eh, i bought some carbon fiber cloth on ebay and just wanted to play around with it.

this piece is absolutely useless functionally, but i bet i could make a bundle selling them on ebay (assuming i got them nice enough looking).

i'll get more pics up when it's all done.
what do you think--ok for my first carbon fiber experience?

 

looks good man

 

nice i want one

 

That looks alot better than I expected, very nice.

 

Kinda rough, but if you can make them as clean as this and charge less than $250 (what they go for), I'm sure you'll sell a bunch of 'em.

 

Looks good, I'm just wondering (creative criticisim) are those layers I see in the mesh !?
Since I think Signals's piece was continuous, and all in one direction... maybe get bigger pieces ... also think about the heat under the hood, and pick your resin appropriately, or you'll have people pissed at Yellowing Pieces....

-DC

 

wow.... that is simply.... super cool~~

 

will you make me carbon fiber brake ducts?

 

You probably could.

Looks good for a first time experience with carbonfiber.

 

i didn't know it had been done before...and here i thought i was being original

since this and hte lim cover are the first pieces i've ever done in carbon fiber, i've got nowhere to go but up with the quality. but speaking of which, i just slapped it on and used resin i found at home depot. whenever that crap dries completely, i'll trim it all up nice and do a sexy clearcoat, but i've got a LOT to learn before i'd even think about selling them.

anyone else do this kind of stuff? can you help me pick the right resin to use?
thanks!

 

sure i'll make them, but i already said this was my first pj, so you might want to wait till i get good at it.

 

That's hilarious...this guy polished his UIM and then put that cover on it

 

Does Feed also makes CF covers?

 

yeh but its rediculously priced

i believe over 5 bills

 

can you try to make it for the tb?

 

Feed sale them for 250 and I remember Chuck offer to make these for 210 each.. but not much people was interested..

but hey I think you're doing a good job.. I'm very interested in the CF UMI cover ...

 

i just put the second coat on and it's actually starting to shape up ok. after this one dries, i'll pull it off, trim it up, then apply the top coat and buff it out on the wheel.

still won't be sales-worthy or anything like that, but i'd call it a success for being my first time. i think i'm gonna buy some more with the good resin and keep practicing.

 

Looks good! If you don't mind me asking, how are you going to pull if off the manifold? I recently bought some CF to do some over lay, if you have any pointers, I would greatly appreciate it.

 

it was a polished manifold, so it pulled right off. there was a little resin left over in one of the cracks, but nothing bad--came right off with laquer thinner.

now the resin i used was way too flexible. even now that it's just about fully cured, you can still bend the piece. i'm gonna call this one unusable and try it again, but next time i don't think i'll follow the exact shape--i'll throw something over the manifold to blend it a little better.

also, i think the particular weave pattern i used isn't necessarily the right choice for this pj. i was told that this: http://www.shopmaninc.com/Images/cf/cf48350.jpg may be a better choice. combine that with the correct resin and i may turn out with a good, usable piece next time around.

one question i have-- i've seen carbon fiber mufflers and i was thinking about making a heat shield for the lower intake manifold. does anyone know the right kind of resin to use for that?

 

Can someone give me a link to the "Signal" cover so I can see how much it is?

 

Those look good Dave. The key to fiberglassing and carbon fiber work is practice, practice and more practice. I have never worked with CF, but done a lot of fiberglass work.


And to Herb... there are numerous ways to seperate the part from the mold. You can buy a releasing agent in a spray form that you spray on the orginal part before any glassing. Also there is a gel form as well. Those are the ways I am familiar with. Also I have heard people claim that Crisco or Pam cooking spray can be used as well.

 

You should use a lighter tissue structure so it will bent better into corners...

 

unusable?? I'll use it

 

it looks ok, but the resin will melt when it gets hot. i'll stick it on the shelf or something.

 

I work in a carbon shop, and as you have already admitted to, this takes a lot of practice!! I've made pieces for my 7 (Bumper guard, guage pods and a few other interior pieces), and I am very happy with my results, but it almost does not seem worth it unless you try and sell at least 10 items. The reason for this is due to the cost to make an "appropriate" mold. Like everything, there is a right and a wrong way to do things. I'm not going to criticize anyones handywork, as I was in the same place a number of years ago, but a little advice:

1. The carbon that you show in the link will have better drapability than the carbon you used, BUT BEWARE! As i am sure you already found out, carbon frays if you look at it wrong, and the stuff in the link (4X4 Twill) will fray even easier!

2. Don't use the resin from Home Depot. Ever. If it was I am thinking of, you probaly catalyzed it with MEKP (clear,very runny liquid, at about 1-2% by volume? And it stinks like hell!!) This is a polyester resin. Everything we do is done with epoxy, and we have about 15 different types, based on the structural properties we need. (We do a lot of Formula Atlantics and Champ car, IRL etc...) Polyesters do not like heat very well. A decent source for low volume quatities of resin is available from West Marine. They have these nice little dispensers that meter out the proper ratio of resin to hardener, and they have a few hardeners to choose from. Nice and easy system, but it is about 3 times more expensive than Polyester. But you get what you pay for.

3. The process you used, sounds like a wet layup. Did you apply any pressure to the carbon as it was curing? To do this effectively, you need to invest in some equipment and materials. I tried to do this the cheap way myself a number of years ago, by acquiring the equipment when it becamae available on EBAY, or on sale somewhere. This took nearly a year to get everything, and is still used and not top quality by any means, but it works.

4. Part of the reason that the part is still flexible, is also due to the resin you used. Epoxy is much stronger. To get something with any strength you also have to have the right ratio of resin to fiber. This is very difficult to get just right. We do this for a living, and we still experiment with different techniques to get better results.

To do a really kick *** setup, you need to take a mold of the manifold, layup, debulk, layup again, and do it all under pressure. This is not easy, and I commend you for taking this on at all, but really consider if you want to take it on as a side job. Also something to consider; Boeing has recently purchased just about all of the Worlds 12K and 6K carbon supply. So this means that the other stuff is going to get more expensive in the coming months. (We were recently told by one of our suppliers that they would be able to resume supplying us sometime in January of 2006. Ouch.....)

I'm hope I haven't put a damper on your project, but just check the depth of the pool before you jump off the high dive. Good luck, and let me know if you need any other help.