Some work we have done

[SLS]

Just thought I would share some of the stuff we have built, mostly for cars, nothing to extreme like Nascar, Le Mans or anything like that, just good quality carbon for street go’ers and weekend track attackers.

Some things we have built I cannot share, but thought I would add to the community, thanks for looking everyone & all the best.

^^On the above, I know, I was not a fan of doing the logo in the piece but the customer demanded it. We made these once and filled it on the mold, I am not one for using a logo we don’t own but the customer really, really wanted it.

^^ in the booth for clear app.

It’s all epoxy based, VARTM, we don’t block it from the mold, we just trim the flange off, fuse the two halves, acetone wash, hit it with clear, block, hit it with clear and then pack and ship generally.

At times we have to do a few more steps of clear and block, depends on how well it shot.

Anyways, I have lurked for a while on here as a guest so I figured I would post a few things.

Thanks again.

[canyon]

Really nice work. Thanks for sharing

[Modulus]

Good work guys, bravo! Keep sharing.

[Cerealkiller]

Wow that Logo looks good! Hard to clean and polish in the future?

Great Work!!

[SLS]

Yep, that logo was not fun for the finishing side, in mould clears help but still, wet sanding is always needed in some form.

Thanks for the comments.

[Fastrr]

Very nice work! I am coming around to realize how much surface imperfections clear coat can fill in such as tiny voids in the weave surface.

[SLS]

Very nice work! I am coming around to realize how much surface imperfections clear coat can fill in such as tiny voids in the weave surface.

Agreed, the drawback in carbon work is still the manual labor in wet-sanding, even with a good infusion there are times that the piece requires 3 hits of clear with a block in-between.

We love making carbon, but not finishing it

[2talljohn]

Vearay naice how much?!

I like the depth. I can tell there is allot of clear on that hood frame. I like allot of clear :). I use allot myself…

[2talljohn]

P.S Whats that hood for? Any more pics?!

[SLS]

Vearay naice how much?!

I like the depth. I can tell there is allot of clear on that hood frame. I like allot of clear :). I use allot myself…

P.S Whats that hood for? Any more pics?!

It is actually a trunk in the last 2 pics, BMW to be specific. The trunk is made in 3 pieces, the top deck and back side are shot together (mould bolts together), there is a seam on the lip of the trunk which is hidden, we know it is there but once it is shot, an untrained eye would never notice it.

The inside of the trunk is one complete piece, after post cure, the parts are pulled, flange trimmed off and top/bottom fused together. Then cleared and shipped

[JPoland]

It is actually a trunk in the last 2 pics, BMW to be specific. The trunk is made in 3 pieces, the top deck and back side are shot together (mould bolts together), there is a seam on the lip of the trunk which is hidden, we know it is there but once it is shot, an untrained eye would never notice it.

The inside of the trunk is one complete piece, after post cure, the parts are pulled, flange trimmed off and top/bottom fused together. Then cleared and shipped

Did you place like a nutsert on the inside of the top deck for the bracket that the lift shocks attach to or will that piece be held on by pins?

Looks great by the way, I’d love to see the seam between the top deck and the vertical piece.

[Brad1]

Hi sls,
Do you apply an in-mould clear to start with? On complex shapes do you use tack spray to hold laminates in place

[2talljohn]

^ From what he said it sounds like they don’t use an in mold gel coat and they go straight to clear coat. I could be wrong.

[SLS]

Did you place like a nutsert on the inside of the top deck for the bracket that the lift shocks attach to or will that piece be held on by pins?

Not a nutsert, we do some aircraft work so we use a special hardware piece that is bonded in before the two-halves are fused together. The bolt goes into the insert from the hinge which is attached to the qtr panel of the car. The trunk shock is connected to the hinge and not directly to the trunk per se. The original trunk weighed in over 30 lbs, this version in the pics is less than 8 lbs. The shocks have a tendancy to literally take the chin off of the person opening the trunk, as soon as the latch releases that trunk fires open…we recommend they don’t run the shocks.

Looks great by the way, I’d love to see the seam between the top deck and the vertical piece.

We have 4 in production now, when they are completed I will take a pic and post it up. A few days out at least and thanks for the compliment

Hi sls,
Do you apply an in-mould clear to start with? On complex shapes do you use tack spray to hold laminates in place

Yes, we spray DT in the mould…once it tacks up we begin the lay-up, also, we do use adhesive spray to hold the fabric in place.

^ From what he said it sounds like they don’t use an in mold gel coat and they go straight to clear coat. I could be wrong.

Not so much a gel-coat as Duratech (DT) for short…We have tried regular clear coat in the mould and DT and found DT to be the best solution to date. I have been wanting to try some CCP ECT120 and reviewed the data-sheet, couldn’t find an MSDS, anyways…anyone here worked with it? On the data-sheet I did not see any indication of whether it is a clear epoxy gel-coat, we really are looking to try other options which produce a high-gloss result from the mould (with buffing). Our clear applications are in and around 2 to 3 hits before we can package the product for shipping.

The last few batches of CF products have seen the finish time greatly reduced and we bought all new HVLP guns, filters for each gun in-line as well as added some other goodies to ensure our problems were not moisture oriented in the finishing. Made a big difference

Thanks for the opinions and idea’s everyone, much appreciated