cheers for that ian!

 

Thanks, These RX-7 doors are very complex to make and I believe they are good value. I make parts for a lot of other cars. For example parts like the Porsche Super Cup door which is made in Carbon Fibre/fibreglass from Porsche and they sell them for more than $7000.00 per door from Porsche. I make a replica Super Cup door in FULL carbon Fibre, these door are easier to make with less than half the work to make than the RX-7 doors they sell for $1500 a door.

~ ian.

 

this pic has better detail

~ ian.

 

Are these the RE-Amemiya ones or have you actually done them yourself......??

I recall the RE-Amemiya ones are quite expensive

 

I do these myself

~ ian.

 

I bet that is so lite and strong. It looks perfect. I would have a hard time painting over that. I would just claer coat it and leave it. a true carbon fiber FD. Ian, hypothetically speaking, do you think its possible to replicate an entire frame and body panels or would that just be too difficult and expensive. Seems you could do it for the orice of a Bently or an high priced Lambo or something. I am just wondering? Thanx for the pics. Those doors are simply awesome. I am super impressed by your work.

 

Id go for fiberglass doors instead

 

do you wanna explain exactly why Mr. NO PISTONS, two posts? Carbon fiber is a stronger fabric than fiberglass and just as lite. Carbon Fiber has a superior strength to weight ratio than FG. There are many advantages to having carbon fiber over fiberglass, otherwise race car drivers and makers would be using fiberglass! so can you explain why? if you say price, you pay for what you get. no matter how you look at it CF is superior.

 

Are these doors made from dry carbon ? I read that by curing it in the autoclave you can produce the strongest yet lightest weight carbon fiber parts. I believe some Japanese RX7 tuners offer these dry carbon parts and it's ridiculously expensive.

 

I have done large car panels. We can make nearly anything if you have enough money. I did a 3.8 meter Bass Boat in full carbonfibre including the full decks and it weighed 55 kg finished.

~ ian.

 

These doors are made in a process called "Resin Infusion"
This process the dry carbon cloth is cut to paterns and layed in the mold dry (in the doors 3 layers plus core per skin), then a silk release cloth is layed on and a breather material. The loaded mold is placed in a bag (I use a silocone bag) with feed and breather lines and it is put under vacuum. Resin is then sucked through the bag wetting out the Carbon Fibre, when the resin has got right theough the part the resin feed it taped off and the job stays under vacuum till it has gelled to what we call "Green trim" (this time is worked out from a computer monitering system) then the gag is opened and the mold removed, the breather and the silk are removed and the edges are knife trimmed. The job is then placed in a over to post cure. These doors are made in 7 part molds, including overlap flanges and anti-intrusion bars. Once all ther parts are made they are joined together and de-molded.
we can then buff the out side if reqired.

In the photo is the first laryer of Carbon Fibre cut for a RX-7 SP front spoiler. There is 3 layers of carbon and a 3mm sinthetic honeycomb infusion core.

~ian.

 

impressive!!

 

Carbon Fibre is only as good as how it is bonded. A good resin at the right cloth to resin ratio which is baked corectly makes a very light strong part, but if you add to much resin it gets heavier and weaker. In most cases a hand laminated Carbon Fibre is not much lighter or stronger than hand laminated fibreglass. I have done a lot of testing on race componets and I prefer "Resin Infusion" with a "Vinyl Ester Resin" and post cured. Most Pre-preg ( I did do Pre-Preg) Carbon Fibre is expensive and requires more complex tooling and autoclave to produce a part and yes you can achive a lighter stronger part, but it is also very difficult to do repairs to or do secondary bonding to. It also is usually a lot higher tensile which makes it less impact resistant.

 

whoa O_O

doors look amazing - props!!!

 

your right, sorry I didn't point that out. Yeah resin to fabric ratio is the key. Too much of one or the other and you could have a weaker part. I will tell you that the material alone on these doors must be in 700.00 dollar range. That doesn't include the R&D and labor. I do vacuum bagging, I have not done resin infusion. However I have learned about and it is the superior way of doing it because you can control your resin flow and vacuum pressure. You use the right about of resin to fabric so you can come up with an extremely light and strong product.

 

If I lived in Australlia I would come work with you for free, just to learn more and get to do what you do. I wish you weren't so far away.

 

Drooool...

So who is going to be the first person with CF doors, fenders, bumpers, hood, and hatch? lol I bet all those would save a good amount of weight (except for the hood since it is already Al)

 

A RX-7 customer I have supplied a lot of parts to has got his car under 1000 kg and he has left the Carbon un-painted (looks horn)

~ ian.

 

this is a re-usable double sided silicone bag that I use for most of my jobs and I use a MoTeC ADL Dash logger as the monitoring and logging.

~ian.

 

yes, under 1000kg would be very niiiice.

Oh you Aussies and your funny words

 

horn?

 

Gorgeous, but I'm working on my interior now. Have you done any interior pieces? Specifically I would like a full crash pad (full dash) made without the center speaker hole and passenger airbag for my '94. Does your work come with the tabs, slots, and holes that the stock pieces come with? Possibly interested in door panels as well although I have brand new in the box sets for my project.

cheers,

V

 

I have had only one enquiry for the crash pad so I have not done one as yet. I have done some instrument top and the matching centre that goes down to the console, these are done with flat face to delete airconditioning, radio slot and switches. These are used in race cars for use with aftermarket instrumentation like a MoTeC ADL.

~ian.

 

All I can say is that is some of the best CF work I have seen for sale yet. Wish I had the money to rep some of your parts but being a poor college student doesnt help me much. Good luck with the doors.

 

Ian thank you for your quick reply. From the sounds of your reply it sounds doubtful about any crashpad CF works. However, if you do decide to make it please give me a shout. I'm still considering your other fine offerings.

V