it’s about 1m x 60cm.

The idea is to improve ventilation in the car and therefore more pleasant in the summer. I’ll do this by having an air intake at the front of the roof panel, this will split 2 ways (maybe 3) so that driver and passenger have got their own air supply and controls. It’ll look a bit like a letter Y from above.

The whole thing will be made from fibreglass so I’m reading up on that subject at the moment. I plan to make a fibreglass air splitter for the front of the Libra later in the year so this is the ideal testbed.

The design isn’t a simple one and I’ll have problems with negative angles (I’ll need multiple moulds to make the 1 item) as well as water-proofing: somehow I need to let the air in but keep water (and spray) out.
I’ll also need to colour match the gelcoat to the rest of the car. An alternative to this is to make it out of carbon fibre however this is very expensive and in my opinion it won’t look as good.