psychoideas

G'day Dave, are you back in country yet?

I haven't got around to going and getting my rear reflector yet but I had a bit of time today and decided to make a mould off my engine bay fuse cover.

I've got a bit of spare Carbon fibre here so I was going to lay one up in CF and see what it looks like.


I don't know if it will work yet, I may have just destroyed my only cover

Anyway, here is a pic of the gelcoat on the plug. It's in my home made oven for 'oven curing'. When it's ready I'll add the fibre and some core for rigidity.

What do the rest of you guys think?

nyne11

Hey Frank,
Looking good to me. Just got back. give me a few days to get a grip on reality and I will give you a call.
Cheers buddy

psychoideas

G'day Guys,

Well the original cover came out with no problem.

Here's a pic of the mold. It's just a white gel coat with 300gsm chopped strand mat, 2mm core mat and another layer of 300gsm mat. Comes up stiff as a Bastard!!

This pic was taken as the 4th coat of mold release wax was drying.

I hope to put a layer of epoxy and Carbon fibre in it today and then a 2nd and possible a third tomorrow.

flatsixnut

Anything hand made is cool. Would like to know your outcome.

psychoideas

Thanks Michael,
I've done a few small CF bits before and it sure does come up pretty.
I'll post some pics of the lay up when I do it.

spence88mph

A CF engine shroud and block off plates would be nice! Shipping them from the states is pretty exy due to the volume of the pack, hint hint...!

psychoideas

Hi Spence,

How's the car going??

All I need is an original to take a mold off and I'm good to go.

I just went to my 'lock up' yesterday and collected 2 rear reflectors. I am going to polish the best one up and pull a mold for Dave. He wants a replacement in CF. It should be easy as there are no tight curves in it.

Actually, there's no tight curves in an engine shroud either.

Do you want to block off both sides as for a heater delete?

psychoideas

Here's the mold with a couple of layers of CF in it.
The icecream stick is sitting on a piece of mylar to push the CF down into a very tight groove in the mold. I'm not happy with it and think this one may be destined for the bin

I think in future I will fill the groove up with straight epoxy and either leave it as a clear ridge or sand it away.

I could vacuum bag it but I don't really want to go to that trouble.

Time will tell.

I'm leaving for work in a minute and won't be back till Wednesday night. At least by then it'll be nice and hard..............

spence88mph

Hey Dave,

I kinda said that tongue in cheek as I know it's a big undertaking! They do look pretty mean when done right though. I just bought a fiberglass left block off plate. You really think you could make the whole thing?!

Car is going well, I just wish I had more time to play with it and make it go faster!

nyne11

Hi Frank,
Will try and give you a call this week. have to go back O/S early on the 25th.......Bugger!

psychoideas

Well Blokes,

Here is the first one out of the mold and guess what? it's destined for the rubbish bin.

It has a few, what I would call, large air bubbles in a couple of places. You can see two of these near the top mounting hole. If I wanted to stuff around I could drill a small hole into each bubble and inject some epoxy in there but I don't think I could be bothered.
It looks abit cloudy but that is just because I haven't washed the 'partall' film off it. The partall film is a blue colour and any epoxy repair should be done before introducing any water to it.

The next one I think will have to be vacuum bagged. This will eliminate the bubbles and provide a higher fiber to resin ratio. This equals greater strength and lighter weight.

I'll have to buy a bit more CF before I can give this another go.

Shame to throw it away though

Oh well, such is life.

nyne11

Hey Frank.........................guess where I am again..................maybe back home next week or so and I will definitely give you a call. Sorry buddy, ...........off to China probably at the end of the month so it may be a late spring encounter.