Techie - Anyone worked with composities latley

[IainB]

Not sure where to put this, but if its in the wrong place.... please feel free to move.
Anyway - Ive decided to replace the dash and door panels (and anything else I can find!) with Carbon Fibre (dragster - not the 'road' car).
Now - the last time I did any composite work was back many moons ago at Britannia Airways.... I have 2 books on order from Amazon (just to refresh my memory) so... does anyone have any hints / tips for normal layup without vacpacs and autoclaves
As much as I would love to have this professionaly done - the price for what will be a one off run, is just WAY out there, money that can be spent on other things !!!
Im guessing the door panels will be as simple as laying up each one on glass (as has been suggested by the vendor of the cloth) therefore getting a nice finish, the dash I can see having problems with due to the shape (though I have the original available to make a mould)
Cheers
Iain

[dkmech]

Mmmmm, carbon fibre. Itching hands galore. Have fun and good luck.

Can't offer any proper advice as i only used it once to make a nosecone for a formula student car. Actually we made a rather nice wing too.

[Romanov]

Ive been messing around with this a bit, been building sailing boats for me boys and am now looking at building my own fairing for a bike based on a mould of a crashed fireblade some tips would be

- Gel the mould twice and make sure its covered , you cannot get this stuff off a mould if its not gelled properly

- Ambient temperature - leave the heaters on in the garage over niogth to keep temperatures up this cures the epoxy/glass faster and makes it much stronger if you allow it to dry at air temp this changes day/night and makes the compound weaker

- Use a special epoxy spray gun if possible you can hire these and they make wetting the cloth easier as a dapple brush keeps moving the glass whereas this leaves it in place while u are impregnating it.

- If ur using an object to mold around like the dash your shape will be slightly wider than the muold so wuill it fit still? Its only a few millimetrs but dashes do fix on very snugly.

- Sand , sand and sand again - When u start sanding it looks like you are ruining the finish but if u do it maoving down the grits to ultra fine the finish is excellent.

- Marine paint - for things like door panels buy marine paint for boats, this gives a lovely smooth finish and paints over really well.

- the books from Amazon are very good I foget the titles but theres one that has a mototrbike on the front and its really useful

- Buy the finest glass you can it just makes it all soooo much easier less sanding and a better look once finished its also easier to impregnate with a dappling brush.

[dkmech]

He said carbon fibre though . So buying finest glass wont help him

[headbrace]

I would say look at the guide at www.mashie.org for some basic stuff, and then talk to Mashie on MSN, he seems a really nice bloke and was happy to talk to me about some ideas I had (never came to fruition tho)
I'm tempted to have a go at making some carbon fibre dash/doors too to replace the flaking wooden ones.

[IainB]

Cheers Lads, much appreciated Hexus comes good again
Currently looking at engine specs again - as im not happy with the one I just bought (hate to give a litre capacity away to the competition) though this is definatley high on the 'too do' list - also thinking about remodelling the front end of the car - as I cant stand that either.
In order I think it will be -
door panels (easy to do as the current ones are flat alloy plate) which will make all the doors composite
dash - some interesting curves WILL cause me grief
front end - nice to have (will also require a re-paint = much money for what I want.... unless I go for.... flames )
Thanks again
Iain