Just curious about baking or pressure cooking carbon fiber? A friend of mine says that this is how the Mclaren F1 is done, and he also says its made up of from 3 layers of CF all the way up to 27 layers…? What realisticly is a good # of layers for body panels?
That is done using an autoclave. It’s a high compression chamber (at about 400psi) and high heat. Baking the cf without the pressure to hold it down against the mold is just going to cause it to warp and mess up your piece. Autoclave are usually the size of a small car to a big garage. Plus you have to build a mold tough enough to withstand that pressure.
27 layers might be a little bit excessive but then again I don’t need to go at 230mph. I think most fiberglass body panels are made of 7 layers of fiberglass. CF is stronger and thicker so I would use 4-5 layers max. Most cost effective way is a top layer of CF and 4-5 layers of reinforced fiberglass.