March Madness!

Welcome to the March FRUCD newsletter, this month has been super productive and we can't wait to share with you all of our progress leading up to Picnic Day! This spring break, many of our members stayed in Davis to help continue manufacturing the car, assembling some components together.

To begin on the operations side, we have not only been working on the newsletter, but also on merch orders! We have exciting new designs to share out to the world, so keep an eye out for some of our FRUCD merch. ;)

On the other hand, our structures team has finalized the main chassis and has recently received our powder coated chassis from our sponsor, LUX Powder Coating! We want to thank them for their hard work, the new black chassis looks absolutely beautiful. Take a look at it below.

Powder coated chassis, being prepared for Polyfiber installation

For those who don't know, powder coating is a dry finishing process where various pigments and resin are charged and then sprayed onto a surface. This is a different process from spray painting an object. We at FRUCD prefer powder coating as a rust-prevention method for our steel chassis and it also looks aesthetically pleasing. I mean, look at it!

Composites has recently installed Polyfiber on the sides of the chassis, which are durable synthetic fabric covers which are resistant to wear-and-tear from racing while being lightweight. Watch our timelapse installing it!

As for our accumulator subteam, we have finished welding the accumulator together! Also, the subpacks are now installed into the accumulator as well, and our team will be painting the accumulator to give some Davis flair to FE11.

Subpacks installed into accumulator

After many laborious days, our suspension team is almost done with manufacturing components! They are nearly ready to fully assemble the suspension kit after ordering some final parts during the break. They also used various jigs to ensure that CAD points will be accurate in real life. This means that their digital 3D models are fully prepared. To get a better idea, check out the pictures of the jigs below.

Suspension pictures

We're super pleased and proud of the team for getting so much done this month (and including this spring break). Thank you to our sponsors and supporters for helping FRUCD, we're excited to get the car running! Til' next month.

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