Hello!
New to the forum, but I have been reading and learning quite a bit from the threads here. I have recently been working a lot with hand laid carbon fiber, really as a hobby and teaching myself through trial and error. My recent projects have been mostly car related - hand skinning interior automobile trim and gun / pistol grips for my Beretta 92. Those projects consisted of skinning plastic parts, so haven’t had any issues with adhesion… but recently tried backing a car emblem with CF and failed miserably. For reference, here’s the emblem I’m working with:
The OEM badge has a painted backing, with chrome stars, embedded in a clear plastic. Removing the paint from the backside (as pictured) leaves me with a clean slate to do whatever I want.
Here is the process I used to skin the back of this badge:
- disassembled the badge
- removed the OEM paint from the backside with 80 grit sandpaper
- continued sanding the backside with 150 and then 400 grit sandpaper
- wiped backside with alcohol
- laid epoxy resin down on the backside of the badge
- laid carbon fiber cloth down while epoxy was wet
- pressed CF cloth down and applied more epoxy (sandwiched)
- heatgun to get rid of bubbles
- 24 hour cure time
- trimmed excess CF. In the process of trimming, carbon started lifting from the badge :mad:
So my questions are regarding why my resins are not adhering:
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I am not sure what the clear material is that this badge is made of - I assume it’s some sort of acrylic? My guess is that this acrylic is not playing nicely with the epoxy resin. So if that’s the case, what else could I use? I’m a hobbyist so I’d like to buy in small quantities…
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maybe it’s my prep, or could be my process… so if that’s the case I’d love feedback on which steps above could be causing me the adhesion issue…
I have another experiment going on with this piece now. I laid down some spray adhesion promoter on the backside of the badge (used for painting plastics), let it dry, then started with my standard 1-10 steps above. Hoping that the AP will bond to the badge, and the resin will bond to the AP. I doubt it… but had to try something different…
I’m almost certain it’s the epoxy resin, and it’s probably not the best choice for this kind of plastic. But as I said I’m new to this, so I’m not sure what type of clear plastic that badge is made of, and I’m definitely not sure what to search for, with regards to what type of resin to use for the badge! So I’m stumped, and hoping someone can lend me some insight…
Sorry for the long read, but any insight would be greatly appreciated!!