Carbon Fiber wrapped parts.........., My first attempts. Options

[WWSideWinder]

WOW man that is simply great.

You are doing good work.

Always hard to do it 1st time but man are you doing well

Keep up the excellent work.

Looking forward to seeing the finished Product in you car.

[Fastbird]

Slowly but surely I'm getting there with the parts for our car. I did'nt have a chance to do any work today, and yesterday was my anniversary so no work there. I've got a guy with a VERY nice 93 Corvette who is having me do his entire interior.........this should be nice when done as his car is magazine quality and he's hoping this puts it over the top.

[Cutrara]

Slowly but surely I'm getting there with the parts for our car. I did'nt have a chance to do any work today, and yesterday was my anniversary so no work there. I've got a guy with a VERY nice 93 Corvette who is having me do his entire interior.........this should be nice when done as his car is magazine quality and he's hoping this puts it over the top.

Are you going to post pics of the CF vette interior? Thats something I'd like to see...

[Fastbird]

Slowly but surely I'm getting there with the parts for our car. I did'nt have a chance to do any work today, and yesterday was my anniversary so no work there. I've got a guy with a VERY nice 93 Corvette who is having me do his entire interior.........this should be nice when done as his car is magazine quality and he's hoping this puts it over the top.

Are you going to post pics of the CF vette interior? Thats something I'd like to see...

Yeah, once I get some pieces done I'll post them up. I'm waiting on a BIG shipment of stuff -- four different styled rolls of cloth this time: Red/Black (for more of my interior, another silver because it's really popular, normal black CF by request of the Vette guys, and a graphite CF that I want to try because it looks sick.

One thing: Those pieces I've "finished".......I'm just not happy with the clearcoat finish. It orange peeled. Going to try a 2000 grit wet-sand then mild abrasive rubbing compound on it to smooth, but may rough sand and do an epoxy top coat under a heat lamp for quick cure and see how that turns out.

I had an extremely busy weekend and wasn't able to do much. I got the keyhole and dimmer switch holes cut out of the already wrapped ignition panel, and got the clock hole cut into the radio trim panel. That's about it.

This post has been edited by Fastbird: Nov 24, 2008 - 9:41 AM

[Fastbird]

HUGE thanks to gt_driFFter. He sent me a drivers side dash vent gratis! Many many thanks man!!! I only need a drivers door switch panel and Manual shifter plate to complete the interior now!

[Fastbird]

Sorry about the lack of updates. Unfortunately I've gotten my personal life turned upside down the past few weeks with MANY developments. Latest work I've done has been for a customer. He sent me a pair of C5 Corvette Door Handles, the actual handle itself, that he wanted done in Silver. As far as I know this has NEVER been done on a Vette before, so of course I said Sure! I'm pretty happy with how they're coming out.











As for the Celica......I really want to do more work, and I have done a little. I did a BIG screw up on the radio trim piece, I didn't leave enough extra fabric to pull around the edges in all the holes, so I ended up having to trim at the edges then going over the edges with a black paint pen. Looks ok in the non-coated form that it is, but once I get the epoxy layered and smoothed it should look a lot better. I'll try to get some pics up tonight to show you guys.

I did the the shifter plate recently, so the only other piece I need for our car is the drivers door switch panel.

[playr158]

someone got skillzzz

great work!

[RickJamesBish]

Those door handles look great.

[presure2]

looks great man!!

[foxcraze]

man did this thread die or what ? Everything going ok man?

[Fastbird]

man did this thread die or what ? Everything going ok man?

My interest has NOT waned. My free time to do this has though. Slow_Yota sent me a couple of pieces I'm going to be doing, but with going on vacation over Christmas, then a death in the family, and when I got home I got absolutely pummeled by my two jobs, and a short timeline basement refinishing, I've had zero time. Good news is that the basement is 95% complete, so after the superbowl has passed this weekend, I should be getting back into this full force.

[playr158]

keep going dude, push through and keep up your great work.

sorry to hear about your family

[LTom]

Dude you've defs got the right idea!! Good show!! I've just ordered a couple of yards of the Texalium cloth (silver carbon fiber) with the intention of doing my interior. It's tricky stuff to work with but you are doing a sterling job!!

I also has this idea that i might do some of the buttons on the climate control as well. And when they're covered use ink transfer paper to transfer the diagrams on the buttons onto the resin and then cover with clearcoat so that i still know what the buttons do and it looks properly done. Do you think that's do-able? I'll let you know when the stuff arrives (from america to UK) and i've had a play.

Quick Q: The cloth i've ordered is 1mm thick and with all the resin and clearcoat the final finish will be a few mil. Have you had problems with getting the parts back in or is there enough tolerance?

[Fastbird]

I think the buttons will pose a problem. The resin DEFINITELY layers up though, and yes I've run into some fitment issues due to that. I do know that pre-impregnating the cloth and vacuum bagging the item drastically cuts down on the overall thickness and still leaves a glass smooth finish. Getting ready to start experimenting with that.

[playr158]

^vacuum bagging is a great method and preferred. (infusion is right there as well)

but setups are more expensive
I wish i had the finances to do the infusion right now

[LTom]

Yeah i was going to give the vacuum bagging a go. Apparantly such a method can help keep the weave straight. See here: http://www.webbikeworld.com/t2/carbon-fibe...torcycle-parts/

according to this guy a primative sort of vacuum bagging can be achieved with a sandwich bag and a hoover...

[playr158]

yea thats not a quality method...not to mention you'll pull resin into your vacuum and fry it.


http://www.compositeforum.werksberg.com/

is a great resource

This post has been edited by playr158: Feb 4, 2009 - 2:14 PM

[Fastbird]

yea thats not a quality method...not to mention you'll pull resin into your vacuum and fry it.

Exactly. I haven't seen those forums yet but looks like a great resource to try to get a budget vacuum bag setup built to play with.

[KAOS]

yea thats not a quality method...not to mention you'll pull resin into your vacuum and fry it.

Exactly. I haven't seen those forums yet but looks like a great resource to try to get a budget vacuum bag setup built to play with.

So hurry up and start playing man, I got a shopping list of stuff for you! LOL

[Fastbird]

Well, after some research, I"m going to donate my old shop vac to the cause and give the vacuum bagging a shot without a catch resevoir. If I kill it, I kill it, as I needed a new one anyway. Going ot probably order some of the bagging fabrics next week and hopefully start bagging a couple of things shortly thereafter. Going to start small and simple, and move up slowly to see how things react.