GoRideSno

Hello,
I am visiting from the 928 board and posted this there.
Has anyone tried this? I am about to try it and any advice would be appreciated.

I bought all of the materials today. Total cost was about $80.00 including about 1.5 square yards of the fabric. This should be enough to make a few small parts. For my first project I will attempt to make a part that will join the Jaguar-Eaton M112 to the Viper throttle body, my two most recent e-bay purchases.
<img border="0" alt="[cheers]" title="" src="graemlins/beerchug.gif" />
Andy K

SoCal Driver

Don't get any I mean ANY carbon fiber splinters!!!

Took a month of festering and digging to get just a couple out of my thumb.

skippymcware

don't you have to pressure cook carbon fiber?! I may be wrong here, but I thought you need to put it under all sorts of pressure and heat it quite a bit to get the part to solidify.
-Jake

SoCal Driver

No you don't have to autoclave it. But it's advisable to bag it. That is put the lay up and mould in a jumbo duty baggie and pull a few inches of vacuum to help even out the epoxy and keep the weave saturated.

nwehtje944

but doesn't the added pressure and temperature produce a stronger product? I could be wrong, but I always thought you could do carbon work at STP, but it was better to use a higher pressure(like 5 ATM) and higher temp (125F?)

nwehtje944

check this link out <a href="http://www.bryanf.com/info/carbonf1.htm" target="_blank">Carbon Fiber Fabrication</a> looks like there is some good infor and links here.

jabbadeznuts

I'm also interested in fabricating some CF pannles for my doors, you know RS america style. BranF's page is rather helpful in my lame attempts. I'm experimenting first with some paper towles. I figure it's pretty close to CF but not as expensive if you F&@$ck up.

You don't have to autoclave the piece but it does increase the strenght and helps saturate the piece with the epoxy.

Keep us posted Andy!

Lumbergs Lackey....MmmmKay

After looking at how much was spent on that car I don't feel so bad working on mine.

PorscheG96

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">Originally posted by nwehtje944:
<strong>but doesn't the added pressure and temperature produce a stronger product? I could be wrong, but I always thought you could do carbon work at STP, but it was better to use a higher pressure(like 5 ATM) and higher temp (125F?)</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">That's how McLaren made the F1 bodies.

Stuttgart

I think you guys are thinking about preprep carbon fiber, it comes with the adhesive impregnated in it, and the autoclave and the suction bag are needed to cure the adhesive or epoxy.

Goridesno, i think you're talking about wet lay. I have done this many times its not too hard.
What materials did you buy, exactly?
heres what i do:
-I don't use carbon fiber i just buy fiberglass weave from a boat store.
-also while you're at the boat store buy some two part epoxy, enough to fill a paint tray
-make sure you get the most heat resistant as possible, this however takes longer to set.
-with your situation you might need to make a mold using foam or something, if you use foam be sure to get the stuff that doesn't disintegrate with epoxy. After you're done you can dig out the foam and sand it smooth inside.
-if this thing is going to be taking any stress i would make at least three to four layers.
-i just fill a paint tray with epoxy and cut pieces of fiberglass and get them soaked, wear gloves and fold the glass, ball it up in the epoxy, anything to make sure you've gotten it totally soaked with epoxy, don't just drag it through.
-then just put lay it on the mold, try to lay on as many layers as possible at the same time, this is stronger than doing one at a time.
-you'll find that its hard to keep the glass in place and the get it to follow the contour of the mold. If you're making something tube like i would suggest getting the glass in place, then putting wax paper over it, then use zip ties to hold everything in its place. Just sand the wax paper off after its dry

i've done all sorts of stuff doing this, brake ducts and other bits and pieces, they all hold up well, just make sure get a lot of epoxy on it.

jabbadeznuts

Stuttgart,
Do you have any pics? I'm interested in replacing my door pannels in CF. I assume it works the same way as fibre glass.

Stuttgart

sorry no pics.
i haven't done anything really big before, i think it would take some real skill to make something big like a door panel.
i'm not sure about carbon fiber but i think its the same process for the wet lay stuff

Robby

I would love to have a really nice CF sunroof- one that is finished for a street car, that is nicely insulated (for sound) & thick enough to look right- should still weigh under 5lbs. the only ones I've heard of are just bolt-in panels. I want one that can be used like the regular SR can, that would still be sealed well, etc...

Also, if you're in need of some ideas- little things that would be easier to do- to practice with- I have a few things that I think woiuld be really cool AND might even be slightly intersting to some others- at least some of them would. If you're intersted, please shoot me an e-mail- I've been hoping to find someone who wants to mess around w/the stuff who wouldn't mind trying some of them out- I'd be willing to spend a little $ on the finished products- I even got a smaple kit from the CF place in HA- it has ~15 pieces including Kevlar, etc- they are small pieces, but are big enough to do some of the pieces I want- I just really don't think I could do it w/out at least seeing someone else do it first, or at least watching someone else work w/fiberglass...

Thanks,
Robby

924Superwagen

I'm looking into the process of making carbon fibre parts, since I am designing and fabricating the body of my University's Formula SAE racer (McGill). I will be able to give more info in the near future. Also, another member of our team is designing other parts and will be using CF.

As a result, my knowledge will help me make custom parts for the interior and maybe even exterior of my 924S.

Later,
(the other) Andy K

Probesport

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">Originally posted by 924Superwagen:
<strong>I'm looking into the process of making carbon fibre parts, since I am designing and fabricating the body of my University's Formula SAE racer (McGill). </strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">Cool! I am usually on the timing committee at the FSAE event in Pontiac Michigan, Maybe I'll see yours out there this year.