Stamped Steel Takes a Back Seat

6/14/06

Did I mention that the body on this bad boy is carbon fiber? Isn’t Chip a metal guy? Yes he is, but his decision to build the body using carbon fiber came about after meeting with MetalCrafters custom car builders in Fountain Valley, Caif. More on MetalCrafters later. It became clear late last year that MetalCrafters was extremely interested in building the JLFT Hemisfear. They are masters at creating carbon fiber bodies and have created concept cars for the big three, Ferrari and race cars for John Force among others.

Working with carbon fiber is tricky and expensive, but the time to completion and resulting body lightness are well worth it when high performance is on the table. Chip decided to go with carbon fiber for this build and most likely, future custom builds. The JLFT Hemisfear body has now been molded out of foam and coated to enable easy viewing of how the shape reflects light. Chip made slight curve changes to heighten the way the light plays off the surface. Stone sculptors do a similar process so they can see imperfections and how light reflects off of thier large work of art in progress. Unpolished stone sculptures look dull and lifeless. When stone is sprayed with water, these chalky surfaces "gloss up" and come to life, revealing the true form and shape. Any imperfections can be corrected before going to the final sanding and polishing. Same for the JLFT Hemisfear body.

- JLFT Team