took 2 years but got there!

General Composites Discussions Showcase
#1

well after 2 years research/trial and error/wasted materials/not listening/no patience etc etc i have finally produced a ‘perfect part’ via vacuum infusion,what a fantastic process,anyone who is still messing around with vac bagging,do yourself a favour and make the move to infusion! many many thanks to the people on here especially problems,baznoz and werksberg,without all your free and honest help this would be mission impossible.
ok so its not the most exciting part and its fresh out of the mold but its 100% perfect in every respect which is awesome :slight_smile:

#2

well m8 im so pleased you got it right, now you can tackle the more complicated parts with the knowledge and confidence that that you now have. Youll still get problems butwe all do but now you should begin to understand them.

Look forward to seeing the showcase full of succesfull parts.
Glad to have been able to help m8, any questions in the future just ask away.

Baz

#3

im gonna make a few more of these just to perfect the technique and i have some more molds i need to finish before i can do some slightly more complex parts :slight_smile: just trying to decide now if its gonna be best to try and polish this bit with some special fibreglass polish ive got or try and spray it with laquer,i dont have spray kit so it would out of a can and every time i do that i end up with a spec of dust ruining the whole job! any advice?

#4

Your welcome and congrats on an awesome test panel!

Now, if that is just a test panel, make it into a CF clipboard! :wink:

#5

You did this without any duratec in the mold first right, so the carbon will be right on the surface, clean any residue of release agent off first then lightly abrade with 400 wet or dry wet. dont worry you wont ruin the weave. Then a bit of panel wipe to clean off any contaminates, you can then clear it from a rattle can. Give it a few coats letting it flash off between coats, put it to one side for a week or two then wet sand with 2000 wet or dry before compounding with something like G10 or even T cut, no need to use G3 itll be to harsh. You should end up with a finish like glass. So dont worry about a couple of dust specs, they`ll disapear when you wet sand. I usually use duratec in the mold first and if the part is not exposed to the sun a lot you can just buff that without clear coating it.

As an experiment i have left a part (just Duratec, no UV protection) in the greenhouse all summer and so far there is no discolouration and we have had a reasonable summer here. So i may dispense with clearing some parts altogether.

Baz

#6

i just tried wiping the scrap panel i did yesterday with acetone,let it dry and gave it a quick blast with a can but it looks like there is still wax on the panel as the paint has gone crazy,what do you use to clean the panel or should i just use acetone,sand it and then acetone again then spray?

i really need to look into spray gear and duratec but my problem is im having to do this in the house in the box room so spraying duratec may cause a problem! if i could do it with a small touch up gun i might get away with it…building a garage next year!

#7

Acetone is no good for that m8 you need panel wipe get it at any auto paint shop or even on ebay. With panel wipe soak a clean paper towel wipe it on the panel and wipe it off with one clean stroke dont let it dry or rub it back and forth or you could leave contaminates behind. Acetone drys to fast and you don`t get rid of the crap.

Baz

#8

cheers m8,2000grit wet and dry and panel wipe added to shopping list :slight_smile: the panel looks awesome when its wet,lets hope i can get the laquer to look that good.

#9

its no clipboard,its a plate to stick on top of a chargecooler,same as my m8 did in this pic,his was a one off just cut from a sheet.

#10

do you use acrylic or cellulose paint? ive just tried it with some acrylic laquer i had and it was rubbish,yellow,uneven,potholes etc so i wiped it off before it dried.
why can i get the hard bit right but when it comes to just spraying a bit of paint on it all goes pear shaped :frowning:

#11

right,ive been and got the panel wipe and some new cellulose lacquer and gave it another go…if you reckon the 2000grit(on order) will mask the dust enough then i might be ok,sure looks good at the mo,its dam hard to photograph this stuff.

#12

Its hard to get the wax off the surface of the part. Ive done this a bunch and still get frustrated when I have the “fisheyes” in my clear coat.

To minimize it I use 400 grit to scuff the part completely dull. No shine anywhere. Then move up to no less than 600 (I use 600 but sometimes 1000)

Then I wipe it down with rubbing alcohol a couple times and then finaly use the panel prep wax and grease remover.

Spray your clear, then let it cure (rattle can paint takes forever to cure, leave it in the sun if you can) and then wet sand with 2000 and buff it out.

#13

ok i will let it dry and see what the paper does,how many days should i let it dry for before sanding?

#14

I use almost the same process for clearing parts.

I sand up to 400 grit only and then wipe down with surface prep or lacquer thinner.

#15

why are you using 400 grit? it seems a bit harsh?

#16

and then there were 2 :slight_smile:

#17

2x rabbits = oh my GOD!:smiley:

#18

Based of some information I read on some other forums regarding clearcoating. The question was regarding what grit sandpaper to use when sanding a preapplied clearcoat for re-clearcoating. Someone with a gloss meter tested several panels with different types of sandpaper and the test revealed that a surface sanded with a lower grit sandpaper provided a higher gloss than a surface sanded with a finer grit sandpaper. The grits used were 320, 400, 600, 800, and 1200. It is kind of an apples to oranges comparison because the panels tested were being reclearcoated whereas my items are receiving the first coat of clear. However, based on personal experience, there is no difference between a part finished with 400 grit and a part finished with 1000 grit.

#19

great answer thanks :slight_smile:

#20

gtfour, a misunderstanding i think, perfeng is saying 400 W or D before clearcoating which is what i do then clearcoat and finally 2000 and buff. The trouble with cellulose or acrylic 1k is it needs a couple of weeks before you can buff it so you may as well leave it that long before you wet sand it. Now if you have 2k laquer some of them can be wetsanded and buffed within a few hours, the trouble here is they contain isocynates and you know the outcome using that stuff if you`ve not got the proper gear.

Baz