hey guys great forum hard to find help from experienced laminators im sure you can help i have plenty of experience with glass but have recently been venturing in to carbon fiber on clear gell Any tips or suggestions would be greatly appreciated a few problems I have had is fiber distortion or miss alingment especialy around corners is there a secret to this problem or what? also have very small pockets of air though they dont bother me to much thay are to small to break out and you have to look closley to see them my process is all hand layed with polyester resin I have considered weting the gell surface before laying down the fiber will this work?
the fibers will distort around the curves,they are supposed to and you cant do anything about this.
yes you should wet the dried gelcoat with fresh resin and lay cloth on that.
well here is what I am going to attempt I will be building it in lift off style verry concerned about geting the fibers straight on the front of the hood also the guy asked me to keep the weight around 4 pounds :!: :!: do you think this is possiable especialy with clear gell :?: I need some thing to sand and buff on for he also wants a nice finish
the company I am buying has a 3.8lb integra hood that is 7 layers of carbon made with epoxy and no gel and a pre-preg 3.2lb hood. If you want that small of weight you are not going to get it with a wet layup and poly
If you build a sandwich construction with internal ribs, you can make the part lighter without loosing stiffness.
Is the weight of the hood really that important? Even if the hood came out to 10 lbs, no one is going to notice the difference in performance of 6 lbs. There are lots of other things that can go on a diet that will make a significant improvement in performance.
3.8 lbs is very impresive and would serve its purpos but what kind of finish would you have you surely couldnt sand and buff it
scooter
what do you mean by sandwich cunstruction? i do have a inner fiberglass frame and i can get a fiberglass hood around 12 lbs if i go any less it seems i dont get enough exotherm and the frame leaves lines or waves in the gell witch is another thing i am concerned with will carbon fiber print through like glass?and i would agree with you if his main concern was weight than he would be willing to sacrifice apperance
problems
what company are you buying what kind of parts do you build give me a phone # i have calls every day with people wanting me to build parts i dont have also i am not real familiar with pre preg can it be baged and dont it have to be kept froze?I thought it could only be used in a press style
thanks every body
3.8 lbs is very impresive and would serve its purpos but what kind of finish would you have you surely couldnt sand and buff it
scooter
what do you mean by sandwich cunstruction? i do have a inner fiberglass frame and i can get a fiberglass hood around 12 lbs if i go any less it seems i dont get enough exotherm and the frame leaves lines or waves in the gell witch is another thing i am concerned with will carbon fiber print through like glass?and i would agree with you if his main concern was weight than he would be willing to sacrifice apperance
problems
what company are you buying what kind of parts do you build give me a phone # i have calls every day with people wanting me to build parts i dont have also i am not real familiar with pre preg can it be baged and dont it have to be kept froze?I thought it could only be used in a press style
thanks every body
3.8 lbs is very impresive and would serve its purpos but what kind of finish would you have you surely couldnt sand and buff it
scooter
what do you mean by sandwich cunstruction? i do have a inner fiberglass frame and i can get a fiberglass hood around 12 lbs if i go any less it seems i dont get enough exotherm and the frame leaves lines or waves in the gell witch is another thing i am concerned with will carbon fiber print through like glass?and i would agree with you if his main concern was weight than he would be willing to sacrifice apperance
problems
what company are you buying what kind of parts do you build give me a phone # i have calls every day with people wanting me to build parts i dont have also i am not real familiar with pre preg can it be baged and dont it have to be kept froze?I thought it could only be used in a press style
thanks every body
pics of finished part
I’d say that’s a pretty good first try :shock:
yikes! you dont hang around do you :shock: awesome work man,your a genius 8)
thanks guys I put a lot of effort into it but am woried the customer wont be happy with it because of fiber distortion if i can get my camera to pick it up i will post a pic I have no idea how to lay it out any bette. when you look across it in bright sun it looks blotchy just the way i recived the fiber. kind of looks like carpet when you walk across it light dark spots
is this normal am i expecting to much in perfection?
rite where the arows are
Unfortunately from my limited experience, it’s “What you see is what you get” when it comes to fiber cosmetics. Any visual flaws in the raw cloth with show in the final product. It seems that carbon fiber especially has certain optical characteristics (possibly due to the deep black color) that causes any handling and mfg marks to become permanent.
I just tell my customers that carbon is a fabric, when working with such a big laminate it is almost impossible to conform the weave perfectly. The way the carbon is woven is made to conform to angles and it is made to shift. Almost all customers understand, but if he was looking for something that is that light he can’t exspect it to be cosmetically perfect too.
did you use UV resistant clear gel?
ccp uv protected marine grade
well then good job! What is that for again?
82-93 s-10
did you weight it yet and is it just a skin or a full hood?