Hello,
I am new to this forum hailing from the state of Maryland in the United States. In recent years, I have done more modifications to my wife’s 2006 Mazda “Miata” MX-5 (at her request mind you) than I have done to all other cars combined in all of my years… This has been a very fun and extremely rewarding hobby for me, but we have pretty much come to the end of the mechanical modifications that can reasonably be done without a full shop; very little on the car aside from the paneling, frame and shell are original parts at this point, and even some of that has been changed.
Unfortunately, my wife originally wanted her white car to have purple accents (and I mean a lot). Thankfully, she has come to her senses after seeing a friends WRX that had a bunch of carbon fiber trim. Immediately she said “I want that.”
Now I have become pretty efficient at installing vinyl on the parts and pieces as the actual color of purple she wanted (you can see in the link below) was a chrome purple. This means buying chrome bits and then painting them with special chrome purple paint. The downside, chrome purple paint is not ideal for applications in which you will be constantly touching, banging, or having road debris hit it. Basically it became a chipped mess after several months. Then I got the idea to vinyl wrap all the pieces in purple tint; that did the trick nicely.
So, my first inclination was to just purchase vinyl with a carbon fiber pattern; this would have easily been the cheapest alternative. But me being who I am, I have spent about 30 hours in research on carbon fiber. Long story short, I am done with school and have a job in which I do not travel 30%-40% of the time, and my wife has been looking for some hobby to fill my time instead of annoying her… After day 3 of research she says to me “it looks like you found your new hobby.”
With all of that, I am looking to get started in this hobby of making my own carbon fiber parts and pieces. From what I have read, there are three main options (I intend to learn and perfect all 3) based on the part; Skinning, Wet-Bagging, and Infusion. I am pretty clear, though nothing is better than real world experience, as to when you should use each application.
The technique that interests me the most is Vacuum Infusion. As I am part of a pretty large Mazda MX-5 community, there is quite the demand for these parts in carbon fiber. Let me be clear, I am not attempting to start a business, but augmenting my expenditures of this hobby would not be the worst idea…
I am very familiar with manufacturing processes as I have been working for a company, for over 14 years, who does it’s own manufacturing in the United States. As I have worked through the “ranks,” as it may be, I have been exposed to many aspects of manufacturing. The most important being product waste and avoiding it through more efficient practices. For example I can see making a mold of 10 – 15 emblems being very efficient, especially if you are infusing. This would allow for all of the extra’s to be sold immediately while minimizing reinforcement and resin waist. Well this is just my theory at this point.
Either way, I am very happy to have found this forum and will be posting quite a few questions and comments in the coming days. I have some equipment questions that I will post in the appropriate forums. Until then, I am very excited about this new hobby.
-Ray