https://www.paulcharbonneau.com/contact daily 0.75 2022-02-14 https://www.paulcharbonneau.com/home daily 1.0 2022-02-15 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620959aecffe2f1e7cd63bdc/1d892e65-f1f0-4f71-8d94-6687d5a8dbcc/79882285_10156807745920677_7455826684827140096_n.jpg Home Enjoying the Mediterranean in Andros, Greece in 2019 https://www.paulcharbonneau.com/home/travel monthly 0.5 2022-02-15 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620959aecffe2f1e7cd63bdc/2c92b315-b6dd-4e9b-84f2-80e59b617d80/PXL_20211228_151133095.jpg Home - Travel Dec 2021: Cathare castles in the South of France while visiting family. This is the least impressive one. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620959aecffe2f1e7cd63bdc/729ea7ef-52fc-4b23-aaa3-ad740541c0a0/119705891_10157589733125677_8050230952493572286_n.jpg Home - Travel Summer 2020: 8 hour hike in Pukaskwa National Park. It started raining at hour 4 because Northern Ontario in August. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620959aecffe2f1e7cd63bdc/5c85665f-f86f-4243-ab39-3b99ee377341/79384696_10156807746360677_938875732031963136_n.jpg Home - Travel Oct 2019: Andros, Greece. Give me a place where you can swim in 18C water in October any day. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620959aecffe2f1e7cd63bdc/83beb96f-409d-4d83-94b5-5f7b510e1d84/IMG_7294.JPG Home - Travel Summer 2018 : Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. One of my favorite places in the world! Part of a wider East Coast Road trip spanning from Montreal to Washington DC. No broken cars this time! And yes: that's a Shuttle behind the SR-71, coz one was not cool enough! https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620959aecffe2f1e7cd63bdc/b580cf28-6139-4cb5-9db5-274886bc3f37/21762843_10155016969845677_1043741431866531016_o.jpg Home - Travel Summer 2017: Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah. Did Arches, Monument Valley in same trip. Very cool part of the world. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620959aecffe2f1e7cd63bdc/b8a3039f-865d-44cd-a531-6ac29e485e3c/14310392_10153938899060677_9001272617321455848_o.jpg Home - Travel Summer 2016: Visiting family in France. This is in the medieval city of Carcassonne. Fun fact: those overhangs are because owners were taxed based on the ground floor foot print, not necessarily square overall square footage. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620959aecffe2f1e7cd63bdc/a943540a-eca2-43da-9d60-40b1ddf34edd/12605575_10153422888905677_5403273830445964025_o.jpg Home - Travel December 2015: Herculaneum, the "in" beachside resort of Antiquity. Got swallowed whole by a volcanic eruption of the Vesuvius alongside Pompeii. Those 2 cities are quite a place to visit. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620959aecffe2f1e7cd63bdc/2a110242-cfb2-4b0f-bec1-b65a9966cc08/10540346_10152385319965677_4228859220161093253_n.jpg Home - Travel Summer 2014: My worthy steed for the 13 000 km road trip smokes up in Sequoia National Park. In this instance, it was a leaky seal on back of the transmission. By the end of the trip, we were running on 5/8 cylinders. What a sendoff though! https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620959aecffe2f1e7cd63bdc/fc7ae45f-4acb-4c48-a0ba-112e9abf116e/10500306_10152385320535677_1548069194335689656_n.jpg Home - Travel Summer 2014: did a 13 000 km, 20 day road trip after graduating. Grand Canyon was one of the highlights. https://www.paulcharbonneau.com/home/sim-rig monthly 0.5 2022-02-14 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620959aecffe2f1e7cd63bdc/6113e4dd-854a-46e9-886c-dd4e6f2c3e5f/PXL_20220214_012723746.jpg Home - Sim Rig https://www.paulcharbonneau.com/home/fsae monthly 0.5 2022-02-14 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620959aecffe2f1e7cd63bdc/6c43de38-89e6-46c8-a516-47618f4ce5bc/12466163_1250660694949018_5439440711044868060_o.jpg Home - FSAE 2010-2012 Cars: technically a superior architecture to subsequent cars whose design I led. Team struggled to execute due to its complexity (CFRP tub, temperamental Italian V-twin and lack of team focus on what the competition required: simple car with reliable electrical and powertrain delivered early with a lot of test miles under its belt.) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620959aecffe2f1e7cd63bdc/477700a4-620e-4b3a-b011-c3f3313fac61/1048366_677434868938273_1338588343_o.jpg Home - FSAE 2013 car: I was team manager that year, placed 14th/80 at Lincoln. First tube frame car after 8 years of CFRP monocoque. Learned a lot building this car and ended up being a reasonable attempt for a team with limited architecture and design experience. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620959aecffe2f1e7cd63bdc/7a2b9ca6-4cfa-40a3-b3f5-47bf62a3c912/11145900_1112544852093937_164713473976669510_o.jpg Home - FSAE 2014-2015 car: redesigned with lessons learned from 2013 car. I stepped away from overall project leadership to focus on technical delivery. This architecture is still used by team today. Missed 2014 comp as overall project leadership was lacking. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620959aecffe2f1e7cd63bdc/6e5f2b2e-f379-4ff4-9a80-d1df02525c3f/20140403_184152.jpg Home - FSAE 2014-2015 Custom wheel centers: I designed these to allow the use of the 3 stud hub as well as substantial weight savings https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620959aecffe2f1e7cd63bdc/5cc4b7de-69ec-411b-9589-3806256f57e7/735630_583134258368335_745065652_o.jpg Home - FSAE 2013 hubs: great integration on paper. In reality, tricky parts to have machined by sponsors & motorcycle inspired brake mounting was not particularly robust in its inital state https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620959aecffe2f1e7cd63bdc/a4095b92-f814-4a77-bd80-8b63d2d7215e/IMG_0667.JPG Home - FSAE 2014-2015 hubs: ditched the integrated tripods due to manufacturing woes the previous year. Improved brake mounting using buttons to accommodate radial expansion. Ditched a wheel stud based on hand calculations https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620959aecffe2f1e7cd63bdc/0edb9b94-406a-457b-b9e5-1631334fe73b/IMG_0710.JPG Home - FSAE 2014 diff mounts: Experimented with weldments that year with mixed results. extremely labor (and tooling) intensive to get parts to work. Great learning experience. Mass savings you'd expect from a closed section never materialized as we were conservative on material thickness due to manufacturing concerns. I designed the components, machined the fixtures and final assembly. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620959aecffe2f1e7cd63bdc/2c23542a-b261-4ac5-9205-7476abd9b800/267-AA-AA-00-+REAR+OUTBOARD+ASSY.jpg Home - FSAE 2014 rear outboard assembly: with hindsight, we lacked the attention to detail on the weldment manufacturing the undercut between the bearings didn't end up being machined and made for a heavy assembly. That being said, one set of parts worked for over 4 years with no issues and reduced our dependency on outside sponsor. Ultimately upright was replaced by machined unit as it required too much manufacturing knowledge for the team to get it made reliably https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620959aecffe2f1e7cd63bdc/2cba0639-e37b-469b-b6de-577cecf2a338/frame.jpg Home - FSAE 2014-2015 frame: didn't directly design this piece but collaborated closely with designer to ensure integration of all the required sub systems https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620959aecffe2f1e7cd63bdc/4844e5e3-f925-4af0-b4e4-65346d6fc926/IMG_0762.JPG Home - FSAE 2014 uprights: Intricate weldments which were a challenge to make and machine. Aim was to bring some of the manufacturing inhouse to avoid delays from machining sponsors as we had no CNC capability in house. With hindsight, thinner gage material with stabilizing ribs inside weldment would have made for a better part https://www.paulcharbonneau.com/home/fiat-restoration monthly 0.5 2022-02-14 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620959aecffe2f1e7cd63bdc/1644794985438-ABULNAGJ221581VMSZC6/20171026_111124.jpg Home - Fiat Restoration Taking delivery of the car: To my surprise started up pretty easily on a cold November morning. Things would go downhill quite quickly from here. Trailering it due to the plates situation https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620959aecffe2f1e7cd63bdc/044482e5-9795-4663-87e2-fc7121827311/20171026_234840.jpg Home - Fiat Restoration Delivery + 6 hours. Come home to a smell of fuel permeating through garage door to my outdoor parking spot. Thrash for 5 hours disassembling fuel system to find rotten out fuel lines INSIDE the car (apparently that's where they routed those things in the 70s). https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620959aecffe2f1e7cd63bdc/c566a366-c119-4619-8bd1-102c4a84203d/20171118_153821.jpg Home - Fiat Restoration Engine seems to leak from everywhere, which is common for these cars. So it got pulled out https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620959aecffe2f1e7cd63bdc/1787c225-5ddd-44a9-8074-feed5be7bb45/20171106_200837.jpg Home - Fiat Restoration Rusty floor boards. So far this projects still basically aligns with my expectations concerning a 50 year old Italian car https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620959aecffe2f1e7cd63bdc/6224a25d-6736-48bc-9e40-5efdf13f54d0/20180527_161456.jpg Home - Fiat Restoration This is the point where I realized I was in serious trouble. That piece of sheetmetal hanging down is the previous owner's "rust repair" on the rocker, it took a small pry bar to take it apart. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620959aecffe2f1e7cd63bdc/4bea234e-eb1f-4c0e-8143-84b5bb434dc9/20180721_143147.jpg Home - Fiat Restoration Continued down the rust rabbit hole to realize there were more "rust repairs" in the rear wheel arch area on the left hand side https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620959aecffe2f1e7cd63bdc/67a2cd3e-269f-4339-a217-e8202178612a/IMG_20200709_203635.jpg Home - Fiat Restoration No one wants to see 1000s of pictures of rust. This is the mostly finalized LH side of the car. Rockers and rear wheel arches have been rebuilt. Rear quarter is going to require a lot of massaging at paint but it's miiiiiiles better than when I received the car. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620959aecffe2f1e7cd63bdc/809eedf1-978b-48d8-afb4-6ecb31362d26/PXL_20201025_205001037.jpg Home - Fiat Restoration In case you were wondering if the right side of the car was somehow not a rusty pile of trash https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620959aecffe2f1e7cd63bdc/467f8835-94b0-44e0-ad26-8d7d3107c5f3/PXL_20210129_231533053.jpg Home - Fiat Restoration While I'm dealing with this rust repair ordeal, I'd sent the engine out to get machined and ordered many parts. Nothing like fresh clean parts to make me happy https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620959aecffe2f1e7cd63bdc/cec64826-a7ea-483e-810e-4ff0ea0c421d/PXL_20211001_012552807.jpg Home - Fiat Restoration Living rooms is where all engines should be rebuilt https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/620959aecffe2f1e7cd63bdc/720627a6-5bd3-415e-a8f9-8f258f6603c9/PXL_20211008_230027464.jpg Home - Fiat Restoration Meanwhile, RH side rocker is getting rebuilt. Note the copious amount of bracing I put it to avoid this thing turning into a noodle.