Best Advice On Putting Carbon On This Fiberglass Dash

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#1

I have spent days and weeks working on this dash. Its fiberglass with a ton of filler and bondo on it now. The picture only shows fiberglass glued to the shaped foam.

I want to cover it in carbon.

I have some experience vacuum bagging carbon.

I have yet to be successful in vacuum infusion.

I do have some MTI hose and blade runner laying around, along with regular peel ply, perforated release and non-perforated release film, as well as green infusion mesh and both regular bagging film and green strechlon 200 bagging film.

How would you guys go about putting some carbon on top of this dash?

Its going into a custom long travel sand car.

Thanks guys

#2

I assume you want to put carbon on it for cosmetic purpose only, in that case I wouldn’t use vacuum as the finish wont look as good, and since your shape is relatively easy you can easily overlay a piece of carbon. I would suggest painting the entire dash black first, then spray a light coat of duratec sunshield on top of that, let it get to a tacky point, then lay your carbon on this carefully(probably best doing this with two people, with carbon attached to two poles). Leave the carbon there until Duratec cures fully, then spray with duratec sunshield to wet out the dry carbon and build some thickness to sand. Once your surface has been sanded smooth, finish off with automotive clear coat, wet sand and polish.

#3

Yes, I want to do this for cosmetic purposes only.

#4

I don’t have any sunshield, but I do have alot of adtech 820 resin.

Could I paint the dash black, paint a coat of resin on, let it tack, lay carbon, let cure, then wet out with a brush using resin, sand, clear, sand and polish?

#5

Easy Composites has a couple of good videos on CF skinning.

#6

yes, you could also do this, but since you cant spray epoxy, your surface before carbon could get weird if not done right. I would suggest you try out the process you want to do first on a test panel. That way you can be sure everything works well together, and also gets you a little experience before doing the real piece

#7

Thanks.

Sprayed black gelcoat and used it as a glue to hold the carbon. Let that cure then applied many coats of resin to build thickness letting them cure between each coat. Sanded and clear coated. Time consuming waiting for each coat of epoxy to cure. Turned out great.